Commemorating Irish and Scottish Famine Migrants in Glasgow: Migration, Community Memories and the Social Uses of Heritage

Abstract: Public commemoration and performance are closely bound up with time, place and social arenas, the memorialization of the past serving a variety of goals. This article considers the memorialization of the experience of the famine that blighted Ireland and northern Scotland during the Victorian period, and focuses on Glasgow, one of Scotland's major cities and the destination of many famine migrants. It explores the instrumental use of the famine past in the public sphere in a city long haunted by the specter of sectarianism and considers the impact of the choices made by different collectives in the process of heritage making and remembrance of uncomfortable/difficult aspects of the past.