Abstract
This chapter focusses on the way religious sectarianism became a major topic of public debate in Scotland from the 1990s. It considers the media coverage of the issue and how it became entangled in the Labour–Scottish National Party (SNP) power struggle. It puts the controversy firmly into the context of the early days of devolution in Scotland. The chapter examines Jack McConnell’s ‘crusade’ around the issue and questions its political value; it is contended that Labour by the 2000s was effectively unable to tell the positive story of the containment of sectarianism in the past and the extent to which working-class people were persuaded to unite around socio-economic matters. The chapter also assesses the SNP’s handling of the topic in government, including its football legislation of 2012.
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Notes
- 1.
1. See next chapter.
- 2.
2. C. Craig, ‘Sham Bards, Sham Nation, Sham Politics: Scotland, Nationalism and Socialism’, The Irish Review, No. 8 (1990), 21–33.
- 3.
3. G. Hassan, ‘Caledonian Dreaming: The Challenge to Scottish Labour’, in A. Coddington and M. Perryman (eds.), The Moderniser’s Dilemma, London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1998.
- 4.
4. S. Bruce, No Pope of Rome; Gallagher, Glasgow.
- 5.
5. D. Canavan, Let the People Decide, Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2010; interviews with Bob Thomson, 20 July 2015, and Alf Young, 24 August 2015.
- 6.
6. Canavan, Let the People Decide, pp. 99–101.
- 7.
7. Ibid., pp. 199–200.
- 8.
8. J. Allison, Guilty By Suspicion, Glendaruel: Argyll Publishing, 1995, p. 140.
- 9.
9. Allison, Guilty, pp. 141–144. Interview with Bob Thomson (20 July 2015) who was also a member of the disciplinary panel. See also Gallagher, Glasgow, pp. 330–331.
- 10.
10. Strathclyde Regional Archives, Hugh Brown Papers, Box 4, files 6 and 7, meeting of 13 May 1981.
- 11.
11. Brown Papers, File titled ‘Devolution (Orange Lodge)’.
- 12.
12. Ibid., letter from Private Secretary of Labour Party to Private Secretary of the Office of Prime Minister, 5 December 1977.
- 13.
13. See discussion in G. Walker, ‘Identity Questions in Contemporary Scotland: Faith, Football and Future Prospects’, Contemporary British History, Vol. 15, No. 1 (2001), 41–60.
- 14.
14. Brown Papers, Box 6, File on abortion.
- 15.
15. The issue flared up spectacularly in 1997: see Daily Record, 10 January 1997. Also, see discussion of the abortion issue in P. Lynch, ‘Catholics, the Catholic Church and Political Action in Scotland’, in R. Boyle and P. Lynch (eds.), Out of the Ghetto? Edinburgh: John Donald, 1998.
It is perhaps also worth mentioning that Catholic Labour MPs, along with others with conservative views on the issue, were happy to see the decriminalisation of homosexuality delayed in Scotland until 1981, around the same time that Northern Ireland’s laws were changed on account of a case taken to the European Court of Human Rights.
- 16.
15. For statistics on education and the views of Catholics, see L. Bennie et al., How Scotland Votes, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1997, ch. 8.
- 17.
16. Bruce, ‘Out of the Ghetto: the Ironies of Acceptance’, Innes Review, Vol. 43, No. 2 (1992), 145–154.
- 18.
17. I. Paterson, ‘Sectarianism and Municipal Housing Allocation in Glasgow’, Scottish Affairs, No. 39 (2002), 39–53.
- 19.
18. J. Brand and J. Mitchell, ‘Identity and the Vote: Class and Nationality in Scotland’, British Elections and Parties Yearbook, 1992, Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf, pp. 143–157.
- 20.
19. Ibid., and Bennie et al., How Scotland Votes, ch. 8.
- 21.
20. See discussion in D. McCrone, Understanding Scotland, London: Routledge, 1992, ch. 6; also A.D.R. Dickson, ‘The Scots: National Culture and Political Action’, The Political Quarterly, Vol. 59, No. 3 (1988), 358–368.
- 22.
21. J. Mitchell, ‘The 1992 Election in Scotland in Context’, Parliamentary Affairs, Vol. 45, No. 4 (1992), 612–626.
- 23.
22. Bennie et al., How Scotland Votes, ch. 8.
- 24.
23. See M. Stuart, John Smith: A Life, London: Politicos, 2005, pp. 350–365 for an account of the affair’s impact on Smith.
- 25.
24. Ibid., pp. 393–394.
- 26.
25. See The Scotsman, 28 June 1994.
- 27.
26. Canavan, Let the People Decide, p. 225.
- 28.
27. Allison, Guilty, p. 144; also P. Jones, ‘Mything the Point’, The Scotsman, 5 August 1994.
- 29.
28. The Scotsman, 28 June 1994.
- 30.
29. An illuminating account of growing up in the region during the Thatcher years is provided by Damian Barr in his Maggie and Me, London: Bloomsbury, 2014.
- 31.
30. Interview with J. G. McLean, 5 October 2015.
- 32.
31. ‘The real scandal of Monklands’, The Herald, 11 July 1994. See later discussion in G. Hassan and E. Shaw, The Strange Death of Labour Scotland, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2012, pp. 66–68.
- 33.
32. Kemp, Confusion, pp. 96–97.
- 34.
33. ‘Time for Labour to come clean on sectarian link’, Scotland on Sunday, 19 June 1994.
- 35.
34. Hassan, ‘Caledonia dreaming’.
- 36.
35. Letter entitled ‘Not Embattled’ in The Scotsman, 15 August 1994. Noon went on to become an adviser to SNP leader Alex Salmond.
- 37.
36. G. Walker, ‘The Role of Religion and the Churches’ in G. Hassan and C. Warhurst (eds.), Anatomy of the New Scotland, Edinburgh: Mainstream, 2002; Interview with Harry Reid, 18 December 2015. See also H. Reid, Outside Verdict, Edinburgh: St. Andrews Press, 2002, Chap. 6 for discussion of class divisions and the Kirk.
- 38.
37. P. Lynch, ‘A Scots Mosaic’, The Herald, 9 September 1995.
- 39.
38. In the local elections of April 1995, the Labour candidate came bottom of the poll in New Monkland West ward that included working-class ‘Orange’ areas such as Greengairs, and an ‘Independent anti-mafia’ candidate came a close second to the SNP.
- 40.
39. See J. Mitchell, ‘Scotland in the Union, 1945–95: The Changing Nature of the Union State’, in T.M. Devine and R.J. Finlay (eds.), Scotland in the 20th Century, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1996; and the same author’s re-conceptualisation of the UK as ‘A State of Unions’ in Devolution in the UK, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2009, ch. 1; also I. Mclean and A. MacMillan, State of the Union, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. A ‘Union State’ idea of the UK stresses the multi-national diversity of the State and the need for institutional and political expression of it, in contrast to a ‘Unitary State’ concept that envisages as much centralisation and uniformity as is compatible with such a composite entity. The terms originally derive from the work of S. Rokkan and D. Urwin (eds.), The Politics of Territorial Identity, London: Longman, 1982. See recent discussion in P. O’Leary, ‘States of Union: Modern Scotland and British History’, Twentieth Century British History, Advance Access published 5 December 2015: doi:10.1093/tcbh/hwv038.
- 41.
40. For a contemporary commentary on the whole range of constitutional changes and proposals relating to the Blair government see R. Hazell (ed.), Constitutional Futures, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
- 42.
41. E. Kelly, ‘“Stands Scotland Where It Did?” An Essay in Ethnicity and Internationalism’, Scottish Affairs, No. 26 (1999), 83–99.
- 43.
42. Walker, ‘Ireland and Scotland: From Partition to Peace Process’, in A. McCarthy (ed.), Ireland in the World, London: Routledge, 2015.
- 44.
43. See T.M. Devine (ed.), Scotland’s Shame? Edinburgh, Mainstream 2000. This book includes the text of MacMillan’s lecture and a representative spread of opinions on it.
- 45.
44. K. Robbins, England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales: The Christian Church 1900–2000, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008, p. 462.
- 46.
45. See, for example, Scotland on Sunday, 23 October 1994.
- 47.
46. Boyle and Lynch, Out of the Ghetto? Conclusion. See assessment of the Catholic lobby in the early days of devolution in M. Steven, ‘The Place of Religion in Devolved Scottish Politics’, Scottish Affairs, No. 58 (2007), 96–110.
- 48.
47. Walker, ‘Identity Questions’; Kelly ‘Stands Scotland’.
- 49.
48. Scotsman, 16 January 1999.
- 50.
49. McGinty, Turbulent Priest, ch. 20.
- 51.
50. See M. Steven, ‘Secessionist Politics and Religious Conservatism: the Scottish National Party and Faith-based Interests’, Politics, Vol. 28, No. 3, October 2008, 188–196.
- 52.
51. See Henry McLeish, Scotland First, Edinburgh: Mainstream, 2004, pp. 162–163. McLeish had succeeded Donald Dewar, whose death in October 2000 dealt a considerable blow to the new Parliament. At the time of his death, Dewar was also embroiled in considerable controversy over the spiralling costs of the new Parliament building.
Also, O.D. Edwards, ‘Ireland and the Liddell Re-Conquest of Scotland’, Scottish Affairs, Vol. 35 (2001), 25–34, for a swingeing attack on Reid and Liddell and on Labour’s presumptuousness in relation particularly to the Catholic vote in the West of Scotland.
- 53.
52. See Dan Mulhall, ‘Making the Caledonian Connection: Building Bridges Between Ireland and Scotland’, Scottish Affairs, No. 36 (2001), 1–11. Mulhall was the first Irish Consul in Edinburgh post-devolution. See also his reflections in Sunday Herald, 16 August 2009.
- 54.
53. See, for example, Scotland on Sunday 11 February 2001; Sunday Herald, 11 February 2001.
- 55.
54. Irish News, 14 February 2001.
- 56.
55. McLeish, Scotland First, p. 163.
- 57.
56. Scotsman, 24 February 2004. For a sympathetic reading of McConnell’s political skills and revelations about his own experience of sectarian aggression, see L. Davidson, Lucky Jack, Edinburgh: Black and White, 2005, pp. 102–103; 158–159.
- 58.
57. Sunday Times (Scotland), 27 October 2002.
- 59.
58. ‘Tackling Religious Hatred: Report of Cross-Party Working Group on Religious Hatred’, Scottish Executive, 2002, http://www.scottishexecutive.gov.uk/Publications/2002/12/15892/14532
- 60.
59. Quoted in The Herald, 8 January 2005.
- 61.
60. See H. Miller, ‘Realities of Scottish Sectarianism’, Fortnight, No. 431, December 2004. The founder of NBM was Cara Henderson, friend of victim Mark Scott. The individual convicted of his murder, Jason Campbell, came from a family with Ulster Loyalist paramilitary connections.
- 62.
61. ‘Tackling Religious Hatred’, para 4.15.
- 63.
62. See, for Gorrie Scottish Parliament, Official Report 6 September 2001, 2343–2344; for Simpson 25 April 2002, 11303; and for McConnell 7 October 2004, 11132.
- 64.
63. See comments of Gorrie on banter: Scottish Parliament Official Report 4 May 2005, 16660–16662; and Cathy Jamieson (Labour) on lack of evidence to link schools with sectarian behaviour: 19 December 2002, 16594.
- 65.
64. Interview with J.G. McLean, 5 October 2015. The Rev. Stuart McQuarrie, a Church of Scotland minister and former Labour Councillor in Glasgow has referred to the ‘sectarianism industry’ needing examples of sectarianism however petty to maintain itself. Interview, 23 July 2015.
- 66.
65. See Bob Kernohan’s discussion of the ‘liberal establishment’ in the Church of Scotland in the online journal Scottish Review, 30 July 2009.
- 67.
66. Scottish Parliament Official Report, 25 April 2002, 11302–11303.
- 68.
67. Bruce et al., Sectarianism, p. 113.
- 69.
68. Kernohan, Scottish Review.
- 70.
69. See Stuart Waiton, ‘The New Sectarians’ in J. Flint and J. Kelly (eds.), Bigotry, Football and Scotland, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2013 for a critical perspective. The schools and colleges work on the part of NBM continues to the present: Dave Scott, the current public voice of the organisation, articulates their value in engaging young people and getting them to think seriously about the issues involved. Interview with Dave Scott, 22 September 2015.
- 71.
70. Bruce et al., Sectarianism; Rosie, Sectarian Myth.
- 72.
71. Bruce et al., Sectarianism, p. 97.
- 73.
72. L. Paterson and C. Iannelli, ‘Religion, social mobility and education in Scotland’, The British Journal of Sociology, Vol. 57, No. 3 (2006). The census returns of 2001 disclosed little or no difference between Protestants and Catholics in relation to occupation; see M. Rosie, ‘The Sectarian Iceberg?, Scottish Affairs, Vol. 24, No. 3 (2015), 328–350.
- 74.
73. See Tom Devine’s criticisms of Bruce in The Scotsman, 16 February 2005.
- 75.
74. NFO Social Research, Sectarianism in Glasgow—Final Report. Glasgow City Council, 2003.
- 76.
75. Rosie, ‘Sectarian Iceberg?’.
- 77.
76. The document is titled ‘Sectarianism—still Scotland’s Shame?’ and is undated.
- 78.
77. Scotland on Sunday, 20 September 2004.
- 79.
78. Ibid.
- 80.
79. See Steven, ‘Secessionist Politics’.
- 81.
80. See comments of Ronnie Convery (Cardinal Winning’s Press Secretary), and the criticisms of Labour MP Ian Davidson of the way the Church was operating in Scotland on Sunday 28 December 2003.
- 82.
81. See the journalist John MacLeod’s discussion of the Catholic middle class in The Herald, 11 February 2002; and the report on the Medical Research Council survey that indicated greater Catholic confidence in The Herald, 20 October 2003. See also O.D. Edwards, ‘Is the Cardinal Anti-Catholic? A Review Essay’, Scottish Affairs, No. 33 (2000), 1–22.
- 83.
82. This perspective is most plaintively conveyed in various essays in J. Bradley (ed.), Celtic-Minded, Vols. 1 and 2, Glendaruel: Argyll Press, 2004, 2006.
- 84.
83. It should also be noted that the introduction of a PR voting system at local government elections in Scotland began to impact damagingly on Labour control of several councils by the late 2000s. See I. Macwhirter, Road to Referendum, Cargo Publishing, 2013, p. 228.
- 85.
84. See coverage in The Herald, 15 February 2005. However, the Orange Order was a significant dissenting voice.
- 86.
85. The Herald, 15 February 2005.
- 87.
86. Scottish Catholic Media Office Press Release, 27 November 2006.
- 88.
87. Scotland on Sunday, 14 September 2008.
- 89.
88. For a study of this election, see J. Curtice et al., Revolution or Evolution? Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009. Catholic support for the SNP in this election was still below that of Protestants (24 % against 29 %)—see Chap. 6.
- 90.
89. For a racy and well-informed account of these dramatic political developments, see Macwhirter, Road to Referendum; for a scholarly anatomy of the SNP, see J. Mitchell et al., The Scottish National Party. Transition to Power, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
- 91.
90. See the discussions in M. Leith, ‘Governance and Identity in a Devolved Scotland’, Parliamentary Affairs, Vol. 63, No. 2 (2010); and in G. Hassan, ‘Anatomy of a Scottish Revolution: The Potential of Postnationalist Scotland and the Future of the United Kingdom’, Political Quarterly, Vol. 82, No. 3 (2011).
- 92.
91. Scottish Review, 30 July 2009. See also the penetrating discussion of the term ‘sect’ in Hugh McLachlan, ‘Bigotry row misdirected’, The Scotsman, 4 January 2012.
- 93.
92. Sunday Herald, 13 November 2011. Dave Scott of NBM has claimed that the SNP provided just enough funding to keep NBM going, but tended to view the organisation with suspicion, partly because Scott had been a Labour Party worker—interview with Dave Scott, 22 September 2015.
- 94.
93. Sunday Herald, 3 February 2008.
- 95.
94. See discussion in Gallagher, Illusion, pp. 135–139.
- 96.
95. There was a long established pattern of intimidating and aggressive behaviour following Old Firm matches on the part of both sets of fans. In October 2010, for example, a number of threats were made to a referee and his family after the match official had awarded Rangers a penalty in the first Old Firm match of the tempestuous 2010–2011 season. See Belfast NewsLetter, 27 October 2010.
- 97.
96. There had also been another significant intervention by Peter Kearney late in 2010 about alleged hostility to Catholics. This prompted others to allege in turn that the Catholic Church was seeking to divert the spotlight away from the sex abuse scandals that were discrediting it, and on to what it claimed was historic intolerance. This episode had the effect of entrenching the ‘Catholics as victims’ line on one side, and ‘the Catholic Church attempting to foreclose legitimate criticisms’ on the other. At this juncture, it was also reported that an anti-sectarian educational pack endorsed by the Scottish government contained a poem that portrayed the Lanarkshire town of Larkhall as a hotbed of anti-Catholic bigotry, a development that drew an angry response from residents. For Kearney, see The Herald 29 November 2010; for responses, see The Herald, 30 November 2010 and letters in The Herald, 1 December 2010. For the educational pack, see The Herald, 1 December 2010, and for responses, see letters in The Herald, 2 December 2010.
- 98.
97. For scholarly commentary, see S. Christie, ‘The Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Bill—strong on rhetoric but weak on substance?’, Scots Law Times, 19 August 2011, pp. 185–189.
- 99.
99. See J. Curtice, ‘The truth is, Scotland is no longer the Protestant country it once was’, The Scotsman, 31 August 2011.
- 100.
100. See M. Kelly, ‘SNP will pay heavy price for Churches’ loss of faith’, The Scotsman 6 October 2011; and B. Wilson, ‘Let the People Sing’, The Scotsman, 30 November 2011.
- 101.
101. D. McMenemy and A. Poulter, ‘An Identity of Two Halves?’, Irish Studies Review, Vol. 13, No. 2 (2005), 139–150.
- 102.
102. See Waiton, ‘The New Sectarians’.
- 103.
103. It is interesting to note, especially in the light of his prominence in the ‘Yes’ campaign, that journalist Iain Macwhirter wrote on the subject of Catholic schools in 2002 that they ‘write sectarianism into the very fabric of society by encouraging children to define themselves in terms of their faith, and in a largely secular society where few people go to church this is a dangerous anachronism.’ Sunday Herald, 8 December 2002.
- 104.
104. For Archbishop Tartaglia’s re-statement of hard-line views on education and gay marriage at a meeting with First Minister Salmond, see The Scotsman, 5 November 2011; see also The Herald, 16 December 2012 for a recent statement on shared campuses.
- 105.
105. Interview with J.G. MacLean, 5 October 2015; for comment on unfashionableness of Protestantism, see the journalist John MacLeod’s column in The Herald, 18 February 2002.
- 106.
106. See Sunday Herald Special Supplement on the Papal visit, 19 September 2010. Tom Devine’s contribution to this publication compared the Scottish coverage favourably with that in England which he viewed as dominated by those with a ‘militant secularist’ agenda.
- 107.
107. For some recent scholarly perspectives on the Ulster Protestant working class, see T.P. Burgess and G. Mulvenna (eds.), The Contested Identities of Ulster Protestants. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. For recent fictional treatments of Glasgow working-class Loyalists, see R. Sieffert, The Walk Home. London: Virago, 2014; and A. Clements, Rogue Nation. Edinburgh: Mainstream, 2010.
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Walker, G. (2016). The Sectarianism Debate and the Advent of Devolution. In: The Labour Party in Scotland. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58844-9_2
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