Mrs Barbour's Army
Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 2:54 pm
At the Mayday Festival this year I went to a folk song event at Saint Andrews in the Square and heard of, for the first time, a lady called Mrs Barbour and her army. Mrs Mary Barbour was your, well probably not-so typical wee wummin fae Govan who mobilised a city in protest of spiteful landlords who implimented huge rent hikes in the early months of the First World War.
Here's an (short) account of Mary Barbour, who also went on to become the Labour Party's first woman Councillor as well as pioneering contraception for married women and setting up the city's first Family Planning Clinic.
http://gdl.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/redclyde/redcly092.htm
At the event in St Andrews was Allisatir Hullet (forgive me if thats the wrong spelling of the surname) who sang a wee song written in her honour which went a litle sumthin like this...
"Am fae Govan, and she's fae Partick
This yon here's fae Bridge o' Wier and that wan Kinning park.
There's some are prods, and some are Catholic
But we're Mrs Barbour's army and we're here tae dae the work!"
(...It's Run DMC and Jam Master J... heh)
And work they did!
Anyway, my point: I felt kinda inspired by this song and thier plight. A city long delineated by class and religion united by a common cause. Something lacking in our society these days. A point expressed by Allistair at the afore-mentioned event was that Mrs Barbour has no lasting memorial in the city, a fact which saddened him and me both and something I would like to see rectified and wondered if anyone else thought it worthy?
Also, does anyone else know more about Mrs Barbour? Did anyone ave relations in er army? And does anyone know the rest of the song?
Here's an (short) account of Mary Barbour, who also went on to become the Labour Party's first woman Councillor as well as pioneering contraception for married women and setting up the city's first Family Planning Clinic.
http://gdl.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/redclyde/redcly092.htm
At the event in St Andrews was Allisatir Hullet (forgive me if thats the wrong spelling of the surname) who sang a wee song written in her honour which went a litle sumthin like this...
"Am fae Govan, and she's fae Partick
This yon here's fae Bridge o' Wier and that wan Kinning park.
There's some are prods, and some are Catholic
But we're Mrs Barbour's army and we're here tae dae the work!"
(...It's Run DMC and Jam Master J... heh)
And work they did!
Anyway, my point: I felt kinda inspired by this song and thier plight. A city long delineated by class and religion united by a common cause. Something lacking in our society these days. A point expressed by Allistair at the afore-mentioned event was that Mrs Barbour has no lasting memorial in the city, a fact which saddened him and me both and something I would like to see rectified and wondered if anyone else thought it worthy?
Also, does anyone else know more about Mrs Barbour? Did anyone ave relations in er army? And does anyone know the rest of the song?