LegacyRoderick Buchanan & Parkhead Republican Flute Band

Bloody Sunday parade, glasgow, 21 February 2010

contentS

IntRoductIon 7

the commISSIon 11

ScotS IRISh / IRISh ScotS 15

maP 17

the aRtISt 50

meetIng the Band 53

dIaRy 64

a conVeRSatIon... 77

gLoSSaRy 106

Band Statement 108

cRedItS 124

left Free derry corner, derry, 16 march 2010 following spreads Bloody Sunday commemoration, glasgow, 23 January 2011 glasgow, 17 February 2011, photo by Brian mcdonough, digital imaging donald nesbitt

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IntRoductIon

as one of the longest running conflicts in Western europe in the twentieth century and with repercussions for the twenty-first century, the troubles in northern Ireland and their aftermath remain a contentious and live topic. the museum was faced with the challenge of finding a viewpoint reflecting voices from across the communities.

the museum commissions art through the art commissions committee which was established in 1972 as a successor to the extensive government and museum collecting and commissioning programmes of the First and Second World Wars. By awarding a commission on the legacy of the troubles in 2008, the museum took an active role in the making of a record of the communities living with the legacy of this conflict, reflecting its concern with the aftermath – including the process of peacemaking – as much as with the causes and course of a conflict central to its remit.

the timing was critical. the commission is the record of a generation who were born out of the hunger strikes and who were actual participants on the journey from the ‘Long War’, the armalite and the ballot box*, to the good Friday agreement and beyond.

I would like to thank Roderick Buchanan for going on this extraordinary journey; working and building trusting relationships with the bands, immersing himself in the subject, and his commitment to the subject and the people he has met over the years. our thanks also go to the bands for allowing the artist – and through him the museum and our public – this unique access into their lives.

the successful outcome of this commission and the resulting exhibition at the Imperial War museum would not have been possible without the judgement and expertise of the museum’s art commissions committee. the project has been supported by many members of my staff with their customary expertise but I would particularly like to thank ulrike Smalley, who has curated the commission and exhibition.

Last but not least I would like to thank creative Scotland, the henry moore Foundation and PF charitable trust, whose generous support has enabled us to bring this commission to fruition.

diane Leesdirector-general, Imperial War museum

*See glossary on page 106

left mural, derry, 5 april 2010 following spread Bloody Sunday commemoration, derry, 31 January 2010

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the commISSIon

In 2007 I made a 16mm film, with glasgow city council called I am Here with the help of Parkhead Republican Flute Band and Blackskull corps of Fife and drum. at the conclusion of 18 months of negotiation it became clear that I’d set up a highly unusual line of communication that allowed me access to an engaged Loyalist and Republican community that could generate a very special artwork. after filming with the bands in 2007, I kept up relations, dropping in to see them from time to time. they’d ask me how I’d been getting on with projects and they’d talk to me about what might be interesting for me to look at in the future. out of these conversations the project with the Imperial War museum was born.

the singular circumstance of two groups who had regularly taken part in violently opposed protest marches in Scotland, england and the north of Ireland during the troubles but had now seen themselves in the context of an artwork in a gallery of modern art, gave me the perfect platform from which to make a powerful work. I proposed a reading of the troubles through the experience of two flute bands from Scotland.

there is a special relationship between glasgow and edinburgh with Belfast and derry. In Belfast’s Sandy Row, a place many would describe as the centre of hard line Loyalism in northern Ireland, the most prominent building on the street is the glasgow Rangers Supporters club. conversely in nationalist neighbourhoods throughout Ireland, wearing a glasgow celtic football strip as an adult is often seen as a signifier of hard line Republican views. It’s a shared economic history of communities built up through the movement of labour during the Industrial Revolution. In central Scotland, communities such as the garngad, coatbridge and croy are associated with the catholic community while Bridgeton, Larkhall and Kilwinning would often be regarded as Protestant neighbourhoods. It’s within these communities that the culture of flute bands maintains its strength.

talking to colin Patterson, my contact within Parkhead Republican Flute Band, I asked him to propose a parade I could film. they suggested the easter commemoration* in derry 2010 where they would be supporting the Republican network for unity as they walked from the creggan Shops to the Republican plot in the city cemetery. easter commemorations are the most important date in the Irish Republican calendar, where resistance is commemorated and community leaders outline goals for the coming year.

the opportunity to film on this day was unusual. cooperation with people from outside the community is often rejected because journalists in the past have presented an unsympathetic image I am Here installation shot, taipei Biennale, 22 october 2008

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of band life. media representation on both sides has historically presented them as an ignorant, unruly working class phenomenon. middle class Britain and Ireland would perhaps like these people to disappear. Speaking to the bandsmen, this is not going to happen.

on presenting the finished films I proposed to the bands and the museum the idea of a pendulum edit. one band plays on one screen while the other band rests on the other screen. no one’s music is interrupted. Both get an equal crack at representation. the pace of the work is the length of a tune (between two and five minutes). using the two-screen set up, the audience watches as the pendulum shifts from action to rest. ‘action’ shots accompanied by sound, ‘Rest’ shots silent. the tendency when watching the two autonomous works is to follow the sound. this allows an audience to stand at the head of the wall where they can watch both films at the same time but it also allows those who want to watch each film as a single unit to do so.

Both bands work hard on the music they play. Black Skull, in line with a general movement within the ulster Scots society, are currently increasing their Irish melody repertoire as they reclaim a musical tradition that they lost during the troubles. Parkhead have perhaps the tougher problem. as the song says ‘It was music that kept their spirit free, those songs of yours and of mine’. Playing tunes that are increasingly labeled ‘sectarian’ or ‘anti peace process’ by outside bodies isolates the band, but still they march on.

Pollok parade, glasgow, 9 September 2010

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ScotS IRISh / IRISh ScotS

Pollok parade, glasgow, 9 october 2010

north

Free derry corner

the Bogside

cú chulain

city cemetery

the creggan the mary’s church

Brandywell Stadium

central drive

Bligh’s Lane Industrial esate

Walls of derry

FILm SequenceS01 Sound 09:30 — Band tour of the murals 1802 Silent Free derry corner, Bogside 03 Sound Flag being raised at the graveside 1904 Silent Walking from Bogside Inn to the gym 05 Sound Inside the gym 2006 Silent guys standing outside the gym 07 Sound marching up the hill into central drive 2108 Silent other groups around central drive 09 Sound From central drive to car park 2210 Silent adjusting uniform 11 Sound Parade at the turn in the creggan estate 2312 Silent graves from without 13 Sound Into the city cemetery 2414 Silent cemetery within 15 Sound Roll of honour and lament 2516 Silent Speeches from the Rnu 17 Sound national anthem 2618 Silent Packing up flags in the cemetery 19 Sound Walking out the cemetery 2720 Silent 14:00 — Social at the bar

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Free derry corner, Bogside Silent 3min 18sec

Static camera looking along the Lecky Road towards the back of Free derry corner. there’s a billboard commemorating International Woman’s day and behind that someone lowering a green ‘Irish Republic’ flag and raising an extra large tricolour. amongst this are general shots of locals and visitors in the area.

Flag being raised at the graveside Sound 1min 52sec

early morning. two member of the Rnu and two members of Parkhead Republican Flute Band raise the tricolour above the grave of Volunteer harry Lynn. care is taken that this is done with respect and solemnity.

Walking from Bogside Inn to the gym Silent 5min 23sec

From the meeting point at the Bogside Inn the band gather in ordinary clothes and move off up Westland Street stopping to take photographs at a mural honouring the IRa* and InLa* members who died during the hunger strikes in the maze prison. Shot finishes with them entering Bligh’s Lane industrial estate.

Band tour of the murals Sound 3min 39sec

Sunday morning 4 april 2009, the band meet outside the old Bogside Inn on the Lecky Road, derry. Setting off with local representatives of the Republican network for unity (Rnu). the group walk between the Bogside artists murals, Free derry corner, the h-Block memorial and the Bloody Sunday memorial. the camera picks up bandsmen taking photographs.

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Inside the gym Sound 3min 24sec (music: ‘the town I Loved So Well’)

this is where the whole band changes into uniform. at some point they play a warm up tune amongst the punch bags and gym equipment. on the wall, a Saltire cross and a tricolour are displayed, beside them the aphorism ‘no pain, no gain’ is pinned to the wall. Someone practices his solo part on a flute. drums are tested, tightened and everyone mills around.

guys standing outside the gym Silent 1min 34sec

everyone is gathering outside the gym at Bligh’s Lane industrial estate. this is just before the parade begins. the camera picks out someone’s tattoo which reads Tiocfaidh ar la. the camera rests on a bandsman holding his flute behind his back. drummers adjust the tension on the skin of a side drum and snare.

other groups around central drive Silent 5min 34sec

members of the Republican network for unity’s colour party make their way along central drive in the creggan. People are milling around. Police landrovers drive through the estate. another band, dan darragh from Ballycastle collect behind the shops. on a gable end at the shops a mural depicts gaelic sports. the post box in the street is painted green. a Rnu organiser pins an easter Lily on the lapel of a friend’s jacket.

marching up the hill into central drive Sound 3min 58sec (music: ‘Patriot game’ / ‘helicopter Song’)

marching up Finad drive past Saint mary’s church. Parkhead Republican Flute Band with a six-man colour party carry flags. First row, from left to right: band flag, Irish tricolour. Second row: the four provinces of Ireland, Palestinian flag, an original Starry Plough – depicting plough and stars on a green background. the final flag is a Saltire cross. People are out in their garden watching the band walk up the road. Snow is still on the hills of donegal in the background.

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adjusting uniform Silent 3min

this is where the main parade of the day is due to assemble. drums are taken off, left on the pavement ready to be picked up. the bandsmen busy themselves, practicing tunes, drinking juice and talking amongst themselves. occasionally a bandsman peels off to go behind the camera to the shops. People are smoking, chatting to band followers and waiting for the Rnu to collect all the groups together.

From central drive to car park Sound 4min 24sec (music: ‘the Legend’)

the band march along central drive. a funeral cortege passes. the band marches to a single side drum marking time out of respect. the band strikes up when the funeral is clear. mick’s drumstick cracks and he signals to one of the stewards to hand him another. they left wheel into the car park opposite the shops and the telstar Bar marching in formation. turning and coming back on themselves they finish the tune and fall out.

graves from without Silent 2min 16sec

Long static shot of the memorial at the head of central drive. dedicated to Volunteers of the 2nd Battalion derry Brigade oglaigh na heireann. Photographs of the Volunteers are pegged into the grass, a tricolour flanked by the Starry Plough and the Sunburst stand behind the memorial stone. cuts to a long shot of the city cemetery with flags all through the graveyard, these flags mark Republican graves. People tend graves, details of flags, the Starry Plough distinguishing InLa Volunteers from IRa Volunteers.

Parade at the turn in the creggan estate Sound 2min 45sec (music: ‘the town I Loved So Well’)

Walking through cromore gardens, Lislane drive and Iniscarn Road in the creggan estate. they march past neat, well cared for gardens pass-ing the Spirit of Freedom Republican Flute Band (off camera) who are standing on the pavement opposite the spare ground on Lislane drive.

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cemetery within Silent 4min 57sec

Shots from inside the cemetery. Shots through tricolour flags past Saint columb’s and out over to the Waterside. through the headstones and out to Brickkilns and tap o’ the hill. the graves are cared for and fresh flowers are at almost every plot. People move amongst the stones making their way in and out of the cemetery.

Into the city cemetery Sound 5min 57sec (music: ‘Vol Billy Reid’ / ‘this Land is our Land’)

the band makes it’s way down the hill towards the gates of the cemetery. the Republican network for unity banner is behind the band, behind that individuals carry wreaths to be laid at the memorial in the cemetery, behind those a hundred or so supporters of Rnu. Behind that a second band and third band. the camera joins Parkhead RFB and follows them on the long path up to the statue of cu chulainn. the last hundred yards or so the band stops playing and a snare drum marks time.

Speeches from the Rnu Silent 3min 30sec

Shot through the flags of the Rnu colour party, representatives from Belfast, dublin, derry and new york deliver their message. the first shot is a close up of the Belfast representative with the nine counties flag of ulster in the foreground. the camera cuts to a wider shot showing the colour party in berets and dark glasses carrying other flags: the Starry Plough, flag of connaught (eagle and arm with a dagger), flag of munster (three crowns) and the flag of Leinster (harp on green background). tony catney delivers the Rnu’s easter address.

Roll of honour and lament Sound 4min 12sec

the crowd gathers around the Republican plot of derry city cemetery. this is a huge statue of cu chulainn the legendary hero of ulster. here he is depicted tied to a tree stump with marrigan, a manifestation of death in the shape of a crow, on his shoulder. a public address system and lectern are set up near by. the speaker introduces ‘davy glen’ to read the local roll of honour. this is followed by a member of the Parkhead Republican Flute Band playing a lament.

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Packing up flags in the cemetery Silent 5min 54sec

the band and Rnu colour party break up. Flags are rolled away. Bandsmen chat. tony catney, the spokesman for the Rnu, takes time with the band and shakes everyone’s hand. organisers and visitors come together and talk. Kids are mucking about. Wreaths are adjusted, Pa equipment is packed away and you start to notice other people using the cemetery.

national anthem Sound 3min 3sec (music: ‘the Soldier’s Song’)

the mc extends an invitation to everyone in attendance that food and refreshments will be available afterwards at the celtic Bar. the camera pulls back behind the Rnu leadership. Back further showing snow capped hills as Parkhead RFB assemble to play the national anthem. the camera moves through the band. the anthem complete, the band turns and ‘falls out’, everyone claps.

Social at the bar Silent 2min 29sec

opening shot. Wide. celtic Bar decorated with green and white hoops. the crest of glasgow celtic is painted five foot high on the wall next to the entrance. Round the corner are two smaller logos for derry city Fc and doire gaa. Bandsmen and organisers stand smoking and chatting outside. Rnu security is on the door. everyone inside unwinds watching the second half of the celtic v hibs match on tV. outside the Sinn Féin* parade can be seen making its way along Lone moor Road with the Spirit of Freedom Republican Flute Band at their head. Rnu members look on from a distance.

Walking out of the cemetery Sound 2min 35sec

the camera picks up colin walking out of the cemetery and up Iniscarn crescent. It follows groups of bandsmen breaking up after the march, settling on a group walking down the eastway. Jumping forward the camera picks up bandsmen heading back to the gym in Bligh’s Lane industrial estate to pack away the kit and change out of their uniform.

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right Kenny hutchison, glasgow, 4 november 2010

following spreads Practice night, glasgow, 24 march 2011 Bloody Sunday parade, glasgow, 21 Febrary 2010 group photo, glasgow, 23 January 2011, Photo by donald nisbett govan parade, glasgow, 18 September 2010 Walls of derry, derry, 31 January 2010 Walls of derry, derry, 4 december 2010

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right mural in the Bogside, derry, 31 January 2010

following spread Republican plot, city cemetery, derry, 31 January 2010

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IRSP plot, city cemetery, derry, 31 January 2010

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Bloody Sunday parade, derry, 31 January 2010

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high school amid all the black Bishopbriggs high School blazers that everyone else wore. all those eyes boring into his back as we ‘fell in’. he never came back.

Back to greenhill. I remember watching the green white and orange corporation bus rolling down Woodhill road with its tired but happy passengers packed inside, boys in the back banging posters of John Paul II off the windows and shouting nothing we could hear. We’d seen enough, we hadn’t been given the day off school and now they were going to get it. We started throwing stones at their bus for that and everything else they stood for, their mass, their chapels and all those Virgin mary’s with their backs turned to you that you only saw when you crept about their schoolyard trying to see what their classrooms looked like through the window.

8:30am 29 November 2010, Glasgow AirportStanding at the security desk without my belt, jacket or boots on. a member of the security team walks up to my x-ray machine, I have to reach around him to pick up my boots and wallet. he tries to get the attention of his co-worker. With a stage whisper he says ‘I walked into a bar last night and who’s the first person I see?’ his pal doesn’t take him up on it so the guy becomes a bit more insistent, ‘I walk into a bar last night and who’s the first person I see?’ ‘Who?’ the guy says, ‘neil Lennon*! I couldn’t fuckin’ believe it. I wanted to crash a bottle intae him’. ‘Where was this?’ ‘the Lansdowne. up the West end’. ‘Who was with him?’ ‘Just a couple of guys I didn’t recognise… In glasgow, I couldn’t believe it’. the pal, working, moves back to his station.In the stage whisper again, the first guy says ‘I had the rage… you know what I mean?’

the aRtISt

1 June 1982, Greenhill, Bishopbriggs We must have been waiting for them; we couldn’t have been just hanging about. a bunch of guys standing on the high ground beside Woodhill Road between auchinairn and Bishopbriggs. the news had been full of the Pope’s visit to Bellahouston Park and the catholic schools had got the day off. Boys from my street went to those schools: St helens, St mathews and turnbull but I didn’t talk to any of them. the only contact I had was playing football against them in the field behind my house. my life back then was built around football. the Boys Brigade team drew its players from a couple of secondary schools and was a tougher league so the team was better. our school team just became a platform for petty sectarianism. We relished playing catholic schools, just to taunt the opposition. our disaffected teacher chucked it as coach after a while because of our behaviour.

the Boys Brigade as a church of Scotland* youth organisa-tion focused on giving teenagers something constructive to do on a Friday night, keeping them out of trouble. officers of the 268 company were male nurses from Woodilee Psychiatric hospital and prison officers from Low moss Prison that were both nearby, so they never had a problem with discipline. We had about a hundred boys in the senior section. I remember a catholic boy who came along one night with his pal to join. that bright blue blazer of the catholic

top Bishopbriggs, 8 September 2009

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meetIng the Band

In 2004 I was invited by Sean mcglashan of the gallery of modern art, glasgow to make an exhibition as part of the gallery’s ongoing biennial social justice program. In 2003 the gallery had staged an exhibition on issues of asylum, in 2005, a presentation about violence against women and in 2007 they wanted me to address sectarianism. I proposed to build an exhibition around a film that I would make, that would beat like the heart of the city at the centre of the show.

I tried to use the leverage I presumed was available to me to work on access to flute bands who were often at odds with the authorities over parades. I investigated the possibility of booking stage time at the Royal concert hall to have a Republican band and a Loyalist band performing together. I reasoned that I could rely on discipline within the bands to avoid the obvious difficulties of bringing bands of violently opposed beliefs together for a couple of hours. (I was conscious that parading organisations were frequently openly critical of band followers who made a nuisance of themselves when following the band and calculated that an invitation like this might coax them towards an unusual outcome.)

With both bands facing one another, one band would play while the other band stood silent. When one band finished, the resting band would reply with music of their own. the performance would last something like an hour. I would film the event and present it as a sort of metronome at the centre of the exhibition. this was the proposition on which my involvement with flute bands in glasgow was built.

I asked the council to provide me with an introduction to a Republican band and was surprised by how unestablished their links were. there was no one on the council staff who had personal contact with bandsmen who apply for permission to parade the streets of glasgow several times a year. however, I left the council with the job of setting me up with an introduction to a Republican band and they did. I was invited to call an organiser of the West of Scotland Band alliance. I explained the project and tried to make his bands participation as attractive as I could. he couldn’t have been more understanding, he really wanted to help. he asked for some time to talk this over with the organisation and invited me to call him back in a few days. When I called back he explained that the band he worked with were perhaps not what he thought I was looking for, but instead wanted to introduce me to Parkhead Republican Flute Band. I was happy to take his advice. Looking up the band on the Internet I saw their announcement for a parade from davaar Street

Bloody Sunday commemoration, glasgow, 21 February 2010

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near celtic Park in a few days time, so I decided I’d go along and see what the band looked like.

I walked down from my house early on a Saturday morning, down past Bridgeton Police station and found the band assem-bling. the atmosphere was amiable, bandsmen arriving, policemen fifty yards away. a police officer walked down, met the band rep’ and then they were off. It seemed to be mainly friends and family walking with the band but no one bothered with me. the band walked past the stadium, out towards Barrowfield up to tollcross and through Parkhead cross. Folk were windae hingin’. now and again they waved to someone amongst the supporters or in the band. I’ve always thrilled to the music of flute bands walking, so it felt good to be with them. I could pick out a number of tunes as they marched along, then what felt like the oddest tune turned up in their playlist. It was ‘Blanket on the ground’, a song I’d expect to hear in a country and western set but not on parade. I’d walked beside the band for twenty minutes so I felt I could ask the guy beside me, why ‘Blanket on the ground’? the reaction was like tam o’Shanter shouting ‘Weel done cutty-sark!’ the guy just looked at me like I’d farted and quickly moved away. embarrassed I shut up and finished the walk without saying another word. It would be a long time before the right people around the band took me seriously enough to answer my questions.

right Bandsman’s tattoo, glasgow, 18 november 2010 following spreads archive image, new york, 1985, christie gallagher’s private archive Practice night, glasgow, 24 march 2011

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left Red letter box painted green, the creggan, derry, 1 February 2009

following spread Bandsman’s tattoo, glasgow, 18 november 2010

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3 February 2007 Filming I am Here. With greenroom Films we hire a venue in glasgow for two days and invite Parkhead Republican Flute Band and Black Skull corps of Fife and drum to come and play, one on a Saturday, one on a Sunday.

5 April — 28 October 2007 Histrionics. gallery of modern art (goma) glasgow. glasgow city council invite me to make a social justice exhibition for their Blind Faith season at goma. I approach two independent campaigning communities who fall outside Jack mcconnell’s crusade against sectarianism.

dIaRy

Autumn 2006 the West of Scotland Band alliance (WoSBa) suggests introducing me to Parkhead Republican Flute Band. on looking on the internet I find they are assembling at davaar Street for a parade that weekend. I follow the parade up London Road, maukinfauld Road, tollcross Road and back to the gallowgate.

Autumn 2006 Introduced to the band by the Pollok representative of the WoSBa, invited into a side room of a social club to make my pitch to the band.

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15 January 2008 I attend cairde na hÉireann’s* St Patrick’s day parade. assembly point, Shuttle Street. glasgow. I approach someone involved with the Sean mcilvenna RFB and ask if it’s all right to take photographs. mentioning I’d been photographing Parkhead RFB he gives me the cold shoulder.

1 February 2009 Bloody Sunday Parade*, derry. I arrive in the city by bus coming from dublin. make my way haphazardly towards assembly point in the creggan. ask directions from Sinn Féin activists in the street. Find my way to the telstar Bar where celtic v. Inverness ct is on tV. outside John Kelly organises crosses with the names of those who died on Bloody Sunday. the range of organisations supporting the parade was broad and disparate.

9 April 2009Photographed and photocopied contents of the filing cabinet in derry city Library. everything to do with parades. I’m there working for derry city council on a consultation document looking at public art provision in Ballymagroarty, a nationalist estate on the outskirts in derry. the day before, I’d noticed someone giving me a funny look through a side window of the car; our host reckoned he’d probably smelt a Brit.

12 April 2009meet John Knox Street, glasgow. Walk through the Barras. a couple of things caught my attention on this parade. numbers of followers were small. First an elderly woman in the calton came onto her front step to wave a small tricolour flag for the band; second, when we passed St mary’s in the calton the band stopped playing out of respect. mass was coming out but the crowd outside was largely african. none of the africans turned to see what was going on, only a couple of locals waved along with their children.

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3 March 2010 Reccy to derry with george from greenroom Films and martin testar, director of Photography. meet ciaron in the Lis Linn centre central drive, creggan. Walk through the cemetery and work out how many cameras we might need to cover the parade.

15 March 2010Photograph practice night. colin wonders what use I can make of the band in casual gear rehearsing. the band uses a practice bass drum from Saoirse na heireann, one of the many Republican bands that have folded.

30 January 2010derry. meet ciaran for the second time. Walk round the Bogside with him and his pal from glasgow. We had met briefly in the east end of glasgow a week before. It’s a busy weekend, Bloody Sunday parade plus the Rnu ard Fheis. It’s put to the floor that I’ll take photographs, no one objects.

21 February 2010Bloody Sunday Parade glasgow. mounted police plus uniformed officers in a transit following. ahead of the parade four uniformed policemen film. Loyalist protesters cut off by police shout at the parade on cowcaddens Road. march makes its way to the back of the flats on Rosemount Street, Royston.

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3 April 2010Filming Rnu easter commemoration with a large crew, cameras, runners, grips and production assistants. everyone is helpful. cieran suggests that if I want to get a true impression of what’s happening within the Republican movement in derry I should stay for the 32 county commemoration on 4 april 2010, easter monday. I ask permission to photograph the event but I’m informed I can attend but not photograph.

29 April 2010Practice night. I make my approach to the band to ask if I can audit the bandsmen’s tattoos. this is a speculative investigation. my hope is that the images could tell another story about the group beyond their involvement with the band.

24 August 2010anti-internment march. govan. Prior to the march I gather the band together for a group photograph. It was a trial run before involving a photographer with a better camera to take a better shot. the entrance to elder Park, with its sandstone gates, makes an impressive backdrop.

15 October 2010nitshill / Pollok parade. this march was in support of Pollok and thornliebank Republican Flute Band, Parkhead RFB attend along with erin go Bragh.

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28 October 2010Rehearsal night. make my pitch to the band. I would like to take individual portraits of band members.

4 November 2010donald nisbet and Brian mcdonough are the photographers on this shoot. my job is fixer. everything goes smoothly and we photograph 22 members of the band. the following Sunday I arrange for those who couldn’t make the thursday shoot to make their way to donald’s studio. I manage to photograph two more bandsmen.

22 January 2011Bloody Sunday Parade, glasgow. the West of Scotland Band alliance is growing. Four bands take part including a new band; Brendan hughes RFB from craigneuk in Lanarkshire*. Speakers address the assembly at the end of the parade including damien donaghy, the first person shot on 30 January 1972.

17 February 2011Parkhead RFB. Practice night. With Brian and donald we create a traditional set up for a band photograph. Front row kneeling, middle row standing, back row standing on a bench. good results.

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anti-internment march, govan, 24 august 2010

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a conVeRSatIonBetWeen coLIn PatteRSon, Parkhead Republican Flute Band,

BaIL, founding member of the West of Scotland Band alliance, and

RodeRIcK Buchanan. Roddy’s studio, dennistoun, glasgow, 17 november 2010

colin Patterson, glasgow, 9 october 2010

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naw, it started in Springburn, came down into the garngad-Royston Road and finished in craigmuir Street in Blackhill, right. Because the brother-in law was in the band, I was there myself and other young fellas from the Parkhead area were there also. What followed was an influx of people who wanted to join the band to be part of something. the whole idea was to support the armed struggle.

this is not long after Bloody Sunday; it’s pretty hot at the time?

oh yes, it was.

the height of the troubles you could say.

there was that many people wanting to join, right, it was then decided that they would be a Southside band and we would form another Republican band in the Parkhead area. We got together, right, it didn’t matter what religion you were because we brought some Protestants into it as well who were Republican-minded. We formed a band and it was called the Parkhead Republican Flute Band. then in 1978, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law were in Belfast. they were sitting in a club, right. there was a fella there who was a very good friend of volunteer Billy Reid and he introduced him to Billy Reid’s mother, right, and she was saying tae him ‘oh this is great, another Republican band going to come out of Scotland’. Because, going back to basics, the James connolly Band were the first ever band to take part in a Bloody Sunday march. there was no other flute band ever took part in it. It was the James connolly Band that led they marches.

you mean up in derry?

derry, yes. derry never had any Republican flute bands. the only flute bands at that particular time to my knowledge were hibernian bands.

that would be where people would learn the flute?

aye right. So the conversation came about that night, Billy Reid’s friend says to Billy Reid’s mother, ‘Would it no’ be a great thing if this band was called after your son’. and she said ‘I would be very, very honoured if you would call it after our Billy’, that is what her words were. So the brother-in-law came back and we had a

BaIL

I can go way back to 1975, 1976, right.

Roddy

With the Billy Reid*?

coLIn no, he’s going to tell you how the Billy Reid started as an offshoot of the James connolly* Band.

members of the James connolly Band were originally members of the ancient order hibernian*, right.

this is a glasgow group of people?

aye, yes, that’s right. they came from all over glasgow; from the gorbals, Blackhill–Royston area, govan and different parts of the city. two of them actually came fae Falkirk, right. But they didn’t agree with the ancient order of hibernians stand on the IRa’s engagement in war. they wanted to dae mare things. So what happened was they eventually broke away from the ancient order of hibernians, the majority of them. there were also some people who were genuine Republicans before that and would never have had anything to do with the ancient order hibernians anyway.

Because they had a religious dimension?

yes, whereas Republicanism has no religious dimen-sion. the ancient order hibernians didn’t believe in the armed struggle, right. they wanted to go out there and to be seen as ‘oh we fly an Irish tricolour, we’re good catholics’, right. But we were all young men at the time. they might have been old heads, but we had the older heads than them. So what happened then, in late ‘75, going into ‘76, these fellas all got together, all young men and formed the James connolly Band.

When you say young men you mean like sixteen to twenty-fives?

Sixteen to about twenty-two, twenty-three, right. now my brother-in-law was in the James connolly Band, but he lived in the same area as us in Parkhead. the James connolly Band done a march in January, I would say 1977, they done it coming frae up the north of the city.

up the garngad, something like that?

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you applied for permission for the march?

yes, aye.

you were given permission?

aye, that was given permission through the clydeside troops out movement, who then approached the three bands to take part. So this march was scheduled to take place on the Saturday morning. When we arrived on our bus, thousands of Loyalists were already there. they were led by Pastor Jack glass*. as soon as the bands arrived, there were bottles, darts, cans everything flung at the bands. the bands managed to get into the park.

queen’s Park?

yes. I would estimate that there were at least two to three thousand Loyalists the whole way down Victoria Road. But as the march was to highlight the protest that was going on in the gaol, it was then decided we’d go and we’d dae it, right. as soon as the gates opened the James connolly Band was the first one out, they probably got approximately eight hundred yards. and when I say they were smashed, they were smashed; everythin’ cans, bottles, bricks, darts, everything. the Loyalists ran amuck. to this day we still say the police wanted this to happen, ‘cause the police could have kept them cordoned. they didn’t want Republicanism in the city. It was highlighted all o’er the papers at that time; there was media cameras and everything.

the James connolly Band took some battering that day, split heads you name it. So they managed to double back and come in beside the two bands that were remaining. So the Billy Reid Band and the Kevin Barrie Band were marching, backed up by the members of the James connolly Band who were trying to divert tins of soup and whatever. and that particular day I was hit by a can, a full can of soup.

you’re laughing [laughs].

naw, that’s a full can of soup or a full tin of beans, I don’t know what it was. I was hit, and I was smashed in the face and right away my eye closed so I couldnae see. there was other fellow members as well that were badly hurt. the march got a good bit down Victoria

meeting. he explained the whole situation to everybody there and everybody was in agreement. So then the band was named the Billy Reid Republican Flute Band, based in the Parkhead area of glasgow. then it all opened up again and the bands started drawing people in from say Bargeddie, coatbridge, different areas, and the bands got bigger again. at the same time you had a band called the Kevin Barry Band* that was based in the calton.

Was that one of the bands that had sprung up at that time?

no, no. they were originally a hibs band, a hibernian band, right. So they also had young fellas that had the same ideals as the rest of us, so they pushed the older ones out. they then decided to call themselves an independent band. What they wanted to dae was, they wanted to take part in hibernian marches and Republican marches, right. So at this time there was no Band alliance. there was just three bands based in the city.

So the hibernians wouldn’t parade with a Republican band?

no.

on one occasion it happened and they actually put them off the road when they found out it was the James connolly Band and the Billy Reid Band that was on the road that day. they were brought on at the back of the march, right, by Republican sympathisers who at that particular time were still in the hibernians. But when that happened they broke away from the hibernians. Republicanism actually smashed hibernianism in the city, so it did. you still have it big out in the country but you don’t have it in the city. So eventually the Kevin Barry Band, as I said, wanted to march. there was nobody who had a final shout on anything, right, so what happened was, the ‘no wash protest’* was going on in the blocks* at the time and the clydeside troops out movement* decided to call a march in support of the blanket men and the blanket women in armagh gaol*. that took place on the 21st april 1979, Saturday morning. the march was originally scheduled to go fae queens Park down Victoria Road and across the bridge at the clyde, up into the city centre and into the city halls. It never got there.

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Road. this was just constant bombardment. the next thing the police charged the Loyalists to the side.

Were they on horses?

yes, charged them to the side, cordoned off the march. now this march was organised by the clydeside troops out movement, two or three of them stayed and the rest bolted. there was a lot of people badly injured that day. the bands retreated to where the Brazen head is round by hospital Street way, where old derry traenor’s bar was, the old Irish bar, and there was a couple of other wee Irish bars there…

the Blarney Stone…

you know the bars I am talking about. So the bands took sort of a… you could say refuge in it, right, because the coaches were sitting in the city centre ready to pick them up. So eventually the coaches managed to get in and get the three bands out. So there was a meeting called on the monday night o’er in the govan area and we sat and discussed it, right…

that would just be in somebody’s house?

no, it was actually in a basement somewhere, so it was. We knew that ourselves and all the Republicans that were there, never ran away. they stood and took what was coming to them. From that day on they swore they would never be used by any other left wing group for someone else’s political gain, because there was a lot of kids injured as well. on the thursday night, two members of the James connolly Band, two members of the Billy Reid Band and two members of the Kevin Barry Band formed the West of Scotland Band alliance, right, and on the basis of that getting formed, the Band alliance would have its own autonomy. They would decide what was happening. that was in ‘79. then a couple of successful marches went ahead. We came up to the first hunger strike* in 1980, we done the marches…

these are in the centre of glasgow?

done them in glasgow right, we done them in Belfast and different places. It was spreading and getting bigger and bigger across the city. the next thing there was another band getting formed: the Sean tracey Band* fae the Pollok area. So that was four bands. Between ‘84 and ‘86 there was 18 Republican flute

St. Patrick’s day parade, new york, 1985, christie gallagher’s personal archive

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my ma, I haven told my da’. Some members were actually disowned by their families. most times people couldn’t just walk off the street and join the band; somebody had to propose somebody and someone else would have to second you to get in. then they would be brought in, right, the eye would be kept on them, so it would, at the beginning to see how they felt and how they would react to attacks by Loyalists on different marches. ‘cause it came right to a head after ‘79 and 1980–81. Loyalists were turning up in their droves, they just couldnae handle what people in glasgow were supporting, by that time it was the hunger strike. they just couldn’t understand what it was all about and they just wanted to attack.

and then something like the attack on Victoria Road would develop. It wasn’t particularly well policed, is what you’re saying?

It was well policed, but there was large numbers of them.

Large, large numbers of them, right. on a couple of occasions we believe the police could have held them back stronger, right, but what the police were then saying was ‘this is a massive disorder, we can’t control this’. But we werenae the ones on the street that were causing the trouble, it was the Loyalists that were causing the trouble.

So they would approach you and ask you not to parade because they were worried about public order?

no, what they were always trying to dae was to try and stop marches from taking place at all. the people that were goin’ and puttin’ the permits in for marches went through some rigmarole wae them.

Is that still the case now?

aye, well I was involved nine years ago when there was the big hunger strike march, so I was. We organised the march eighteen months before the event. there was myself and two other fellas who were the ones that kept getting called to go and see the police. every time we went to see the police it was a different police officer in charge, so they were moving the goalposts all the time. But we were expecting that. We knew for a fact that some of them were Special Branch men sitting there with uniforms on, because what they were trying to dae was, although you were there talking about the march,

bands in Scotland and they were all under the umbrella of the Band alliance.

So this is the West of Scotland Band alliance. Would it be taking in bands from edinburgh?

Well there wis. there was one band that came in, in the late ‘80s I’d say. It was called the Rising Phoenix Band. most of their ex-members are now in the James connolly Society in edinburgh. It got massive and I actually remember one of the fellas says to me one Sunday when we had just finished a meeting, he says to me ‘I think we have created a monster, can we control it?’ I said ‘of course we control this’.

What were his fears?

It was getting bigger and bigger, the bands were popping up frae everywhere. there was actually a band popped up fae dundee.

and you were worried about keeping the politics clear for the bands?

aye.

difficult to keep everything under control.

Right, because you wouldn’t know who was infiltrating the organisation at this point.

In terms of your reputation… somebody doing something… trouble makers?

yes, ‘cause there was also a code of conduct, right. But some of us were smart enough to know that the Special Branch would be involved with certain members of these bands. and it was proved to be the case as time went on, right. So the fella that says that to me, about creating the monster, that’s what he was talking about, the infiltration would start, right.

did people take to do with political education? Was that an important part of what the bands were trying to do?

yes, right, what we used to have was if you’d came to join the band, you would ask why they wanted to join the band? Some young fellas would say ‘I want to learn a flute; I want to learn a drum’, right. you’d say to him ‘do you know what this is all about? how’s your family goin’ to feel about this?’ Some of them would say ‘I haven’t told

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your route and your rally and everything, they were trying to ask other questions, right. But the other questions were just knocked to the side. the three people that were there were three very experienced people at dealing with them.

they were trying to find out more about the structure?

yes, aye, the structure, and who’s this and whatever. the answer was ‘the West of Scotland hunger Strike committee’. that’s all they got. that particular time, nine years ago, they actually called us into helen Street, and it was seven top braiders sitting there, right. and ‘we object to this, and we object to that’, and we said ‘Why? Why are you objecting to this?’ ‘Well we don’t think we can police this’. So they ended up getting the straight answer, ‘you shouldn’t be in the police force if you canny dae your job, right’. We pay our council tax the same as anybody else and have a right to march in this city. and one of them turned round and looked at the other one after a bit of debating as if to say, we haven’t won here. When the march went ahead there was over ten thousand on it, on the Sunday.

did you ever meet a sympathetic policeman?

Well naw sympathetic, but there was some who could see your point, but you knew from up the top they were telling them what to say, right. and to be honest with you, sometimes we had them turned inside-out, because they thought they were just dealing with ordinary working class people off the street. they didn’t realise we knew all the big words that they were talking about, and could answer back in big words. they werenae dealing with stupid people, they were dealing with people that were there from day one and knew exactly how the police worked.

So it reached that point where there was, you know, 13 or 14 bands?

18 bands!

18 bands… what was the story with that number coming down? Was it all just tied to the politics of the time…?

no, it was nothing to do with the actual politics because everybody believed the same.

everybody’s politics were all the same in those days.

…But what you found was, there was younger ones, right, in particular out in the country.

When you say the country do you mean coatbridge and places like that?

Lanarkshire, out in the country, right. you had the likes of them coming in and they were involved in flute bands, and to this day I still say there has been a sort of a jealousy and spite between these two groups because the ones in glasgow were controlling everything, right. there was nothing done behind their backs, everything was all there. every year there’d been an agm with the Band alliance and everything, but some of them never got voted on. Some of them wanted to be wee generals, right. at the end of the day what they forgot was, you were only a band member, right, you weren’t an army. So as time went on they were running back to people in Belfast saying ‘Well this isnae right, that’s no right’. We couldnae care less what Belfast says or what anyone in the north or south of Ireland says because what the Band alliance was set up for, was to have its own autonomy.

and folk over in Belfast generally took that well?

What happened was… it is like any guerilla army; people went to jail, right, so they did. So somebody else would go into their job; you were dealing with new people most of the time. and these new ones that you were dealing with might have been friends with some of these people and seemed to take their sides, right. What year was it the Irish Bands thing started?

the Irish Band association?

aye, that would have been the late ‘80s.

So they didn’t have an organisation and you’re saying they formed an association?

there was an organisation there in Belfast at the time which was called the green cross. and any money that went to green cross went to the prisoners in jail, right. at that time prisoners would get ten pound a week say sent out to the wife and kids. green cross also put on free transport to take people fae all over Ireland to the jails, so there was money always needed for the prisoner

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for two hours, and everything was explained. they said ‘Leave that with us’. It was passed to another fellah and it came down the line. the Irish Band association were then all put to the side. one or two of their bands folded and the rest came back to the Band alliance.

So this was a good bit after the hunger strikes? ‘86 or something like that you’re saying?

aye, late ‘80s. now if you want to call it peace or what-ever, everything was all made up again and went smooth for another few years. and then as time went on again, as in any big organisation, you get splits so you do. the split this time came about because of issues we had with green cross.

green cross the fundraisers...

Fundraising for prisoners. Fundraising in Scotland.

they came in and they were demanding ‘x’ amount of money off the bands and wanted to see the bands bank books and whatever, all this. they were told where to go, right. then they were turning round and said ‘if you don’t give us access to your bank accounts and this and that, you won’t be able to take part in marches in Ireland’. then another split happened, right. eventually these two fellas that were involved with the green cross, were dismissed and two new representatives were brought in who had strong connections with the Band alliance.

So the organisation itself decided to get rid of these guys?

no, no, Belfast decided to get rid of these two. a prominent member of Sinn Féin and a prominent member of the Republican movement came over and approached two people in the city and asked them to take over this whole thing. ‘Poison chalice’ it was called, nobody wanted the job. they knew by this time all the history, and all the back stabbing. It was put to them that the green cross flag couldn’t be carried anymore in Scotland because it caused that much bad blood. these two people would take the job only if they dropped the name green cross. So then the PdF – Prisoners defense Fund – was formed.

It did the same job but with these two new people?

issue, right. So they got to certain peoples ears and they decided they would form an Irish Bands association.

Some of these [Scottish] bands decided they would go with that group?

you can probably say, as you put it earlier on, the country bands.

there was one city band, the doco’, which went, right… they tried to turn the tables on the Band alliance.

how do you spell the doco’?

martin doherty*

they were involved with other ones, as I say, out Lanarkshire way, right – I don’t want to keep calling it the country [laughs]… and this went on for about two years, right, and then it was getting to be a situation. there was real bad blood, so it was, because some of them were carrying some notorious stories about people who’d been there from the ‘70s, and eventually it all came to a head.

aye, it was down to jealousy, because as he said earlier on there, they didn’t agree with the ones that were running the organisation.

So it went on, for about two years, right. But when the time came to make their move, the Republican move-ment made their move one particular Sunday, every one of them was shot down in flames there and then. they disbanded, so they did, this Irish Bands association.

Sorry to be a bit pedantic, that is coming from...you know, people living in Ireland or is this a West of Scotland Band alliance meeting?

this was a meeting that took place, right, with the older ones.

From both organisations...?

no, the older ones in the Band alliance had meetings with certain people in the Republican movement.

Right, ok.

myself and another fella went over to Belfast to meet the leadership of the Republican movement. We explained the situation and they were shocked the way this had come about. they never knew anything about it. We sat there

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But these two were experienced men, who knew all the ins and outs. they knew the ones to watch, the wee back stabbers, right. there were people around, as we call them, ‘ten pound touts’, who were working for the Special Branch. What the Branch would dae was, if you worked in the Post office and he worked say for aSda, they’d contact your boss in the Post office and tell him that you were an IRa sympathiser, right, and they’d contact his boss. they would tell you that unless you agreed to give them more information. But the older people in the background knew this. the ones that were all involved frae the late ‘70s, they’d have their own meetings, right. So these individuals were all getting’ slowly picked out, right, but you couldnae come right out and say – he’s working for the Branch. everybody knew it was going on. So what we would do was we would feed them something that was totally untrue and that’s how a few of them got flushed out, so it was.

you would then just confront them and dismiss them?

they would be dismissed, so they were.

you would say – I don’t want to see you back here?

People that travelled over at that time didnae stay in hotels, they stayed wi’ Republican families, and word would be sent from here to Belfast and the family would make an excuse like ‘listen the kids are too ill, you will have to find somewhere else to live’. So then they found themselves with no digs or nothing. So when that hap-pened the penny would drop. the next thing you would hear, they would fold up the band and just disappear. things like that went on; there was a lot of intelligence work went on in the background, so there was.

Right ok, getting back to when the number of bands started to fall, what was the split there?

the reason I would say, from my personal viewpoint was, the bands were there to support the armed strug-gle, right. When the IRa called the first ceasefire, in a lot of people’s minds the IRa had never won nothing. People who’d very strong views on things turned round and says: ‘this isn’t for me’, and they left. and that was the beginning of the folding of the bands, right, because although they were Republican bands some people didnae support Sinn Féin. aye, they supported

the IRa, but they didn’t support Sinn Féin, although you had the ballot box and the armalite at that time, right. People started to get a wee bit disillusioned, and by the time canary Wharf* went up, when the IRa broke the ceasefire, the bands had disbanded. People had grown up, they’d got married, they’d kids, they had families.

It was more complicated I guess, the politics were more complicated by that stage?

aye. the biggest crime, that people saw, that the IRa did was decommissioning. It was people who took risks smuggling weapons into Ireland; people raised a load of money, right. I’m not talking about the bands here, I’m talking about outwith the bands. People done an awful lot of work to get the arms and knew they were unsung…I am not saying heroes, right… but they were unsung, they were the ones that done the delivering. I’m not just talking about Scotland here I’m talking all over the place this was done. and people went to jail for getting the weapons in. So you then had people who were discour-aged, right. So in 1986, Ruairi o’Bradaigh* and them were at what they call the ard Fheis. you know what the ard Fheis is, aye?

an agm, sort of thing.

Right, they were at it, and at that particular time gerry adams turned round and says, he wanted to put forward a motion that Sinn Fein should take up seats in Stormont, right. now Stormont to Republicanism is an…

anathema.

aye, right. you got a load of people walked away then, right.

…and this had implications in Scotland?

yes, it did.

So you’re finding members who had been pretty cohesive at one stage starting to split into groups of people who are not sure…

…aye, and others that would just say, ‘ah we’re finished’, walked away completely. a lot of people seen it as a sell out, so it was, to take your seat in Stormont, because fae 1922, Stormont has been a thorn in the nationalist peoples side, and all of a sudden Provisional Sinn Féin are saying that they are going to take seats

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destroy a bit of the gang culture from the ‘80s up to say the middle of the ‘90s, because people started to meet each other at different marches...

It made you feel part of a big family…Republicanism.

…maybe somebody from one band would go into a bar, have a pint after a march, right. ‘oh, your wi’ the Billy Reid?’ ‘oh, what band are you in?’ ‘I’m in the James connolly Band?’ ‘oh how are you doing?’ ‘do you ever go down the gallowgate for a pint?’ ‘ah, we’ll meet you there next Saturday’ …and friendships sprung up all over the city.

the way it was worked out was, it was people saying, there’s neil fae – it wasn’t Parkhead or Shettleston – it was there’s neil frae the Billy Reid Band, or there’s colin frae whatever band he’s in, you know what I mean. So it brought everybody closer together.

So it did.

So we’re there in the good times, but it started to...?

dwindle.

aye, because, the politics are becoming much more complex and difficult to get a handle on, but the Band alliance is still going but with smaller numbers?

….aye, right, you had the dwindling. But when they put the two fellas in charge of the PdF here, when they disbanded the green cross in Scotland, right, they stablised the boat. through the hunger strike committee working with the Band alliance there was over ten thousand people on the streets of glasgow and it was seen as massive.

that was the high point? that was the high water mark?

to put 10,000 people on the streets of glasgow, or Scotland, never mind glasgow, took some doing. If you get 10,000 people on the streets of glasgow, somebody’s going to say: Well wait a minute, there is something going on… it’s time to try and put something in and split us up. that’s what happened... then came the split.

in it. People had died, mothers and fathers who’d lost sons and daughters in the armed struggle were saying, ‘what the hell is going on here?’

the bands would still be parading?

the bands would be parading, right.

From looking in the street it would look like there was unity, but behind the scenes…

naw, by this time… the bricks were getting chipped away, next thing you would hear… ‘ah we’ve had enough’. as I say, they were all young fellas at the time. they end up with girlfriends, wives, kids, whatever. they went and just concentrated on their family life. they were still Republicans, right, but they just drifted away. In my eyes when that happened in 1986, it was the beginning of the end of the whole big Band alliance.

…did these people still come out for socials?

you would still see some of them there, aye. I actually was at a social… must be seven, eight years ago, in the govan area, and it was for the James connolly Band.

they’d disbanded?

they had disbanded, but they had a reunion and I hate to say this, but I would have said there were very few people under the age of fifty there, so there was. and it was all faces that you knew frae the ‘70s.

So they still came out?

and they still came out and went to the function, had a great wee night, so they did. you still meet people in the street, ‘oh how’s things now?’ ‘oh I’m a granda now’, or some of the girls, because it wasn’t just fellas, it was girls involved as well, ‘oh I’m a granny now’. What it actually done was… Republicanism actu-ally took, at that particular time, the gang culture out of glasgow, right. Because I remember when I was a young fella in ‘74, ‘75, we were at a motherwell match. We were actually fighting with the members of the James connolly Band, in a gang culture way, right. and all of a sudden a year later, eighteen months later, ‘are you a comrade?’ We would never have dreamed to go for a pint in govan, and they would not have dreamed of coming and having a pint in the Parkhead-Shettleston area right, so it did

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this is what we’re talking about here right, when the green cross were disbanded, and two new reps came in, two experienced people. once 10,000 came on the streets of glasgow there was an even stronger unity and a stronger bond. It just doesn’t take in the West of Scotland now, because you had PdF reps all over the country and it was running great. then all of a sudden, one of them passed away, right, and then the other one was told he was moving on to another job. they put another fella in charge who was a recognised Republican, right. then it came... at easter that year, there was certain people called to meetings, and told that the man who looked after the PdF was no longer a part of the Republican movement, and they removed him, right. they knew that the fella that was looking after the PdF would never have went doon a cairde na hÉireann road. they brought in a guy from edinburgh. he was not a well-liked person in glasgow.

...’cause he came from edinburgh [laughs].

naw… people didn’t trust him. never did, never will, trust him. he came in, and the reason he got his big platform was the hunger strikes. they held one march a year, the James connolly commemoration in edinburgh, and that year he conveniently changed the commemoration to a hunger strike march. and the alarm bells started ringing wi’ older Republicans in glasgow, then all of a sudden this new organisation crops up, cairde na hÉireann. and as I say, one’s dead and the other fella’s put to the side with this PdF thing.

he was given the cold shoulder, you were told that he was no longer working with the movement?

aye. What happened was, this man wouldn’t have agreed with cairde na hÉireann’s policies.

In people’s eyes, when they called us tae a meeting and said the guy had been moved onto a different post, we knew for a fact that wisnae what was really happenin’. they obvi-ously knew that cairde na hÉireann was setting up in the background but held the information back from us.

But they removed him and the next thing cairde na hÉireannn Scotland was formed. Friends of Ireland, right. they brought in a new structure with cairde na Band trip, new york, 1985, christie gallagher’s personal archive

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…because it’s all in generations. cairde na hÉireann was seen as a new generation, as I says to you, they targeted the young football hooligans, the celtic casuals and the hibs casuals.

I mean it’s still not played out, I guess the story is still ongoing.

It is still ongoing, right.

—

I’ll have a wee look here and see if I can see anything else I’d like to ask.

(Colin looks at old snaps of the band) First time. (Photo of the band in New York)

When you look at that photo, there is a lot of young men in that, and they’re all old men now. and some of them are no longer with us an all… Look there’s me.

Where’s that?

I think that was mcdonaugh’s...

that was in new york?

‘85 I think that was.

—

I sounded out the band about the relationship between Sinn Fein and the Republican network For unity on the day of filming, I wrote: they are both part of the Republican movement. there’s no confrontation, these are former comrades and they generally would say hello to one another but nothing more. does that sound right?

aye they wouldn’t get into a political debate or anything like that.

you could live next door to somebody and his politics could be different to yours...

and you would still say hello.

hÉireann. once they got you into it they wanted your bank details, they wanted ten pound a month off of you. you had to pay ten pound a month whether you were employed or unemployed, whereas this fella in the PdF would never have allowed that to happen. anything that you gave when he was in charge was voluntary. they then said that cairde na hÉireann was the voice of Scotland. they wound up PdF, so they did.

Somebody else was brought in to run cairde na hÉireann?

aye, Jim Slaven* was brought in, he was the spokesman for them. So what happened was cairde na hÉireann was seen as the voice of Scotland. they call themselves ‘mainstream’ Republicans, right, which in my eyes is laughable.

aye well, in their eyes, they’re the voice of Scotland.

a new leadership was set up and some of the old republicans were part of it. But in general what they based themselves on was support from celtic and hibs casuals. young fellahs that have never had a clue about Republicanism, and they reeducated them. they actually come away with statements that’s been on the internet that they organised the West of Scotland hunger strike march, organised by the hunger strike committee and that they put over 10,000 people on the street, right. they never told the truth. all they done was quite conveniently change the name of the James connolly Society march to a hunger strike march. they then had an ear in Belfast who’d helped him to set this up, right. they came to the individual bands and told them, the Band alliance bands, ‘if you don’t join cairde na hÉireann, you’s won’t get marching in Ireland’, right. that’s no’ what Republicanism’s about, that’s a dictatorship, so it is. three of the Band alliance bands stood against what they’d set up, because the Band alliance was formed to keep their own autonomy, to think for themselves, to speak for themselves. the minute you step in to cairde na hÉireann, you’re just a lap dog.

But some of the bands did.

aye some of the bands did and are still there to this present day. new bands were formed and joined cairde na hÉireann, but new bands have also been formed now and joined the Band alliance…

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…you wouldnae walk by them.

Because that is a very nuanced thing and difficult to understand, I remember there was one band that stood and watched the parade at easter.

the Sinn Féin band watched us, you’re right, aye.

and I remember thinking there was a sadness there in the sense that you had formerly been together.

But you always had that.

Well, there was a former member of the West of Scotland Band alliance running their band that day, he stood in the background because he couldn’t face his former comrades walking by him there.

See that’s later, but even away frae the ‘70s you always had that on easter Sunday in Belfast. you would have the workers party which was the official IRa*. they would do the first march. they would leave from Beechmount, right, up the Falls Road into milltown cemetery. they would do their easter proclamation. they would then leave and make their way down the Falls Road, as they were coming back to head back down towards Beechmount other groups would be on the pavements. you would have the IRSP’s going up, right, the Irish Republican Socialist Party with the InLa colour Party. they would go up and go into the graveyard, and then at half one the Provisional movement then would go up.

—

It’s good to get this written down, but I think there’s a natural distrust of putting anything on paper. I remember working in India and it was the history of the Independence movement there, I was visiting a museum dedicated to that period in delhi, there was nothing in it. Because effectively nobody in the movement wanted their photographs taken, any document that was incrimi-nating was destroyed at the time to maintain security.

Imperial War museum, London, 7 april 2011

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he says, ‘I’ve got my ain thoughts and as far as I’m concerned the Brits are still in my country’. So Irish history has always repeated itself, it goes round and round, right. twenty years ago gerry adams* and martin mcguinness* were seen in 99.9 per cent people’s eyes, as the true leader-ship of Republicanism. 50 per cent now would say they’ve sold out. So you’ve got another young generation coming up, another generation who are prepared to take up the armed struggle.

—

does it have any impact on you guys the move within glasgow city council, trying to stop the parades coming into the city centre. Is that anything you’ve been talking about?

Well, I was at a meeting last week on behalf of the Band alliance with the rest of the committee. It will have a bigger impact on the orange order* than it will on Republicans. Last year we done 11 marches in the whole year which is less than one a month. What they are trying to do is cut back on the police obviously, because they are trying to cut the police force itself. they want to pass the onus back to the organisa-tions. and what they want to dae is, have us with stewards who are fit and able to more or less run the marches. our Bloody Sunday march last year costs £34,000 to police. the orange order, their big march on the twelfth of July, I think, was five hundred and odd thousand pounds to police it, that’s a lot of money.

my whole drive with this project is that people have the right to parade.

Well, we all have a democratic right, freedom of speech. See like the band’s playin’ the tunes going along the road, the people on the side of the footpath start singing songs. and the police class that as

But that’s the way it was with Republicanism years ago as well. I mean we had Loyalists who had a magazine called Combat Eighteen and certain faces were in it every other month and it was: ‘Where do these Fenians* work, if you know them phone this number’. So these were the things you had to put up with in those days.

People’s been arrested and held for seven days and I mean tortured and different things as well, and I am talking about glasgow people here.

Was that back then...?

that was back a few years ago but that was all part of being a Republican and how hard it was in they days, and it’s probably just going to get as hard now I think, the way things are ready to…

From the security services point of view or just because things are...?

I think because of the current situation and what’s happening in Ireland.

things are becoming more explosive?

Well a lot of people think nowadays Sinn Féin gave too much up without getting anything back in return. and that is why people are looking at a different road.

at the end of the day the six counties are still occupied.

Five or six years ago there was a very strong feeling that the war was over.

…See this goes back to different generations again. It’s approximately 16 years since the IRa called the ceasefire, right. I don’t know if you seen the documen-tary that was on about two three weeks ago? do you ever watch that Spotlight on BBc north of Ireland?

no I’ve never seen it.

It is very, very interesting. there was this young fella who was speaking on behalf of the 32 county Sovereignty movement. and I think he was about 18 or 19, right, and they’re saying, ‘But you werenae even…’

…you werenae even born when the ceasefire happened.

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sectarian songs. now what they will say to you is, ‘you’re running that band, tell the band to stop playing’. Why? ‘Because they’re singing sectarian songs’. that will never work because, if you have a court of law that can sit for weeks deciding what constitutes a sectarian song, and you’ve got music with different lyrics sung by different groups and new versions springing up all the time, it’s impossible for Joe, Paddy or the fuckin’ police to be expected to make that decision on the street.

—

What do you think about the piece being shown in the Imperial War museum? does that make any odds to you? does it feel funny?

I canny believe they are actually letting it happen in the British Imperial War museum, you know what I mean. For all these years they have had these kinda things that have been going on in Ireland, so to get the voice across now is a step forward isn’t it?

aye.

It’ll be a strange situation I think to see it in there, know what I mean, but saying it’s the British Imperial War museum and to have this in it... I don’t know how this will go across in there. Because obviously when you go to the British Imperial War museum, you’re there to see whatever happened in World War one and two and whatever, aren’t you? But then you can get back to us, there are probably people within Republicanism who turned from being members of the British army…

James connolly for starters.

Well, we had a member ourselves, so we do.

Bloody Sunday commemoration, glasgow, 21 February 2010Bloody Sunday glasgow 2010

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one of the prisoner guys mentioned on your website.

dixie.

he had been in the British army.

that’s right. Well actually there is a member just now, who was twenty odd years in the army. Left the army and obviously didn’t like what he had seen when he was in it. What was happening to Republicans in Ireland, he obviously came out with a bitter taste in his mouth.

I remember a good while ago you said to me just casually I would be surprised about the ratio of Protestants to catholics in the band.

aye.

are there Protestants in the band? do folk get teased about that?

naw, because religion has nothing to do with it.

I can tell a wee funny story about that. during the time of the hunger strike we were doing a march frae the garngad, down to the city halls, right. We left Westmuir Street on a double decker glasgow corporation bus and the whole bus was arrested and taken down to Baird Street Police Station. one of the guys that was on that bus was a Rangers* supporter, believe it or no, but he was a Republican, right. So they had that many of us they had put us in the compound. there were fifty two of us on this side of the fence and a few Loyalists that had been arrested that day on the other side of the fence, right. and one of the Loyalists shouts to the screws ‘you’ve put him in the wrong place, he’s one of us’. and nat shouts back ‘aye, I’m a Rangers supporter, but I’ve always supported James connolly and I support the hunger strikers’. that was a funny thing…

one of the reasons I am involved in this project is the issue of mixed marriage and…

aye… I’m in one.

…It is still awkward at family gatherings which seems crazy for my middle class liberal family, that still people feel sorry for you and stuff. It totally does my nut in… Pals of mine in northern Ireland having to…

Sorry, can I correct you there’s no such place as northern Ireland it’s the north of Ireland [laughs].

…But it is closer than you think even in the north of Ireland in terms of those kind of Protestant, catholic families, there was always inter marriage. It was never straight forward...

that’s actually what happened with my granny, she came from Belfast, a catholic, and she married a Protestant from Lurgin, and the two families couldn’t cope, and that is how they moved to Scotland, to Perth, and the two families never got in contact again.

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Lanarkshire Scottish administrative district whose principle towns are motherwell, hamilton, airdrie, coatbridge, cambuslang and Wishaw.

Long War term for the IRa’s strategy between 1970 and 1994.

Martin Doherty (1958–94) was a volunteer in the IRa shot dead by the ulster Volunteer Force.

Martin McGuinness (1950) former Provisional IRa leader and Sinn Féin politician. currently deputy First minister of northern Ireland.

Neil Lennon manager and former captain of celtic Football club.

Official IRA a Republican paramilitary group from which the Provisional IRa split in 1969 and is largely dormant since declaring ceasefire in 1972.

Orange Order founded in county armagh in 1795, expanding into an important Protestant umbrella group in the late 19th century and today with supporters worldwide. Its extensive marching season, particularly the annual 12th of July commemoration of the Battle of the Boyne, has led to recurring tensions and controversies.

Prison protests during the Troubles during the second half of the 1970s, Republican prisoners in the Maze Prison in Armagh Women’s Prison protested against their treatment by prison staff and loss of status as political prisoners. after 1 march 1976, prisoners convicted of terrorism offences were no longer given Special category Status. the prison protest started with a refusal to wear uniforms. the prisoners wrapped themselves in blankets and bed sheets instead and became known as blanket men and blanket women. the prisoners escalated their actions into the No Wash Protest and Dirty Protest, refusing to leave their cells and smearing the walls with leftover food and excrement. the prison protests demanding political status culminated in the Hunger Strike in 1980–81 which led to the death of 10 prisoners and the long-term ill health of many more.

Provisional Irish Republican Army mostly referred to as the IRA or Provos. Largest Republican paramilitary group. the Provisional IRa first declared a ceasefire in 1994, which was broken in 1996 when a bomb was detonated in the docklands at Canary Wharf, killing two people. the ceasefire was resumed in 1997.

Rangers v. Celtic Support of these glasgow based football clubs is generally taken as indicative of religious and political beliefs. celtic supporters are seen as aligned with Irish Republicanism and are assumed to be from a catholic background, whereas Rangers have been traditionally supported by people with a Protestant and unionist background.

Ruairi O’Bradaigh (1932) Irish Republican, a former chief of staff of the IRa, as well as former president of Sinn Féin and Republican Sinn Féin.

Sean Tracey (1895–1920) was a brigade leader of the IRa during the Irish War of Independence. tracey was killed in a shoot out with British troops in dublin.

Sinn Féin is a left wing political party in Ireland first founded in 1905, its current form established after a split in 1970. historically Sinn Féin has been associated with the IRa.

gLoSSaRy

Ancient Order of Hibernians is an Irish, catholic fraternal organisation active in Scotland and the uSa.

Ballot box and the Armalite is a term coined by danny morrison at Sinn Féin’s ard Fheis in 1981.

Billy Reid (1939–71) was a volunteer in the Provisional IRa killed by the British army. Reid is reported to have killed gunner Robert curtis during an ambush of a British army foot patrol. gunner curtis was the first British soldier killed in the troubles.

Bloody Sunday event in the Bogside area of derry on 30 January 1972. Fourteen civil rights protesters and bystanders were shot and killed by British soldiers during a northern Ireland civil Rights association march. after 12 years of investigation the Saville Inquiry, published in 2010, found that the killings on that day were both ‘unjustified and unjustifiable’.

Cairde na hÉireann (Friends of Ireland) is a Scottish organisation aligned with Sinn Féin.Church of Scotland Presbyterian church principally shaped by the Scottish Reformation of 1560.

Clydeside Troops Out Movement was a part of the troops out movement, an Irish Republican organisation formed in 1973 with the aim of bringing an end to the British involvement in northern Ireland and ultimately the creation of a united Ireland.

Easter Rising Insurrection mounted in 1916 by Irish Republicans in dublin with the aim to end British rule in Ireland. the Republican leaders were arrested, court-martialed and executed. the attitude in Ireland to the Rising was initially ambivalent and even hostile, but the British reaction in the aftermath of events led to wide scale support of the rebels’ aims.

Fenian is a term originally coined for members of the Fenian Brotherhood and the Irish Republican Brotherhood, two organisations established in the 19th and 20th centuries to support the creation of an independent Irish Republic. the term is used pejoratively by Protestants in northern Ireland and Scotland to refer to catholics.

Gerry Adams (1948) has been the president of Sinn Féin since 1983.

INLA Irish national Liberation army, a Republican paramilitary group established in 1974 as a breakaway from the official IRa.

IRA Irish Republican army was formed after the easter Rising from the Irish Volunteers. Between 1919–21, the IRa fought the Irish War of Independence. after 1921, recurring splits led to the establishment of a variety of IRa factions.

Irish War of Independence a guerrilla war between the IRa and British army fought between 1919 and 1921. after the ceasefire a treaty was agreed, which established the Irish Free State.

James Connolly (1868–1916) born in edinburgh to Irish parents was a socialist activist. he was executed as one of the leaders of the easter Rising in 1916.

Jim Slaven Former national organiser of cairde na h’eireann. Long term activist with the edinburgh based James connolly society.

John Thomas Atkinson Glass Pastor Jack glass (1936–2004) was a Scottish Protestant preacher and political activist with strong views on unionism in northern Ireland.

Kevin Barry (1902–20) was an IRa section commander during the Irish War of Independence. arrested after a gun battle during which three British soldiers were killed, he was executed in mountjoy Jail, dublin.

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Band Statement

Parkhead Republican Flute Band was formed in 1978. For many years the band was known as the Vol. Billy Reid Republican Flute Band in memory of Irish Republican army volunteer Billy Reid from Belfast, who was killed by the British army while on active service.

the band forms part of the West of Scotland Band alliance alongside the Pollok & thornliebank Republican Flute Band, erin go Bragh Flute Band, Vol. charles carrigan Republican Flute Band and the Vol. Brendan hughes Republican Flute Band. Both the Parkhead Republican Flute Band and the West of Scotland Band alliance exist to campaign for a 32 county united Ireland, free from British control and committed to equality and justice for all its citizens, regardless of race, religion or creed.

We actively campaign for the removal of the British presence from Ireland, and while not aligned officially to any organisation other than the West of Scotland Band alliance, we are open to invitations to attend events, campaigns etc. from other organisations if we believe they help to promote our goals.

Parkhead Republican Flute Band www.wosba.org

Bloody Sunday commemoration, derry 31 January 2010

110 111

right Óglaigh na hÉireann flying columnist, prison crafts, glasgow, 28 october 2010 following spreads View towards the Walls from the creggan, derry, 3 march 2010 city cemetary, derry, 4 april 2010

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114 115

xxx

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unIty IS StRengthWeSt oF ScotLandBand aLLIance

top West of Scotland Band alliance motto

left Bloody Sunday commemoration, glasgow, 23 January 2011

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left christie gallagher, new york, 1985, christie gallagher’s personal archive

following spreads Bloody Sunday commemoration, glasgow, 21 February 2010 Bloody Sunday commemoration, derry, 31 January 2010

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cRedItS

First published in great Britain in 2011 by the Imperial War museum, Lambeth Road, London Se1 6hZ www.iwm.org.uk

ISBn 978–1–90489–780–4 a catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

all texts copyright © Roderick Buchanan unless otherwise stated. Introduction text copyright © the trustees of the Imperial War museum 2011. glossary text copyright © Roderick Buchanan and the trustees of the Imperial War museum 2011. all images copyright © Roderick Buchanan unless otherwise captioned.

the views expressed in this book are those of the contributors and not necessarily of the Imperial War museum.

no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the copyright holder and publisher.

designed by modern activity Printed by White PrintSet in helvetica neue, as used on the Parkhead Republican Flute Band crest.

Project supported by:

Commission art commission committee; commissioner: Roger tolston; Producer and curator: ulrike Smalley; Production house: greenroom films, Leith; Producer: george Barr; director: Roderick Buchanan.

Shoot (4 october 2010) director of photography: martin testar; Sound recordist: Rob anderson; Focus puller: eric greenburg; Steady cam operators: mick o’Rourke, Richard Steel, martin Parry; camera operators: eugene mcVeigh, Roger Fitzpatrick; camera assistants: connor Rotherham, Ryan Kemaghan, Jonathan o’hanlon; grip and Rickshaw dolly: glynn harrison; Runners: hannah, Frankie Waite, Jonathan Waite.

Post production greenroom Films, Leith; editor: christopher tuszewski; Post production manager: Lee archer; Sound engineer: John Vick.

Roderick Buchanan would like to thank: Jacqueline donachie; archie, duncan and James Buchanan; Peter mccaughey; members of Parkhead Republican Flute Band & the Republican movement in glasgow; ciaron mcdermott and the Republican network for unity, derry.