A Glasgow Gang Observed by James Patrick

Author:James Patrick [Patrick, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Violence in Society, History, Social History
ISBN: 9781906000394
Google: 9dt0AQAAQBAJ
Publisher: Neil Wilson Publishing
Published: 2013-04-01T05:40:14+00:00

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I AM UNABLE at this point in time to give a full account of my outings in January or to mention all the circumstances which forced me to quit. The following is as full as I can make it. Chapter 10 narrates the events before Christmas, when I was handed a hatchet. I disposed of it at the first opportunity which presented itself, withdrew from the gang over the Christmas period, and then renewed my connection with it on the first suitable Saturday evening in the New Year.

To my great relief the boy who had pressed the weapon upon me, Dave Malloy, was not present. Serving 28 days detention for his part in the battle with the Barnes Road, he was due to be released in two weeks and had sworn vengeance on me for my nonappearance. ‘He’s gettin’ his jaw ripped’, had been his constant threat. My days in the gang were numbered.

My reception was cold. Tim, of course, I had already met in the school, but he had been evasive and uncommunicative beyond the simple statement that they had ‘shattered thae mugs.’ I needed the gang and particularly Beano and Baggy to enlarge on the subject. Walking into the pub, I was confronted with the core members of the gang minus Dave Malloy but including Big Fry, Baggy, and Podgie. Offering to buy pints, I sensed the hostility with which Harry Johnstone, and the newly released Dan McDade, refused my offer. As soon as I could, I expressed regret at missing the battle, explaining how I had been taken hiking and camping with the approved school over the holidays as I had ‘nae hame tae go tae’. This was the story I had asked Tim to sow in their minds if asked about my absence. Podgie took up the reference to ‘the big fight’ and soon the conversation became animated.

When Jack Martin chibbed Marty, the leader of the Barnes Road, during the Christmas holidays, the Young Team had known that this meant open war. But, as the Barnes Road were inferior in numbers and had never ventured much beyond their boundaries before, Tim had felt the initiative lay with him. So he had been surprised to hear one night that the Barnes Road were on the move and heading along Maryhill Road. The pub in which the Young Team were sitting had cleared in a frenetic rush, as boys ran to collect their chibs and rouse the neighbourhood. I am not sure whether the Barnes Road and the Young Rolland Boys advanced deep into Young Team territory by chance or lack of foresight, or whether they were allowed to do so by design; in any case, within 15 minutes of their vanguard being spotted, the Wild Young Team, numbering ‘over a hundred’, were on the streets, armed and ‘ready to go right ahead’. The Barnes Road and their allies were attacked from all sides; bottles and bricks were showered upon them; and Tim, Dave Malloy and others of the in-group led the charge which scattered and routed the opposition.

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