Glasgow

My Scotland and Glasgow during lockdown Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, June 24th 2020 The past three months have been different to anything any of us have previously experienced. We have all lived our lives differently; changed our patterns of behaviour, both work and personal; and been affected by the absence of people who we would normally regularly see and meet, as well as friends, family and people we know becoming ill. Alongside this other big stuff has happened. There has been the staggering incompetence of the UK Government which has contributed to the avoidable deaths of thousands of UK citizens.

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Walking through the history of Glasgow and Scotland Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, May 20th 2020 The past weeks of lockdown have produced a rich panoply of emotions and feelings that recognise the different times we are living in. Over the past eight weeks I have used my daily walk to understand better my surrounding streets and area, and to take photos of things I find memorable; then writing a short chronicle and picking one set of images each day. I have lived on Glasgow’s Southside for 28 years – first in Kenmure Street, Pollokshields, then Moray Place, Strathbungo. In that

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Govanhill: Glasgow’s Southside is changing for the better Gerry Hassan Sunday National, August 11th 2019 Govanhill on Glasgow’s Southside is an area used to being noticed. But in the last week and a half it has been doing so on its own terms with the third Govanhill International Festival and Carnival including an annual parade through its streets. In recent years the area has attracted attention and headlines with right-wing papers waxing lyrically about ‘Govanhell’. Their concern for social issues and inner city poverty only emerging when Nicola Sturgeon, local MSP, became First Minister. Govanhill has always been about change

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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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History cannot be written in stone: Why are public statues important? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, April 2nd 2019 In recent years, from US campuses to towns to the UK, public statues have increasingly become a subject of heated debate and controversy. From Charlottesville in the US where one protestor was killed, to Cecil Rhodes in Oxford, and to what kind of plaque Henry Dundas has in Edinburgh, this is a live issue. These debates are about much more than the statues in question. They touch upon the legacy of Empire in Britain, racism, slavery and xenophobia and, in other societies

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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 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 Football Club That Refused to Die: The Tragedy and Beauty of Third Lanark Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, January 31st 2018 Glasgow’s history has long been the stuff of legend – the stories of Red Clydeside, rent strikes, the power of shipbuilding, the scale of slum clearance - and of course, football. In Scotland we seem to get too much football and too much bad football coverage. We get a narrow bandwidth of football which results in numerous stories, triumphs, tragedies, and moments becoming forgotten, as we surfeit on a diet of the stale Old Firm (cue a chorus from

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A Tale of Two City Centres: Edinburgh and Glasgow Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, August 9th 2017 Summer, Scotland 2017. Edinburgh comes alive and Glasgow has the start of the football season to look forward too. A tale of two cities and two very different experiences. Edinburgh Festival Time. In the immediate weeks before hundreds of thousands of self-confessed culture vultures descend on the city it was announced that security barriers would go up in the city centre around the Royal Mile. There was little warning, debate or ensuing controversy. A declaration was made and within days the barriers - which

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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 19^th 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

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