The story of the Rising is still being told, and in these pages the reader will find much to ponder, much to discuss, and much to disagree with. From the Introduction by Kirsty Lusk and Willy Maley On Easter Monday 1916, leaders of a rebellion against British rule over Ireland proclaimed the establishment of an Irish Republic. Lasting only six days before surrender to the British, this landmark event nevertheless laid the foundations for Ireland's violent path to Independence. It is little known that James Connolly, one of the rebellion's leaders, was born in Edinburgh's Cowgate, at the time nicknamed 'Little Ireland', or that another key figure in the events of Easter 1916 was a young woman from Coatbridge, Margaret Skinnider. These and other surprising Scottish connections are explored in Scotland and the Easter Rising, as Kirsty Lusk and Willy Maley gather together a rich grouping of writers, journalists and academics to examine, for the first time, the Scottish dimension to the events of 1916 and its continued resonance in Scotland today. ALLAN ARMSTRONG * RICHARD BARLOW * IAN BELL * ALAN BISSETT * JOSEPH M. BRADLEY * RAY BURNETT * STUART CHRISTIE * HELEN CLARK * MARIA-DANIELLA DICK * DES DILLON * PETER GEOGHEGAN * PEARSE HUTCHINSON * SHAUN KAVANAGH * BILLY KAY * PHIL KELLY * AARON KELLY * JAMES KELMAN * KIRSTY LUSK * KEVIN MCKENNA * WILLY MALEY * NIALL O'GALLAGHER * ALISON O'MALLEY-YOUNGER * ALAN RIACH * KEVIN ROONEY * MICHAEL SHAW * IRVINE WELSH * OWEN DUDLEY EDWARDS Featuring a mix of fiction, memoir, poetry and essays, this book provides a thought-provoking and necessary negotiation of historical and contemporary Irish-Scottish relations, and explores the Easter Rising's intersections with other movements, from Women's Suffrage to the 2014 Scottish Independence Referendum.
Contents
Acknowledgements 14
Timeline 15
Introduction 21 Kirsty Lusk and Willy Maley
To Shake the Union: The 1916 Rising, Scotland and the World Today 25
The Shirt that was on Connolly: Sorley MacLean and the Easter Rising 31 Richard Barlow
Connolly and Independence 37 Ian Bell
A Terrible Beauty 42 Alan Bissett
Who Fears to Speak? 49 Joseph M Bradley
The Irony of Connolly's Scottish Connections 56 Ray Burnett
Anti-imperialist Insurrection 63 Stuart Christie
Commemorating Connolly in 1986 67 Helen Clark
The Behans: Rebels of a Century 74 Maria-Daniella Dick
After Easter 78 Des Dillon
Margaret Skinnider and Me 86 Peter Geoghegan
A Beautiful Thing Wronged 91 Pearse Hutchinson
Home Rule, Sinn Féin and the Irish Republican Movement in Greenock 94 Shaun Kavanagh
Homecoming 101 Billy Kay
James Connolly's Stations 107
A Slant on Connolly and the Scotch Ideas 114 James Kelman
Short Skirts, Strong Boots and a Revolver: Scotland and the Women of 1916 124 Kirsty Lusk
Irish Kin under Scottish Skin 131 Kevin Mckenna
'Pure James Connolly': From Cowgate to Clydeside 136 Willy Maley
'Mad, Motiveless and Meaningless'? The Dundee Irish and the Easter Rising 144 Richard B McCready
MacLean in the Museum: James Connolly and 'Ard-Mhusaeum na h-Eireann' 149 Niall o'Gallagher
Scotland is my home, but Ireland my country: The Border Crossing Women of 1916 153 Alison o'Malley-Younger
To Rise for a Life Worth Having 160 Alan Riach
'Let the People Sing': Rebel Songs, the Rising, and Remembrance 168 Kevin Rooney
Before the Rising: Home Rule and the Celtic Revival 174 Michael Shaw
'Hibernian's most famous supporter' 179 Irvine Welsh
Afterword: Scotland 2015 and Ireland 1916 181 Owen Dudley Edwards
Contributors 219
Endnotes 225
Willy Maley is Professor of English Literature at the University of Glasgow. Recent work includes two essay collections: Celtic Connections: Irish-Scottish Relations and the Politics of Culture, co-edited with Alison O'Malley-Younger (Oxford and Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2013), and Romantic Ireland: From Tone to Gonne; Fresh Perspectives on Nineteenth-Century Ireland (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013), co-edited with Paddy Lyons and John Miller.
Kirsty Lusk is a doctoral candidate at the University of Glasgow. She received her mPhil in Irish Writing from Trinity College Dublin and holds an ma (Hons) in English Literature from the University of Glasgow. She is currently researching Scottish-Irish connections in the late 19th and early 20th century from a literary perspective in order to explore the legacy of independence, equality and commemoration within a comparative Irish-Scottish framework.
