Review Of The Year

At 2.30am the night before I disconnect from the world I finally, finally get round to writing long overdue blogs (which I am strangely enjoying at this point). Struggling to think of and topics at this late hour with the next 24 hours weighing on my mind I have decided what better way to round of the completion of first year :) by looking back a few of the highlights.

Lets begin with first semester. Who could imagine a better first day than a trip to the beach to “create something that didn’t previously exist” or a shelter to most people as on the day it was pretty horrible weather!

Throw into the deep end in week 2 by Brian Adams I was rudely introduced to the weirder and (perhaps less) wonderful mind of Shigeru Ban who somehow conceived that to build a house with no walls and furniture hidden in cupboards was a good idea.

After struggling through that initial project we were taken to the stunning village of Kenmore and perhaps given the most picturesque site in Scotland to design a house fortunately I had learnt from precedent that walls and furniture were, in Scotland, a good idea, most of the time.

After a relaxing Christmas break we were thrown back into action at Hospitalfield near to Arbroath. In researching this project I came across a quote that for some bizarre reason was to adorn my pin board for a semester, some declaration about the crudity of English rule in Scotland…

After completing Our Hospitalfield project and for a split second thinking the year was over I began to relax, returning home to watch my school play in a rugby match (get beaten). Unfortunately circumstances meant I ended up staying at home a lot longer than anticipated and completing the semester’s work from the comforts of home.

Luckily I was able to return to Dundee to round out the year a few parties here and there nothing to major… and to move out. It was with great relief that finally as a Crazed Royalist and Patriotic Briton that the aforementioned quotation was swiftly removed from my pin board and thrown in the trash.

All in all it has been an absolute blast and I cannot believe that it has all flown by in such a blur, not totally alcohol induced! I look forward to an adventurous summer hopefully I will find some time to charge the batteries and will be back to greet semester 2 with a renewed ambition and motivation and who knows I may even take to this whole blogging thing a little easier next year! 

With Greatest Trepidation

As I write this within 24 hours I will be catapulted, if totally by my own hand, 4000 miles from home to Uganda. Once described by Winston Churchill as The Pear of Africa it has been somewhat over shadowed by Forest Whitakers haunting portrayal of former dictator Idi Amin but I am reliably informed that it is now one of the safest and most flourishing countries in Africa.

I will be travelling with 3 others 2 of who are also Dundee students. We are going as part of a team brought together by the universities DARE society, which to the uninitiated can be translated as the Development And Research Expeditions Society.

DARE has arranged in line with Ugandan charity Little Big Africa to send a team of [some what dubious] volunteers to assist in the construction of water tanks enabling the collection and storage of rainwater for primary schools.

Apparently all materials used in this construction will be sourced as locally as the silt on the river bed and the trees on the bank which will be a novelty when compared with the British ideal of import from as far away as possible. 

This project I must admit was a bit of a last minute adventure faced with the prospect of a long summer doing well… not a lot. From one extreme to the other I have volunteered to travel halfway across the world and work long hours for no pay but admittedly I cannot wait! I find myself in the situation where I have been afforded the opportunity to help others while at the same time immerse myself in the most alien environment that I am ever likely to find myself.

I am enamoured that I have found myself in the situation where I can contribute to a worthwhile cause and at the same time have the time of my life encountering a million new things.

Bye Macbook, Iphone, Radio, Car, Running water, temperate climate, INTERNET, cooked meals, the good life….           

Hello Mosquitoes, mud, camping stoves, pit latrine, the great outdoors, adventures, and the GREAT life! 

Built In Belfast

Having returned to my own quiet, disconnected corner of the United Kingdom it is hard to gauge how events happening on this side of the Irish Sea are relayed to Scotland, England and Wales. One story that has been attracting a lot of attention locally is the 100^th anniversary of the launch of the most famous ship that ever sailed, the RMS Titanic. Having ancestral connections to the ship building industry and the Titanic I follow all stories about her with great spur.

To observers it may come as a somewhat peculiar boast that Northern Ireland revels in such glory as the life-bringer to such a synonymous vessel of disaster: but as a local laugh goes, “She was fine when she left us!”

The Titanic was built in Harland & Wolff Ltd in Belfast, designed by Thomas Andrews (an alumni of my former school as it would happen). The ship at the time was the largest structure that has ever been created by mankind and was a testament to the workforce of Belfast who boasted that the British Empire was forged onboard ships built in Belfast.

The Glory Days of Belfast were (for the time being) the first decades of the 20^th century until the partition of Ireland. Belfast was to Dublin as Glasgow was to Edinburgh. This was the golden age of industry and Belfast was at the helm of the world with the largest shipyard and some of the largest factories including Short Bros, and Mackey’s Machine Works.

The 20^th century has been a time of great turbulence on the island of Ireland and at times it still can be in the North. In the early years of the 21^st century 100 years from the launch of the Titanic Belfast is once again experiencing a time of improving social and economic prosperity. The people of this small country look to a time when Belfast was unified and when Belfast was buoyant on a world stage. This was the time of the Titanic.

The RMS Titanic launched in Belfast Lough 31^st May 1911 is a testament to what Belfast once was and will strive over the next 100 years. 

The Tiniest Airport!

One of the most surreal experiences of my first year at university has been making use of Dundee Airport. Over the years I have racked up my fair share of airmiles but the airport at Dundee has to be one of the most intriguing I have ever flown into or out of.

The airport was opened in 1961 on reclaimed land on the banks of the Tay. Originally it operated with a grass runway and offered services to Glasgow. In the 1970s the grass runway was replaced with tarmac and further services added. In 2007 services to Belfast were added which over the past year I have made great use of. Currently services are operated to Birmingham, London, Belfast and Jersey.

Dundee airport is what may be best described as a large two roomed waiting area. From check in to plane can take less than 10 minutes. The planes, which I have been on leaving Dundee airport, are the smallest that I have ever been on seating no more than 30 people. As the airport building is so small you already know everyone by the time you board the plane!

The take-off and landing at Dundee is breathtaking due to its location on a promontory jutting into the Firth of Tay spectacular views over Angus and Fife are on offer combined with an approach coming over the highlands and flying along the silvery water of the Tay it creates a surreal experience and has to be one of the most beautiful airports I have flown from. 

Dundee - St Andrews - The Royal Connection

            With all the recent furore about the royal wedding between second in line to the thrown and “commoner” Kate Middleton it is perhaps fitting that I jump on the band wagon and discuss Dundee extremely vague connection with the royal couple.

Much was made in Scotland as the couples presence in the preceding years at St Andrews university, just accross the water in the kingdom of fife. St Andrews was founded in 1401 and in the following centuries has went on to become recognised as one of the finest universities in the united kingdom.

The connection between Dundee and St Andrews in Fife began with the construction of the Tay rail Bridge cutting journey times between the two towns. St Andrews looking to increase student numbers and diversify the subjects which it offered decided that with its close proximity to the bussiling industrial town of Dundee would be best served with an academical link in the town. And so it came to be That the University College Dundee was formed.

In 1967 by Royal Charter the University of Dundee claimed its independence and the link between the two institutions ceased to eixist. Although a very imprecise link to recent current affairs and the new Royal couple it is interesting none the less of Dundee Universities connection to that of the Ancient institution of St Andrews University

Snowpatrol – The Dundee Years

However embarrassing (or not) it may be to admit it Snowpatrol, the Norn Irish foursome are my ultimate guilty pleasure!

Having seen them live on six occasions and owning all their albums including their obscure early titles, Now It’s All Over We Still Have To Clear Up and Song’s For Polar Bears I may be described as a somewhat of a fan…

Being from Northern Ireland and growing up listening to local radio in the noughties it was pretty much impossible not to develop a soft spot for the band and being such a small country everyone seems to have a little knowledge of them and their time in Belfast but not so well know is their Dundee origins.

Snow Patrol were originally formed as Shrug in 1994 by Dundee University students Gary Lightbody, Mark McClelland and Michael Morrison the band rented studio space and local rehearsal studios, Stage 2000 and shortly after played their first gig in the union at Christmas of that year. After a number of lineup and name changes, Shrug eventually found success in the guise that we have now know them; Snowpatrol.

Sixteen years have passed from that first performance and Snowpatrol have became a global phenomenon selling millions of albums and becoming a household name worldwide. I am not ashamed to admit that growing up their music has provided the backdrop for many memorable nights in Belfast and it comes as a surprise that they evolved in the same surroundings that I now find myself studying.

Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay!

 From almost any southwardly vantage point in Dundee one cannot miss the imposing, daunting, heavy presence of the Tay Rail Bridge. With its strong powerful girders and powerfully grounded deck it would seem it was designed to last a millennia infact it would be seem unimaginable for any rail bridge to have any other kind of existence, but, alas this was not always the case with this particular bridge, for it was here on the 28^th December 1879 that occurred the one of the most tragic rail disasters in British history.

The engineer behind the design of the original Tay Bridge was a well respected and accomplished Victorian engineer by the name of Thomas Bouch.

Bouch worked for the North British Railway Company and had designed parts of Edinburgh station and had been appointed as the engineer on the Forth Rail Bridge.

On the evening of the 28^th December the evening train running between Edinburgh and Aberdeen was crossing the bridge which was under a sustained torrent of wind and rain the bridge suffered a structural failure sending the train and six carriages plunging into the icy water of the Tay Estuary killing all 75 on board.

Following the disaster an enquiry pointed at negligence of the part of Bouch leading to the disaster. It was found that Bouch had taken little account of wind load while designing the structure of the bridge. After the disaster Bouch was sacked from his job on the forth bridge and an alternative, radically altered deign was adapted. Bouch died shortly after the disaster his reputation and career irreversibly destroyed by the disaster.

The bridge was replaced straight after with an adapted designed allowing for a dual track to run the span. William Henry Barlow built the new bridge, Barlow had sat on the investigation council following the disaster.

Dundee Bard William Topaz Mc Gonnagal immortalized the disaster in his poem named for the disaster, the poem concludes;

"Oh! Ill-fated bridge of the silv'ry Tay

I now must conclude my lay

By telling the world fearlessly without the least dismay

That your central girders would not have given way

At least many sensible men do say

Had they been supported on each side with buttresses

At least many sensible men confesses

For the stronger we our houses build

The less chance we have of being killed"

Caird of The Antarctic!

We have all heard (or read previously) of Scott of the Antarctic but there is the less well-known story of James Caird Jute Baron and Philanthropist who made it all possible.

James Caird was born 7 January 1837 in Dundee. The Cairds of Dundee owned two mills in Dundee making them one of the cities wealthiest families.

Ernest Shackleton approached Caird prior to his expedition with James Caird eventually pledging £24000 (millions in totals value) towards Shackleton’s expedition to the Antarctic.

In honor of his patron Ernest Shackleton named one of His ship the Endurance’s lifeboats after Caird. It was this lifeboat in which Shackleton famously made an open ocean 500-mile rescue voyage after the endurance struck Ice in the Antarctic.

James Caird is the namesake to many bequests in Dundee most notably the Caird Hall and Caird Park. Caird's donations also enabled the establishment of Dundee Cancer Hospital, which at the time was at the forefront of cancer research in the UK thanks to Cairds generosity. Other foundations included The Caird Jubilee Nurses Home

 And the Royal Dundee Institute For The Blind

James Key Caird Died on the 6 March 1916 in Belmont Castle in his beloved Dundee. Caird’s greatest namesakes came to fruition after his death with the Caird Hall being opened in 1923 and Shackleton’s naming of the Caird Coast in the Antarctic after its discovery in 1915

The Jute Barons

Dundee is known for its 3 J’s Jute Jam and Journalism. Jute is a natural fiber that is spun from the plant fibers soaked in whale oil. The resulting fiber is often called hessian and is better as Burlap. The main uses of jute are in the manufacture of Burlap sacs, pile carpet and more recently as an eco-friendly car seat covering.

Three of the most famous Jute Barons were David Lindsay, Joseph Grimond and James Caird. At its height there were around 130 mills in Dundee with the Camperdown Mill being the largest textile factory in Europe employing around 6000 people.

Dundee was the ideal location for Jute mills with a large Irish immigrant population already skilled in the production of Linen and a whaling fleet providing all the necessary oil for production. The city’s shipyards that built the RSS Discovery created a vast export market on board these new ships.

In the mid 19^th century the Jute industry was established in India by Dundee’s Jute barons looking to expand their profits. The history of jute in Dundee is a relatively short one lasting not much over a century with the last mills closing in the 1970s ironically being killed by the competition which the faced from the now independent Indian Jute markets.

The historic Jute industry in Dundee will be examined this week with the launch of the book Jute no more by local author Jim Tomlinson. Our university rector Brian Cox who in 2009 recorded a program for the BBC recording the changing fortune of Dundee’s Jute Industry had touched on the subject before.