19
CULTURE • LITERATURE • ART • EVENTS • MUSIC • MUSEUMS...
Near death
experiences
Coastal crew hits the mark
Celebrating 10 years in a row for Eskmuthe
Grand opening
for the Wee
Spoke Hub
Irvine Welsh documentary tells us how he
escaped the grim reaper and turned
his diaries into bestselling books
By DAVID LEEESKMUTHE ROWING Club is celebrating its
10th birthday in style - with an exhibition at
Musselburgh Museum and the opening of its
very own boatshed.
The exhibition tells the story of how the new
sport of coastal rowing arrived in Musselburgh,
and the building of two rowing boats (called St
Ayles skiffs) - Honesty and Steedie Falconer.
Honesty was launched in August 2013, named
after the Honest Toun, while Steedie Falconer- named after one of the last surviving fishwives
of Fisherrow - entered the water in 2015. Steedie
died when the boat was being built, aged 95 - and
by complete chance the boat was given the
number 95 as part of the coastal rowing fleet.
The exhibition tells the history of coastal
rowing and shows how St Ayles skiffs are built - using a kit, but still requiring considerable skill
- and also features a small-scale model of the
skiff, built by club member Graham Irvine.
The title of the exhibition is To The Metal
Marker and Beyond, a tribute to the early days of
the club, as Eskmuthe Rowing Club chair
Gaynor Allen explained.
"All of the original members of the club were
new to rowing and we saw the metal marker (at
the rear of Booker as the waters of Musselburgh
flow into Edinburgh) as a far enough distance to
row," she said.
"Gradually, we became more confident and
would row to Portobello to land on the beach- and then started going further and further!"
The exhibition features images of some of
Eskmuthe's longest adventures - including a
25km race up the River Tyne in Newcastle, a
22km race on the Clyde in Glasgow and long
rows to North Berwick and Queensferry - as well
as two world championships.
Eskmuthe has taken part in the “SkiffieWorlds”
world championships in Stranraer in 2019 and
Kortgene in the Netherlands in 2022. It also
participates regularly in competitions far and wide - from Portobello, Port Seton, North Berwick and
Dunbar to as far away as Ullapool, where club
members competed just a few weeks ago.
Gaynor added: "The club has grown over the
years and we now have 75 members, with a
long waiting list. Two of our 'members' in full
club kit (mannequins) are at the exhibition every
day, while current members will be on hand to
talk to visitors. We're pleased to hear that the
exhibition has got off to a good start and has
been very popular."
In the autumn, Eskmuthe will have the officialopening of its new boatshed, in the Back Sands
car park at Fisherrow, where it will carry out boat
repairs and maintenance and hold meetings in
its club room.
The exhibition is open at Musselburgh
Museum, 65 High Street, on Thursday, Friday
and Saturday from 10.30am-4pm until Saturday
23 September.Members of Eskmuthe
Rowing ClubBy GEORGE MAIRIRVINE WELSH was once almost
killed when a double decker bus he
was travelling on to watch his
beloved Hibs crashed and he was
hurled through the front windscreen
onto the motorway.
The Trainspotting author said the
fact he was drunk saved him. The
incident, in which another football
fan died, was a turning point for
Welsh as he received £2,000 in
compensation which helped himbuy his first flat in London, where he
wrote diaries that would eventually
become his classic first novel,
Trainspotting.
The author revealed all in a new
feature length documentary,
"Choose Irvine Welsh", which had its
world premiere at the Edinburgh
International Film Festival (EIFF).
Speaking in the film, he said: "The
bus crash was one of my near death
experiences. I've had quite a few of
these bastards.
"We were on a bus going to a Hibs(versus) Dundee United game and
the bus blew over in the wind,
which is a strange thing to happen
to a bus.
"I was on the top deck of it. One
guy, Mark McGhee, was killed. The
bus fell over and smashed up and
skited along the motorway.
"A pal of mine, Sandy Macnair,
was injured as well and he was in
the Bridge of Earn hospital two
miles away... we used to meet in our
dressing gown and slippers.
"I got some money for it, whichwas a good thing for me because it
meant I could get on the property
ladder. I decided to use it to buy a
flat in Amhurst Road (in London).
"Two grand - this was in the early
eighties - was quite decent money
then, it felt like a decent wage."
Welsh said he was "already quite
druggie" and had "self-destructive
tendencies", but the flat gave him "a
bit of stability". He stumbled into a
council desk job and wrote
Trainspotting as "an antidote" to the
being "a 9-to-5-type forever".THE WEE SPOKE Hub (by SHRUB
Coop), a pioneering bike shop
and cycling advocacy space
based in the city centre, will have
its grand reopening event on 9
September. This will take place at
the newly revamped space
located at 13 Guthrie Street.
Cycling enthusiasts,
environmental advocates, and
urban explorers are invited to
join in on the festivities.
More than just a bike shop, it’s
a community-focused cycling
hub dedicated to promoting
cycling as a sustainable and
healthy mode of transportation.
With a mission to make cycling
culture more accessible and
advocate for cycling
infrastructure, the Wee Spoke
Hub is set to redefine urban
mobility in Edinburgh. There will
be a Social Led Ride taking a
journey through the city streets,
experiencing the joy of cycling
together. The ride will be led
by the newly appointed Wee
Spoke Hub Coordinator,
Samuel Barnfather.
Instagram @weespokehub