The world comes to Glasgow: Time to Think and Act Big
The world comes to Glasgow: Time to Think and Act Big Gerry Hassan Sunday National, 31 October 2021 Glasgow can do big things. It has revelled in being an international host city – from the most memorable European Cup finals to European City of Culture 1990 and the 2014 Commonwealth Games. The city’s sense of swagger, ambition and constant reinvention has sustained it through good times and bad, and aided it through difficult periods such as post-war deindustrialisation and the Thatcher era. But alongside that, the city has been constantly battered by external forces and had huge change imposed on
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The Limits of Seeing Glasgow in Black and White Terms
The Limits of Seeing Glasgow in Black and White Terms Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, 1 September 2021 Last weekend Rangers and Celtic met in the first ‘Old Firm’ derby of the season. Hotly anticipated in some quarters and dreaded in others, it was marked by a Rangers victory with supporters of the club then walking through the city centre singing anti-Irish, anti-Catholic songs full of bigotry and hate, while police officers passively watched them. We have been here so many times before in the strange world of Scottish football that the senses of many are numbed, while others choose to
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Glasgow as Tinderbox City
Glasgow as Tinderbox City Gerry Hassan Sunday National, June 6th 2021 Glasgow has had another spate of fires. This week tragedy hit McCulloch Street, Pollokshields with one person found dead and fifteen families evacuated as a result of a fire in a tenement building; only one month ago The Old College Bar in the city centre – known as the oldest pub in Glasgow – was reduced to a shell by a fire that ripped through an area of long-established shops and other businesses. The latest Pollokshields fire was the most recent of three within a few hundred yards of
Glasgow’s future after COVID
Glasgow’s future after COVID Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, June 2nd 2021 Glasgow it was announced this week would finally come out of Level 3 restrictions. By Friday Scotland’s biggest city will have endured 277 days of severe limitations on our freedoms that have come at an increasingly cost to the people and fabric of the city – the only place in the UK where people could not meet their friends in their homes, hug friends and relatives, or travel out of the city. It has begun to feel like a city under siege, where the pressures and restrictions have really
Glasgow on the Edge
Glasgow on the Edge Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, April 28th 2021 Glasgow is a great city with a proud history, traditions, cultures and a rich record of invention, industry and radicalism. There are of course many different Glasgows within the city’s boundaries – and often reality jars with how the city likes to see and think of itself. One key example is the consistent conservatism and high-handed bureaucracy of Glasgow City Council in a city that prides itself on its commitment to radicalism. Too often though down the years the city’s municipalism has been characterised by the exact opposite
Where is the vision for Scotland’s First City: Glasgow?
Where is the vision for Scotland’s First City: Glasgow? Gerry Hassan Bella Caledonia, July 11th 2019 Glasgow is Scotland’s first city in size and importance. There are of course several different Glasgows - from the official council area of 621,020 inhabitants to the metropolitan region of between 1.2 million to 1.7 million people, depending on the definition. Glasgow matters. It’s success, wellbeing, vibrancy, the happiness of its people, sustainability, and state of its public realm all matter not just to the city, but to all of Scotland. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like that to many Glaswegians. The past weekend saw
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Who is going to champion Glasgow? Life after the GSA fire and the threat to the CCA
Who is going to champion Glasgow? Life after the GSA fire and the threat to the CCA Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, September 12th 2018 Glasgow hasn’t had to look too far to seek its troubles of late. There has been the devastating Glasgow School of Art fire (the second in four years), followed by the seeming abandonment of Sauchiehall Street businesses and residents. And if that weren’t enough in the last week there have been concerns that the acclaimed arts and cultural venue, the Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA), shut since the GSA fire, faces the prospect of closure. The
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People Make Glasgow: Let’s live up to that phrase after the GSA fire
People Make Glasgow: Let’s live up to that phrase after the GSA fire Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, June 27th 2018 Glasgow is a proud and vibrant city. William McIlvanney, who must count as the sage of this city, beautifully described it when he wrote: Glasgow is a great city. Glasgow is in trouble. Glasgow is handsome. Glasgow is ugly. Glasgow is kind. Glasgow is cruel. Some people in Glasgow live full and enlightened lives. Some people in Glasgow live lives bleaker than anyone should live – and die deaths bleaker than anyone should die. These words were written in 1987,
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The Winner Doesn’t Take It All: Phoney War or the Beginning of a New Era?
The Winner Doesn’t Take It All: Phoney War or the Beginning of a New Era? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, May 10th 2017 Scotland’s permanent political campaign continued last week with the local elections. These were important for who runs Scotland’s 32 councils, local services and what passes for the remnants of local government, after decades of centralisation under Labour, Tories and SNP. But the stakes were higher than usual with the impending UK general election. Everybody could claim some spoils. The SNP ‘won’ - finishing with most votes and seats. The Tories made significant gains in votes and seats. Labour
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Does Glasgow have a chip on its shoulder?
Does Glasgow have a chip on the shoulder? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, June 1st 2016 Glasgow is not Scotland. For most of its history it has seen itself as bigger than the nation that hosts it - looking out to Transatlantic trade and commerce routes, and linked to the world through shipbuilding and human connections. Since the early 19th century Glasgow has seen itself as a ‘Big City’ - even though it is now half the size it was at its peak, in the mid-1950s. This bigness is about swagger, attitude (both good and bad), and having a sense of
