Us Glaswegians who proclaim the virtues of our city (whether you want to hear them or not) fancy ourselves as its cultural ambassadors and part-time tour guides. We are the bane of taxi-drivers, fancying that we know faster and highly classified routes to all points of Glasgow’s parameters. This implies that our DNA is interred in these streets and that we belong to an anointed caste of savants to whom has been granted a higher level of knowledge.
Thus, I was intrigued to discover that one of Glasgow’s tour-bus firms, City Sightseeing, has added a new and counter-intuitive route to its portfolio of urban peregrinations. This one promises a 90-minute safari through Glasgow’s east end, regarded as the delinquent sibling of the city’s artisan and well-behaved western arrondissements. From there, it would curl south, tracing the progress of the Clyde at the Cuningar Loop though Glasgow Green and Gorbals and right on through to the ancient principality of Govan.
The tour takes in Celtic Park (Image: free) This’ll be interesting, I thought. I mean: I could transport you to all manner of architectural and historical landmarks east of Glasgow Cross. Generations of my family were directed to these neighbourhoods after disembarking at the Broomielaw, having fled Ireland’s An Gorta Mor.
Many of us still make fortnightly pilgrimages to Celtic Park, the place in which our cultural identity is permitted to find its fullest expression. It’s just that, well ..
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