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Michael Follon
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The Scottish Insurrection of 1820I did a quick scan of the topics on this section of the message board and discovered that this particular topic was not mentioned. I believe that this is a part of Scottish History that has been deliberately ignored and suppressed. The following are extracts from the Prefaces to the 1989 and 2001 editions of the book The Scottish Insurrection of 1820 by Peter Berresford Ellis and Seumas Mac A'Ghobbainn, ISBN 0 85976 519 9 -
'Michael Donnelly, the assistant curator of the Glasgow working people's museum, the People's Palace, also argued that the evidence that Baird and Hardie were buried at the monument was "irrefutable". He pointed to the letter from the Lord Advocate in 1847 and the fact that the letter is also reproduced on the monument itself.'
'Curiously, we discovered that all the records apart from one or two items which had, at the time, been lodged in a 'Baga de Secretis', which we tracked down to the London Public Records Office (PRO KB8), had been removed.'
'The trials for High Treason were actually held under English Law and not Scottish Law, contravening the Treaty of Union of 1707.'
'However, it is very exciting to look at the developments which have taken place since this book was first published. At that time people were astounded that such an event, resulting in 85 indictments of High Treason, in public executions, in transportation and imprisonments, could have been so effectively eliminated from historical consciousness.'
'Even after publication, the event was regarded with some discomfiture by certain sections of academia. Perhaps there was a feeling of guilt that such an important event had previously been ignored by historians.'
'Firstly, the fact that it was an aim of the Scottish Radicals to set up a separate parliament in Edinburgh has been met with skeptical posturing. Yet this aim was clearly spelt out by Glasgow Police Chief, James Mitchell, in his letters to the Home Secretary, Lord Sidmouth, of March 18 and 29 1820. Secondly, a few scholars, such as James D. Young in 'The Rousing of the Scottish Working Class' (1979), and, more recently, Tom Devine in 'The Scottish Nation 1700 - 2000' (1999), have baulked at accepting any widespread involvement of Government agents provocateur in instigating the rising. Again, this is simply a denial of clear primary source evidence.'
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agentmancuso
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Re: The Scottish Insurrection of 1820 | Michael Follon wrote: | | I believe that this is a part of Scottish History that has been deliberately ignored and suppressed. |
How curious. Who by, and to what end?
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RadgeJougal
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Jesus, Pavlov's dog's escaped again...
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iainmhor
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| RadgeJougal wrote: | | Jesus, Pavlov's dog's escaped again... |
Ive just called the SSPCA, but have assured them that hes not dangerous,  just likes getting his tummy rubbed. 
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Michael Follon
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Re: The Scottish Insurrection of 1820 | agentmancuso wrote: | | Who by, and to what end? |
I think that the answers can best be found by a combination of reading the book and logical deduction. In any case here are a few more extracts from the Preface to the 1989 edition of 'The Scottish Insurrection of 1820' -
'One of the reasons that we felt obvious efforts had been made to "edit" the events from Scottish history was the fact that the rising contained a national content, for it was the intention of the radicals to establish an independent Scottish Parliament - an objective that was unacceptable to the Establishment and its historians.'
'Now the accuracy of the book was called into question when the Parks and Recreation Committee of the Council claimed this was not so: "Hardie and Baird are not interred there" (Council Minutes, Print 4, 1985/86, page 387, item 14). They based this claim on the fact "there is no known reference in the cemetery records". The energetic press officer of the 1820 Society, Councillor James Mitchell, a Scottish National Party representative on Renfrew District Council, said: "We were shaken to be told by the Council that the working class martyrs we seek to honour are not buried there. We think we have irrefutable evidence to show that Baird and Hardie are indeed interred there..." (Glasgow Herald, November 1985).'
'In view of the overwhelming evidence, the Glasgow City Council owe it to future generations of Scots and Scottish historians to make it clear that the last resting place of Baird and Hardie is in Sighthill Cemetery.'
'Among other finds which have come to light is the fact that the centenary of the "1820" was commemorated by members of the Independent Labour Party on 5 September 1920, at a ceremony at Sighthill. An added inscription on the sandstone of the monument had been almost obliterated, but the staff of Glasgow's Mitchell Library discovered the text of the inscription and the fact of the gathering in an ILP newssheet of 11 September 1920 (Glasgow Herald, 5 June 1986).'
'The Scottish poet, Hamish Henderson, commented in The Scotsman (11 July 1986): "These individuals have disappeared, as it were, into a black hole of history, even their identity is uncertain." Mr Henderson continues:
This is astounding....But of the fate of the "Provisional" Committee nothing, but nothing is known.
Hamish Henderson puts forward his own theory, one I find totally acceptable in the circumstances.
Ever since the time of Sir Francis Walsingham, succesive English Governments have paid well-funded attention to the securing of underground political intelligence. When the authorities began to interrogate the arrested Committee members, they may well have discovered a "Man Who Was Thursday" situation. Did the Committee consist, more or less in its entirety, of members of two or more rival intelligence organisations who were mutually unknown to each other, and had been "jollying each other along"? If so, the Government would have had no alternative but to allow them to drift discreetly into obscurity.'
This extract is from pages 34 - 35 of that book -
'What the Radical forces, preparing to answer the call of their "Provisional Government", did not know was that the twenty-eight-man Provisional Government were in Glasgow Jail and, in fact, had been there since March 21 when they had all been arrested at a meeting in the Gallowgate: that the proclamation calling for the rising was the work of Government agents who...were precpitating the rising in order that superior Government forces could quell the insurrection and that the Radicals could be brought to heel by a lesson underlined with military defeat, trials for high treason and executions.'
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agentmancuso
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| RadgeJougal wrote: | | Jesus, Pavlov's dog's escaped again... |
 It's just enthusiasm.
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agentmancuso
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Re: The Scottish Insurrection of 1820 | Michael Follon wrote: | | I think that the answers can best be found by a combination of reading the book |
A handy hint, but I prefer the condensed version.
| Quote: | | and logical deduction. |
Well, given that the lengthy passage you quote contains the expression
| Quote: | | the working class martyrs we seek to honour |
I suspect that, if logic is what we seek, we are looking in the wrong place.
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RadgeJougal
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"I suspect that, if logic is what we seek, we are looking in the wrong place."
Aye, the whole forum. Woof.
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agentmancuso
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Don't run yourselves down like that. Occasionally I do come across a valid point.
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