'And there will be no hooliganism, there will be no vandalism, there will be no bevvying because the world is watching us, and it is our responsibility to conduct ourselves with responsibility, and with dignity, and with maturity.'
The sentence that save an industry.
Jimmy Reis stated 'We don't just build ships on the Clyde, we build men'
Following the succesful UCS campaign Jimmy Reid was elected rector of the University of Glasgow, the fourth oldest Univesity in the UK and second oldest in Scotland. His address to the Court of the University became famous around the world, known as the 'rat-race' speech. It was reproduced in full in the New York Times which proclaimed it the finest speech by any public speaker since Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.
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Many disagreed with Jimmy Reid's political philosophies (he shifted from Communist to Socialist and lattely Scottish Nationalist) but even his opponents recognised his intellectual might and common compasion for others.
Jimmy Reid's funeral was attended by two other prominent Govanites who started their working lives in the burgh's shipyards, Billy Connolly and Sir Alex Ferguson as well a former Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond. The following link is a brief new report of Jimmy Reid's funeral
Jimmy Reid sailed on Waverley many times especially since he retied to Rothesay and I know that he took great joy in watching her sail round the bay from the garden of his bungalow on the hill above the pier
RIP Jimmy - we'll miss the wee chats in the Kyles
written by Archie Fisher (another Clydeside of the same era)
