Pushing 70 and still not sure of the answer to this .....I was brought up in Seaham, went to school in Sunderland after 11+ and then on to university. I'm pretty sure that in all this time I was referred to as a geordie so when did I become a Mackem? Did it happen gradually or did I wake up one day a fully fledged Mackem.
I'd be guessing but it probably happened gradually, starting with when John Hall started trying to make people (wrongly) think that Geordie = mag. The media went with it and SAFC fans used the term Geordie less and less. Mind I also know some older lads who say that they've always been Mackems, so I'm not fully sure!
Similar age with mother's family from Sunderland and Seaham and never heard the word Mackem until 1980 when a Mag called me one
the fulwell end used to shout about being geordies here, geordies there, geordies every where, not always been mackems
The Fulwell end also used to shout.. "Geordies, ....Mackems... Geordies... Mackems". I've never been either, being a NW Durham lad. What if you were born and bred in Cleadon or Whitburn - Both very much 'Sunderland hinterland' but officially south tyneside?
Well that’s a good question Although born and bread I Sacriston pit village in Durham I was always called a geordie Weather you like it or not However sometime in the late eighties around the time of lawery mcmenemey Who was our manager at the time Someone started calling me a makem ( I thought it arrived from mcmennemy ) I have since found out I was wrong So I don’t realy know when and where I first heard the word makem Nevertheless I never heard the word until the late eighties
From what I can gather it was to do with the shipyards. Us on this river did all the hard graft building the ships and our great unwashed cousins from up the road used to do the fit out. We made the ships, they took them. Mackems & tackems. Personally I do not like the name but it has been adopted now and cannot see it changing.
From South Shields always been Sunderland mad, early years I was led to believe I was a Geordie, then I found out I’m a sandie and now get frequently called a mackem when people find out who I support, John hall and his ****e about a Geordie nation still boils my piss! i do remember Geordies! mackems! chant in the Fulwell .. anyway regardless FTM they are more obsessed with being Geordie than following their club!
They also used to chant 'rangers, celtic' Chants are usually just attention seeking noise..little more.
I first heard the term Mackem in the mid 1970's and believe it was first used as a derogatory term against Sunderland born shipyard workers working in Tyneside yards. After that it was a gradual change as more and more people on Wearside took it on board.
Yeah, in Shields we used Geordie pretty often then something changed in the early 90s. You still get some Sunderland supporters calling themselves Geordie Mackems but I'd rather rock up to the White House with a Santa beard wearing Iranian battle fatigues
Perhaps makes sense that if it started on Tyneside as derogatory it would take a while to be used in Sunderland. Pretty sure none of my older relations had ever heard the term
In the Services, in the 60's the term 'Geordie' covered anyone from Berwick down to Middlesbrough and across to Carlisle. And by and large, as a group, we stuck together. Most of the rest couldn't spot any great difference in the accents so this made it easier for them. Football rivalry of course but for the rest, we were a group. I read an article a few years ago where there was a claim that the word Makem first appeared in print in a publication from Ashbrooke Club in the mid 70's, but it's a bit hazy. Breaking up the 'Geordie Nation' into Geordies, Makems and Smoggies started to happen in the 1980's. This was about the same time that Football rivalries got nasty and violent. Prior to this 'The Blaydon Races' was a North East Anthem and not just a N/C song.
Wiki, the fount of all (suspect)knowledge seems to agree with just about every detail of that and it fits with my understanding of the situation so I shall treat it as gospel henceforth.
I first remember it being used in the 70s, I seem to remember the scum taking the piss, bit like weez keys is these keys, and we seemed, in a heartbeat, to take it as a badge of honour, meant we weren’t Geordies, which is how we were labelled by all visiting supporters. Didn’t take long either for it to become a handle.
