Monday
The auld maw was due to go to a birthday party on Saturday. It was a friend of hers 90th birthday party. The woman is called Jane McCann. My mother thinks she might be related to Jane McCann, but isn't sure.
My grandfather came to Scotland in 1906 from Rosharkin in Northern Ireland. Some time later a Cassie McCann came over to Scotland from the same place and stayed with my grandfather at first. Jane McCann was Cassie's daughter. The auld maw said these old Irish people would tell you nothing, but she thinks Cassie might have been related in some way to my grandfather ... a sister, a cousin, who knows?
Jane McCann, who was having the birthday party, married Jimmy Dempsey who was the godfather of the Labour Party in Lanarkshire, and a very much respected man, up until I was in my twenties. Bellshill chapel was stowed out at his funeral.
The third time I got arrested, the auld maw phoned up Jimmy and he said she should send me round. He listened to what I had to say and organised for a lawyer to look after me at the court the next Monday morning. People used to go to people when they needed help. That's what politics used to be about in communities like Bellshill. I don't know if it's still like that.
The auld maw is very Labour Party and was really pleased when they won the by-election in Glasgow recently. She said Jimmy Dempsey was a commie at first, but you couldn't get elected as a commie in Bellshill because the catholic church told folk not to vote for them. My maw mentioned someone called Barney McCourt who was a commie and also a much respected figure in Mossend/Bellshill. She said Barney would have been in the Houses of Parliament if he'd been in the Labour Party. She said Barney and his wife were barred out of the chapel for being communists.
My grandfather was illiterate when he came from Ireland. I don't know how literate he ever became. A lot of the miners in Mossend would have been illiterate in those days. A lot of them came over from Poland and Lithuania and I don't suppose they got much education there. People used to go to Barney McCourt if they needed any paper work done. The auld maw said the insurance men were good for this as well.
The auld maw was disappointed that there was no one singing the Red Flag when Labour won in 1997.
When I gave her a copy of the first book I had published, she looked it over very carefully and went slowly through the first pages. She didn't say anything about the dedication, which was to her. She said: Your grandfaither was illiterate when he came to this country.
And the folk who kept them down are all in hell now, Jack! So they are!
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4 comments:
What a lot of McCanns. I think I see your plan. Anybody in the world who Googles McCann, they'll land here.
Carrie McCann would be a great name for a character who's an alkie. You can use that if you like.
Interesting question about whether politics is still like that, it's hard to imagine when everyone's so atomized and internetted. My uncle who founded the Piddledorf Pension Plan (now in liquidation) was the man people went to for solutions. I miss him for treating me like an equal. I remember when I was about twenty odd, him saying "what do you think of Pol Pot - that Lon Nol's a basturn, eh?" Politicians spend a lot of time assessing other politicians.
Albert? Carrie McCann is really quite good! Hotboy
Just divide the royalties by the total word count, multiply by two, and give me 10% of that.
Albert? Compared to the evil bourgeois, maybe I was born to be a bum; born in the gutter and never left it. All movements were sideways. Hotboy p.s. If you want ten percent off the top in perpetuity, that'll be ten percent off the top, please.
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