Glasgow's Terrible Beauty

 

I was very interested in to read recently that a couple of the statues currently removed from George Square in Glasgow, for restoration and repair as part of the Square’s renovation, will be returned without their swords. Glasgow City Councillor Graham Campbell explained -

“They are the military figures Colin Campbell and Sir John Moore. I don’t think anyone in this lifetime will have seen the statues fully with their swords. I understand that these statues were restored with bronze swords constructed and added back to the statue.

“I don’t understand why we just didn’t restore the statue and conserve it as was and symbolically disarm it. My question is who gave the instructions to restore it to its original condition because I don’t understand why that was felt as necessary as it would have added cost to this.

“I am making the point that I want those statues not to come back as I don’t think we should be celebrating the military history of the empire massacring people who were enslaved or oppressed.”

“I found that extraordinary offensive because these swords were symbolic and representative of the two military figures who massacred Indians, Caribbeans and Africans in the service of the empire. Colin Campbell was condemned at the time in 1857 for his mass murdering.”

As you can probably imagine, there has been more than a little outrage from some Unionist and Loyalist quarters on this decision.  

However, to me, much of the fierce hostility directed towards Cllr Campbell on this issue, seems to be framed in the context of perceived resistance to things like - political correctness, historical revisionism, wokery and iconoclasm.

My personal opinion is that nobody (from ANY community) in Glasgow should be getting too excited or upset about the statues of Campbell and Moore in George Square having their swords removed.

Least of all, Glaswegians with any kind of affiliation to, or affection for either the history of Ulster-Scots planters, or Scottish Presbyterianism or the Scottish Enlightenment.

This is due to the fact that Moore was deployed to Ireland to brutally suppress the 1798 United Irishmen rebellion and Campbell was deployed to Ireland during the 1830 tithe war to enforce the Anglican ascendancy’s oppression and discrimination against both Irish Catholics and Scots Presbyterians.

The idea of Campbell, and especially Moore as a proud son of Glasgow, worthy of a statue in the city centre, is a dubious claim if we consider the fact that the 1798 United Irishmen movement’s origins were firmly rooted in the Church of Scotland, the Scottish diaspora in the counties of Antrim and Armagh and the Scottish Enlightenment (Glasgow University in particular)

For example, the United Irishman Thomas Ledlie Birch (1754–1828) was a Presbyterian minister and a radical from County Down who studied at the University of Glasgow. His exposure in Glasgow to the ideas of the Scottish Enlightenment heightened his sympathy for American independence.

David Bailie Warden was another United Irishmen and Ulster-Scot Presbyterian who studied at Glasgow university.

William Steel Dickson (1744–1824) was another Glasgow University graduate and Irish Presbyterian minister from Antrim and member of the Society of the United Irishmen, committed to the cause of Catholic Emancipation, democratic reform, and national independence.

United Irishman William Tennant was born in 1759 County Antrim. His Father Reverend John Tennant, had been among the first Scottish Anti-Burgher Presbyterian ministers to settle in Ulster.

John Campbell White (1757–1847) was an executive member of the Society of United Irishmen in 1798 studied under Hutchenson at Glasgow university.

Reverend William Sinclair (died 1830) was an Irish Presbyterian minister and, as a radical democrat, a member of the Society of United Irishmen. Sinclair graduated from the University of Glasgow (then a centre of the Scottish Enlightenment)

John Glendy (1755 – 1832) was a Presbyterian clergyman and United Irishman from Derry, who also studied at the University of Glasgow.

United Irishman William Drennan, son of Presbyterian Reverend Thomas Drennan, studied at the University of Glasgow, a centre of the Scottish Enlightenment. Through his father's mentor, the moral philosopher Francis Hutcheson (1694-1746), a new generation of Scottish thinkers had drawn on the republican ethos of Presbyterian resistance to royal and episcopal oppression.

Henry Munro was another United Irishman leader and son of a Presbyterian tradesman of Scottish descent.

United Irishman Jeremy Hope from Antrim was the son of John Hope, a Scotsman and linen weaver, had emigrated from Scotland rather than compromise his Presbyterian Covenanter faith.

More locally, I've always suspected that Alexander Gamble, the United Irishman from Ballymoney who was executed by hanging in 1798 for his role in the rebellion, may have been the ancestor of Rev. Henry Gamble of Ballywalter, since the two places Ballymoney and Ballywalter, are right next to each other.

The Gamble Institute & Library here in Gourock was established in 1873 by Caroline Anne Gamble in memory of her husband, the aforementioned Rev. Henry Gamble, the former minister of Ballywalter Presbyterian Church.

Plus, Thomas Sexton branch of the Irish National Land League used to meet in the Gamble Halls (part of the Gamble Institute in Gourock). The Gourock branch was involved in raising funds for the Irish Land League and supporting evicted tenants.

With all this in mind - how someone like Sir John Moore, whose life was so violently and ideologically opposed to the values and ideas of Scotland and Glasgow’s greatest ever and best-known institutions, has a statue in the city in post-devolution Scotland, seems very odd to me.

 Indeed, there are those who would go much further and wish to see all these statues removed and never returned. One such statue which has been endlessly mocked and marked for removal for many decades is the statues of Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, directly outside the Gallery of Modern Art. The famous one which usually has a traffic cone resting on its head.

Yet, this is one statue I would not wish to see removed, due to the fact that the Duke of Wellington played a prominent and decisive role in the passage of Catholic Emancipation, as the Prime Minister who forced the legislation through Parliament in 1829.

While initially an opponent of Catholic relief, Wellington, along with his Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel, changed his stance out of pragmatism and a fear of civil war in Ireland. The election of the Catholic Daniel O'Connell to Parliament in 1828, who was legally barred from taking his seat, brought the issue to a crisis point and threatened widespread unrest.

 It is also worth noting that the Duke of Wellington also refused to join the Orange Order, stating in 1821 that he objected to belonging to a society that excluded a large portion of loyal subjects

As Commander-in-Chief of the Army, the Duke of Wellington also refused to grant military commissions to members of Protestant extremist groups, specifically the Brunswick Clubs and the Orange Order, on account of membership of such associations being incompatible with military service in the British army.

 In addition to this I’m possibly one of the very few people in Scotland who actually also loves the great Baron Marochetti’s fine classical bronze statue of Wellington and his magnificent Arabian war horse Copenhagen.

Call me conservative but I’m with the late Roger Scruton when it comes to resisting the Cult of Ugliness. Scruton argues that modern art embraced ugliness and desecration, prioritizing shock value and anti-art gestures over genuine artistic achievement, creating a cult of ugliness

Scruton felt Modernism replaced skill and creativity with mere ideas, diminishing art’s profound role in culture. He saw modern art as a departure from the classical tradition where art aimed to connect humanity to enduring truths, instead celebrating fleeting novelty or nihilism.

Scruton championed architecture and art that upheld traditional forms and beauty as essential for a healthy society, providing shared cultural foundations. Also, I must admit the Gallery of Modern Art has always left me cold but the statue of Wellington outside the Gallery is always a thrill to see!

Also, you need not be an admirer of British imperialism to recognise the historical significance of the statue. Many Scottish veterans who fought at Waterloo were actually present at the unveiling of the statue in 1844, with 200 of Wellington’s former soldiers also in attendance.

For me, the statute also symbolises a period of British history which completely forged and shaped our small places like Gourock, Greenock and Port Glasgow.

For me, the impact of the battles of Trafalgar and Waterloo and the wider Napoleonic wars on towns like mines, can’t be understated.

For example, following the wars, Greenock experienced an economic downturn and social unrest, which led to the Radical War in 1820. This period of civil unrest saw local militia and the population clash, resulting in fatalities, and is a significant part of our town's post-Napoleonic history.

Greenock built ships for Nelson during the Napoleonic Wars and Scottish timber was used for the Victory, we named street for him - Trafalgar, Nelson & Nile Streets. The town even erected a statue of Nelson, it’s even believed that Horatio Nelson visited the shipyards in Greenock.

Like or not, these beautiful old statues of the likes of Nelson and Wellington encapsulate all this history (for better or worse) in a way that ugly art in ugly buildings do not and cannot ever.