Civic Week History

Researched by Liz Rae

March 2024

Source: Central Libraries Service, Dunfermline Library

Cowdenbeath Advertiser – July 1927

THE GALA DAY

The committees of the Fife, Kinross, and Clackmannanshire Mine Workers Association travelled to Burntisland.  It was evident that the day of travelling by motor car has come to stay.  Each section having their own Brass or Pipe Band.

It is one of the chief shipping ports for Fife coal and many wended their way down to the docks to see the up-to-date plant for coal loading while others viewed the old Parish Church which still stands pretty much as it was when Oliver Cromwell visited and captured the town in 1651.

Many enjoyed a paddle in the cooling waters of the Forth.  Some wended their way to Rossend Castle associated with Queen Mary and her mad French lover.

At 12.00 noon, Chairman and speakers gathered on the mound surrounded by banners of the Hill-of-Beath and Cowdenbeath Communist Party.  Mr Charles Toner conducted the choir.

“This meeting is the 58th Anniversary of the introduction to the 8 hour day.  In the course of time our day was reduced to 7 hours but as a result of the present Government we are back to 8 hours.”

The Chairman introduced Mrs. Brown from London who is the first woman to appear on the platform at any Gala.  “There is no hope of prosperity under Capitalism,”  “You have been told about the trades union movement in the resolution standing for the protection of the worker.  The movement did not come into being to protect, it came to attract the Capitalist system.”

When Mr. Shinwell, the ex Minister of Mines took his stand at the front of the platform, signs of open disorder became manifest.

---