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| Cambuslang Miners' Monument Though the mines have long gone this monument opened in 2005 recalls the memory of the coal industry that Cambuslang was once renown for. It also pays tribute to the town's most famous communist miners leader, Mick McGahey, who died in 1999. McGahey was born in Shotts, the centre of the Lanarkshire coalfields, in 1925 but was taken as a child to Cambuslang, near Glasgow by his father, James, who worked in the pits and was also a founder member of the Communist Party of Great Britain. Mick followed his father's footsteps at the age of 14 and soon joined the CPGB rising up the ranks of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) to become one of its driving forces in the 1970s. He played a leading role in the miners' strikes of 1972 and 1974 that broke the back of the Tory government. In 1973 he became the NUM's vice-president, a post he held until his retirement in 1986, but the presidency of the union eluded him. McGahey held many positions in the CPGB including the national chair for a time. He supported the leadership to the end but when the CPGB dissolved itself he joined the rump of the old Scottish committee that formed the Communist Party of Scotland. Mick MaGahey's name appears on a plaque on the monument that was unveiled in May 2005 |
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| Mick McGahey 1925 -- 1999 The Scottish communist miners' leader remembered in Cambuslang and Bonnyrigg |
| 10th Anniversary Address Memorial Bonnyrigg Midlothian This monument was unveiled on 28th April 2006 in Bonnyrigg, on the outskirts of Edinburgh to mark the 10th anniversary of McGahey's address to the Midlothian TUC Worker's Memorial Day event in the George V Park. Retired UNISON General Secretary Rodney Bickerstaffe unveiled the statue and McGahey's son was also present. |