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DOUCE EDINA DISORDERED – PART 1

Submitted by Editor on

The Daily Mail may view recent student disorder as a first sign of civilisation's imminent collapse south of the border, but the Spurtle is more sanguine north.

Riotous assembly here in Edinburgh has a long history, so long indeed that in some ways it seems more the norm than the exception.

Perhaps City of Edinburgh Council should now acknowledge occasional mob rule as a charming folk tradition, take steps to promote it, and commence an aggressive PR campaign marketing unruliness as an international year-round tourist attraction.

We offer a potted history. Analysis will follow.

1559  Mobs attack churches and monasteries

1561  Craft riots

1580  Riot by schoolboys

1587  Riot by schoolboys

1596  Anti-King James VI riots

1608  Riots

1637  'Jenny Geddes' riot

1664  Riots against Duty on Cloth

1672  Lord Provost deposed by riot

1681  Mob burns house of Provost Dick

1682  Riot against pressganging

1688  Town Guard and mob sack Holyrood

          Sack of Roslin by mob

1700  Mob frees prisoners from gaol

1716  Mob loots Leith Customshouse

1736  Porteous riot

1742  Riot against bodysnatchers

1756  Riot against impressement into the Army

1760  Footmen riot in the theatre

1767  Theatre Royal: Stayley Riot

1763  Meal riots

1779  Anti-Catholic riot

1784  Canonmills distillery riot

1792  Riot to celebrate the King's birthday

1796  Riot to celebrate the King's birthday

1800  Meal riots

1801  Meal riots

1811  Hogmanay riot

1812  New Year riots

          Meal riot

1814  Town Guard fight Soldiers

1815  High Street riot

1823  Riot of Scots v. Irish at Musselburgh Races

1829  Anti-Irish riot

1831  MPs' re-election riots

1838  Student snowball riot

1840  Riot of navvies against police in Dalkeith

1842  Miners riot

1846  Navvies riot against the police

          Heriot's School riot

1847  Chartist and Annuity Tax riots

1848  Chartist riots

1855  Riot in Meadows to open road

1868  Leith election riot

1871  Baby-farming riots in Portobello

1900  Pro-Boer meeting riot

1935  Riots against Catholics

1936  Riot against Catholics

1940  Riots against Italians

1959  Riot by Teddyboys at Wallyford

1994  Riots in Craigmillar

2005  G-8 protests turn nasty

 

 

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