Katherine Mackinnon

@kamack

Writer and PhD researcher interested in oral history, migration and methodology. Also radical history walking tours, books, social history, Glasgow kmackinnon.org radicalglasgowtours.com she/her

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Bluesky

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Katherine Mackinnon@kamack· 19d

Honestly how incredible to get to be one of the voices on this sonic portrait of a beloved building and the wider social histories of public pools, washhouses and the struggles to save viral community resources

Katherine Mackinnon@kamack· 21d

Pee Tee’s severed head is on display 😢

Head from the mascot costume of a large purple toucan

Katherine Mackinnon@kamack· 21d

Last few days to catch the excellent wee exhibition on the history of @partickthistle.bsky.social at @maryhillburghhalls.bsky.social. My fav was the mascot section. Also theres a good cafe in the burgh hall!

Almost indescribable image of former PTFC mascot Harry Wragg, supposedly a thistle

Harry Wragg the Big Fat Jag. Greenish grey skin tone, alarming staring eyes, full kit, pillow up the football top

Pee Tee the Firhill Flyer appearing to do the can can in the streets of Maryhill

Partick Thistle have, since 1998, had four different mascots, all very different to each other.
The first was Harry Wragg, The Big Fat Jag, who was launched for the Junior Jags and, although a bit raggedy, was loved by the kids. He was meant to represent a thistle but a lot of folk thought he was an asparagus.
Pee Tee, The Firhill Flyer was a 7ft. tall purple toucan and he took the place by storm in 2001. As well as attending home matches, he attended numerous parades, school events, athletics meetings, mascot grand nationals and he featured in two award winning documentaries.
In 2012, a change in shirt sponsorship meant that the club had a new mascot. This was Jaggy Macbee and he was there for a couple of years.
What can be said about Kingsley, probably the most publicised mascot in the world. Launched in 2015, he is still here causing havoc at every home game

Katherine Mackinnon@kamack· 23d

A thousand year old wee guy from Iran, in the Burrell collection

A bowl in shades of brown and cream with a tremendous drawing of a creature with hooves, a wee collar, rounded ears and a lovely friendly face

Katherine Mackinnon@kamack· Jul 13

Look at my new jumper! Pleased with how these turned out. Get yourself one here with all profits going to printing free antifascist & antiracist stickers and zines: radical-glasgow-tours.teemill.com

Katherine Mackinnon@kamack· Jul 2

Train enthusiast 😭

Wee model of a mortar and pestle on the side of a building with a plaque explaining that it’s a rare survivor of the trade sign, once common

Tiny knitted fair isle jumpers in the window of a knitting shop, sadly closed when I passed it

Lovely stone lettering on a wall saying TELEPHONE EXCHANGE

A plaque on a bench in Lancaster train station showing a friendly looking wee white cat.

In Loving Memory of
SIR TOBY
Lancaster Station Mascot and Train Enthusiast

Katherine Mackinnon@kamack· Jul 2

Enjoyed my short time as a tourist in Lancaster

A labyrinth cut into grass outside the Quaker meeting house in Lancaster. Very fine to walk through it with just the odd bee for company

Purple verbena bonarensis outside the Quaker meeting house, an old and beautiful building with white walls

Beautiful writing carved above a door saying PUBLIC LIBRARY

Football flags up in a pub window with quite cute lettering saying ‘come on England’

Katherine Mackinnon@kamack· Jul 2

This has been a great conference @socialhistsoc.bsky.social! Photos from Fearghus Roulston paper on social histories of mould and anti dampness and @annalively.bsky.social paper on anti-communist activism and the Women’s Guild of Empire

Photo of a presentation slide showing images of publications by tenants groups and local groups including one with a picture of Yosser from Boys from the Black Stuff with text “Castlemilk sit-in, c’mon gizza goose!”

Cover of the women’s guild of empire bulletin showing women visiting the industries of the Clyde. Group of women admiring a giant propeller

Katherine Mackinnon@kamack· Jun 28

A v good issue of Notes From Below. Really clear, practical writing and suggestions on how to run a workers inquiry, the theory behind it, examples in practice

Cover of Notes from Below journal issue 27, Workers Inquiry: the politics of a method with a blue and green cover of hands holding different tools like a spanner, a wooden spoon, a phone

Katherine Mackinnon@kamack· Jun 26

Rothesay scenes

Old Guinness is good for you advert outside Golfers pub

Front of an old pub called the Criterion which is getting its old peeling paint stripped

Saltire hanging in front of a window advertising Lorne of the Rings (roll and square with 3 onion rings) and mince n tatties to go pot

Paris Brest, greatest patisserie item in history, from superb Syrian-run cafe Tazza on the front in Rothesay. Truly a 10/10 cafe

Katherine Mackinnon@kamack· Jun 26

Bute scenes

The Waverley docked at Rothesay with heavy clouds overhead. V dark even tho it is 1pm

Arran hills seen from a Bute back road, with yellow fields in the foreground

View from the Rhubodach-Colintraive ferry of the shoreline and kyles of Bute in stunning weather

Evening light on a rocky beach fringed with lush green trees, huge white clouds hanging in the distance over the sea

Katherine Mackinnon@kamack· Jun 19

Readers, the rain did NOT go off at 2pm

Me absolutely soaking wet wearing a pointless raincoat and holding a pointless umbrella. So wet that my eyes were stinging from the Umberto Giannini curl crème which was washed out of my barnet directly down my face by the quantity of rain lashing down

Katherine Mackinnon@kamack· Jun 17

Love these new murals under the Kingston Bride

Huge concrete pillars supporting a motorway covered with colourful graffiti

Pillars one featuring a photorealistic woman in sunglasses and a headscarf

Mural by Keiti Forbes saying “the world will end, but love and music will endure” in English and Gaelic

Giant woman on a concrete pillar by Molly Hankinson

Katherine Mackinnon@kamack· Jun 17

Had a fringe trim, got a delivery of antifascist badges, sorted the holiday reading, did a few radical history tours and now I am looking forwards to Los Cafeteros absolutely smoking Uzbekistan this evening 🙂

Me at the hairdressers wearing an absolutely banging Colombia strip

Gramsci Prison Letters translated by Hamish Henderson + a World Cup wallchart I printed off in the uni library

Outstanding Syrian & Lebanese restaurant Damasquino sporting a No Scotland No Party flag in their window beside the doner

Katherine Mackinnon@kamack· Jun 13

Huge crowds of antifascists in Glasgow today

Panoramic photo of a big crowd on Buchanan Street

Katherine Mackinnon@kamack· Jun 13

Haha the colours were carefully curated for maximum jotter vibes as well!

Katherine Mackinnon@kamack· Jun 12

No space for racists and fascists in our city!

Graphic in the style of old school jotters Strathclyde Always Antifascist

Katherine Mackinnon@kamack· Jun 7

Casually taking the cat to Lidl

Person with a special backpack which contains a cat

Katherine Mackinnon@kamack· Jun 6

Overheard a guy on the way out saying he thought it was terrible! Brother did we just watch the same film

Poster for Hard Boiled showing a bashed-looking Chow Yun Fat holding a shotgun in one arm and a baby in the other

Katherine Mackinnon@kamack· Jun 6

What a treat to see Hard Boiled on the big screen at @glasgowfilmtheatre.bsky.social! Love a bit of heroic bloodshed. Plus Chow Yun-Fat and Tony Leung, simply two of the most charismatic people to ever do it

Poster for the current John Woo series at the GFT

Katherine Mackinnon@kamack· Jun 6

Just finished this bag, a very nice wee pattern!

A knitted string bag in electric blue shown hanging on a yellow bench with a couple of books in it

Katherine Mackinnon@kamack· Jun 4

Important new development in the Salaam Cola ecosystem 🍊

Hand holding a tin of incredibly named Salaam Lebanorange, a superior Fanta-esque orange drink

Katherine Mackinnon@kamack· May 31

I’d a great visit to @womenslibrary.bsky.social during the week for a tour round their archives and a look at the knitting pattern collections

Placard saying solidarity from Glasgow on a shelf above archive boxes

Pile of archive materials with a punk looking zine on the top called The Suffragette

Slide from a presentation showing a knitting pattern from Spare Rib called Knit Yourself a Woman’s Woolly and a photo of the jumper knit up in recent years by GWL volunteer Becky Male

Katherine Mackinnon@kamack· May 21

I'm doing a radical print tour for the Glasgow Zine Fest this weekend, so made an accompanying zine. Printed on the riso printer at Rumpus Room,. How nice is that blue!

Stack of radical print culture zines in a gorgeous blue ink

A page in the zine on the Poet's Box: "The Poet's Boxes - there were 4 across Scotland and one in Belfast - were small shops where they'd have a printing press in the back, all the latest songs and broadsides, and poems would be written to order on the subject of your choice" (almost)
It also includes an early advertising jingle:
Who loves the songs of every land?
Who keeps the largest stock on hand?
With nothing foul, or contraband?
The Poet!

A page showing Alston type, the first raised alphabet that could be read by blind people, and a precursor to braille. It was printed on a printing press in the building beside the Royal Infirmary

Katherine Mackinnon@kamack· May 19

Up at Glasgow Museums Resource Centre today for a project for the People's Palace refurb, looking at Ken Currie's banners depicting 200 years of Glasgow's working class history. Amazing to see them up close! Think this one of the 1971 UCS Work-In might be my favourite

Picture of a group of workers in front of an Upper Clyde Shipbuilders banner. They are at the weekly meeting which all employees could attend. In front is an apprentice in a boiler suit doodling in a jotter. On the right is a woman with a towering blonde beehive and blue eyeshadow. Others include a lady with a headscarf and a mop, a guy who appears to be making the tea and another guy holding a spirit level. They are all weirdly illuminated with an orangey yellow light so they look a bit like they are glowing around the edges

Katherine Mackinnon@kamack· May 7

In the Mitchell Library earlier doing some research for an upcoming tour, opened a box of 1938 Empire Exhibition materials to find a wee cache of tat including this slightly radioactive looking model of the Tait Tower inside a jam jar

Small glow in the dark looking model of a 1930s skyscraper type tower, inside a wee jar with a red lid

Katherine Mackinnon@kamack· May 5

Haha I was just reading this morning that this guy who owned the market at Schipka Pass on the Gallowgate was a huge Jags man and wind up merchant who claimed to run a combined Old Firm supporters club called RanCel

Man in a beret, a fake tash and football scarves representing Celtic, Rangers and Partick Thistle in front of loads of hand painted market signs

Katherine Mackinnon@kamack· May 5

Keen to find out more about the claim at the end here that Britoil supported in some way the iconic Glasgow's Miles Better campaign. I recently read that this campaign, inspired by I ❤️ NY, was canned in the 90s because the council could no longer afford the copyright on Mr Happy!

Cover of "Impressions of Glasgow" by Hugh Cochrane with illustrations by Paul Cox, produced by Britoil

BRITOIL IN GLASGOW

Britoil is pleased to be in Glasgow, headquarters of its international operations. The city, founded more than 800 years ago, is proud and forward-looking. It is the economic heart of Scotland. Through the traditions of its mercantile past and its resourcefulness in the high-technology business of the present its people have strong links with most parts of the world.
Responding to the co-operation and straightforward human hospitality it has received, Britoil is happy to contribute what it can to the advancement of Glasgow, its cultural and educational prestige. Support given has included funding the retention of the Whistler collection at Glasgow University, creation of a Chair of Mining and Petroleum Engineering at Strathclyde University, sponsorship of the Scottish National Orchestra's "Leader's Chair", and the launching in London of a campaign entitled "Glasgow's Miles Better"
This is a big-hearted, welcoming city, well worth getting to know. Take our word for it... and our pictures... and our personal good wishes to you

Glasgow's first city branding campaign, Mr Happy a cartoon yellow guy with the slogan GLASGOW"S MILES BETTER around him. Think the photo shows this on the front of the City Chambers

Katherine Mackinnon@kamack· May 4

Got this cracking book during the week, full of incredible anecdotes. Opening line is "The City of Glasgow is undoubtedly the greatest city in the world." 💯

Cover of The Heart of Glasgow by Jack House, with an old photo looking along the Trongate on it

Back cover of the book showing the Glasgow coat of arms and the rhyme:
The bell that never rang,
The fish that never swam,
The tree that never grew,
The bird that never flew.

Katherine Mackinnon@kamack· Apr 10

May Day poster this year is great: