Broadside entitled 'Rioting!!'

Commentary

This account begins, 'A Full and Particular Account of these Great Riots and Mobs that took place at Dundee, on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday last, the 6th, 7th and 8th July, 1830, when Three men lost their Lives, and about 200 severely wounded! By an Eye-witness.' It was printed in Edinburgh for William Robertson.

The rioting reported in this broadside apparently started following an argument, between a Scotsman known as Heron and an Irishman named Thurrel, over 'the fatal battle between Sandy Mckay and Symon Burn'. The battle referred to was a boxing match, which took place on 2 June 1830 at Salcey Green, between Simon Byrne, the Champion of Ireland, and Alexander (Sandy) Mckay, the Champion of Scotland. Byrne was arrested for the murder of McKay, who died of brain damage the day after the fight. Following a trial weighted in his favour, however, the jury returned a not guilty verdict and Byrne walked free. Ironically, Byrne died in a fight with James 'Deaf' Burke, at St. Albans, Hertfordshire, on 2nd June 1833.

Broadsides are single sheets of paper, printed on one side, to be read unfolded. They carried public information such as proclamations as well as ballads and news of the day. Cheaply available, they were sold on the streets by pedlars and chapmen. Broadsides offer a valuable insight into many aspects of the society they were published in, and the National Library of Scotland holds over 250,000 of them.

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