The Battle for George Square 1919: Myth, Memory and the Military in Red Clydeside

Louise Heren, MA 1985, PhD 2020

The Battle of George Square, a riot during the Forty Hours Strike in Glasgow, on 31 January 1919, is routinely claimed to be one of the most iconic events in Scottish working-class history. It is also one of the most mythologised.

For a century, the narrative created for the defence of the strikers charged with incitement to riot - an 'unprovoked attack on a peaceful crowd' by an oppressive establishment - has been repeated uncritically by academic and popular writers. Mythology has almost completely replaced reality, most notably in the Scottish education system, where educational materials have been described by two prominent historians as, 'arrant propaganda' and a 'perversion of history'.

Now, Dr Gordon Barclay and Dr Louise Heren have undertaken a meticulous examination of the contemporary evidence to tell a more complex story, in their own 'Battle for George Square'. In doing so, they examine how many writers have failed to subject to critical analysis the 'wha's like us' celebration of this iconic event. They document the creation of the mythology, first in the writings of the strike leaders and their followers and more recently in the words of those who use the mythology of the Battle to bolster their own beliefs about the past. They also examine, for the first time, the legal basis and actuality of the military deployment to Glasgow in the aftermath of the riot.

ISBN: 978 0 85976 741 5