THE FOUR EDITIONS OF THE ‘MEMORANDUM ON THE EARL OF ELGIN’S PURSUITS IN GREECE’ In 2002, my dormant and somewhat uninformed interest in the so called ‘Elgin Marbles’ was awakened by the writings of Professor Epaminondas Vranopoulos, who in turn was interested and angered by an anonymous Memorandum used to support Elgin’s bid to sell…
Verdict on the Mob and the Magistrates RACE & RELIGION? In looking for reasons why so many leaders of the Dunfermline community had sympathy with the prisoner Alexander Black it is worth noting something the Lord Justice Clerk, Lord Hope, identified. He stated: “That the Magistrates & others may have a strong feeling agt…
The Charges, Prisons, Petitions & Clemency THE CHARGES Even a quick scan of the Indictments exposes the myth perpetuated in some press reports of the trial that this was an Irish Navvy riot. It wasn’t. No Irishmen were charged with Mobbing and Rioting. The definition of such a charge is that a group combines…
Things weren’t quite like the papers said. From an interest in Andrew Carnegie I knew of the Meal Riots of the late 18th century. Knew a little of the aims of the Chartists, which Carnegie’s father and other radical relatives, uncles, Tom Morrison and George Lauder supported. But I knew little about the Dunfermline riots…
The beginning of the end of life as an employee The beginning of the end of my life as an employee. My days of working ‘on the tools’, mainly on trade union, National Agreement sites, were brought to an end following a strike I took part in. The strike was unofficial and we were dismissed…
1850 Riot Reflections based on my experiences. This post looks at the common perception of Dunfermline and also my view of it based on my life experiences, as enlightened by my research into the 1850 riot, and seeking to draw lessons from both. ANDREW CARNEGIE’S DUNFERMLINE 1835-1848 The general perception of Dunfermline as a town…
Thomas the 7th Earl of Elgin’s collection of marbles and other artefacts now scattered around the globe. The specious arguments used as justification for the removal of the Parthenon and other Marbles/relics by Thomas the 7th Earl of Elgin at the beginning of the 19 century have long been discredited. The Earl’s dodgy Firman<sic>, lying…
Referendum reflections Independence was something I was always going to vote for, but I wasn’t fired up by the prospect ; realising that I would probably be backing a loser and the people of Scotland would act out their “canny” stereotype and bottle it. But with 9 days to go the Yes camp took a…
The recent upsurge in interest in sexual abuse of children caused me to reflect on an old friend, Krystyna Ost, who died a few years ago and would have been a vociferous contributor to the current debate. I say an old friend and that is, and isn’t true, as I only met Krystyna once, the…
Being aware of the history of Celtic by having been involved with the Celtic Wiki for some years I had the great pleasure of attending my first Celtic Graves event on Saturday 16th August, 2014 at Kilsyth. Then the Celtic Graves paid tribute to the late great Jimmy Quinn tribute with Fergus McCann also being…
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