Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland. Founded by St Mungo around 540 AD it stands on both sides of the River Clyde.

The site of the founding of St Mungo's church is now the site of Glasgow Cathedral.

Glasgow is famous for shipbuilding, whisky distilling and soccer.

Scottish Football has for decades been dominated by two Glasgow clubs; Glasgow Rangers and Celtic FC (often erroronously called Glasgow Celtic). These are the two clubs with the strongest links to the religious community. Rangers predominitly draw their support, and until the 1980's their players, from members of the Protestant church while Celtic historically draw their support from the Roman Catholic Community. Due to the fixture scheduling of the Scottish Premier League to the two teams meet each other at 4 times a year. At these games an inter-denominational service precedes the game at which each set of supporters sing songs to the other. When matches are played at Ibrox Park (the home of Rangers) the service is usually conducted by the Catholic Archbishop of Glasgow, the Most Reverend Mario Conti whereas at matches played at Celtic Park services have been led by leading clergy from various Protestant denominations. On March 10th 2007 the service at Celtic Park was led by the Rev Dr Ian Paisley, Moderator of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ireland and First Minister of Northern Ireland. These events have helped boost inter-faith relations and help give Glasgow its slogan - The Friendly City.

A local custom in Glasgow is the traditional greeting of visitors from afar with a 'Glasgow Kiss'. This is not a kiss at all, and is totally non-sexual in nature. It involves the rubbing of foreheads in a vigorous yet friendly manner. Whether or not the action originates from a desired 'meeting of minds' is unclear but it's effect is to initiate the stranger into the social group.

Due to its heavy working class culture and tradition of heavy industry Glasgow has always been a hotbed of fervent socialism. All MP's currently returned to the UK Parliament represent the Labour Party. The last Conservative to represent a Parliamentary seat in Glasgow was Teddy (later Sir Teddy) Taylor who represented Glasgow Cathcart from 1964 to 1979 when he lost he seat to John Maxton. This was the only Conservative loss in the 1979 election and fore-shadowed the collapse in support of Conservatism throughout Scotland during the premiership of Margaret Thatcher.

In the Scottish Parliament all 10 Constituency MPs represent the Labour Party. The Proportionately Elected Regional List MPs for Glasgow comprise two from the Scottish National Party, two from the Scottish Socialist Party, one from the Liberal Democrats, one from the Green Party and the Conservative, Bill Aitken. The next elections for the Scottish Parliament are to be held on 3rd May 2007.

Despite a long and proud industrial heritage Glasgow is studded with green spaces and recreation grounds. The finest of these is the much loved Possil Park, opened by Queen Victoria in 1878.

Famous Glaswegians include Billy Connolly (Comedian and Actor), Charles Rennie Mackintosh (Architect), Sir William Burrell (Businessman, Philantropist who donated The Burrell Collection to the City), Gordon Jackson (Actor, The Great Escape, Upstairs Downstairs, The Professionals), Robbie Coltrane (Actor, Hagrid in the Harry Potter films), Billy Boyd (Actor, Pippin in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy), Scrooge McDuck and GroundsKeeper Willie.