‘I’ve an Irish passport, so I’ll be OK’: Glasgow community takes in Brexit vote

Marjorie Sweeney should be exhausted. The grandmother travelled more than 300 miles from last weekend’s All-Britain Fleadh in Leicester to be back in her native Glasgow to meet President Michael D Higgins.

“I’m not a bit tired. I’m very honoured to be here,” says Sweeney as she waits for the president to arrive in a warm Govanhill community centre on Glasgow’s southside.

Tiredness might not be a problem, but many of the fifty of so members of Glasgow’s Irish community awaiting the president on Monday morning were in a state of disbelief at UK’s decision to leave the European Union.

“I’m quite shocked and disappointed. I voted to stay. This could affect Ireland, trade, the border, everything,” says Sweeney, who lives on the outskirts of Glasgow with her husband of fifty-seven years, Fred, from Dungloe, Co Donegal.

Fred is a former president himself – he headed the Fianna Fáil Glasgow Cumman in the 1950s, meeting Eamonn De Valera at an Ard Feis in Dublin. Six decades on, Fred is worried about the result of last week’s referendum.

“Nobody can predict what will happen now. This could change England, it could change everything,” he says.

Among those in the Govanhill centre's sports hall — the H-shaped posts painted onto the red brick walls a testament to the local junior GAA team Tir Conaill Harps who have practised here – Brexit is a recurring theme.

Scotland voted to remain in the EU by a large margin, fuelling about a possible second referendum on independence. Although she voted to stay in Europe, Marjorie Sweeney is saying “my novenas hoping we don’t get another referendum”.

Ann McHugh is more sanguine. “I’ve an Irish passport, so I’ll be OK,” says the 83-year-old, who has a son living in Roscrea.

Born and raised in Glasgow, McHugh’s father, Thomas McGovern, fought in the War of Independence. “There was a whole Scottish contingent who went over to fight,” she says.

Later in the day, the president will pay tribute to James Connolly, Margaret Skinnider and others who came from Scotland to fight in the 1916 Rising.

McHugh has brought a medal given to her father by a former Irish president (“I don’t know which one”) and a miniature Celtic cross assembled out of matchsticks by republican prisoners in the Curragh during the “Emergency” of World War II.

“I’ve a harp from Long Kesh at home,” she says with a smile.

Across the hall, Frank O’Neill is “very concerned” about Brexit. “There is an awful lot to unfold from it,” says O’Neill, whose family comes from Kildare. “I don’t have an Irish passport but I might think about getting one.”

Govanhill has a long immigrant history. Today, it is mainly home to Roma, Kurds, and Syrians, but from the middle of the 19th century on thousands of Irish began to arrive.

The Glasgow Irish extended beyond Govanhill, too. Pat McNulty and Jim Friel both describe themselves as “veterans of Garngad”, a once predominantly Irish area just north of Glasgow city centre now known as Royston.

“Garngad was a hotbed of Irish nationalism growing up,” says McNulty who wears a green tie decorated with shamrocks. “They changed the name because of the reputation it had.”

McNulty, one of the best known uilleann pipers in the UK, took up Irish traditional music growing up in the 1950s. “It was a bit of a struggle to get material. You couldn’t switch on the radio and get Irish music,” he recalls. In 1958, he attended his first Fleadh Cheoil, in Longford.

Now he is worried the impact of Brexit on Scotland and Ireland. “What will it mean for the border?” asks McNulty. “I remember the early days going to visit family in Castleblayney for holidays and you had border customs, soldiers and everything. Are we going back to that?”

Nicola Sturgeon represents Govanhill in the Scottish parliament. Friel, a former election agent for the once dominant Labour party, remembers fighting elections against Scotland’s first minister in Glasgow’s Southside over 20 years ago.

“She’s changed a lot since then. She’s a different politician. Now she’s so calm,” says Friel who voted “yes” in the 2014 referendum and would welcome another ballot. “The sooner the better as far as I’m concerned.”

While the future of United Kingdom is uncertain, there is little fear about the long term prospects for Glasgow’s Irish community.

“I think the younger generation are even more interested in their roots than we were,” says Friel. “I think there is still a very distinct Irish community here.”