Some fifty years ago at an investigation into Glasgow housing sponsored by a committee of the Church of Scotland, Bruce Glaiser, secretary of the Glasgow branch of the Socialist League, invited to explain why Irish immigrants did not rise so easily as native labourers to be craftsmen, replied: “I do not believe that it is vice that is against the Irishmen, but rather virtue. The improvidence of the Irish springs rather from virtues; while the success of Scotchmen is on account of their canny disposition and desire to make money ... I think that, as a whole, as social beings they are quite equal to the Scotch; I do not think the ambition to take a position side by side with Scotchmen is a very high one.”

Whether the Catholic has revolted instinctively or not against the bleakness of Scottish industrialism in the past century, the fact remains that he has not made his presence effectively felt among the forces that attempt to control and guide it. For this, the circumstances that have conditioned his existence in Scotland are largely responsible.