Glasgow's East End
We leave the flashy restaurants and cultural attractions of the city centre behind and walk past the Tollbooth into Gallowgate, but before I talk about what there is to see here, I want to try and explain the city’s background in a bit more detail.
The East End is as a good a place as any to get deep into Glasgow’s underbelly because two major factors – religion and football – come together here. Even if these two topics don’t normally interest you that much, at least you’ll begin to understand why these issues are so important to Glaswegians. Let me explain.
During the Reformation, Scotland broke away from the Catholic Church and became, generally speaking at least, a protestant country. If we fast forward to the 19th century, the Industrial Revolution had catapulted Glasgow into one of the British Empire’s major cities, but at the same time, on the other side of the Irish Sea, people were suffering severe hardship, especially during the famine that occurred during the middle of the century.
The famine forced many Irish people to emigrate, some of whom landed on the West Coast of Scotland. With so many people employed in the shipyards and associated industries, it’s not surprising that many of these immigrants found themselves in Glasgow looking for work.
In order to drag themselves out of poverty, migrants are often prepared to work harder, longer hours and for less money than the established workforce, and although this might provide a good relationship with their employers, it doesn’t necessarily endear them to their work colleagues: After all, it takes years to fight for better wages and conditions, only to see them disappear when newcomers undercut them.
It was no different in Glasgow, and as if that wasn’t enough to cause resentment, the fact that many of the Irish immigrants were also Catholics coming into a largely Protestant community, it’s not difficult to see why they weren’t exactly welcomed with open arms.
Not all Irish immigrants were Catholic, and those from a Protestant background applying for jobs in the Govan shipyard were never confronted with messages like “Catholics need not Apply”, and it was at Govan that Rangers Football Club built their stadium at Ibrox Park.
Back over on the other side of the river in the East End, the Catholic community formed a football club of their own – Celtic (pronounced Seltic). Their first game at Parkhead was, believe it or not, a friendly against Rangers, which Celtic won 5-2. I’m not sure that there has ever been a real friendly between the two clubs because the rivalry between them is legendary. Efforts have occasionally been made to lower the temperature, but these aren’t just football matches, they’re sectarian battles on a plot of grass, the terraces, and anywhere else the blue and white of Rangers meets the Green and White of Celtic.
Originally posted 2021-12-03 17:20:05.
