 Y cannotledd wedi eich bod, wrth i fhyddo gwy cosa am yr unaws�� slut pan sydd wedi Darren ffrun hwn yn ddypiUnNGl. Tw quite leol. Dwi'n beth i gynodd yr eich bodiesh fel y cymri mewn ei raptus i dda waith i ff Sacred for. Des i fynd i ar-fyrddfawd y byddai mae'r lateralc yn bwysig iawn g宮. Onien, goan yn осi yn dif amplifier mor dweudgrun fwrdd agor possess All. Onien, hei, mae'r foil yn rhan i gafio'i siediliau ar hynny. Onien, hei, mae'r dweud gafio'i siediliau ar y verb. I'm honored to bring this debate to the chamber today to hopefully continue the good work of playwright Jack Dixon in highlighting the injustice of the cartridge that comes from I'm honoured to bring this debate to the chamber today to hopefully continue the good work of playwright Jack Dixon in highlighting the injustice of the cartridge girls of hut number seven. I thank colleagues from across the chamber who supported the motion, allowing us to take their story to the floor of the Scottish Parliament and members who are contributing today. It's a great pleasure to welcome Jack to the chamber along with Graham and Shersa Cobb, the great-grand-nephew and great-great-nice of Mary and Annie Brannan. Taking a walk around our dear peninsula today, you can find yourself surrounded by nature. The western fringe of the peninsula is dominated by three kilometres of crumbling seawall. The area is well vegetated, supporting all manner of plant species. It's peaceful. A place where people walk their dogs, take their children to explore and generally enjoy the outdoors. In 1884, among the sand dunes and natural beauty, was the largest explosive manufacturing plant in the world—Nobel's explosive company—built by the inventor of dynamite and laterally of the peace prize, Alfred Nobel. Where the story begins and ends, for four young girls who would be wrongly blamed for not only their own deaths, but that of six other colleagues—sisters Anne and Mary Brannan, Mary McAdam and Rachel Allison. Those four girls were part of the exclusively young female workers who manufactured the sticks of dynamite at the plant, ranging in age from 14 years old. After learning about the tragedy, Jack was inspired to create the play The Cartridge Girls of Hut No. 7, to write a wrong and get some justice for the girls. The storytelling, along with the dramatic displays by the cast, helped from the girls' descendants and local people, hard work from the crew, and funding from Playwright Studio Scotland and Creative Scotland gave voices to those four young girls. So what happened? The explosion, reported in the Ardrossan and Salkoats Herald on 9 May 1884, the day after the event, detailed the incident as follows. Yesterday morning, the works at Stevenson of the Nobel explosive company was a scene of a distressing and fatal occurrence. At about 20 minutes to 9 o'clock, No. 7 cartridge hut blew up. As many of our readers are aware, the huts in which the cartridges are made are scattered among the sandhills, a milder soul to the west of the town of Stevenson, and a short distance from the beach between Stevenson Burn and Irvine Harbour. There are usually four girls employed in each of these huts, and Mr McRoberts, the manager, states that yesterday morning, 15 girls in all were employed in them. In No. 7 hut, that in which the explosion occurred, the young women employed were Anne Brannan, Mary Brannan, Mary McAdam and Rachel Allison. The last name resided with her parents in co-winning, and the others were the residents of Stevenson. The force of the explosion was terrific, as well may be imagined, when it stated that the huts were supposed to contain two and a half kilowatts of dynamite each, as 127 kilograms. Not a vestige of hut 7 remains to indicate its former presence. Parts of the body of one of the girls was found over the boundary palisade towards the shore, and probably not less than 150 yards from the scene of the explosion. In hut No. 5, two girls lost their lives. Mary Ann Peters aged 19, Main Street Stevenson, and Martha McAllister of Ardears Square. In hut No. 6, the killed were Elizabeth Love and Martha Haggerty. In hut No. 8, two were also burned to death. Isabella Longridge of Stevenson and Isabella McAll of New Square. In each case, death was probably instantaneous, for the huts were not more than 15 feet square. The injured were Sarah Anne McAin, Jesse Craig, Mary Banks and Roseanne Murphy. The paper report went on. The cause of the explosion has not yet been ascertained. It's just possible that there may have been some lurking around amongst the girls, and it's probable that some irregularity or other amongst them was committed. This explosion was one of the worst industrial accidents to happen at Nobel Explosives Company, and the girls were getting blamed for it. The accident investigators report published several months later concluded that the explosion was actually caused by faulty equipment. The report, buried under other relevant news of the day details, a handle of one of the machines fell into a box of dynamite causing the accident. The incident affected not only the families and descendants of those involved, but the whole of Stevenson and the surrounding communities, who for generations had, until its closure in 1990, been tied to a single huge industrial plant. People still remember the extraordinary large chimneys in yellow smoke. Speak of family members and friends who tell stories of working in the plant. The memories live on, and so should the memory of our four cartridge girls—Anne Brannan, Mary Brannan, Mary McAdam and Rachel Allison—may they rest in power. We will now move to the open part of the debate, and I call Gillian Martin, to be followed by Jamie Greene, around four minutes please, Ms Martin. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I want to congratulate Ruth Maguire for bringing us our members' business debate today, and for drawing our attention to Jack Dixon's play, The Girls of Cartridge number seven. I didn't know anything about the cartridge girls, but this play has put a spotlight on them, and it's great that this spotlight has been amplified in the Scottish Parliament today. Young women who risk their lives every day, manufacturing dangerous deadly dynamite, telling the story of the explosion in 1884 that killed the ten women, and of the terrible injustice of four of those girls being blamed in death for the accident. The play and the film that went before it, which I found on YouTube, speaks to two issues that interests me greatly, and that's the lack of attention to women's voices and history. The importance of art in providing a platform for those voices and drawing attention to past injustices. Having now learned more about the cartridge girls, I thank Ruth Maguire for inviting Jamie Greene and Sasha to join us in the spirit of commemorating the two great aunties whose voices were lost, Mary and Annie. I'd also like to extend my thanks to Jack for writing a play that gives voice to them, and a real opportunity for the present community to understand their past. When we talk of dynamite, of course we know about Alfred Nobel, the inventor, the titan of industry, but how often have the people who worked with his dangerous invention ever really been mentioned? They've not been at the forefront of our memory, and history is told by the big figures striding on stilts over the many stories that can either disappear or be conveniently ignored to avoid the moral questions that they raise. It could be asked whether the stories of the ten women who died that day belonged to that latter category. As Ms Maguire mentioned, the Nobel explosive company had that hundred acre site for its factory in Ardea, and the only people who were producing the sticks of dynamite on those 30 huts were very young women, some as young as 14 children in effect. How the tragedy of the 10 decibels recorded in the newspaper of today, which Ms Maguire mentioned, heavily influenced by the trust of a factory manager's buck-passing finger-pointing for girls who just died and who couldn't tell their story? If we only had written history and no oral history, we'd only have that short, skewed account of the event and one that painted the hut number seven girls as villains effectively. What was the manager's suggestion of lurking around really if it wasn't deflection and buck-passing? It certainly has a great deal of moral dubiety around it. I thank the member for giving me a share of her commending of Jack Dicks and everyone involved in creating this fantastic play. I think that the point that the member is making is really important that class exploitation is something that's very much still alive in our present economy. The stories from our forefathers and foremothers, like they described in this play and articulated in this play, can tell us a valuable lesson about how we're aware of class exploitation in our current economy. Does the member agree with that? I thank Paul Sweeney for that, because I absolutely do agree with it. When I was looking at this, I was thinking about all the other industrial accidents that we've had even more recently, where people have tried to blame people. I put Alpha from my area as a classic example of that, where people were initially blamed until the truth really came out about what happened. I totally agree. The play is about an industry that affected thousands of working women and was such an integral part of the region's social fabric. As Paul Sweeney has alluded to, anyone can relate to, regardless of where they're from, stories of working women, working-class women, their lives, be it from the fish markets of Aberdeen, textile mills of Bute and Dundee, the munitions factory of Clydebank. They all need told, although I'm not from the area that Ruth Maguire mentioned, I'm not from out there, I'm not from near Irvine. I'm pleased to have joined you all today to have that opportunity to talk about the importance of working women's history and theatre as a way of shining light on it. Thank you very much for telling the story of the cartridge girls. Thank you, Ms Martin. I now call Jamie Greene to be followed by Katie Clark around four minutes, please, Mr Greene. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I thank Ruth Maguire for bringing today's members' debate. It's a real privilege and a pleasure to do so with members of the community in the public gallery today, especially. Also for raising awareness of two things. One is the event itself, given the timeframe which has passed since the tragedy, but, more importantly, the telling of that story through the play The Girls of Carterchatt No. 7. It's described as a play with songs, rather than just a play or, indeed, the musical, which I found interesting. The play itself, whilst detailing a tragic event from 1884, the explosion Heather Too mentioned, which tragically killed 10 young women there, what it does do, I think, is a number of things and I'll develop that as I go through my comments. The thing that struck me the most was that, despite the cause of the explosion not being immediately clear at the time, it was quite clear that a narrative has been painted very quickly in the days after. The address in the saw quotes Herald, a newspaper which I'm glad still exists to this day, in which I have a collamen, I have to say, expressed the matter in concerning ways. The cause of the explosion, it says, has not yet been ascertained. It's just possible that there may have been some larking around amongst the girls, and it's probable that some irregularity, whatever that means, or other amongst them was committed. I mean, really pinning the blame on these pure young women, indeed children, as Gillian Martin has just put it. I'd like to think these the address in Herald would not report and jump to such inclusions in the way that it did at the time, but it is clear that the false accusations coming out of management at the factor at the time were in a complete effort to deflect blame, something that was completely put to bed by the accident investigation report later as it revealed. The real cause of the explosion was faulty equipment, and that can be put down to a number of factors. As is often the case, when something is said in public, it is believed and it's very hard to rewrite history. The voices of those young victims was never really cleared up until now, and it's for that reason, I believe, that Jack Dixon wanted to restore the reputation of these young women, give them a voice. They died tragically through no fault of their own, and they have now no voice to defend themselves. Well, that voice has been restored and it's been done so well, and I think we can commend him for that, but not just that. Putting on a play like this isn't easy at the best of times, but, like so many events in the theatre and the arts of the last few years, it had to be postponed because of the pandemic. It's not been easy to produce anything, but despite all those hurdles, we finally had a chance to put on his play at the Ardir Community Centre earlier this year. I think that the play had to have two components. The first is that the story of the victims was also told, with particular focus on their personalities as people and their lives before the accident, because people are often defined by the tragedies in which their names are associated with them. It's so easy to forget that they were individuals and had lives up until that point. However, the second point was really that this play was firmly rooted in the local community. The noble factory later, which became ICI, was a major part of local life. It employed 13,000 people at its peak, and it was really a fundamental part of the community's economic development and, pretty much, daily routine for generations. I think that the community still lives in the shadow of that business. By hosting the play in the Ardir Community Centre and performing it in local schools, I think that that brought a live and a reawakening of the ICI to a whole new generation of young people in Ayrshire. The reviews of the play have been really positive. The Irvine Herald reported that the production team put on a brilliant show with well-timed mood lighting and spine-tingling sound effects. The best review that I could find was from local resident Doris Robertson, who said that the show was very professional and totally absorbing storylines of these remarkable girls. I think that remarkable is a phrase that we should use. It's a ringing endorsement if ever there was one. I'm sorry that I didn't get to see the play, but I'm sure that, as a Parliament, we all agree that the hard work of the writer, Jack Dixon, director Mary McCluskey, composer Hilary Blukes, as well as the amazing and dedicated cast and team of volunteers who brought to life this important story, we congratulate them on their success, we thank them for it and I hope that these young girls have had their voice fully restored and exonerated and we now do so today in the Scottish Parliament. Thank you. Thank you, Mr Greene. I now call Katie Clark, who will be the last speaker before I ask the minister to respond around four minutes, please, Ms Clark. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and it's a pleasure to take this opportunity to congratulate Ruth Maguire on securing this debate, to thank and to congratulate Jack Dixon, who I understand is a good comrade, for the research that was involved in what is a chronicling of working-class history, of bringing this story to the chamber today, but also documenting the exploitative and grinding working conditions that existed in this plant, but unfortunately in many workplaces throughout Ayrshire and indeed throughout Scotland, where there were brutal grinding poverty. The health and safety concerns that clearly existed then are thankfully more serious than exist today, but, as has already been said, we still have a situation where health and safety remain a significant problem in many workplaces. As has been said by Jamie Greene, it was very much guilty until proved innocent and I think that the work that has been done here must be something that is welcomed by families and by local communities and I'm very pleased that some of the family are able to be here today. Because the tragic story of the deaths of these girls and women is something that it is important that we remember, but I think it's also important that we understand the important role that our dear had in the North Ayrshire community. As has been said, it was reputed to be the largest explosive factory in the world and at its height 13,000 people were employed there and many people in North Ayrshire are former employees or no former employees and it's very much something that's still spoken about. The impact on the community not just in the three towns but all over North Ayrshire with work buses travelling, bringing workers to the site. There are now only a few hundred workers at the site at Kimring which still produces amunitions, but there's no doubt that the loss of that workplace is still being felt in the three towns and beyond and indeed the closure of other large employers such as Glengarnyc, Steel Plant and the closure of the mines in the 1980s are still being felt throughout Ayrshire. So it's a mixed story that I think working class communities have to tell these massive employers that did bring so much wealth not necessarily to the individuals that worked there but to Scotland as a whole that have gone and the massive challenges that that has created but also the importance that we remember and understand the brutal conditions that people worked in because the conditions that are dear and in many places of employment in the 1980s were appalling and it's only through the struggle of working class communities and the creation of the trade union movement that that began to change but that story is a story of individuals and of individuals involved in struggle and having to face exploitation and this explosion which killed 10 women one of whom was only 14 is a story that would not have been heard if it wasn't for those that have done the research that have documented the evidence that have listened to the oral stories that still existed and have put together this piece of work that we are discussing today so I congratulate all involved in this production these stories need to be heard we need to learn the lessons of the past we need to recognise what we've been through and we need to understand also what that means for us today in terms of the values of our society what kind of society we want to live in and how we recognise the changes that have been made which mean that hopefully disasters of this skill will not happen again but that we recognise that the only way that we will ensure that happens is if we understand our history and fight to make sure that we listen to the lessons and make sure that we value the lives of all in society and for that reason I'm pleased to contribute and to congratulate all those that have brought this issue before us thank you miss Clark and I now call on minister neal gray to respond to the debate around seven minutes please minister thank you Presiding Officer I'm very grateful and congratulate my colleague Ruth Maguire for bringing forward this motion for securing the debate this afternoon and for setting out so vividly as she did the tragedy and injustice the play is based on but also for supporting her community in bringing this to life I would also like to thank the various speakers for their valuable and interesting contributions. Gillian Martin, Jamie Greene, we just heard Katie Clark and also Paul Sweeney via an intervention. Today we commemorate 150 years of Nobel explosives on the Ardir Peninsula at Stevenston in North Ayrshire. We also celebrate the power of the performing arts to bring to life important and largely forgotten historic events for modern audiences. Alfred Nobel established the British Dynamite Factory in 1871 at Ardir. It was the first factory of this type in the UK and became the largest explosive factory in the world. At its peak it was believed to have employed around 13,000 people from the local area making it the largest employer. Its success contributed to increased fortunes of Ayrshire towns of Stevenston, Irvine, Saltcoats, Ardrossan and Irvine. The factory developed a wide range of high explosives that revolutionised the mining and engineering industries. It provided essential minerals and raw materials and assisted in the development of harbours, canals, railways, roads and water and electricity supplies. By the 1990s, Ardir's fortunes had declined, accelerated by the demise of the British deep coal mining industry, and changing patterns in international trade and competition led to the closure of most of the factory. Today, little, if anything, remains of the original 1871 factory. This debate celebrates the play Girls of cartridge hut number seven by cartridge girls, which shines a light on an industrial accident at the Nobel's explosive factory in Ardir in 1884. This tragic event took the lives of 10 young women and girls, one as young as 14 years of age. They were involved in making dynamite cartridges for blasting purposes, and the play focuses on the four girls in cartridge hut number seven, who were killed. Today, we honour the ultimate sacrifices that sisters Mary and Annie Brannan, Mary McAdam and Rachel Allison made while working at Nobel's factory so many years ago, but also to the others mentioned by Ruth Maguire in her speech. Mary Brannan and Rachel Allison were 18, Annie Brannan and Mary McAdam were 20. This was the age at which many girls at that time were likely to marry and therefore be required to leave the factory. Young and married girls and women were employed in preference to men and boys, apparently, due to their speed in learning the job and for their manual dexterity in handling such volatile materials. It's on the record from that time that, again, apparently incredibly, they asked for lower wages than men and boys. They were paid by piecework and a good full-time female worker could earn 15 shillings a week in the 1880s. Such a devastating workplace accident of this type had never happened before in Scotland or the rest of the UK. Protecting the safety and well-being of staff at work and closing the gender pay gap clearly remains priorities for us and for employers today. The play draws on historical, of course. Thank you very much. I hope that I can beg the chamber's perseverance with me today. I was not a cartridge hut girl, but I did work in a dare. I was there for a year as part of my degree and worked on the Nobel's site. I remember it very well. I was just sitting here thinking about all the things that I could not walk into my workplace with, such as phones, class and jewellery. In going from the offices there, I would have to almost change my entire appearance before walking into the site and how strong the health and safety message was at that time. I have been absolutely enthralled by today. I thank Jack Dixon for his work in this area. I also remember that one of the last innovations that our dear was around safety detonators, which would make mining much safer, because it would have prevented some of the accidental detonations. However, what I was struck by at the time was that this product did not really take off because outside of the UK and in other areas of the world, the safety of the workers was not considered a priority in mining throughout the world. In that sense of solidarity internationally when we know that well things have improved here, we cannot not recognise that safety in other areas of the world is bad, as it was, if not worse than some of the conditions that we have here. Through works like Jack Dixon's play and the work that has been done in the community, we cannot ever take for granted, and we just heard about the Piper Alpha disaster as well this afternoon. We cannot ever take for granted the strives that have been made to make workplaces safer, and as the convener of the Cross-Pattery Group on Action Prevention and Safety Awareness, she would not want me to say anything other than how important it is that we value the workers' safety and that we always strive to make workplaces more safe going forward. Minister. I think it's entirely appropriate that that intervention was given the applause that it was, because thanks to your indulgence, Presiding Officer, it allowed for a fantastic insight into working at the factory, but also comparing and contrasting the working environment that sadly these girls were forced to endure, and more modern day practices, and Claire Adamson quite rightly and concomender for her work on health and safety, quite rightly says that it's nothing, it's these practices that we should not take for granted and will continue to work to endeavour to ensure that we do everything we can to make employment as safe as possible going forward. The play draws on historical sources from the time, as well as consultation with the community more recently. The report of Her Majesty's Inspector of Explosives from that time states that the work by the girls and women in the cartridge huts was much sought after in the neighbourhood and that the occupation is healthy and clean. Like other first-hand testimonies I and colleagues have quoted today, they at least raise an eyebrow in a more modern view of workers' rights and gender equality. The inspector went on to say that nitroglycerin is poisonous, and a person handling it for the first time is liable to a severe headache with violent sickness. But after the system has been saturated with the poison it may be handled without any apparent ill effects. Indeed, the girls employed in the factory have better complexions and are more healthy generally than those in the district who are not so employed. In his report on the accident he also said that as a matter of fact the girls employed in the huts were in the habit of sky larking when the foreman's back was turned and that it was found very difficult to prevent this practice. The report recommended improved supervision of the girls and absolved the employers of any culpability for the explosion. Compounding the injustice and tragedy is the scapegoating of the girls. Indeed, the report went on to say that whether the fall of a machine or the factor and fall of a lever handle or, as I consider improbable, some other cause, such as a temporary defect in the working of a machine, be the real explanation of this disaster. It does not appear that any blame can be attached to Nobel's explosive company, etc. How far one of the girls was to blame for that present accident from the rougher and proper use of her machine is a matter for conjecture only. As in all the huts were killed, it is unnecessary for me to pursue further that part of the question. During the development of the play, women who worked at the factory long after the tragedy of 1884 reported on the youthful exuberance and camaraderie of the girls and women at the factory. They reveled in singing along to the radio at high volume while working on night shifts, while also handling high-risk materials. It is therefore fitting that the play uses theatre and music to bring to life in technicolor and song the realities of these people's hazardous working lives. That oral testimony of our economic, industrial and social history is invaluable. It brings stories to new generations and audiences which need to be told. Written by Jack Dixon and directed by Mary McCluskey with Musical Direction and Arrangement by Hilary Brooks, the play features a cast of professional and amateur actors. I pay tribute to the strong community involvement at the heart of this production. I am pleased that Creative Scotland provided support for the development of the production and consultation with, for and in the community. The play was performed in May this year in the RDR community centre to enthusiastic audiences and excellent reviews. Audience members have commented on the professionalism of the cast and crew and how moving and well-researched the play is. Approximately 2,000 people attended the 10 performances that took place over five days. More recently, Jack Dixon took part in an event at North Ayrshire's annual book festival Tide Lines in Irvine. At this event last week, he spoke about what inspired him to write the play and why local stories of this kind matter to him and why capturing these stories is so critical. While researching the play, Jack Dixon realised that there was a large interest amongst the local communities and people from further afield who had a connection to the area. He also produced a popular video called Shifting Sands, which examined the past, present and future of the RDR peninsula. That has been viewed over 10,000 times. Such was the reach of the play that family members of the young girls at the centre of the play contacted Jack to share what they knew of their ancestors. They agreed to having their stories recorded, and those are now deposited within North Ayrshire Council's heritage archive where they will be preserved for future generations. I very much welcome the living descendants of the girls here today, Graham and Sersha, as well as Jack and others from the community. I wish to extend my warmest congratulations to everyone involved in the production for creating and staging this pivotal story, and I wish to thank everyone who has taken part in today's debate. I am very pleased to see our guests in the gallery, and I do have to say, as a matter of form, that you are not allowed to clap, but the deed has been done. I am sure that we are all very pleased to see you. That concludes the debate, and I suspend this meeting until 2.30pm.