Programme starts at 12:30 PM on Sunday 29th May 2016
Welcome to your Full Scottish, live from the YES Bar in Glasgow.
Will you be joining us for your Full Scottish this week? We think you should (although we are very biased) because we’re creating an eclectic mix of topics and personalities that you really don’t want to miss.
Joining hosts Michelle Rodger and Richard Walker on the newspaper review are Mhairi Hunter and Claire Trodden. Mhairi is a Glasgow Councillor for Southside Central and has been FM Nicola Sturgeon’s constituency manager since 2007. She’s a force to be reckoned with on Twitter and we’re looking forward to hearing her thoughts about the Sunday headlines. Claire is a journalism lecturer at Napier University in Edinburgh.
Labour MSP Pauline McNeil has been in Lebanon this week, and is coming on the show to talk about her trip. Pauline is a former Shadow Minister for Justice, Constitutional Affairs, Culture & Europe. A graduate in Law, she was Convenor of the Scottish Parliament’s Justice Committee for six years. In that time she chaired one of the busiest committees for legislation and led one of the highest profile enquiries (the Shirley McKie Fingerprint inquiry). Before becoming an MSP she was the youngest ever official to GMB Scotland and the first woman to represent her colleagues on the Officer’s National Committee. Pauline chairs the Middle East and North Africa Forum in Scotland and is an executive member of the Palestine Alliance. She has met with many world leaders on this topic and has extensive networks in the region. She has a special interest in the rights of girls in the developing world and is keen to train women in public speaking and media handling as she has many tips to pass on.
We’ll take our weekly look at the international headlines with Full Scottish regular foreign correspondent David Pratt, who will no doubt have more than a passing interest in Pauline’s trip.
Also on the Full Scottish this week is writer and director Mark MacNicol who is, amongst other things, the man behind the Justice for Willie McRae campaign. Willie McRae was a Glasgow lawyer and campaigner considered to be a thorn in the side of the establishment. On 6th April 1985 he was found in his car with a fatal gunshot to the head. The official verdict was suicide. The circumstances surrounding his death and the subsequent police investigation are, according to Mark, regarded by the majority as anywhere between unsatisfactory to highly suspicious. In June 2015 his group delivered more than 12,000 signatures to the Lord Advocate calling for a long overdue inquiry. The legislation for fatal accident inquiries clearly applies in Willie’s case but the request was rejected. Mark and the campaign group decided not to walk away after the petition, instead they committed to mounting a challenge to the Lord Advocate’s decision. We’ll also be speaking to Mark about producing the play ‘3000 Trees’, which was inspired by the Willie MacRae story and finding out more about his novel Coconut Badger, which is being adapted by an LA company for the big screen.
We have comedy from young Scottish standup Ross McLelland. And we’re delighted to have music from Ayrshire traditional fiddler and harpist Emma Durkan. Emma has been playing traditional music on the fiddle since the age of 11 and the clarsach (Celtic harp) from 14. During her teenage years, she was part of the North Ayrshire Traditional Music Group which performed in many venues including the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall and gigs in France, Spain, Sweden and Slovenia. She won the title of North Ayrshire Traditional Musician of the Year in 2007. Emma also attended the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and continued her studies at Newcastle University, where she graduated with an Honours degree specialising in folk and traditional music.