Cottiers is a theatre located in Glasgow, Scotland. It also operates as a bar and restaurant. Cottiers occupies the building of the 19th-century former Dowanhill Parish Church.
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The building includes a collection of notable frescoes and stained glass windows by Daniel Cottier. The building was renamed Cottiers in honour of Daniel Cottier after the church was converted into a theatre. "History", Cottiers. Retrieved on 16 August 2020.
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Retrieved on 16 August 2020. The building was restored during numerous phases starting from the 1980s and going as far as 2012. "Restoration", Cottiers. Retrieved on 16 August 2020.
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Nothing but Hope and Passion. 30 March 2017. Retrieved 13 July 2018. On 11 October 2016, PopMatters premiered a video of a live performance of "Do I Hear" by Duncan and his backing band at the Cottiers venue in Glasgow, filmed by Plumb and Ben Cox.
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A few Catholics managed to hold their estates with the collaboration of friendly Protestants; the remainder gradually sank to the level of cottiers and day-labourers, reduced to a standard of living far below what they had been used to. Many Catholics chose to emigrate in the hopes of finding a more congenial environment.
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During the 19th century, there were many cases of middlemen renting the land and then sub-letting on conacre to desperate landless labourers or cottiers at a high profit.A Dictionary of Irish History, D.J.Hickey & J.E.Doherty, Gill and Macmillan, Dublin, 1980. Pp. page 86. In March 2009, a ruling by the Court of Appeal removed tax relief on land with development potential which has been let under conacre.
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The cottier existed at subsistence level because of high rents and the competition for land and labour. The more prosperous cottier worked for his landlord and received cash after rent and other expenses were deducted. There was no incentive to improve a land holding, as any such improvement usually prompted a rent increase. During the early decades of the nineteenth century, the situation for cottiers worsened considerably as the population continued to expand.
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The Great Hunger: Ireland 1845–1849 (1962), London, Hamish Hamilton: 31 British politicians such as the Prime Minister Robert Peel were at this time wedded to the economic policy of laissez-faire, which argued against state intervention. While funds were raised by private individuals and charities, lack of adequate action let the problem become a catastrophe. Cottiers (or farm labourers) were largely wiped out during what is known in Ireland as the "Great Hunger".
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The Theatre also contains several stained glass windows by Cottier including Miriam and David (1867) and a rose window. FACT works to return important redundant Victorian buildings to a meaningful use and restore them in accordance with the highest conservation standards.See Cottiers in Context: Daniel Cottier, William Leiper and Dowanhill Church, Glasgow published by Historic Environment Scotland for a comprehensive overview Four fine examples of his work may be found in Holy Trinity Church, Nice, France.
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Tenants often sub-rented small plots on a yearly basis from local farmers paying for them by labor service by a system, known as conacre, most without any lease or land rights. Irish smallholders were indistinguishable from the cottiers of England. The abuse of tenant farmers led to widespread emigration to the United States and the colonies and was a key factor within the Home Rule Movement. They also underlined a deterioration in Protestant- Catholic relationships, although there were notable elements of cooperation in reform attempts such as the Tenant Right League of the 1850s.
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354Cecil Woodham-Smith. The Great Hunger: Ireland 1845–1849 (1962), London, Hamish Hamilton: 31 While government funds were supplemented by private individuals and charities, and aid from the United States, it was not enough to avert a major catastrophe. Cottiers (or farm labourers) were largely wiped out during what is known in Ireland as the "Great Hunger". A significant minority elected Unionists, who championed the Union. A Church of Ireland (Anglican) barrister Isaac Butt (1813–79), built a new moderate nationalist movement, the Home Rule League, in the 1870s.
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The next valley to be crossed is Glensoulan which, although uninhabited today, before the Great Famine of the 1840s was home to a small population of cottiers and faint traces of their farms can still be seen in the wintertime when the bracken is low. Crossing the River Dargle, the trail ascends the eastern shoulder of Djouce mountain. Here, the heathland gives way to wetter blanket bog. Bogland shares a number of plant and animal species with heathland but is also a habitat for species of bog cotton as well as bog asphodel, sedges (which contribute to the formation of peat) and bog moss.
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In the decades following the Great Famine, rises in agricultural prices were not matched by rent increases, leading to an increase in the tenant's stake in the farm, which may have risen to as much as 10–20 years of rent. The existence of tenant right was accepted by creditors who would extend loans with the tenant right as collateral. During the Great Famine (1845–1849), the poorest cottiers and agricultural labourers died or were forced to emigrate, freeing up land that was purchased by larger farmers. In 1850, the Tenant Right League briefly dominated Irish politics with the demand for free sale, fixity of tenure, and fair rent.
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The character, Captain Rock, is fictional but the history is in earnest. When it catches up with the narrator in the late Penal Law era, his family has been reduced to the "class of wretched cottiers". Exposed to the voracious demands of spendthrift Anglo-Irish landlords (pilloried by Maria Edgeworth), both father and son assume captaincies among the "White-boys, Oak- boys, and Hearts-of Steel", the tenant conspiracies that attack tax collectors, terrorise the landlords' agents and violently resist evictions.from Memoirs of Captain Rock, Book the Second, Chapter I, This low- level agrarian warfare continued through, and beyond, the Great Irish Famine of the 1840s.
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Tenancy could be either in perpetuityTenure was based upon customary law, which was eroded by the enclosure acts and others in the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. or rotated by the owners. Cottiers (cottagers) held much less land. The 17th century to the early 19th century witnessed the growth of large estates, and the opportunity for a farmer to hold land other than by tenancy was significantly reduced, with the result that by the 19th century about 90% of agricultural land area and holdings were tenanted, although these figures declined markedly after World War II, to around 60% in 1950, and only 35% of agricultural land area in 1994.
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At this time British politicians such as the Prime Minister Robert Peel were wedded to a strict laissez-faire economic policy, which argued against state intervention of any sort. While some money was raised by private individuals and charities (Native Americans sent supplies, while Queen Victoria personally donated £1,000) British government inaction (or at least inadequate action) led to a problem becoming a catastrophe; the class of cottiers or farm labourers was virtually wiped out. The famine spawned the second mass wave of Irish immigration to the United States, the first having been the migrations of the 18th century. There was also a large amount of emigration to England, Scotland, Canada, and Australia.
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The swaying reeds in particular would seem to suggest that Cottier may well have been a significant influence on Tiffany before Tiffany returned the compliment as it were, and Cottier brought some of his ideas back into his own artistic creations in Scotland. There are several Cottier stained glass windows and a decorative interior scheme situated in Glasgow's West End which are cared for by Four Acres Charitable Trust (FACT). FACT was founded in 1983 and acquired Cottiers Theatre, then Dowanhill Church, in 1984. The former Dowanhill Church, built in 1865 by William Leiper (1839-1916) and is an internationally important Category ‘A’ listed building due to its decorative scheme designed by Cottier.
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When potato blight hit the island in 1846, much of the peasant population lost their staple food as cash crops were reserved for export to Great Britain.Christine Kinealy, This Great Calamity: The Irish Famine 1845–52, Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1994. p354Cecil Woodham-Smith, The Great Hunger: Ireland 1845–1849 (1962), p 31 While large sums for relief were raised by private individuals and charities, lack of adequate action by a Government that believed in laissez-faire policies alongside the protectionist Corn Laws that made wheat unaffordable, let the problem become a catastrophe. The class of cottiers or farm labourers was virtually wiped out though death and emigration, in what became known in Britain as 'The Irish Potato Famine' and in Ireland as the Great Hunger.
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According to the Encyclopedia of Irish History and Culture, "(t)heir numbers were greatest during the difficult years of the 1820s and 1830s. On the whole, the seasonal workers were people who had close ties to the land: small farmers, cottiers, agricultural laborers, and generally poor people with family responsibilities and no means of earning a living at home. Women began to participate as workers to an important degree only in the middle of the nineteenth century, in the Scottish potato fields. Even before this, they provided support for the men by traveling with them; they begged for food and money to keep themselves and their children alive until the men returned home, and they undertook and organized essential farm work back in Ireland, thereby maintaining the small holding of land as the family home".
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Frances Healy (born 24 August 1970) is an Irish actress, comedian, radio personality and TV presenter. She graduated from Trinity College, Dublin in 1999. Theatre performances include “The First Cosmonaut” with Blue Raincoat Theatre; “The Candidate” at The Savoy theatre Limerick and Bewleys Café Dublin; “The Big Beautiful Woman”, as part of Limerick City of Culture 2014; “Desert Storm” and “Misterman” at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music ,“The Birds” at The Abbey, “Vagina Monologues” and “Her Big Chance” at The Cottiers Theatre Glasgow and was part of Limericks “favourite Play” the critically acclaimed “Alone It Stands” by John Breen on the Australian tour. Film and television credits include “Moone Boy” for SKY Television. “A Time to Dance” (BBC), “River City” (BBC) “Taggart”, (ITV) “Camera Café”, “Fair City” (RTE) and “The Magdalene Sisters”, (MIRAMAX) by Peter Mullen in which she played Sr. Jude.
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