It’s been a difficult couple of years. People taken from us before they should be. This is often a difficult time of year for some people and makes us all a little bit more nostalgic. Today, on Christmas Day, I’m pausing to remember absent relatives and hope you’ll join me in raising a glass to […]
Blantyre Project reader, Linda Marieskind has kindly shared this wonderful poem. She told me, “I decided to think about and write something in a similar vein to record my first day at Nessie’s skuil! I hope you like it, it’s just as it happened and I still see it in my mind’s eye as if […]
Here’s a great poem by Helen Connor. Titled, “I remember the Blantir“, its likely modern and was shared here recently. A remember the Blantir, where a yist tae bide, Cloases wi stairs up, where weans used tae hide,Coal cellars oot the back, aw in a row, The midden at the end, where yer telt, no […]
David McIntosh recently handed in this poem to me. David was born in Rosendale at number 3 in 1942, so he could resonate with the contents of this poem. The poem is about Rosendale written in 2004 by former Blantyre resident, Brian Cummiskey. It was Brian’s first poem and this version below has auld Scots […]
This time ‘o year, let’s aw look back, Tae Christmas past in Blantyre, Cheers n laughin, jokes n gabbing, wi family roon coal fires. We close oor eyes, an see the past, An mind thae days sae dear, O’ friendships built, a love tae last, wi folks nae longer here. Wi’ festive cheer we toast […]
A charming, forgotten Blantyre poem from 1924. It’s about a Blantyre lady (Peg) with a motor(caur) spying a wee lad on his way to the Pit to start work for his first time. The location is perhaps Station Road, the boy heading to a pit in Bothwell and having to cross the suspension bridge. The […]
Thank you to Andy Callaghan for sharing this touching poem he wrote, about his father, who was a miner and the importance of being outside in the fresh air. “THE RACE” Slight, but tough and strong as a pit-prop, My Dad cut coal in the dark all week. When loused he loved to walk for […]