Catholics and Great War Memorialisation in Scotland

What is it about?

This article explores the largely ignored phenomenon of Catholic memorialisation of the Great War in Scotland. Running parallel to the wider process of memorialisation that took place across Scotland both during and after the war, it argues that Catholics used the signs and symbols familiar to their religion to not only remember their dead but also to highlight the disproportionate contribution their community had made to the war effort. In doing so, Catholics sought to demonstrate that they were very much a part of Scottish and wider British society and not, as often argued, locked in a ‘ghetto’, unwilling to engage with wider society. Catholics, indeed, saw themselves as the ‘defenders’ of the nation fighting for the ‘highest ideals of justice and freedom’. To be Catholic was, indeed, to be proudly and loyally Scottish and British, loyal to pope and church as well as to king and country.

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Why is it important?

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