The Origins of Mackem: A Proud Sunderland Legacy
Yesterday at 01:00 AM
Exploring the roots of the term "Mackem," its link to Sunderland's shipbuilding heritage, and how its meaning has evolved among football fans.
Wisdom comes with age. This may or may not be true. I think as you get older, you simply live through more experiences, and I guess some would call that wisdom.
We've probably all heard various stories or ideas about where the term "Mackem" comes from. The main accepted thought is that it began when Sunderland produced a large percentage of the world's ships. As a sort of derivative of the local accent, we would "mack 'em" (make them) and then service or rivet them ("tack 'em").
Another story suggests that ships would be made on the Wear, but then others would take them — "We mack 'em, then they sink 'em" — a phrase apparently used during the war years. However, another phrase I've read about, "mack and tack," seems to imply that all the work was done on the Wear.
Evidence from the Oxford English Dictionary indicates the term first appeared in print in 1988. However, I found a piece from *The Echo* in 1953 that mentions Mackems.
Whatever its origin, Mackem has come to refer to the people of Sunderland and the surrounding areas. Mostly, it's linked with the football team and its supporters.
Now this is where my "ageing questionable wisdom" comes in. This is certainly open to being challenged, as I wasn't born south of the Tyne but in North Shields. Officially, I'm a Geordie. My brothers (all four of them) support Sunderland, thanks to the path trodden by my oldest brother. We are all first-generation Lads fans.
I wasn't aware of the term Mackem until the mid to late 80s, when a Mag fan at the school where I taught shouted that I was a Mackem. This, for sure, was meant as an insult. Sunderland fans didn't use the term then. Indeed, at matches, one of the chants was:
"Geordies here, Geordies there, Geordies every f****** where."
We also sang 'The Blaydon Races', changing the words to:
"Gannin along the Roker Road, to see the Sun'lan races."
It wasn't long after that the cry of "Geordies/Mackems, Geordies/Mackems" emerged (similar to the Celtic/Rangers chant). In my opinion, it was around the late 80s that there seemed to be a shift in how people identified with their club. For example, almost every club sang 'You'll Never Walk Alone'. This was soon dropped and became accepted as a Liverpool song.
No one sings any form of 'The Blaydon Races' anymore — apart from Man Utd fans, who have no shame anyway! And we stopped chanting that there were Geordies everywhere.
It was at this time that we started being proud of being Mackems, and the word became more widely accepted.
As I indicated at the start, some wisdom comes with age. I know we used to chant about being Geordies, although I'm sure some younger readers will be astonished to learn that! Everything evolves, but the nice thing about being Mackems is that it has direct links to our proud history and heritage of shipbuilding, when we produced the bulk of the world's vessels.
