Catholic Action in Glasgow: 1918–1930

Abstract

The Catholic Union of the Archdiocese of Glasgow (hereafter CUAG) from its inception in Scotland in 1885 until the 1940s was an organisation which provided a forum and a means of activity in the political and social spheres for many educated (and less educated) Catholics. The object of the CUAG was ‘The protection and advancement of Catholic interests, congregational and general.’ In the promotion of these objectives the Union became an influential organisation in the political, social and cultural milieu of early twentieth-century Glasgow and surrounding districts. The CUAG reflects the two themes of this work in a dynamic manner. Initially the Union was a product of the circumstances of the Catholic community in the late nineteenth century; to create an organised Catholic bloc. However, the CUAG was flexible in its interpretation of this role and as its function as a predominantly electoral body evolved to one where the emphasis is on its social role, it was to champion a reinterpretation of Catholic citizenship which was to change the view not only of Catholics but non-Catholics as well, of the role of Catholicism in the immediate surrounds of the Archdiocese of Glasgow and the identity of Catholics in Scotland as a whole.