The Galoshans Play

Now that it's officially October, it's exactly the right time to start rehearsing your Galoshans Play.

In 2016, Magic Torch received funding from Heritage Lottery Fund Scotland to help revive the tradition of performing The Galoshans Play. I wrote a new version of the play which includes characters from the myths and legends of Inverclyde as the main characters, including Auld Dunrod, Granny Kempock and Captain Kidd. This year, RIG Arts have worked with local schools to create gigantic puppets of the local folk characters from the play - and you will be able to see them during the parade on Saturday 28th October.

Over 6000 free copies of The Galoshans Play were distributed to local primary schools last year, but if you didn't get one, fear not - you can still download it for free. Or there are a limited number of copies available from 7 1/2 John Wood Street - you can come in and pick them up for free.

You can see some of the videos from last year or read more about the history of the Galoshans on our dedicated page.

And of course Halloween is the ideal time to purchase and enjoy some of Magic Torch's award winning spooky books and comics featuring scary stories from Inverclyde and beyond, including our "Dad's Army with witches" all ages comic The Skeleton Key.

Have a frightful Galoshans.

From the Haunted Air project

Light Years

We are delighted to announce that our Light Years comic project has received £7250 of funding from players of People Postcode Lottery through Postcode Community Trust.

The project will work with a group of people from the Inverclyde area to create a new comic exploring hopes, dreams, stories and memories. So, if you, or someone you know is over 65 and would like to be involved in creating this comic - please get in touch for further information.

The sessions for the project will run in Greenock and Port Glasgow later this year, and be free to access thanks to the support of Postcode Community Trust. We'll be sharing our progress on the blog as the project develops over the next few months.

The Light Years comic will then be launched in March 2018 and be available at Greenock Comicon and on World Book Day.

For an idea of how our comic sessions work, why not have a look at this video exploring our Domate Comic Project, which was recently delivered with Notre Dame High School Communications and Language Department.

The Stowaways

In 2016 as part of the Heritage Inverclyde - A Quest For Learning project, Mhairi and I worked with pupils from Ardgowan Primary School, to begin adapting the tragic tale of the Arran Stowaways as a graphic novel.

Our version of the story is taken from the work of one of our favourite local writers of yesteryear, John Donald - author of Old Greenock Characters.

Free copies will be available from Inverclyde Libraries and 7 1/2 John Wood Street in Port Glasgow from Friday 20th January. It will later be made available to read for free online.

Amazingly, this week, as a result of an article in the Scotsman newspaper, we were contacted by the Great Granddaughter of one of the Stowaways - John Paul. She was delighted to hear that the story of her great grandfather was being retold. The story of the stowaways is a sad one, but it is heartening and humbling to realise, that some of those boys were able to build new lives and families for themselves - and that those families are still around today, remembering them.

Occasionally, it's a beautifully small world we live in.