Part Three: Bobby Sands Has Come to Pass

Fucking Glasgow, my friend, it’s just like Belfast, the same rivalries, the same segregated pubs, the same flags, the same halls, the same murals, the same fucking teams; a friendly city once you get to know it. Plus you’re just as likely to get stabbed for your colours as you are back home, so as you know where you stand as soon as you’re off the boat. Me and Tommy had never left Ireland before. To us it was like Babylon.

The first night we’re there, wait till you hear this, we go to this variety club and we’re paying in and on the door there’s this guy dressed up as a woman. Okay, a transsexual, it’s a fucking transsexual dressed as a woman, and we’ve never seen a fucking transsexual in our puff. I mean, no disrespect to the boy, but all this is brand new to us, and Tommy’s staring at him, of course he is, of course he’s fucking staring at him, I mean, come on. At her. Alright, okay, whatever. Tommy’s staring at her, at him, the point is he can’t help himself. The boy just got off the boat, for fuck sake. But this transsexual starts getting uppity. What’s your problem? she says to Tommy. Tommy’s like that, nothing darling, calm down, fuck sake, he’s a bit freaked out, obviously. Then this crazy bloke, this crazy bitch, sorry, starts yelling at him, homophobe, homophobe, pointing at me and Tommy and yelling, homophobe, that’s what she’s calling us, homophobe, she’s shouting. Next thing the fucking manager comes over and says to us that we have to leave, that there’s no place for homophobia in his nightclub. We’ve not got the homophobia, I feel like saying to him, we’re just a pair of fucking hicks. But there’s no point in arguing. We do what we’re told, and we leave, and we stand outside on the pavement for a bit, awkward, not saying anything. We were both embarrassed. It was like we had failed our first assignment in the big city. New skills, Tommy says to me, and I says to him, aye, new skills, Tommy, new skills, I says, that’s what it’s all about these days. It was the first time I realised just how young we were. Over in Belfast we ran the streets, were up to every trick, but in Glasgow we were absolute beginners. I put my arm around Tommy and we walked to a pub across the road and later that night we kicked the shite out a couple wide boys making Paddy jokes behind our backs and felt that bit better about ourselves.

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