First we have Bob Goupillots introduction for speakers:<\/p>\n
2.10 Bob Goupillot. I met Allan during the Great Miners Strike but really got to know him during the Poll Tax. Since then Allan and I were in an alphabet soup of organisations including The Red Republicans, the SSP<\/acronym>, The Republican Communist Network, the Radical Independence Campaign and the Republican Socialist Platform. He was a very dear friend and close comrade. I loved him and I miss him.<\/p>\n My role today is as \u2018master of ceremonies\u2019 and assisting the speakers where necessary.<\/p>\n Order of Speakers 2.25 Allan met Ray Burnett when they were both students at Aberdeen University. He described Ray as one of his earliest political inspirations and thought his contribution to Scottish socialist politics was very significant.<\/p>\n 2.30 Myra was Allan\u2019s wife for over 50 years, and they were EIS<\/acronym activists at school, local and national level for over 30 of these. They travelled extensively with their two daughters Caitrin and Eilis.\n\n2.40 Martin Tod was a member of IMG<\/acronym> in, the early days. He was a school and further education teacher, and worked with Allan in Rank and File Teachers, becoming a comrade and close friend despite their different political roots.<\/p>\n 2.45 The next speaker Iain Robertson is one of Allan\u2019s long standing personal friends and also a political ally and fellow teacher. They shared an enthusiasm for the outdoors as much as politics and the pub, staying in bothies and wild camping half way up a mountain on the isle of Rhum. Iain Robertson speech here<\/a>.<\/p>\n 2.50 Hillary Horrocks became politicised through \u201968 and the Vietnam anti-war movement, and joined and worked for the Workers Revolutionary Party for several years. She met and worked with Allan in the Anti Poll Tax Campaign where despite their different political backgrounds they became comrades and friends.<\/p>\n 2.55 Paul Stewart is a socialist republican from a protestant Derry and Belfast background. He was Professor of Sociology and Work at Strathclyde University, and is now a visiting Professor in Grenoble. Paul first met Allan at a conference organised by the Independent Workers’ Union in Cork City in 2010, and they maintained contact after that. He has recently been involved in publishing one of Allan\u2019s last pieces of work.<\/p>\n 3pm Tommy McKearney is a former member of the IRA<\/acronym>, a political ex-prisoner and was on hunger strike for 53 days in 1980. He is the author of The Provisional IRA<\/acronym>: From Insurrection to Parliament<\/cite> (Pluto Press, 2011) and writes a regular column for the monthly Socialist Voice. He is currently involved in the Peadar O’Donnell Socialist Republican Forum which is seeking to build a united socialist republican movement in Ireland. On a number of occasions, Allan arranged for Tommy to address political meetings in Edinburgh. During canvassing for the independence referendum, Tommy was delighted to organise several speaking events for Allan in Belfast.<\/p>\n 3.05 Catriona Grant is a lifelong Edinburgh socialist and feminist who worked with Allan in the SSA and the SSP<\/acronym>. She is a highly trained social worker and radical lawyer and works for a charity supporting parents and carers who find themselves clashing with the state.<\/p>\n 3.10 Nick Steff One of the founding members of the Republican Communist Network (RCN<\/acronym>) and who played a monumental role in preparing Allan\u2019s latest book ready for publication. Nick Steff speech here<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\n2.15 John Dennis was a comrade and friend from when Allan was a student and John was at school in Aberdeen. John was an EIS<\/acronym> activist and Secretary of Dumfries and Galloway Local Association. He is now Secretary of Dumfries and Galloway Trades Council, organising a campaign to keep far right racists our of Dumfries. Allan described John as someone who showed that close involvement in official union politics doesn\u2019t have to mean abandonment of principles. <\/p>\n