Gangland.net - Glasgow Gangs

	Glasgow Gangs

As early as the 1700s there used to be a weekly Saturday night stonefight across the river Clyde. There used to be a small island in the middle of the Clyde, just where Calton Place runs next to the river. Gangs of boys and men used to gather at the foot of Stockwell Street, and a similar sized gang on the Gorbals side. Stealth was used to reach the island, and fighting at close quarters was common on it's banks. It was only when a boy was killed that the fights began to die away.	In the late 1700s, the students of the College in the High Street used to wage stonethrowing battles with the uneducated youth of the city. After the founding of Wilson's Charity School in 1778, the pupils there used to regularly battle with the students of the Grammar School. In those days there was no police force to counteract these disturbances.	There had been gangs in Ireland since the early 1700s, many of them fighting gangs in the Glasgow tradition, such as the Shanavists, the Caravats, and the Ruskavallas. It is probable that a lot of the rise in gang activity in Glasgow can be traced to the 1840s and 1850s when shiploads of Irish immigrants, fleeing the potato famine, landed in the west of Scotland. The catholic and protestant divide arrived in Glasgow, a facet of Glasgow life which persists to this day.
The first gangs which come to the newspapers attentions were the Penny Mob gangs of the 1870s. These gangs would ask subscription from their members to pay the fines of anyone jailed by the police, a penny a head, thus Penny Mob gangs. In 1883, one of these gangs, called the Ribbon Men, blew up a gasometer in Tradeston.	Some Known Gangs The Tongs The Tois The Govans Powery Ruchill Boys The Monks	As the century drew to a close, the courts began to stop offering fines as an alternative to jail, and the penny mob gangs died away. The small gangs began to group together for mutual protection, and thus the rise of the large area gang. These gangs were huge, and commanded the whole of a district - they were made up of many smaller gangs who fought under a common leader aff.
For a more history information visit Tongs Ya Bass		Special thanks to James McGowan for letting use his words.