Latest news with #Sma'ShotDay
The Herald Scotland
09-07-2025
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
The craven surrender of our leaders over Gaza should disgust us all
As I wrote in an earlier letter (July 5), we're now entering the dystopian world described by Orwell in his novel 1984. "War is peace. Ignorance is strength." "But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought." "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – for ever." That's not the future I want for my kids and grandkids, but it's looming over us. And that's because of the craven surrender of so many of our political leaders, who are driven by their need to hold onto power and who have lost sight of simple values of decency, fairness and humanity. As Lord Acton remarked, long before Orwell: 'Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.' Doug Maughan, Dunblane. More OAPs under threat Neil Mackay registers his dismay at the treatment of protesters supporting Palestine Action. He especially draws attention to the 83-year-old pensioner, Reverend Sue Parfitt, being arrested for displaying a placard declaring: "I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action." We cannot fail to see a parallel with those (many of whom are pensioners) also at risk of arrest, who dare to stand 200 yards within an abortion facility with a simple placard declaring the truth that "abortion kills babies, hurts women". Not only could people be arrested for displaying these statements but also for standing and simply praying silently within the limits of that zone. I don't recall Neil Mackay registering his disapproval of the Government's stance on this issue. Irene Munro, Conon Bridge. Read more letters Keep talking about Palestine Kevin McKenna presents a decent report on Paisley's Sma' Shot Day ("How a shot in Paisley created some of the first trade unions ", The Herald, July 7), apart from one thing. He manages to mention most organisations who were involved in the march through Paisley, with one glaring omission. One of the largest and most noticeable groups on the march was Paisley for Palestine, both in terms of numbers, noise and colour, it would have been impossible to miss them. This omission strengthens the need for people to #keeptalkingaboutpalestine while the Israeli government through its IDF attacks, blockades of aid and support for settler violence, continues to wreak havoc in Gaza and the West Bank. Sma' Shot Day commemorates oppressed people fighting back, an appropriate day to take action over Palestine and other issues. It's a pity that Mr McKenna was not either more observant or considered in his reporting of radical activities in Paisley. John Kelly, Paisley. • In his excellent article Kevin McKenna captured so much of the essentials of Paisley life over many generations. He referred to "Paisley's superb civic buildings" and to the "gorgeous" Coats Memorial Church. He sketched a significant part of Paisley's industrial history when the weavers' craft and workmanship were at an outstanding level and when the manufacture took place of the Paisley shawl with its three different types of yarn. Moreover, the article confirmed that Paisley folk are not easily pushed around and exploited, with the manufacturers eventually having to pay fairly for the work put into the making of Paisley pattern shawls. Yes, keep your eye on Paisley. Ian W Thomson, Lenzie. Degrees of suffering Martin Frizzell, husband of TV presenter Fiona Phillips, has said about his wife that he "wishes she had cancer instead of Alzheimer's". What a shocking thing to say. I have been though cancer and I would not wish it on anyone. My late father had cancer, my late mother whom I looked after for 20 years on my own, had vascular dementia. They were different kinds of suffering but on balance I know who suffered the most. It would have been better if Martin Frizzel had just said he wished his wife was well and could be her old self again. Dorothy Connor, Rutherglen. Crack down on e-bikes I watched an article on the BBC on Monday morning showing a Midlands police crackdown on e-bikes and scooters, most of which were modified to do well in excess of 30mph. I wonder when Police Scotland will take up this initiative and clamp down on this blight on our pavements and streets. Previous complaints I made to them about one I regularly had to avoid on my way to work were ignored. The fast food delivery companies must also stop condoning turning a blind eye to the blatant law-breaking by their employees. Douglas Jardine, Bishopbriggs. Diverse voices Whatever might be said about The Herald, one can only admire the diversity of columnists it employs and today (July 8), the juxtaposition of their views. On page 15, Marissa MacWhirter ("What do people hope to gain by painting neighbourhood as needle-infested hell hole?") and Kevin McKenna ('How Scotland's satnav socialists abandoned working-class people') appear to have a different take on the Safer Drug Consumption Facility in Glasgow. And Kevin also has a go at Roz Foyer for being a millionaire property tycoon, and at the STUC for allowing her to be its leader. I'm not sure you'd find this behaviour in the Daily Mail (or the Guardian for that matter). Independent thinking broadens the mind, keep it up. Willie Towers, Alford. Benjamin Netanyahu has nominated Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize (Image: Getty) A piece of the action I see Benjamin Netanyahu has nominated Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize. Perhaps in the light of the lack of quality politicians we should have a Gie's Peace Prize. I can think of several nominees. Michael Watson, Rutherglen.
Glasgow Times
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Glasgow Times
Thousands celebrate Paisley's annual Sma Shot Day event
The event, organised by Renfrewshire Council, took place on Saturday, July 5. One of the world's oldest workers' festivals, the event commemorates the Paisley weavers' victory in a 19th-century industrial dispute. Supported by UNISON Renfrewshire branch, the festivities kicked off with the much-loved Sma' Shot parade, organised by Bridgeman Arts alongside local community groups, performers, and musicians. This year's parade also featured two brand-new giant puppets, inspired by traditional poets and musicians, and showcased vibrant costumes and performers. Read more: Urgent warning ahead of TRNSMT 2025 in Glasgow (Image: Renfrewshire Council) (Image: Renfrewshire Council) (Image: Renfrewshire Council) (Image: Renfrewshire Council) (Image: Renfrewshire Council) (Image: Renfrewshire Council) (Image: Renfrewshire Council) After 33 years of carrying the Charleston Drum in the Sma' Shot Day parade, Tony Lawler passed the drumsticks to Tommy McGrory of Paisley music school Loud 'n' Proud. The handover was marked by a brief ceremony at Brodie Park before the parade proceeded to the town centre. Once at the main event site at Abbey Close and Bridge Street, attendees enjoyed the traditional Burning of the Cork, a Sma' Shot Day highlight, introduced by spoken word artist and Tannahill Makar Shaun Moore. Abbey Close became a hub of entertainment for the afternoon, with performances on the live stage from PACE Youth Theatre, who re-enacted the weavers' struggle for Sma' Shot payment, Evelyn Laurie and Neil Thomson, Howlin' Radio, and the Byres Road Big Band. The afternoon also included pop-up performances outside Paisley Abbey and at Restoration and Creation, a local upcycling business. Read more: 'Kickstarting the summer': Free giant ball pit returns to Braehead shopping centre (Image: Renfrewshire Council) (Image: Renfrewshire Council) (Image: Renfrewshire Council) (Image: Renfrewshire Council) (Image: Renfrewshire Council) (Image: Renfrewshire Council) (Image: Renfrewshire Council) The business also hosted an artisan makers market and a selection of children's workshops. A range of free family activities was available, including face painting, inflatables, arts and crafts, and a funfair. The historic Sma' Shot Cottages also opened their doors to offer visitors a glimpse into Paisley's rich weaving history. Sma' Shot Day is a key part of Renfrewshire's major events programme. More information about upcoming events in Paisley and Renfrewshire can be found on the website.
Daily Record
07-07-2025
- Health
- Daily Record
Renfrewshire historian relaunching history talks after cancer battle
Stephen Clancy is launching a new talk series called Paisley Rediscovered: The Recovery Series following his treatment for Leukaemia. Local historian Stephen Clancy is resuming his popular History Talks after battling cancer for over two years. Known locally as the Urban Historian, Stephen has been delivering heritage walking tours and local history talks since 2002. He began teaching local history and archaeology part-time at the University of the West of Scotland, but when the department for lifelong learning closed down, he started his own freelance project - Renfrewshire History. In 2012 Stephen rebranded as the Urban Historian and in the past year developed Renfrewshire Heritage and Renfrewshire Ancestors as two branches of research. After being diagnosed with leukaemia over two years ago, Stephen had to put his talks, walks and History Cafes session on hold due to treatments. This February, for the first time after diagnosis, he resumed History Cafes, local history discussion group, which have proven 'very popular' with the community. During the History Cafes sessions there is normally no set topic, and everyone involved meets in a local coffee shop twice a month. He shared with the Paisley Daily Express: 'I was diagnosed with leukaemia in Easter 2023. 'The biggest challenge was being in hospital for four weeks at a time for chemotherapy, though being able to read and carry out research from the hospital bed was good. 'Another challenge was the bone marrow transplant in September 2023 as my immune system became nonexistent and I am still immunosuppressed.' He continued: 'The last two years have been a struggle with a few false starts along the way. Resuming the free History Cafes before I'm given the all clear to return to full-time work is a good start, and I hope that things will begin to improve a lot quicker.' To tie in with the Sma' Shot Day on Saturday, Stephen further has announced two talks this summer as part of a set of events called Paisley Rediscover: The Recovery Series. The first talk will take place on Tuesday, August 12 and is titled 'Paisley Rediscovered'. It will look at the origins of Paisley from earliest times to the Reformation in 1560. The second talk on Tuesday, August 26 is called 'The Bargarran Witch Hunt Rediscovered' and will take a fresh look at the 1696/97 witch hunt using newly published records. Both talks will be held in Paisley St George's Church on Causeyside Street between 7pm and 9pm and will cost £7 per person. Stephen said: 'I am excited to be restarting the talks. Over the last two years I've been doing a lot researching and looking forward to bringing the new research into Paisley and Renfrewshire to locals. 'The audience can expect to discover the rich history of Paisley and Renfrewshire from the prehistory of the area, founding of the Abbey through to local witch hunts and early growth of the town out of the former monastic estates.' He added: 'The talks will be a regular series throughout the year and as my energy levels grow my heritage walks will recommence.' Both talks and Stephen's regular History Cafes can be booked at Stephen has also created two new websites: and where people can find information on ancestral research and local history articles.
The Herald Scotland
07-07-2025
- The Herald Scotland
How a shot in Paisley in 1856 was heard around the world
The manufacturing bosses were known as the 'corks' and were notorious for exploiting the labour and the workmanship of the Paisley weavers in an industry that made them fortunes. Their predations forced the weavers to form some of the earliest known trade unions in the UK, more than a century before they were granted legal protection by the state. Read more: And so, on the first Saturday of July, Paisley holds its Sma' Shot Day to commemorate one of the most important developments in the history of trade unionism and workers right. Having initially reproached myself for not knowing very much about this tale and absolutely nothing of Sma' Shot Day I headed to Paisley on Saturday. This is the sort of event I really should be covering, right? And not merely in a professional capacity. As a committed trade unionist, hailing from a family of trade unionists whose activism stretches back before the war, I really should be here every year. It's not as though it's hard to miss. The programme of events for the day lasts from morning until night, a mini-festival of events that – for once – really does mean 'for all the family'. And at its centre, a parade through Paisley town centre that rises in Brodie Park to the south before finishing on the green across from Paisley's grand cathedral. This is where the ceremonial burning of a 12-ft Cork mannequin representing the victory of the workers over the cheats and scammers which raw capitalism produces in every generation. I was expecting a parade a mile long to be winding through Paisley's superb civic buildings and Scotland's most eye-catching town centre with that gorgeous cathedral and the old mill edifices and the White Cart winding through. And you reproach yourself once more for not visiting this place more often, and especially now as it seems to be undergoing a wee renaissance. Nothing you can hang your hat on quite yet: just a presentiment of something bold and optimistic happening in these streets and wynds and in the cafes and restaurants that weren't here when you last visited. Sma Shot Day (Image: Robert Perry) But here's the thing: someone had devoted a lot of work into making this parade look vibrant so that it proceeded with a swagger and a shimmy. There were schoolkids in costumes; giant mannequins and stilt-walkers and dancers. There were some of the assorted activist groups that you'd expect to see at a parade like this: Living Rent, CND and, of course, the Socialist Workers Party here represented by their Renfrewshire branch, and God love them for it, because they're always here, always represented. And your heart was warmed too by a banner belonging to the Calton Weavers, who'll have their big day on August 31 in Glasgow's East End, not far away from the church where I was baptised. There are several other community groups such as the Renfrewshire Carers Centre; the University of the Third Age and the Waspi Women. Where were all the others, who belong to Scotland's anointed trade elites? Where were the SNP and The Greens and the Lib-Dems? This isn't just another workers' rights event; this day represents one of the most important moments in the history of working-class activism. The Labour Party had a stall down on the piazza beside the cathedral, along with 20 or so other little tented pavilions, but they too should have been all over it. Read More: Davie Fulton, a retired construction worker who worked on repairs to the cathedral, sees me taking notes and introduces himself. 'I remember when this parade was more than three times as big as this,' he said. 'It would take ages to come through the town centre and all of the unions and local groups were present.' Not today though. Another trade union activist expresses disappointment that her own trade union isn't represented. 'They're keen that we get along to various Pride events and Palestine demos – and that's fine – but this is what real trade union activism is all about: jobs, wages, security, maternity rights, the real living wage, fair distribution of wealth and dignity at work.' Sma' Shot Day was a local workers holiday until war broke out in 1939 and then was slowly consigned to history: a remnant of a simpler time and maybe something else rooted in the new opportunities for homes and education and better pay in the era of post-war expansion when it might have seemed that many of the old battles for social justice and fairness at work had been won. In 1986 though, it was revived at a time when Thatcherism was beginning to lay waste to the UK's traditional industries and destroying the communities they supported. Sma' Shot Day and the victory it represented need to be remembered again. As we gather for the Burning of the Cork on Cotton Street, outside the council buildings I meet sisters Liz and Jane who are here with Jane's grandson, Daniel and his drum. 'He's been waiting all year for this event,' says Jane, a former council worker. Jane once worked for the old Anchor Mill and for the next 20 minutes they provide me with an eloquent and detailed folk history of their town. Sma Shot Day (Image: Robert Perry) 'This is a great day,' says Jane, 'and it's never been more important to remember the weavers' struggle against the corks. There are no social and affordable houses being built and young people especially are once again prey to low wages which make it impossible to get on the housing ladder." In the 'Sma Shot Cottages, just a few hundred yards from the Cathedral precinct, the original weaving looms are still intact and in good working order. This is where a mid-19th century mill foreman lived, complete with kitchen/living area, bedroom, children's room and parlour. Here I find Dr Dan Coughlin is explaining the set-up on the loom. He's weaving a herringbone cloth. The warp threads run the length of the fabric, the weft threads run across its width. The loom is set up with warp threads going through eyelets, it has four treaders which he operates with his feet in different combinations. His feet move the treaders and the warp threads separate to create a shed, the space through which he shoots the shuttle which carries the weft thread left to right. He moves the treaders with his feet again to create a new shed and sends the shuttle back the way through the new shed, right to left, to weave he fabric. He lays to rest some myths about the Sma' Shot but paints a vivid picture of the weavers' skills and gets to the core of their dispute with the bosses. It was all about fairness. 'The Paisley shawl had three different types of yarn,' he explains. 'The pattern yarn, the ground yarn and the small shot. This had nothing to do with the weavers having to pay for it themselves, it was an unfair system of payment. In the Paisley shawl we can have so many colours per line. If you have three colours in one line, then you have to put in a sma' shot behind them and then you start the next line; put in three colours; put the sma' shot behind them. 'In Paisley you didn't get paid for the sma' shot, you got paid for the pattern shot. The unfairness of the system was that if one weaver here, on this loom, got a shawl with only one colour in it, every second shot wasn't being paid for. The weaver over there has four colours in his shawl - every fifth one of his is not getting paid for, a weaver with eight colours, every ninth shot is not being paid for, so it's an unfair system of payment. If I'm asked to do a pattern with only one colour, I realise I'm not going to get paid for half my work, so it was an unfair system of payment. That was the problem.' Dr Coughlin is describing both an art and a science. The craft and workmanship – as it does in all industries – is what built Scotland's wealth. Three centuries later, the workers are still creating Scotland's wealth and still being cut out of it.
Glasgow Times
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Glasgow Times
Paisley's Sma' Shot Day returning with packed programme
The town will come alive on July 6 for Sma' Shot Day, one of the world's oldest workers' festivals, which honours the historic 19th-century victory of Paisley's weavers in an industrial dispute. This year's event promises a packed programme of entertainment, beginning with the return of the vibrant parade and the dramatic Burning of the Cork. Read more: 'Gruesome' chapter of Paisley's history to be examined during free event Pauline Allan, events manager at Renfrewshire Council, said: "Sma' Shot Day is an important day for Renfrewshire where we come together and celebrate our town's history. "There's so much for people to enjoy this year and we can't wait to welcome the community to Paisley town centre for another fantastic Sma' Shot Day." The parade will set off from Brodie Park at 12pm, winding through the town before concluding at Abbey Close. Co-ordinated by Bridgeman Arts, the parade will feature giant puppets inspired by traditional musicians and poets of the era and will include contributions from community groups, performers, and musicians. A highlight of the day will be the Burning of the Cork, which takes place once the parade arrives at Abbey Close and Bridge Street. The main stage will host performances from PACE Youth Theatre, who will dramatise the struggles and triumphs of the Paisley weavers, as well as other local acts. Family-friendly entertainment will be available throughout the day, including free children's activities such as face painting, inflatables, arts and crafts, and a funfair. OneRen's Skoobmobile will also be on-site, offering games and summer reading activities. Food traders will be present to keep visitors fuelled throughout the festivities. Beyond Abbey Close and Bridge Street, visitors can explore the Brown Lane Makers' Market, hosted by Restoration and Creation from 10am. The market will feature live music and children's workshops throughout the day. Read more: Renfrewshire residents urged to help feed hungry children with summer walk The historic Sma' Shot Cottages will also open their doors for tours, giving visitors a glimpse into Paisley's textile heritage and the lives of weavers in the 18th and 19th centuries. For those who fancy a dance, the Tea Dance at the Methodist Central Hall will offer an afternoon of music and movement. Sma' Shot Day is organised by Renfrewshire Council as part of its major events programme, which brings thousands of visitors to the area each year. The full programme of events can be found on the website.
