Gran at the heart of her community
You can’t keep Rutherglen gran Margaret Feeney down.
A prolific community activist, Margaret is fiercely proud of the town in which she was born and raised and believes that, if living here is to be enjoyed, she has a duty to play her part in making it be all it can be.
Margaret’s education began at McDonald Primary, before transferring to Spittal Primary when her parents moved to Blairbeth.
She left Gallowflat School at the age of 15 and joined tarpaulin manufacturer R & J Bow and Co., of West Nile Street, Glasgow, where she worked as an office junior for two years.
Margaret, who was an officer with the 187th Blairbeth Company of the Boys’ Brigade in her late teens, then moved to the personnel department of White’s Chemicals on Glasgow Road, where she worked for a couple of years before the firm upped sticks for Harrogate.
She put her working life on hold for seven years when daughters Karen and Michelle came along, and joined the finance and administration department of Sanmex when her younger daughter was two. There she remained for 39 years until deciding to retire in 2014 following a heart scare.
When new head teacher, Mr Walker, was appointed at her daughters’ school, Burgh Primary, he started a PTA. Keen to ensure her girls and other pupils benefited from the best of resources and equipment, Margaret joined – and was soon to become secretary, then chair.
It was one of her first positions in what would unfold to be decades of active community life.
“Then, Miss Bessy McGhee was captain at 1st Rutherglen Girls’ Brigade, where Michelle was a member. Everyone knew Miss McGhee. She was looking for help – and you didn’t say no to Miss McGhee,” remembers Margaret.
“I ended up doing my officer’s training, became an officer and, when Miss McGhee stepped down due to ailing health, I became captain of the company attached to the Old Parish.” It was a role she performed for nearly 30 years.
As a young bride, Margaret moved to ‘ the white flats’ in 1973, where she remains to this day.
“South Lanarkshire Council was trying to start up a tenants and residents group,” she remembers.
“There was a crowd at the meeting. We were allowed to ask questions and bring up things that were not right. I put my hand up and asked a question. One of the men from the council who was leading the meeting told me: ‘Put your money where your mouth is and join the committee.’ So, I ended up on the committee of the White Flats Tenants and Residents Group. I was secretary for a while, then I was vice chair. I was acting chair until the AGM and then I was elected chair.
“At that time, there was nowhere for the kids to play. We managed to get funding and got a playground built behind the pubs in Glasgow Road. That was a real breakthrough.
“We did walkabouts every couple of months with the housing officer, just to pick up any problems.
“We used to start at the cenotaph and walk our way right round the white flats area, checking on flytipping, and the housing officer would take notes about pavements that were needing attended to.
“The councillor at that time was Dennis McKenna and he was absolutely fantastic. I don’t think that man missed even one of our committee meetings. He was always there and he got things done – or he did his damnedness, anyway.”
Margaret remembers with fondness the area’s summer gala days, with police shutting off the road between Chapel Street and Western Avenue for the celebrations.
“At that time, there were 12 on the committee and we ran for 16 years. Eventually, people were not turning up for meetings. It ended up only three of us were left and I knew we couldn’t run like this,” she recalls.
“By that time, Burnhill Action Group was up and running, so we decided to merge with them. I have been secretary since I started, six or seven years ago.”
The action group has been working in tandem with Clyde Gateway since it launched its revitalisation project a decade ago.
Continued Margaret : “Since Clyde Gateway started working in this area, they have been a great help with different building projects.
“That enabled us to get a new car park laid at the sports centre and a new floor in the sports hall. We got an outdoor gym at the corner of Toryglen Road through The Community Payback Scheme. We also got money for benches to be out in at Burnshill Street, across from Universal Connections.”
Margaret heeded the advice of the council official she clashed with before the inception of the tenants and residents group all those years ago, and put her money where her mouth is by becoming a Clyde Gateway committee member, representing the Burnhill Action Group.
“You just do what you can,” said the unassuming 70- year- old gran of four, who is a Sunday school teacher and sits on the congregational board of Rutherglen West and Wardlawhill Parish Church.
“You want a nice, decent place to live in and you just hope people want the same as you.
“You want the best for yourself and other people living in the area, and the young people who are coming up after you. And you hope that what you’re doing rubs off on some folk.
“For 46 years I’ve been down there now and I find the people really down to earth, really friendly. There’s a sense of community, and everybody knows everybody.
“You’ll hear : ‘ My granny stayed here, and my mammy stayed here.’ People have set their roots there. It is generations, down in the Burnhill.”
There’s a sense of community... everybody knows everybody