I’m told by friends within Scottish journalism that Iain MacWhirter is among the best that the Caledonian commentariat can offer.
I fear now that such an assertion might be true because it really does take some mental agility to write a piece about Scotland and racism and not include the word “Irish”.
However, Mr McWhirter managed it yesterday in the Herald.
That he did so in an exculpatory piece about Scotland and racism, in general, compounded the error.
The general tone of this column was that Scotland’s record on racism wasn’t too bad at all.
Now, it would be somewhat surprising if the country that had provided the middle management of the British Empire could somehow be mostly free of racism.
For the avoidance of doubt, not all journalists in Scotland agree with this self-serving pish about nice non-racist Scotland.
My friend and colleague Angela Haggerty rather nailed it with this Tweet.
In that sense, Mr MacWhirter rather reminded me of this chap at Sky who was beautifully schooled by Shashi Tharoor on Britain’s colonial crimes in India.
For the avoidance of doubt, this piece in the Herald is not atypical of the worldview of the Scottish commentariat.
Ignoring the existence of the multi-generational Irish community in Fair Caledonia has been one of the implicit organising principles of Official Scotland for generations.
It is undoubtedly the society that I was born into in the 1950s.
In a Church of Scotland document published in 1952 the Irish were referred to as “an alien race”.
After the openly stated hostility of the first half of the 20th-century official Scotland appears to have moved in lockstep to ignoring rather than attacking the Irish community.
By denying cultural space to the Irish in their midst, it was hoped, perhaps, to eliminate our distinctiveness as a community.
The year before that Kirk document indulged in some consequence-free xenophobia the Scottish Football Association attempted to get Celtic FC to take down the Irish flag.
The SFA failed.
The recent shambles of the Famine memorial commissioned by Glasgow City Council is a case in point.
Consequently, the Irish community in the city decide to build their own!
The difference in the 2nd Generation Irish (2GI) experience in Glasgow compared to a large city in England is striking.
Firstly, there are parades on Saint Patrick’s Day in England.
As a native-born Glaswegian, I have never attended at Paddy’s day parade in my city.
It is almost as if my ethnicity was somehow verboten.
Almost…
Of course, this is at variance with the marketing campaigns of the SNP government.
In their tolerant tartan Shangri-La, all cultures are equally valued.
If all else fails, then just call my community “plastic”.
Even in these woke days indulging in racist sneers about the Irish in Scotland is still a consequence-free pursuit for any politician who feels the need to punch down.
In 2011 I was invited to give a talk at the ChangeIn Scotland conference in Ullapool.
During that lecture, I put it to the audience that if I changed two words in my personal story, then there would be no need for me being there speaking to them.
If I substituted “Italian” for “Irish” and “Italy” for “Ireland”, then my talk would be gloriously redundant.
No one denied the existence of a settled Italian community in Scotland or the right of anyone within that group to identify with their old country.
Indeed, it was sort of encouraged in a positive way.
I put it to the audience to imagine that my father had been born in Italy and that my mother had a quintessentially Italian surname and that all of her grandparents had been born in Italy.
That, having been born in Scotland in the 1950s I had been reared in a household which had been filled with the sound of Italian music.
That my mother’s father had passed on the tales and legends of Italy, stories that his Italian father had told him as a child.
That I had spent summer holidays in rural Italy listening to Italian being spoken.
That I had only ever held an Italian passport.
That I had moved back to Italy to rear my young family.
That my brood were all fluent Italian speakers now.
No one here, I said, would say that this chap in front of you with the Glasgow accent, an Italian speaker, had the right to identify as, well, Italian!
However, insert “Irish” into the equation, and it seems to be some sort of cultural misstep in modern Alba.
Of course, by using the Italian analogy, I immediately defused the “sectarianism” analysis.
Overall, I didn’t get any push back from an audience.
However, there was one exception.
A chap sat to my right with his laptop open occasionally tried to break my stride with a series of uncalled for interventions.
He is now an MSP.
Later in the bar, I tried again with him, laying out the human rights basis of my position.
I recollect that he wasn’t in agreement.
Recently, I saw on Twitter that the Holyrood politician is now the proud owner of an Irish passport.
I Tweeted to him to ask if he had changed his views on the Irish in Scotland.
He didn’t reply.
It was that lecture that formed the basis for my book Minority Reporter.
The strapline of a book is there to give the potential a clue as to the content.
My publisher put me on the spot with the deadline looming.
The best that I could come up with was “Modern Scotland’s bad attitude towards her own Irish”.
Seven years on I’m reasonably satisfied with that sentence.
Utterly ignoring the existence of a multi-generational community probably counts as a bad attitude.
If anyone can achieve that act of willful amnesia, then I doubt that they are really part of the anti-racist resistance.
The Kirk calling Irish-Catholics a seperate race nearly 200 years ago isn’t exactly a sound basis for calling everything since, ‘racist’ They were wrong then and it is wrong now. That had always been the plea of their opponents. Seizing upon syntax that conveniently happens to be in vogue today, for unconnected reasons, is intellectually dishonest. It is also opportunistic and degrading to generations of sectarianism, now being bastardised simply because it’s seen as a better angle to frame the argument.
1923 is not “nearly 200 years ago”
Typo – the point stands.
Being out by one hundred years is a rather important data point and worth pointing out.
Which is the width of a finger tip on a touch screen. Enough for you to dodge the point though.
Anyhow, the self appointed, Irish rights crew won’t be getting invited to the BLM party. That’s what really hurts.
Yep, just checked that on my calculator Phil. And the fella’s just added on one hundred years out of nothing, really.
As a first generation Scot of Donegal parents, I’m probably in a minority here. Maybe even a small minority. But I never really did “get” the whole St Patrick’s day parade thing. Why is it felt to be necessary? In Ireland, the USA, Scotland or anywhere else for that matter.
We don’t have St Andrew’s day parades. Does any other country have parades to celebrate their Patron Saint?
And another thing. Note the word “Saint”. That implies Christianity. I would wager considerable sums that an overwhelming majority of those “celebrating” this Saint’s day haven’t seen the inside of a Christian church of any denomination in years, other than attending at marriages, Christenings or funerals.
That, to me, borders on hypocrisy.
Charger, in large part you have answered your own question. Throughout the world, ceremony and tradition whether religious or non religious are what form, in large part, the fundamental construct of all cultures and identities. Phil openly and regularly makes clear that he is a non theist, so your reference to christianity is, arguably trite if not, wholly redundant. I have absolutely no doubt given the outcomes of numerous surveys to establish peoples religiousity that, the vast majority of those celebrating St Patrick’s Day are more than likely to hold no theistic belief whatsoever. I’m not arrogant enough to presuppose what Phil’s thoughts are on your comments but I would be inclined to err on the liklihood his emphasis is focused on the wider aspects of Irish Culture.
Then why not call it Irish Culture day. Or shamrock day. Something without religious intonations.
A bit like Highland Games in Canada. A clear nod to Scottishness without any reference to any religion.
I’m not in any way against a celebration of Irish culture. It’s to be encouraged as far as I’m concerned. I’ve just never really got into the whole St Patrick thing. However that’s just me. I don’t have a problem in any way with anyone else getting totally submerged in it.
Here, maybe I’m more curmudgeonly than you. Feck it I’ve been called worse……..and many a time couldn’t even argue about it.
Live n let live. Just not my thing.
I was on tik tok the other day, scrolling through and on my FYP because I ticked football as an interest a video popped up on a 16 year old wearing a Rankers top singing an dancing about their hatred of Catholics and Irish.
No one can convince me that this person was the victim of Catholic injustice sometime in their short life whereby there may have been a justification, albeit warped, for the vitriol.
We speak about education, that starts at home, no one can convince me that the curriculum in the person’s school is geared toward inciting their hatred.
The person is of the age where technology is an important part of the social connectedness hence their Instagram and Tiktok accounts, again filled with vitriol toward the Irish race and Catholic community, followed and liked by a great many of the same age, awash with comments more in favour than “Calling” it out.
This person is a victim though, of poor education both at home and on the terraces where many clips of a collective hatred is spewed with our police force standing idly by and definitely from what I’ve seen within earshot.
My point being that as long as we tacitly sit back and have a “quiet revolution” our voices will be drowned out as has been shown by the above poorly informed 16 year old and their peers.
Yes I did report the content to both tik tok and Instagram as being of a racist nature.
Great piece Phil thanks.
Hi Phil
You are correct about the Catholic emancipation act 1829, I stand corrected, however I remember my father showing me news paper job ads with printed in bold ‘Catholics need not apply for this job’ in the mid 60’s, similarly a young Joe Beltrami a graduate lawyer after the war starting his own law business because he was continually being refused work because he was Catholic.
The favoured interview technique of the time for those Catholics who got a job interview under the radar was ‘What school did you go to’ is well recorded in the memories of a certain generation.
So much for equal rights of the 1829 act, as for the Blantyre Catholic miners who died in Scotlands worst mining disaster,, a memorial to them can be found in Dalbeith Cemetary off London road Glasgow, not with the other miners who perished and who’s memorial can be found and regularly commemorated in Blantyre.
Racist discrimination even after death.
I went to the black lives matter rally at Glasgow Green (cautiously and ensuring social distancing- there is still a pandemic). I went because my grandparents suffered racism. I went because my mum got pulled out for police searches as a little girl when visiting her family in Dublin- an Irish surname and red hair were that day’s equivalent of brown skin and a passport with Muhammad in the name. I went because family members of mine were executed by the British state on paper thin charges. I went because relatives of mine were interred without charge or legal process by a “modern democracy.”
I went because to have that happen to my family and not acknowledge it happening to someone else’s would be hypocrisy. It was racism alright. And our friends in the BAME community in Scotland are perfectly clear on that too. I don’t want people in Scotland to feel guilty/to apologise. I want them to change. I want them to be the welcoming nation that the government PR department claims. I want everyone to feel safe and welcomed in this country. I want the only thing that is spat on to be sinks.
I’m sorry, doubters, but the only way we will move past this and make the society we need is to stop pretending we’re already there and that we are uniquely non racist.
Are we not now lumping sectarianism into the racism basket for convenience now the racism is topic and cause for the moment
Oh dear…
Correct me if I am wrong but the racism you refer to is about Irish Catholics not orange ones therefore it is sectarian, oh dear!
My point is this as I am sure you know, the racism shown to Irish catholics was from people who where of the same country and colour, but a different religion, that is sectarianism.
On the off chance that you’re not trolling here is an article to assist your understanding.
https://discoversociety.org/2019/03/06/is-anti-irish-racism-still-a-problem-you-can-bank-on-it/
I might be wrong, Phil, and apologies if I am, but wasn’t the ‘alien race’ quote from 1923. I’m currently reading a book about Glasgow’s Irish, by John Burrowes; by coincidence, I’ve just read about the Blantyre Explosion, as mentioned by Jimbo, though it says 233 perished, many of them from Ireland.
From the Irish Post :
Tom Devine, professor of history at Edinburgh University, said that through Scotland’s history Irish Catholicism was “marginalised”.
“As late as 1952 the Kirk’s Church and Nations Committee denounced all forms of racism there were still references to the Irish as an alien race and a menace,” he said.
https://www.irishpost.com/news/irish-scotlands-struggle-recognition-debated-coatbridge-23009
Fair enough, Phil (I haven’t finished the book yet!).
It was at the 1923 General Assembly of the CoS, where the Committee interpreted its remit as “an instruction to consider and to report on the problem of the Irish Roman Catholic population in Scotland”, where that “problem” demographic was described as an “alien race”.
The 1923 report is reproduced as an appendix in Minority Reporter.
However, that terminology was still being used by the CoS as late on as the early 1950s.
The important point is that the Kirk chaps were concerned about the Irish as a “race”.
They made the point in the 1923 report to say that they had no issues with Catholics from the Highlands as “they are of our race”.
It was always about ethnicity and not about theology.
Indeed so. “The question of the Scottish Roman Catholic population has not arisen, nor is there any reason why it should arise. They have a right to call Scotland their country, in common with their fellow countrymen of the Protestant faith. Nor is there any complaint of the presence of an Orange population in Scotland. They are of the same race as ourselves. The Irish Roman Catholic population in Scotland cannot be assimilated into the Scottish race”.
Being Scottish Catholic was ok. Being Irish was ok, providing you were ‘Orange’. But being Irish AND Catholic was just too much for the most welcoming wee country in the world.
It is odd that apologists for this view can vehemently deny that this was a racist view, while accepting that those “others” were an inferior species purely because of their “race”. It’s one of those “in a nutshell” moments.
Tom Devine has this to say, about sectarianism today; ‘With the old monster in its death throes, sectarianism has spawned a new growth sector; a well-financed anti-sectarian industry, A delicious irony indeed’.
And even later than that the Scottish National Party were calling for repatriation of Irish back to Ireland
It’s hard to believe (or maybe not) that being born on the island of Ireland. I was affected by anti Irish racism in the six counties.
Having moved to southern counties many years ago I have the comfort of knowing that my children will not witness the abuse I went through as a young man in the north of Ireland.
Diversity, Inclusiveness, are not attributes I could attribute to Scotland or the six counties.
Education beats indoctrination.
HH Phil
Stay safe
Maith thú
Sean, you beat me to it, My first thoughts on reading Phil`s piece were covered in your first sentence. Treated as second class,stopped and searched at gunpoint, harrassed on a regular basis. The only difference being: i stayed here. Well said.
Thanks Phil,I’ve a feeling this thread will be very entertaining.
Unfortunately,there’s some in Scotland that would still send us all back to Ireland,it is so very sad that there’s isn’t a Paddy’s Day festival or similar.I’ve accepted that this racism is ongoing and will be for some time to come,that’s one of the reasons I relocated but,not for an easier life but,a simpler one.
As a 7 year old child in the 70s going to England with my father I had to fill a separate pinkish card with all my details – the banner headline of the card “Prevention of Terriorism Act” a 7 year old child!!!!! all you racists who pick an choose over the decades to deny anti Irish racism gtf
Angela brave woman full respect
I was reading the Scottish Mining web site last night, the Blantyre pit disaster of 1877 caught my attention, given there was north of 215 souls lost it truly was epic.
This is a small section of the Blantyre coal mining disaster story1877 as told by rev Stewart Wright….
‘Day after day for three weeks following, and after laborious exertions, were the bodies found and brought up for internment. With the exception of the Roman Catholics, and there were not many of them’
In context the Catholic population were unable to vote, go to university, hold a professional charter or enter parliament as an MP and so on….
Racisim, discrimination and sectarianism are all bed fellows supported and encouraged by the establishment for centuaries.
Air brushing it out of editorials is creative lies and does not change the facts of history.
The Catholic Emancipation Act is 1829.
Obviously, that was for Catholic men.
Women of all faiths still had their battles to fight for the franchise.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored – Aldous Huxley
A good piece which I broadly agree with. I especially agree with the notion of the Scottish establishment moving lockstep to ignore it’s major problems with racism and religious prejudice.
Scottish society and politics are both very immature and find it difficult to look in the mirror under a stark light. The history of causation of anti-Irish / anti-Catholic problems is crystal clear, which makes the approach of Police, Politicians, campaign groups and civic society all the more disappointing.
Groups like Nil-by-mouth only exist so politicians have something to point to, when they are accused of doing nothing. The modern, independent group “Call it out” is much better / more effective, though it often dilutes its own message by taking about other things, and turns people off by being overtly political (marxist).
I am especially disappointed by the Church of Scotland, in terms of how genuinely little it has done to address the lasting problems its former stance has caused. Most Scots will instinctively hold up Catholic schools as a supposed issue, when it comes to reasons for prejudice. Very few indeed will know about the Church of Scotland inciting prejudice in its official documents. That alone speaks volumes about the failure of the Kirk.
The stuffed gonks known as “the Scottish Catholic Bishops” are also at fault, for continually accepting drivel and fob-offs, from those who have the power to change things. They and their lackeys are in such thrall to the SNP, that pandering to politicians every word is how they think they show themselves to be relevant. (Look at the COVID-19 situation and how they fell over themselves to close their own Churches).
The Bishops ought to learn from the Scottish Muslim community, which is – from top to bottom – very well drilled to know of, identify and actively report anything which could even loosely be identified as something approaching prejudice. (Though sometimes they take it too far, like when Humza Yousef MSP tried – over weeks – to portray as a joke about a Burqa as being Islamophobic).
Generally when it comes to any form of prejudice, it is well understood and clamped down on ruthlessly. Yet when it comes to prejudice against Catholics and/or the Irish, we just cant seem to grasp it. We fall back on nonsense like “90 minute bigots” (tell that to the victim of Jason Campbell), and the twin myths of the “religious divide” and the “two way problem”.
There is no religious divide. Rather, some people are anti-Catholic bigots. We don’t say they is a racial divide, because of a minority of racists.
Equally, there is no 2-way problem. Government figures show 50% of Scottish Catholics marry people from different backgrounds. The Catholic community is the most open, diverse and egalitarian in Scotland.
What better example of all this, to see how far right demonstrations – BNP / NF / SDL etc – are corralled by Police, while Orange walks are given an escort by the same Police. The marchers are largely the same in both cases, ironically.
Of course, in Sturgeon’s Scotland, the Police are not an anti-crime agency or a moral force, as much as they are an instrument of social control. An independent Scotland would be all the worse, without bodies like the UK Supreme Court to reign in invasive, controlling SNP legislation – such as their Stasi-like “named person” scheme. The nodding dogs of the Scottish judiciary would pass any rubbish.
My only concern is that we should not let anti-Catholicism be over-shadowed by anti-Irish racism. They are closely linked of course. A large part of modern Catholicism in Scotland has an irish background, but it’s very far from being all Scottish Catholics. There are prominently Catholics from Italian, Polish and increasingly African heritage too. Even – Good Lord – Scottish and other British Catholics. And at the end of the day, people shout “f*ck the Pope” not “f*ck the Taoiseach” – such people probably wouldn’t even know what a Taoiseach was.
Great post.
Anti Irish- racism and anti- catholic sectarianism in Scotland was very common in the 1950s-1990s era, as someone who started work in the 1950’s with the name Michael I can vouch for that. Even although my Irish ancestry dated back to my great grandparents I was forever being called a wee Fenian bxxxxxd or a wee Mickey bxxxxxd.I have got to say that I think the racism against the Irish in Scotland is not as bad as it was then,their is still a hard core of the usual suspects that show contempt towards anything Irish and the lack of criticism towards this group by civic Scotland is disappointing.
To those who have the cheek on this sight to criticise the SNP on the issue of Irish racism and sectarianism ,this problem has been part of Scottish life since the reformation and blaming this on a party of government who’ve only been in power for 13 years is stretching credibility. We’ve had Labour and Tory governments in the UK over the past 96 years and absolutely nothing was done to curb anti- Irish racism or change the act of settlement.Many of the groups who are anti- Independence are the same groups who are anti- Irish and anti- Catholic.
On the flag point here’s the real story as the Hibs chairman Harry Swan has been wrongly accused by Celtic fans over this:
Briefly that episode in Celtic’s history goes something like this. Late 1951 crowd trouble at Parkhead saw a linesman attacked and the SFA put posters up around Parkhead asking fans to behave. In the 1952 New Years Day game Rangers won 1-4, and bottles and stones were thrown by Celtic fans after the fourth goal went in. After this Glasgow Magistrates asked that…
(1) Rangers and Celtic should not play each other on New Years Day
(2) All ticket games only
(3) Numbered passgeways at Celtic Park
(4) That the two clubs should avoid displaying flags which might incite feeling among the spectators
…I’ll point out at this time Harry Swan was not a Glasgow Magistrate. The Magistrate’s decisions were ratified by the SFA’s Referee’s Committee (the Chairman of which at the time was Celtic Chairman Robert Kelly), then it was put before the SFA council who ratified those requests. Harry Swan is not even mentioned so far, and it’s worth pointing out that both Rangers and Celtic were asked to “avoid displaying flags which might incite feeling among the spectators”, and on match days only. During the week they could fly Auntie Aggie’s drawers if they wished.
The only part Harry Swan played was while he was acting Chairman of the SFA Council during a meeting when Celtic were disciplined for not obeying the Glasgow Magistrates requests.
As with most Americans they have no knowledge of the first people of there country and if they do they don’t want to have anything to do with the “Prairie Niggers”
I ask any Americans that I meet why they celebrate “Columbus Day” and I have yet to get any intelligent answers.They do of course celebrate St Patricks day so in that sense they have there “Italian/Irish” as far as the First Nations people are concerned.
Why cant you help society move forward instead of regurgitating the same tiresome threads…..Groundhog Day …..iam not for a minute doubting anything you say did or didn’t happen … but for the large majority of “Tims” in Glasgow and Scotland we are proud of our country we acknowledge our Irish roots but the friends and family I have are all focussed on building a bright future. Continually harping on about what happened serves little purpose…..you come across as an entrenched twisted old bloke
Growing up in Glasgow in the 50’s & 60’s was no picnic. No one gathered or protested when we were let down by society or police.
The tragedy in USA was disgraceful and those responsible must be dealt with, but how many of the marchers/protesters actually realise that Floyd WAS a criminal, he wasn’t a saint but is being glorified as if he was. 3 funerals – don’t get me started.
I’m afraid that the tables have turned in the both USA & UK and the WASPS are no longer the majority, but for some strange reason this is quietly accepted most of the time.
I’m sure Floyd was the catalyst that sparked the US unrest and by now,most people will now know that he was known to the police and that he was indeed no saint.However,I do not think that fact was relevant at the time of this death,although it has been widely reported since.
As for the three funerals,I’m sure there will be reasons,some good or bad depending on the individual perspective.
We can only hope that positive changes will arise from this and we see those changes applied to everyday life wherever those changes are needed most.This,imho,was probably long overdue,
still very sad that it resulted in deaths/violence and the destruction of properties,both domestic and business.
You sound like an uncle Tim Frank.
Phil, stick to football as most of the Irish Diaspora in Scotland don’t need continual Irish history lessons from somebody who bailed out with his family and headed for the hills of Donegal. We are of similar ages, I was born in the Gorbals you in Bailiston. The difference is I’m Scottish of Irish decent, like the Italians, Indians, Pakistanis, Polish etc who came to this country from thier own countries. Our children will change Scotland from within not through sniping from another Country. It’s called the “Quiet Revolution” Phil through education. Oh and by the way I was also educated in Ireland in the 70s not York, so I lived through and experienced the troubles. Stay safe but as they say in Glasgow, Scotland, “Gets Peace”.
Your sneering ad hominem lends little to your case.
“When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser.”
-Socrates.
god bless you and your family phil I am glad that you are living in a place where you are enjoying peace and prosperity
I have many happy memories of Donegal and I hope that you have many good times there in the future x
Dearie me Alistair, born in the Gorbals and you don’t know it’s “Gies Peace” … even teuchters from the far North know it.
They hate us,an our children flourish through education ,education, education. An the Irish d ,n,a.,,,,,something inside so strong.