In Summer 1894, several publications told of the hardships which the widespread Scottish miners strike was having on everyday family life. With so many men out of work, Blantyre was hit particularly hard causing further poverty and terrible conditions. Some newspapers and magazines singled out how bad things were in Blantyre at the time, and it makes difficult reading. The Irish News & Belfast Morning News had a report from 8th August 1894, as follows:
“Some sad scenes are being witnessed in the districts of Scotland in habited by the miners still on strike. Many of them are Irishmen who of course will not be the first to give in. Collections are being raised everywhere for the men, their wives and families several of whom are now starving.
Describing the Blantyre District and instigator into the situation says that a Sunday like calm has settled over the place, tinged with the dejection which falls when industry lags. Melancholy men and moping women and bare footed children loitered about the melancholy streets of old Blantyre. Melancholy also hung over the shops, but the cruellest of all was the activity around the soup kitchens. Of these places, there are 12 dotted around the town (Blantyre). Their number and the demands made upon them is proof enough of the acuteness and the reality of the people’s want. If in other places poverty threatens, here in this place, it truly grips. Blantyre is starving. The soup kitchens are the only places rife of custom.
As for the dead shops, slackness reigns, which makes the attitude of the shopkeepers the more admirable and deserving of praise in what they’re doing to help. For the shopkeepers of Blantyre, despite the desperate pressure on their tills which they severely feel, are showing a generosity which does them credit. “
“The destitution is more than intense. It is gravely threatening. Begging from door to door is alarmingly rife and can be witnessed easily every hour. Collieries wives make daily such tours, engaging their children to do so too, in the hope that some folk will take pity on the poor wee souls. Solicitations of all sorts are as persistent as they are common. There is one street where home owners see a beggars knock every 5 minutes and still the Blantyre people convene together to help one another.”
These were dire times for Blantyre. Can you imagine where your family and your neighbours are starving, unable to put food on the table? The Coalmasters had a lot to answer for, holding out to avoid wage increases and changing miners conditions.
