The Mass Rock In The Glen
(Felix Kearney)

In a lonely mountain valley
In the mountains of Tyrone
Lies one of Ireland's hallowed spots
Deserted and unknown
But few who write historic tales
Or wield the poet's pen
Can say with pride - they knelt beside
The Mass Rock in the glen

Our priests like wolves were hunted down
O God 'twas surely hard
That from the right to worship Thee
Thy children were debarred
But still they proudly bore
Thy cross Those simple mountain men
Were proud to share Thy Calvary
By the Mass Rock in the glen

No more on top of Croagh Hill
The sentinel stands guard
Our ancient foes, the foreign yoghs
Have gone to their reward
And he who worships God in peace
May bless the fearless men
Who held the faith for Ireland
By the Mass Rock in the glen

God Bless the glens of Ireland
Every rock and mountain pass
'twas those game glens that under God
Preserved for us, the Mass
And if the day should come again
When Ireland calls for men
She will not find them wanting
By the Mass Rock in the glen

A Poet from 'Little Ireland'

Mick Garngad by Jim Friel

The district called Garngad, which is only a few hundred yards north of the 12th Century Cathedral of Glasgow has been known for the past hundred years as ‘Little Ireland’. When the Irish navvies, after digging the Monkland Canal, which was opened in 1790, left the bothies to settle in the industrial city, it was tenement districts like the Garngad and Gorbals in which they settled. With the building of the railway lines to the rich mineral deposits of Lanarkshire, these hardy labourers were assured of employment for a decade or two, and in the same locality stood another great industry, the St. Rollox Chemical Works, the largest of its kind in the world.

Mick McLaughlin, or as he was better known by his pen name, Mike Garngad, was born here in the beginning of the century. Like many other Garngad people, Mick was of Irish descent, his parental forbears hailed from the fabled Inishowen peninsula in north Donegal. Mick was well-known as a raconteur, poet, song-writer and practical joker and was a popular figure at Wakes: an Irish tradition which persisted until the demise of the old Garngad itself in the late 1950’s. In the tradition of the old Gaelic shanachie, he chronicled various Glasgow events, particularly in the Gargad-Townhead area. Yet he occasionally wrote verse and song outwith his immediate environment; but some of these creations were unclaimed by the modest Mick. They are still sung to this day without the singer of the wider public being aware of the author’s name.

The best example of this anonymity is Mick’s great tribute to the memory of the Easter Week leader and martyr, the ballad to James Connolly, “Many years have gone by since the Irish rebellion” with its fine stirring air of “Lochnagar”. The lyrics of the latter ranks among the very best of Lord Byron’s works, and it is a tribute to the quality of their work that both songs have long survived, and are very likely to continue to do so. Whenever an Irish theme presented itself, Mick Garngad was more than eager to find immediate inspiration and circulate it in either broadsheet or hand-written form, among his cronies. A good example of this happened in 1921 in the High Street, Glasgow (beside the Garngad) when a number of republican sympathisers tried to rescue Frank Carty (alias Somers) from a prison van, an incident reminiscent of the Manchester Martyrs several decades earlier. Mick wrote his song, “The Smashin’ of the Van” on this event. The song is included in a 1967 ballad collection ‘Rebel Ceilidh Song Book’. This is now a collector’s item and has a foreword by the poet Hugh McDiarmid. Mick was about twenty-one years old at the time when he wrote this ballad and like many more in ‘Little Ireland’, he carried his torch for the freedom and unity of Caitlin Ni Houlihan, until his death in the early 1960’s. Some Garngad men were involved in this incident.

No great promoter of his own fame or fortune, Mick McLaughlan set no higher target for himself than to be the local poet of Garngad and a voice for the Irish community in Glasgow. Almost inevitably this entailed being involved in enthusiastic support for its great favourite football-team, Celtic, and the immortal Jimmy McGrory, a Garngad lad himself and local hero. Countless songs about Celtic poured from the pen of Mick Garngad and among them some of the most cherished ones in the Irish repertoire of the terraces at Parkhead. “The Celtic Song” written by him to the tune of the overture from “The Pirates of Penzance” is famous, as is “Oh Hampden In The Sun!” celebrating the great seven-one victory over Rangers in the League Cup. Mick sold “The Celtic Song” to Gen Daly, the popular music hall singer, for a mere fiver, but this is understandable, as ‘cold cash’ was the least of his objectives. He also wrote that very moving lyric on the tragic death of “the prince of goalies”, Johnny Thompson, from Cardenden, Fife, who lost his life in an ‘Old Firm’ game. Yet for all his pro-Celtic bias, there was always a good sportsmanship side to Mick. It is said that a man bearing an uncanny resemblance to our author was occasionally seen at Ibrox (the Ranger’s base) with song-sheets signed by the anonymous “Blue Knight”. This would not be outside the practical joker side of Mick’s character which deserves some notice on its own account. He also wrote the popular “Barlinnie Blues”, part of Glasgow folklore. “There’s bars on the windaes…”

A touch of harmless fun has for centuries been a warm ingredient of the traditional Irish character. Mick McLaughlan had this quality in plenty. One of the humorous anecdotes related about him tells how he boasted to a stranger in a Garngad pub how he had inherited the mighty strength of the great Irish giant, Finn MacCool, and to prove it, he would the very next morning at ten-o-clock uproot a telegraph pole in the main street and carry it down the High St. to Glasgow Cross. Bets were laid and next morning a small crowd, including the challenger and the bold Mick appeared on the hour at a telegraph pole which conveniently lay beside a police-box. Just as Mick bent down and set himself to the task, a burly cop emerged from the box with hand-cuffs. “Oh no you don’t, Mick, not this time! That’s the third pole you’ve nicked this week an’ if you dare, it’s Barlinnie jail for ye!” The stranger, unaware that it was all pre-arranged, pleaded with Mick to let the pole lie and settled for a round of drinks. On another occasion, he made bets that Madame Blatavasky’s lectures had endowed him with powerful hypnotic energy which could stop the No. 32 tram on its deep descent of the hill from Provan Mill. This experiment was carried out successfully, but of course he concealed from the spectators that the tram-driver and he were old buddies. Mick McLaughlan was such a well-beloved character of Garngad, that he has become an outstanding legendary figure of the district to this day.

In the 1950’s and early 60’s, many of the old tenements were demolished and their tenants ‘transported’ to the huge, rather bleak and soulless housing schemes (the graveyards with electric light) on Glasgow’s periphery. Garngad, though it still exists, was robbed of an essential part of its character and colour. Mick wrote its elegy in “Farewell to Garngad” to the same tune as “Skibbereeb”; it is a song which brought a tear to the eye of many an old inhabitant. Michael Keenan’s history of the Garngad in the Mitchell Library devotes two of its pages in a tribute to its local Bard. This is the district where the Radicals and weavers of Glasgow set out from in 1820 in their brave struggle for Freedom at the battle of Bonnymuir. Mick Garngad inherited, not perhaps Finn MacCool’s strength, but the great energy of two great traditions in the struggle, one Scottish, one Irish.

Garngad historian Michael Keenan recalls Mick in a recent poem:

“Where’s Mick McLaughlan the Garngad Rhyme.
The tricks he got up to were ever well known.
The man was a legend in his own time.
His fame on the road it has grown.
He was known to make dour people smile.
And also to make hard men cry.
His poems were simply true Garngad style.
Poets mention his name with a sigh.”

Mick’s origins (like Matt McGinn of the Carlton), lay in the ancient province of Ulster, and like Matt he deserves to be remembered as a man of the people and a bard of the streets.

Jim Friel

Note to Editor – Many other well-known people were born in this Irish enclave on the North side of Glasgow. These include: Jimmy McGrory, Malcolm McDonald, Joe Baillie and ‘Lisbon Lion’ Steve Chalmers of Celtic fame, the former General Secretary of the Print Union Sugat, the late Vincent Flynn and of course the world renowned Villean piper Pat McNulty.

 

My Garngad Family History: From Ireland to South Africa.


A couple of years ago I became very interested in investigating my family history. I knew that my great grandfather, Hugh Kelly, died in the early 1950s, aged nearly 90 years, at McNeil Street, Hutchesontown, Gorbals. I thought I was going to find a lot of family connections with the Gorbals. Instead, all roads led to Garngad.

Hugh Kelly was born in Meenavoy, Stranorlar, County Donegal in 1866. He moved to Glasgow around 1885 and lodged with his older brother Willie Kelly and family at 27 Villiers Street, Garngad. Hugh married Elizabeth McCormick at St Mungo's RC Church, Townhead on 18 July 1890. Elizabeth McCormick was born in 1863 near Killygordon, Donegal and moved to Scotland in 1864 as an infant with her parents. The McCormicks settled 1st at Carnbroe, a small North Lanarkshire town between Coatbridge and Bellshill. Elizabeth was the 1st born of the family and the McCormicks had 7 other children, all born in Scotland. One was born in Carnbroe, one in Dalziel(Motherwell), one in Mossend, Bellshill, one at Dalmarnock Road, Bridgeton and the last 3 at Turner Street, Garngad. (4 of these children died as infants). After arriving in Scotland in 1864, the McCormicks spent about 8 years moving from job to job in the North Lanarkshire area before finally settling at 32 Turner Street, Garngad around 1872. Elizabeth's address is given as 32 Turner St at the time of her marriage to Hugh in 1890.

So where exactly are Turner Street and Villiers Street? Well, they no longer exist! The last time I was home in Glasgow, I purchased an 1894 map of the St Rollox (Townhead, Port Dundas and Garngad) district of Glasgow from the Mitchell library. In 1894, the northern part of Garngad consisted of 4 parallel streets, each running in a south to north direction. Starting from the west, the 4 streets were Turner Street, Villiers Street, Bright Street and Cobden Street. These 4 parallel streets were enclosed on the north by Charles Street and on the south by Garngad Road. Both Charles St and Garngad Road still exist today, though Garngad Road is now called Royston Road. In the late 1800s these 6 congested streets of north Garngad could be described as a 'Little Ireland'. I have studied the 1881, 1891 and 1901 census records at the Mitchell library. About 90% of the households in Turner St, Villiers St, Bright St and Charles St were headed by a person born in Ireland. Cobden St and Garngad Road had more of a mix of Irish and Scottish families. Overall, however, I would say that about 75% of the households in these 6 streets of north Garngad were Irish households.

To the south of Garngad Road was south Garngad. Here there were streets such as Middleton Place, Gourlay Place, Garngadhill, Tharsis Street, Dunolly Street, Rosemount Street and Millburn Street. I didn't study the census records for south Garngad as closely, but from what I could see, there was a good mix of Scottish and Irish families. However, it was clear that south Garngad was not as nearly heavily populated as north Garngad in the late 1800s. I understand that south Garngad became more populated in the early 1900s with the building of many new tenements and the creation of several new streets such as Gadshill Street, Glenbarr Street and Rhymer Street.

After marrying in 1890, Hugh Kelly and Eliza McCormick stayed at 248 Charles Street, Garngad. 248 Charles Street was located betweeen the northern entrances to Turner St and Villiers St. My grandfather, James Kelly, was born there in 1895. The Kelly family moved to a 'better' home at McNeil Street, Hutchesontown, Gorbals around 1910. After fighting in France in the 1st World War, my grandfather, James Kelly, married my grandmother Sarah Rutherford - who came from Stranorlar, Donegal - in the mid 1920s and had 7 children. My grandparents settled 1st in Bright St, Garngad. In the early 1930s they moved to Gadshill St, Garngad where my father, James Kelly, was born in 1934. The family finally settled at Avonspark St, Balornock after the 2nd World War.

In the slum clearances following the 2nd World War, no part of Glasgow was more decimated than Garngad. Many Garngad families were relocated to the new peripheral Glasgow housing schemes such as Easterhouse. (I understand that one of the 1st major slum clearances in Glasgow was carried out in north Garngad as early as 1933!).

My mother's father, Michael Connolly, was born in Clea, Keady, County Armagh in 1893. He came to Glasgow around 1915 and lodged at Garngad Road, Garngad with his relatives - the Moans (or Mones). He married my grandmother Sarah McKenzie - who came from Taylor Street, Townhead - in the early 1920s and had 11 children. My maternal grandparents settled 1st in Bright St, Garngad. In the early 1930s they moved to Dinwiddie St, Germiston, where my mother, Ann Connolly, was born in 1937. The family finally settled at Stamford St, Barrowfield after the 2nd World War.

Many things have been written about the Gorbals. Little in comparison is said about Garngad. It is almost forgotten. The fact that Garngad's name was changed to Royston in 1942 does not help much! It is as if we were meant to forget Garngad. Industrial Glasgow had several Irish ghettoes such as the Gorbals(Hutchesontown), the Calton, parts of Bridgeton and of course Garngad. However, the concentration of Irish families was probably at its highest in Garngad. It has been documented that there was a distinct Garngad accent - half polite, half Irish. Up to the 1950s you could tell someome was from Garngad as soon as they opened their mouth.

My parents met in 1964 and married in 1968. It turned out that my 2 grandmothers knew each other as they had been neighbours at Bright St in the late 1920s and early 1930s. I was born in Garrowhill, Baillieston, Glasgow in 1971 and have lived in Botswana, southern Africa since 1996. (Absence makes the heart grow fonder). Paul Kelly

This article was found by Eddie McCafferty (Rathmullen, Co Donegal) who is a parishioner of St Roch's, Garngad, in the Belfast Edition of 'The Irish Weekly'.

It is written by a man named Jim Scott who had come from Donegal to Garngad. He wrote this Poem after retiring to Drogheda, Co Louth.

This poem was written to commemorate the journey of the Irish to The Garngad and their achievements in the local and wider community, especially in Football,  Music and Religion.

This Poem was written by John P Sweeney, founding member, first Chairman and current Secretary of GIHG. John is currently studying Theology at Scotus College, The National Seminary in Scotland for the training of priests.