Epilogue: The Legacies of 1820
Summary
On 5 September 2001, the SNP MSP for Central Scotland, Gil Paterson, moved some members’ business in the Scottish Parliament:
That the Parliament recognizes the sacrifice of the three 1820 martyrs, James Wilson from Strathaven and John Baird and Andrew Hardie from Glasgow, who were hanged and beheaded in the 1820 rising, which fought for social and economic justice, workers’ rights and an independent Scottish Parliament and believes that the history of their struggle should be included in the education curriculum in order to mark the anniversaries, on 30 August and 3 [sic] September, of their sacrifice for Scottish rights 181 years ago.
This very motion itself was a commemorative act, pointedly delivered as close as possible to the day on which Baird and Hardie had been executed in Stirling. Paterson went on to deliver his own interpretation of the rising of 1820, which stimulated contributions from other MSPs. Later in the proceedings, Paterson's SNP colleague, Linda Fabiani, a member of the 1820 Society and a resident of Strathaven, spoke of the martyrs’ role in ‘the cause of Scottish self-determination’ and underlined the nationalist interpretation: ‘The rising encouraged Scots to pursue their liberty – as individuals and as a nation’.
Paterson's speech had been followed by Lloyd Quinan, a radical and former STV weatherman, who reflected on his time as a member of Glasgow Trades Council, which organized a May Day demonstration in 1987 that had linked an occupation of the Caterpillar factory at Tannochside with the shootings and transportations that had ended the combination of the Calton weavers in 1787.
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- Information
- The Spirit of the UnionPopular Politics in Scotland, pp. 127 - 144Publisher: Pickering & ChattoFirst published in: 2014