NewLord Provost has finally found her home city
GLASGOW’S FIRST CITIZEN REVEALS HOW BAGPIPES LED
IT is thanks to a chance encounter with a set of bagpipes that Glasgow has its first EU national as Lord Provost.
When Eva Bolander was aged just six she heard the bagpipes being played and it made her fall in love with Scotland and Scottish culture.
Fast forward a few decades and the Swede is now Glasgow’s first citizen.
She said: “My interest in Scotland came by pure chance. I was about six or seven years old and I heard the bagpipes being played and it made an impression on me, I loved the sound of it and the whole spectacle of the band playing.
“So every year after that I used to look out for the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, which was given on Swedish television.”
In secondary school, in her native Stockholm, Ms Bolander was given the opportunity to learn to play the bagpipes with an ex-Scots Guard piper as her teacher.
As a result of playing the instrument, she used to travel to Scotland each year for the World Pipe Band Championships.
In 1995, she finally decided to settle in Glasgow – and 22 years later she is still here.
She fondly remembers her first trip to Glasgow, staying in the West End and taking a tour of the Glasgow School of Art.
Ms Bolander now has a dual perspective on the city, both as an incomer and as a resident. Now she feels Glasgow is very much home and is determined to do her best for the city.
She said: “I felt I had two home countries and two home cities. I really felt at home in both.
“But this year when I went home, the main thing was they had changed the coinage and the notes and I felt like I was going to a foreign country in a way I had not done before.
“Glasgow is absolutely my home city now.”
Ms Bolander has had a varied career, beginning her working life in archaeology and employed in the Museum of National Antiquities in Sweden.
She then worked for a private company in training and leadership management.
On arriving in Glasgow, she did a business qualifica- tion and then a multi-media course before working for John Wheatley College on its Pathfinder community website supporting learning in the north east of Glasgow.
Her adeptness at trying new things helped her make the leap into the world of politics, being voted in as councillor for Anderston/ City ward in 2015.
Just two years later, she is now one of two most public faces of Glasgow City Council, along with leader Susan Aitken.
She said: “I’m well in my 50s and I now have the chance to try a new career. I am very fortunate in that.
“I was a baillie for two years so that gave me an insight i nto what this role means in a small way.
“I am not a part of any old affiliations or networks. I can come in as a newcomer and be neutral to any situation in that respect.
“I really do want to represent all of Glasgow, no matter what political affiliation, religion, creed, faith.
“Glasgow is a fantastic city and has been enormously welcoming to me.
“Not just in my short time as Lord Provost but in my whole time here and my involvement in Scottish culture and Scottish life.”
As a citizen, Glasgow is the perfect place for the mother-of-two. She loves museums and is hugely impressed by the fact the city’s museums are free to enter.