Issue Eighteen: A Collection of Artworks

ISSUE 18 12 MARCH 2021 th

Front Cover Artwork by Robert Haughie Back Cover Artwork by Edward Henry

SMILING IS INFECTIOUS Smiling is infectious, You catch it like the flu When someone smiled at me today I started smiling too.

I walked around the corner and someone saw me grin When he smiled I realised, I had pass it on it to him.

I thought about the smile And then realised it’s worth A single smile like mine Could travel round the earth So if you feel a smile begin Don’t leave it undetected Start an epidemic And get the world infected.

Anne Marie Murrary

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DANNY McGRAIN: GROWING UP IN DRUMCHAPEL Case study prepared by Jennifer Ferguson

Daniel Fergus McGrain was born in Finnieston, Glasgow in May 1950 and grew up on the outskirts of the city, in Drumchapel, a place once described by Billy Connolly as a “desert wi windaes”. McGrain writes that, “It was an unremarkable upbringing, in as much as any of the families who survived such an environment fitted that description”.

McGrain did not excel in school and, as a result, he had fewer choices for his future. In his autobiography McGrain explains that there were only three kinds of jobs when you were brought up in Drumchapel: the world of entertainment, those operating on the fringes of legality, and football. Danny chose the latter. His choice paid off. It was football which helped Danny see the potential in himself, “I had no self-confidence in the classroom...but on the football pitch I found I was able to express myself”. Danny’s success would also help disprove the common view that Drumchapel was a dead-end area. Danny credits his family with teaching him good morals from an early age, including the importance of working hard for what you want. This early foundation provided McGrain with a lifelong drive and focus, and a disregard for those not willing to put in an honest day of work. Even after his miraculous and wildly successful football career, McGrain has never lost sight of these roots, writing, “I have only ever thought of myself as Danny McGrain, working man”.

Danny signed for Celtic in May 1967. From 1970 to 1987, he played 659 competitive games for Celtic, winning seven League Championships, five Scottish cups and two Scottish League Cups.

He was inducted in Scottish football’s Hall of Fame in 2004, having won 62 caps and represented Scotland in the World Cups of 1974 and 1982. McGrain is considered to have been one of Scotland’s finest players. Hugh McIlvanney, the renowned sportswriter, has claimed "Anybody who saw him at his best had the unmistakable impression of watching a great player, probably one who had no superior anywhere in the world".

Excerpt from Local Heroes a project led by Professor John McKendrick of the Scottish Poverty and Inequality Research Unit at Glasgow Caledonian University. For more information on the Local Heroes series contact John at j.mckendrick@gcal.ac.uk / 0141 331 8221

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YOGA The taste of the water still lingers as I stand tall, My ears become muted at the calmness of my surrounding, Hearing nothing at all, Knowing my body feels grounded I will not fall, Seeing every line of my body take shape, The smell of incense burning I cannot escape.

SWIMMING My hand hits the water with a mighty crash, As I feel myself splish and splash, Seeing my goal, my target, my aim, Pushing for another length down the lane, I swallow the chlorine, that taste, that smell, The heart pumping ready to swell.

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Thank you for your artwork newsletter, we are all doing great.

I’ve had the vaccine as I was put in the group 6 category.

As David is turning 50 later this year, we are hoping that, God willing, he gets his soon.

Missing you all so much. Can’t wait for us all to meet up again. God bless you all and see you soon…

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Julieanne + David

Why did mother’s call pest control?

Ants were on the March What flowers grow on faces in March?

Tulips! [2 Lips] What do you get if you cross Poison Ivy with a four-leaf clover?

A rash of good luck – ha ha!

What is the season when you are on a trampoline in the month of March?

Spring-season!

What falls during March and never gets hurt?

Rain!

Why do people wear shamrocks on St Patrick’s Day? Real rocks are too heavy What do trumpet players do in a spring parade?

March!

Rob Haughie

I have enjoyed your newsletters – they are great! I hope you are all well + pass my regards to all.

Betty Cosgrove

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Poem by Adam aged 8

SILENCE The house is eerily quiet, you can hear the floorboards creak, Each step you take you wonder what you will seek, The cold air fills the house with an icy chill And it makes you shiver and shake, It will make you wish you were warm in your bed and not awake, I hear a noise come from behind the closed door, I am terrified and more, My heart is pounding in my chest and I am in absolute fear, But I think it is very queer, because no-one but me is near, Then I think to myself I’m the only one here And therefore have nothing to fear, It’s amazing how your mind can be, Really there’s nothing here to see, So you end up saying go to bed Because all the noises are in your head.

Night Night Angela Cunningham (.r-)

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WISE WORDS FROM AN OWL A wise old bird sat on an oak The more he saw, the less he spoke The less he spoke the more he heard Why ain’t we like that wise old bird?

Anne Marie Murray

ABOUT ME In my mind there exists a door to another side of myself.

I allow very few people to see this If I have welcomed you to come through that door in my mind Then consider yourself special to me.

I know there are days when I feel like giving up but I think it’s Brave that I never do.

I never really know the true impact My choices can have on those Around me, my family or my friends I never know when I smile just how Much someone may need that smile I sometimes wonder if a small act Of kindness can turn someone’s Life around.

So don’t wait to be kind Just be kind because you can be Because you never know just how Much someone may need that kindness.

Margaret MacCallum Steele

A SHORT STORY ON COVID-19

The deadly virus has taken it’s toll Thousands dead and thousands testing positive with the bug Scotland and Mrs Sturgeon are now in lockdown Nothing else to do but isolate and hope for the best With light at the end of the tunnel, mind you, it’s only a flicker Vaccines being rolled out, but not fast enough I just hope it comes in time for me, I watch, wait, worry will I be next No-one knows We must rise to the challenge to wipe out the virus We live in hope it’s about all that’s left “HOPE” Great and well done to the NHS and all frontline workers Give us our lives back return to normality But I don’t know what normality is anymore With coronavirus we live in fear To those we lost we held so dear It’s been upon us for about a year For the NHS I shed a tear Peter Kelly

IAN DURRANT: GROWING UP IN KINNING PARK Case study prepared by Serena Swanson Ian Durrant earned 20 full international caps playing for Scotland, made almost 250 appearances for Glasgow Rangers, and 100 for Kilmarnock, as well as five appearances for Everton. He sustained a careerthreatening injury in October 1988, returning in 1991 to play top-flight football for a further eleven seasons.

Durrant was born in October 1966 and grew up in the shadow of Ibrox, “I first broke in on November 29th, 1985 and I was hooked. The crowd that day was only 16,500…but it felt like the World Cup Final to me”. Ian’s connections with Rangers go back much further, recalling times when he and his friends would climb through a fence at Ibrox to watch his team. In Kinning Park, where Ian Durrant grew up, everything revolved around ‘the Rangers’, and his life was all about football from a very young age. Kinning Park was good to Durrant. He explains that it was a very close-knit area, explaining that, “When I was young my mum had so many friends I had 40 ‘aunties’ whose back doors I could nip into for something to eat.” Even though he moved away from his childhood neighbourhood Ian still goes to visit his old home and appreciates the support he received, and still receives, from his neighbourhood.

Durrant’s career has been defined by an injury sustained at a 1988 game where the ligaments in his knee were left ‘hanging by a thread’. This could have been the end, but he fought back returning to the game a few years later. Ally McCoist says of Ian Durrant, “You can get all the specialist help in the world… but at the end of the day when you have an injury like his it comes down to one person and one person only.

Yourself.” Ian Durrant never gave up.

In his book, he hints at the source of the strength that seen him through the dark times. He expresses much gratitude to his mother, Ruby. She attended every single match Ian has played in since he was eight years old. When his father died in 1989 from a heart attack, Ian says he drew strength from his mother. Through the toughest of times, his mother helped him back onto his feet and back onto the field.

Excerpt from Local Heroes a project led by Professor John McKendrick of the Scottish Poverty and Inequality Research Unit at Glasgow Caledonian University. For more information on the Local Heroes series contact John at j.mckendrick@gcal.ac.uk / 0141 331 8221

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