Matthew McGinn was born in Ross Street at the corner of the Gallowgate in Calton, in the East End of Glasgow on 17 January 1928. Born the eighth child of a family of nine, his formal education ended when he entered an approved school at the age of 12. Despite this, McGinn was, by his early 20s, recognised as a highly political charismatic debater of left-wing politics. On his release from approved school he worked in the Hillington factory of GKN, spending his spare time at evening classes and reading. He gained a Trade Union scholarship to study economics and political science at Ruskin College in Oxford when he was 31. After graduating, he trained to become a teacher at Huddersfield Teachers’ Training College and went on to work as a teacher in Lanarkshire for three years before becoming the organiser of the Gorbals Adventure Playground.

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McGinn joined the folk scene after winning a song contest with a song entitled “The Foreman O’Rourke”. He met Pete Seeger in 1961 when Seeger was touring the British Isles. Seeger championed McGinn’s music in the United States and arranged for him to be part of a concert performance at Carnegie Hall, where McGinn met a young Bob Dylan. His career in music began during the folk revival of the 1960s but, while others leaned towards what they perceived traditional music, McGinn carved his own niche as a humourist and playwright as well as a singer/songwriter. He was a prolific songwriter, drawing on his experiences of Glasgow life for much of his material. He was a communist, republican and trade unionist, and a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain. His performances in clubs and concert halls were hugely popular. McGinn’s earliest recording was in 1962 when he was featured on the Folkways Records Revival in Britain, Vol. 1a collection compiled by Ewan MacColl. He was also featured, alongside Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger, on the Broadside Ballads Vol. 1 released in 1963. McGinn was also included in the 2000 compilation The Best of Broadside 1962–1988, which was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Historical Album category in 2001.

Matt McGinn embraced the “Folk Song Revival” of the 60s and brought to this his talent as a poet, his humour and his wealth of knowledge and experience of the ordinary folk of Glasgow and West of Scotland. It was never his ambition to be a singer/songwriter but considered tunes and melodies as a vehicle to express and propagate his beliefs and politics.

Perhaps a recent description of him as a people’s historian is fitting. McGinn brought together his musical abilities, perception, humour, knowledge, politics and personal experience, to leave a history in words and music of the life and times of Scottish people, in particular Glasgow and the West.

McGinn also wrote songs for children, one of which, “Little Ticks of Time,” was frequently used in the BBC children’s programme Play School and its offshoots such as Hokey Cokey. The song was also featured in the 2011 Franco-German film Goodbye First Love (French: Un amour de jeunesse) directed by Mia Hansen-Løve. Well known recordings of McGinn include “Loch Lomond“, ″The Rolling Hills of the Border″, ″I have seen the Highlands″, ″The Jeely Piece Song″ (written by another stalwart of Glasgow music, Adam McNaughtan), ″The Big Effen Bee″, ″Skinny Malinky Longlegs″, ″The Red Yo Yo″, ″Gallowgate Calypso″, ″The Ibrox Disaster″ and ″The Wee Kirkcudbright Centipede″.

McGinn’s first novel about his time in approved school Fry the Little Fishes was first published in 1975 (ISBN 0714509922) 2nd edition re-issued 2013 (ISBN 978-1-873586-06-8)

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    JANETTE McGINN, 28/12/30 TO 20/3/20

Janetta Nelson Gallacher was born in Rutherglen on the 28th of December 1930. Janette’s parents were leftwing, especially her mother. Although she went to a Catholic girls’ school, her parents had become atheists and their politics was soon to cause the priest to cross the street to avoid them when walking down Rutherglen Main Street, as Janette would recall!

Janette joined the YCL and helped with many practical tasks, using her secretarial skills such as typing and putting together leaflets, all important steps towards the revolution they were eagerly awaiting!

 Matt first saw Janette at a YCL meeting and he told the tale of how he was instantly taken by her beauty. Furthermore they shared the same political ideals and after they married Janette supported Matt and their 4 kids while Matt went to Oxford University to study Political Science. Janette continued to work all her life, whether paid or voluntarily, until the age of 79 when she gave up her last paid employment, even though she later studied with the Open University and continued to help people with claims for Welfare Benefits well into her mid-eighties. 

After the death of her younger sister Anne Osborne (nee Gallacher) in 2017, Janette was heartbroken and moved to Spain with 2 of her daughters. She died peacefully with her family in March 2020. She didn’t lose any of her political beliefs through her life’s journey and helped many people along the way. 

Janette was always matter of fact and practical and had left instructions for Matt’s song Magic Shadow Show and her favourite version of The Internationale to be played at her funeral.