I didn’t really know what to expect when I attended the launch of Peter Howson’s latest work on Brother Walfrid (more information here). The headline item is a painting, which the artist attempts to capture the horrors of famine across the world, and the compassion which drove Walfrid to do something about the poor in his own community. The painting contains figures which Howson accurately calls “grotesques”, a weighty work for a weighty subject.
The film accompanying the work manages to bring fresh insight into the potato blight which afflicted Europe in the mid-19th century, arriving in Ireland with devastating effect when Walfrid was a child. The blight caused hardship in Scotland and elsewhere, but as we all know, became the Famine in Ireland.
Microbiology, Malthusian politics and liberal economics combined to leave over a million to die, while millions more emigrated, often only to survive a short existence thereafter. Well done to Howson and his collaborators. If you get a chance, check it out.
Best of luck to Henrik Larsson who moves up the managerial food chain by taking over at his former club, Helsingborgs. If he can cut it at this level, I’d expect his next move to be to the UK.
Absolutely loved the Rangers Supporters’ Trust complaint to the London Stock Exchange about Mike Ashley, who I am sure will have acted without consulting his army of legal advisors when loaning Newco Rangers money to pay their wages this month.
The complaints are futile, neither Ashley nor Newco have broken any LSE rules, but they hammer home the divisions which are doing so much damage to the club. The reality for Newco fans is unattractive, Ashley looks set to continue to pick off their commercial assets, while major shareholders will seek a high return on their speculative investment, but it’s reality nonetheless.
The future of this club is not going to look like Rangers. Better to accept this and give Newco the support it needs, than turn it into the ‘next Rangers’, if you follow my drift.
Great news – Davie Hay will be on the blog on Thursday between 10:00 and 12:00. We’ve done this before a few times now, so you know the drill. Tune in and leave your questions on the blog which Davie will answer.
These events have been really enjoyable in the past, so put it in your diary.
We’re also having a party at the Supporters’ Club in Greenock on Friday 21 November with Davie and Billy McNeill to celebrate the launch of Caesar & The Assassin, their story of managing Celtic. We have plenty planned for the night, so if you’d like to attend, get your ticket from the Greenock Supporters Club, or email me at celticquicknews@gmail.com with the work Greenock in the subject line.
ALL ticket money is going to the Inverclyde Foodbank, you can pay as little as £1 for your ticket, up to a maximum donation of £10.
938 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- ...
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
- »
Saint Stivs
Dont think I have met you if I did I must have been pissed
I am James,s big brother travelled with the port celtic , hibs, shammy, greenock
celtic anybody that would take me .
This paper asserts that in the 1830s Ireland’s population was 32% of Britain but that Irishmen constituted 42% of the British army. More Irishmen than Englishmen.
http://www.themanwhocapturedwashington.com/imitbfs.html
He can paint but can he Dance?
It was awesome to read Olde Smedley on CQN, courtesy of PJBhoynyc.
The dearly departed Dr Stan commented often about what Smedley said.
A wake up call, if ever there was one. I spent a couple of years listening to all his broadcasts, he done at least 4 hours Every day, that is a person that was fighting against something he felt was wrong but always giving the Best possible solution.
I drifted away as I felt I was listening to too much from the one source, I just know he was a very good source.
God Bless Radio Liberty. Stopped now Dr Stan has passed away. :(
sipsini
scuse my ignorance but where are the wolftones playing ?
Barrowbhoy
23:23 on
11 November, 2014
Saint Stivs
Dont think I have met you if I did I must have been pissed
I am James,s big brother travelled with the port celtic , hibs, shammy, greenock
celtic anybody that would take me .
——————-
hahah, i know who you are i stayed few streets away at auchendores.
higgie.
twentyfirstofmaynineteenseventynine,
Barrowland the 22nd November.
Saint Stivs
next to the mcgarrigles ?
corkcelt
20:54 on 11 November, 2014
Seen a guy on an Irish blog giving advice to travellers. Saying Glasgow voted for Independence just stick to the Celtic Pubs in the East End of Free Glasgow. T’would be great graffiti in the Barrowlands “You are now entering Free Glasgow”, don’t suppose ‘twould last too long though.
——
Sorry to rain on the Free Glasgow / Yes parade, but in Free Glasgow, 1 in 4 of the voters couldn’t be arsed to vote……..
Lies, damn lies etc ec
sipsini
cheers mate, I just know my youngest boy will be going and unfortunately for him his auld man is going to be there as well now
HH
Saint Stives @ 23.21 hrs.
You are correct with the highlanders
It has been said “the British Empire was won by the Irish, administered by the Scots and Welsh and the profits went to the English”.
HH.
right next door to big shug.
lived at my grannies, bambi ran about with my young brothers, the twins.
i was at your door a few times, getting james when we all went to games on the 13:07 from woodhall, dadeza, danny sands, tommy campbell,
thats my era, i remember you.
the other barrow bhoy i was talking to i hadnt seen in maybe 20 years but instantly recognisable as an old shammy face. Greenock guy, had blond hair but well shaved in now, wears wee glasses. real rebel heart.
am going change my blog name to SAINT STIVES
to see if it auto corrects to SAINT STIVS.
hahahhaha
off to bed.
keep it lit.
remember freedom is another day closer.
lights fuse and leaves it for the night shift.
Hello, Good Evening and Good Night from this Tim to Timdom.
Big day tomorrow. A meeting in Free Clydebank first thing in the morning.
HH jamesgang
In 1896 the island of Ireland was firmly under British rule. Some civil rights had gradually been extended to the Catholic population through the nineteenth century due to the efforts of campaigning lawyer Daniel O’Connell. The increasingly influential Irish Party at Westminster had supported two unsuccessful attempts by the Liberal Prime Minister Gladstone to pass an Irish Home Rule Act in 1886 and 1893. No sustained armed campaign had been attempted for over a decade. Charles Parnell had died – in disgrace and defeat – a few years earlier and the struggle for Irish freedom had effectively stalled.
The campaign for self-determination was given new impetus by an idea from John Walsh, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Toronto. This exiled Irishman had proposed that “a great National Convention, speaking with the authority of the nation, and voicing its fixed and unalterable purpose to labour for and to win the right of self-government, would give new hope and heart energy to Irishmen at home and abroad.” The idea took hold and plans were made for an assembly to be held in Dublin which would be “representative of the Irish race throughout the world.” The objective was to force the British into conceding a Dublin parliament to the Irish people.
Image
The impressive Leinster Hall in Hawkins Street was home to the Irish Race Convention over three days in September 1896. Almost 3,000 delegates attended from all corners of the world including the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand as well as various European countries and of course Ireland itself, to debate issues surrounding Irish sovereignty. The Convention represented a clear challenge to British rule and an assertion that the Irish people – with the support of the global Irish diaspora – were ready to govern themselves without foreign oversight or interference.
The outstanding figure at the Convention was Michael Davitt, referred to in a newspaper at the time as “the one-armed Fenian chief, the darling son of their own Mayo, evicted like themselves, saturated with a hatred of Landlordism as fierce as their own, returning untamed by penal servitude to the old struggle, by new methods, perhaps, but with the old, unconquered men gathering behind men.” Davitt had led the successful Land League campaigns against absentee and abject landlords. In his address to the Convention Davitt recalled the inhumane treatment he’d been subject to in English prisons:
There is an instinct of humanity common to every created being which prompts a man to give food even to a hungry dog. But it is left for England, enlightened England, to include semi-starvation in the system of punishment she metes out to her Irish political foes. I have undergone over nine years imprisonment because I have been a rebel against misgovernment from the moment I was first taught that, next to my duty to God was my duty to Irish liberty, and I say here today that during seven long years of that imprisonment, under England’s system of punishment, I never for one hour ceased to feel the pangs of hunger.
Image
Michael Davitt – ‘Tribune of the Celtic Race’, Glasgow Observer 1887
Davitt was a regular visitor to Scotland where the Irish National League (INL) was the major organisation promoting Irish self-determination. He would usually stay at the Lenzie home of John Ferguson, his political ally and long-regarded as the figurehead of the Irish in Scotland. Ferguson was an Ulster Protestant who had moved to Glasgow as a young man and became committed to the cause of Irish freedom. He used his publishing business to promote associated campaigns and was the founder of the influential Home Government Branch of the INL in Glasgow, the treasurer of which was John Glass, one of the founding fathers of Celtic FC.
At various times there had been resistance from Catholic clergy and others to the status of John Ferguson as the de-facto political leader of the Irish in Scotland. However the Home Government Branch were avowedly non-sectarian and membership was open to members of any faith or none, a philosophy shared by Celtic FC. This was emphasised in the club’s centenary season by a modern politician who has made his way seamlessly into the Celtic boardroom, Brian Wilson.
In the official centenary history ‘A Century With Honour’ Wilson identified a group of individuals who had significant roles in the club’s early years while holding office in or being members of the Home Government Branch including John Glass, James Quillan, William and John McKillop, Hugh and Arthur Murphy and also Tom White, who went on to establish a dynasty at Celtic Park along with James Kelly’s family. Wilson argued that the influence that this group of men exercised “ensured that the primary aim would be to create a club that was outward-looking, proudly Irish and excellent, rather than a ‘Glasgow Hibernians’ founded on the Catholic parishes.”
John Ferguson used his address to the Convention to explain how support for Irish freedom had grown across the water in Scotland:
I come from a country where we had to fight for our political rights and political existence as Irishmen a fiercer fight than any you have had perhaps in this or any country in the world. We have had Irishmen shot on the platform while maintaining our green flag above. We have had bullets through our windows to tell us of the hostile feeling of the Scottish people. That day has passed away, and we roused the spirit of Celtic kinship amongst the Scottish people, and to-day Scotland stands solid for Home Rule.
ImageJohn Ferguson – 1879
Scottish representation at the Convention was impressive. Delegations from Broxburn, Dumbarton, Dundee, Greenock and Hamilton were joined by ten separate branches of the INL from Glasgow. The most remarkable delegation was the only sporting organisation of the Irish diaspora represented in Dublin – Celtic Football Club. This delegation was made up of President Glass, Treasurer James McKay and former player and new Secretary, Willie Maley. The decision to attend the Convention was a bold declaration by the club, still in its first decade, that it supported the cause of Irish freedom. This striking move reflected the fact that the club stemmed from, and was supported by, the expatriate Irish community in Glasgow. It is hard to imagine the hysteria such a move would provoke in the Scottish media today.
The decision to have the club officially represented at the Irish Race Convention was clearly political and had the full support of club members. This is confirmed by the other founding fathers, committeemen and former players who also made the trip to Dublin in various delegations including captain James Kelly, Mick Dunbar, club lawyer Joseph Shaughnessy, Dr. Joseph Scanlon, Thomas Colgan (also associated with Belfast Celtic) William McKillop, Joseph McGroary and John McGuire.
Image
John Glass portrait from Celtic Park
In many ways the public stance taken by the club in support of Irish independence in 1896 should come as no surprise yet it has been largely forgotten even though, over a century on, Celtic remains the most prominent symbol of the Irish in Scotland.
Ten years after the Convention the three key figures involved in linking Celtic so openly with the Irish cause died within six weeks of each other – John Ferguson, Michael Davitt and John Glass. They had each worked at different levels – international, regional and local – in support of the same Irish freedom and were bound together also by the football club.
John Glass had told a Glasgow newspaper on his return from the 1896 Convention in Dublin that he was “very enthusiastic over the whole business and believed good would come out of it . . . the speeches were good and the enthusiasm immense. He had never been at such a gathering before in all his lifetime, and didn’t expect to be again. Good must come out of it, for without unity nothing could be gained.”
While Celtic’s delegation in common with most others remained in Dublin for a few days after the Convention ended, John Glass – a Celtic man through and through – had his priorities right. He caught the overnight steamboat and was back home in Glasgow by Saturday afternoon, just in time to see Celtic beat Hearts 3-0!
It had been a great week for the two causes closest to the heart of John Glass for whom sport and politics would always be inextricably linked.
ImageMichael Davitt mural – Claremorris, Co. Mayo
Text (C) The Shamrock 2013
Jamesgang,
What is free in Clydebank ?
Bet its busy!!!!!
HH.
Many years ago I lived in a scottish mountain glen, the place Rob Roy came from, and there was another wee glen very close by, totally inhabited now, full of sheep and deer and owned by a german I think, could be eagle star insurance, not 100% sure, but in his day, there came 300 fighting men.
Aye, they have much to answer for.
Sleep well Timland
HH
KTF
I tried to c&p from hunmedia a story that will run in the DR tomorrow re: sourpuss buying into sevco with Kennedy.
Think I’m not welcome anymore :)
greenpinata
Me!
So nae queues forming!
HH jamesgang
inhabited=uninhabited
FFS
Sober as well
HH
sipsini
Just more pish for them to lap up, never going to happen
Mash has it all tied up.
HH
Sips
a) is the marauding Fenian Feline back from her power walk yet?
b) have you got her a 118 118 headband yet? Pure murder when the sweat gets in your whiskers!
Night
HH jamesgang
TET
Your initial version had all Aberdeen fc interlopers awfie excited.
Like their notion of the playboy mansion in the trossachs!
HH jamesgang
Maybe have a wee pearl diver on Aiden for the first goal?? Any prices yet??
Big bad murder!!
Is that The Beast paying back his EBT?
TET,
As Monghan posted earlier, thems heads are down at the moment, but by feck, their polyester fans will turn up when playing us.
Jamesgang, Caesar is out hunting at the moment and I’m going to my kip.
No doubt he’ll be attacking the door during the night, then again that’s him just turned up…what a life he has. Night mate. HH
Paul,
About the various famines, we were never told in school about 17th Century multiple famines in Scotland. These were real famines, hunger due to crop failure. They led to mass emigration of the starving, around fifty thousand to the north of Ireland alone.
This did not go down well with those planters already there, mainly English and members of that established church, whereas the new famine emigrants from Scotland were dissenting Presbyterian, and might upset the electoral demographic.
Karen Cullen tells all in her informative book “Famine in Scotland, the ill years of the 1690s” (Edinburgh University Press).
In 19th C Ireland by contrast, while millions starved, the lords and masters were exporting Irish grain to merrie England by the boatload. The slightly human English aristocrat responsible for this atrocity was 1st Baronet Sir Charles Trevelyan, hence the reference in “The Fields of Athenry”. This knight of the realm described famine as a good way to reduce over population. What a nice lad.
It’s a bit daft to be telling other people about the famine being over, and forgetting to tell your own: daft but typical.
Sourness in the news tomorrow then – we really do need to write about his time training with Celtic…
Eagle Inn won the best bar none pub for Lanarkshire tonight!!
HaiL HaiL RAB!!!
wc
He trained with us??
1-30 Kick off on Sunday at M P for the 16’s game.
Jude
McGeady…….16/1 @ bet365 for 1st goal
Default Souness speaks on Kennedy bid
GRAEME SOUNESS last night revealed he was part of Brian Kennedy’s failed 11th hour bid to stop Mike Ashley seizing control of Rangers.
And the former Light Blues manager branded former chief executive Charles Green a “pr**k” during a scathing assessment of the never-ending boardroom chaos at Ibrox.
Souness has told for the first time how he teamed up with old pal Kennedy last month when the Sales Shark owner launched a £3million rescue package after being approached by former chief executive Graham Wallace – only for the rest of the current regime to rubber-stamp take a £2m funding deal from Ashley instead.
Graeme Souness at the launch of the SPFL brand
That setback came two-and-a-half years after Souness and Kennedy’s Blue Knights thought they had managed to get through the Ibrox front-door, only for disgraced Yorkshireman Green to grab control.
Souness is angry about what has happened at his former club and concerned over Rangers’ future.
But he reckons that would not have been the case had he and Kennedy got their way.
When asked if he was also involved in the latest move, Souness said: “Yes. I had a week with Brian in Majorca three weeks ago. But if it’s not to be it’s not to be.
”It never got beyond a bid. And they never wanted Brian’s money this time either.
VIEW GALLERY
“When we met a couple of weeks ago, we never went into detail because, the last time, we believed we had it. Brian believed he had it only to be let down and deeply disappointed. We even came up to watch a Rangers and Celtic game because we believed we had it.
“I think this time around he was always thinking the worst.
“Given the structure the way it is now I would think that’s it finished now.
”I’m angry about it and saddened by it in equal amounts because a lot has been allowed to happen.
“I don’t want to get into being involved in a libel case.
“All I would say is that if we had got it the people there would have had the club for the right reasons.”
Souness believes the club has missed out by turning Kennedy down and added: “They certainly did the first time around.
“It would have the right people running it for the right reasons.
“That would have been Walter [Smith] and I and the right person as the owner. All of us there for the right reasons.
”I don’t know how Brian feels right now but I think his attitude to it has changed now the other folk are involved.”
VIEW GALLERY
Souness launched a scathing attack on Green as he revealed the Yorkshireman’s attempts to get him on board days before he completed his £5.5m buyout of the club’s assets back in the summer of 2012.
He explained: “What is it? Two years since that prick had it?
“The guy who knocked on my door one night asking me if I would get involved in it, with him. Charles Green.
“Late one night about 11 o’clock, my answer was no.
“I got a phonecall about an hour before that saying he was coming to see me. I had been asked to see him and I had refused.
“I got a call an hour before to say he was on his way to see me. We went for a cup of tea at a hotel around the corner.
“You’ve got me angry now…
“Who knows what would have happened if we had got in? But I’ll tell you, the stadium would still be full.”
Souness has no idea what the future holds now for Rangers under Ashley but said he had done a tremendous job with Newcastle.
He said: “I don’t want to end up in court.
“I wouldn’t be critical of Mike Ashley. He is a fantastic businessman who saw an opportunity at Newcastle and it’s very hard to be critical, having worked there myself.
“I think he has done the right thing there.
“What I worked there the largest shareholder was under enormous pressure to make changes too quickly.
“He lived in the city. Mike Ashley doesn’t live in the city and has not listened to any fans forums or phone-ins.
“He has stuck with his manager and it looks like he is getting the rewards of that.
Video: Rangers FC – Graham Wallace leaves the Ibrox club
“That’s what it needed. It needs a strong owner and that’s what he is. Someone who has been supremely successful in anything he has touched.
“I think in terms of Newcastle supporters they should be counting their blessings rather than being critical.”
Souness also aimed a blast at those who celebrated Rangers’ demise when he said: “ All I would say is that all the people who enjoyed their demise, if they had their time again, would they have voted the same way?
“Celtic getting gates of less than 20,000? I think it has damaged football, hopefully not beyond repair.
“Football goes in cycles. Over a 10-year period, they say if you lose a support, it’s very hard to get that back.
“I don’t know if it will get back.
“Rangers will get back to the SPL, the Old Firm games will be enormous affairs again and the passion will remain the same.
“But will it ever get back to where it was six or seven years ago? I very much doubt it.”
Meanwhile, Rangers fans have written to stock market bosses urging them to investigate Ashley’s Ibrox power grab.
The Rangers Supporters Trust has also raised a number of concerns about the current board’s handling of the League One champions, accusing them of a operating with a “reckless and irresponsible attitude to going concern status”.
Newcastle United owner Ashley holds just under nine per cent of the cash-strapped Glasgow giants but has been effectively pulling the strings since the club was forced to accept his offer of a £2million loan.
The terms of that crisis credit line allows the Sports Direct billionaire to name two directors to the Ibrox board. Former Magpies managing director Derek Llambias was Ashley’s first pick with the second yet to be revealed.
Ashley also runs Rangers’ retail division – a deal which hands him 49 per cent of the club’s shirt sale profits – and owns the naming rights to the stadium following an agreement he struck with former chief executive Charles Green for just £1.
Hampden bosses have already written to both Rangers and Ashley seeking “clarification” on the 50-year-old Londoner’s involvement.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/f…r-gers-4611416
sipsini
23:45 on 11 November, 2014
I tried to c&p from hunmedia a story that will run in the DR tomorrow re: sourpuss buying into sevco with Kennedy.
Think I’m not welcome anymore :)
Think the above post is what you were reading on FF
jude2005 is neil lennon \o/
Sure did – and the ‘hard man’ reputation must have come later on – or so the story goes.
Anyone know guidetti’s loan fee?
rebus
ipaddy mccourt
21:28 on 11 November, 2014
I don’t think anyone should get too worked up about Aiden getting booed on Friday. A lot of people are irked by the fact that he chose not to play for the country of his birth. It doesn’t make them bigots.
—————————
Boo hoo.
Clampit.
HH.
I think the Scotland players would appreciate their fans cheering THEM on, rather than booing opponents.
I’ve never went to a game to boo an opponent…..I’d rather go to cheer on and support my team.