This year's Ian MacDougall Memorial Lecture explores the lives of women in the shipbuilding communities along the River Clyde.
Conventional accounts of the shipbuilding towns of Port Glasgow and Greenock might concentrate on men’s experiences on the shipyards,technology, or trade unionism. This event will instead explore the community from the perspective of its women.
Dr Hugh Hagan will use oral testimonies to shed light on the role of shipyard wives in managing family budgets, sustaining networks of family members and neighbours, and ensuring the survival of communities in the lower reaches of the Clyde. Drawing on original interviews, it will reflect on the role of oral history in introducing voices often neglected by the formal record.
About the Speaker
Hugh Hagan recently retired from the National Records of Scotland, where he was head of the team tasked with implementing the Public Records (Scotland) Act. Hugh had an illustrious career as a Clydeside shipwright before finding his true vocation in archives!
About the Ian MacDougall Lecture Series
This annual lecture series is dedicated to the memory of Dr Ian MacDougall (1933 to 2020). A pioneering oral historian, he played a central role in documenting and preserving the archives of the Scottish labour and trade union movement.
This event is hosted in partnership with the Scottish Labour History Society and Scottish Working People's History Trust.
Image credit: Launch of the MV Pharos, Port Glasgow, 1992. Photographer: Ian MacKenzie. Courtesy of the School of Scottish Studies Archives, University of Edinburgh.
