Paddy Donnelly

Patrick "Paddy" Donnelly, who has died aged 90, was one of the last of his generation of Clydeside activists, and was involved in 1971's UCS work-in.

He was born Harry Nino Cole in Glasgow, the son of Lillian Iona Cole, a concert hall artiste from Cardiff and Genarro Fattorini, a captain in the Italian Army. Adopted by an Irish couple, Pat and Annie Donnelly, he spent a poor but happy childhood in the Gorbals.

From an early age he loved music. Seeing a violin in a pawnshop aged eight, he worked for local Jewish families lighting fires on Saturdays, and at St Enoch Station carrying luggage, to earn money to "pay up" for the instrument. After some weeks, the kindly pawnbroker presented the violin to him. He became a versatile musician, learning the violin and teaching himself the mandolin, harp, concertina and harmonica.

When he was 14, he tried to join the merchant navy but was rejected due to his age. However, he obtained a membership card from the local Seaman's Union branch and was able to convince them that he was born in 1920 and not 1922. He pawned his cherished violin and bought the necessary uniform and seaboots for his new career as a deck hand in the merchant navy. His previous two years as a Sea Cadet had taught him the rudiments of seamanship and he sailed with the Baron Line to New York, Halifax Nova Scotia, and the West Indies. He was also proud to sail with the Anchor Line, as one of his lifetime heroes was the legendary mariner and author Commodore David Bone of that company.

Mr Donnelly learned of his Italian ancestry in his late teens – and that a Fattorini ancestor had been a concert pianist. He travelled to Italy regularly, meeting family there, and after much searching learned his inheritance there had been lost in the Second World War.

In 1939 he became a shipwright at Fairfields Shipyard in Govan and being in a reserved occupation spent the war building ships for the Royal Navy (firewatching too at Glasgow University). After the war he married his childhood sweetheart Mamie Holland and together they had six children.

He continued to pursue his career in the merchant navy but as his family grew up he returned to work in Fairfields as a shipwright. Like most characters in the shipyards during this time he had earned himself a nickname. He was known as the Volga Boatman. This not only referred to his love of music, it followed an incident where he was carrying out an external repair to a ship in the yard when his oarless rowing boat slipped its mooring and to the endless mirth of his fellow tradesmen, he floated helplessly down the Clyde. It was during this period that he was reprimanded by his employers for "jumpin' the wa'" (leaving the shipyard without permission at lunchtime); although the bosses noted that he was attending classical music sessions at Kelvingrove and political lectures at Glasgow University, whilst other "wa'" jumpers headed for the pubs on Govan Road.

When there was no work in the Clyde shipyards, he took his skills elsewhere and worked at the Blom and Voss shipyard in Hamburg and on major construction projects as a journeyman carpenter, including Browning Barracks in Aldershot, the BP oil refinery in Southampton and the hydro electric dam at Ben Cruachan in Argyllshire.

He had returned to Fairfields when the Conservative Government of Edward Heath threatened to close the yard. As a shop steward he supported the move to occupy the shipyard and although he was not a member of the Communist Party, he supported the views on nationalisation and workers' control of leading lights Jimmy Reid, Jimmy Airlie and Sammy Barr. The work-in gained widespread support from across the world and eventually the Government relented and Upper Clyde Shipbuilders became Govan Shipbuilders with a major injection of investment capital.

Mr Donnelly rose to be foreman in charge of the Goliath Crane Kamag and convener of the shop steward committee for finishing trades. One of his contemporaries at the time was Pat McCrystal, a fellow shipwright and tireless campaigner for compensation for shipyards workers who had suffered from the effects of asbestos dust, an occupational hazard at the time. In his capacity as a shop steward, he campaigned alongside Mr Donnelly until he himself succumbed and was diagnosed with asbestosis. Following a long legal battle Mr Donnelly won his case at the High Court in Edinburgh and won a pension of £8 a week.

Retiring early from Fairfield's on health grounds, he retrained as a community worker and helped to form the Darnley Community Association. He was treasurer then secretary of the Pollok Labour Party, and friends with local MP and community stalwart the late Jimmy Dunnachie.

Determined that the local housing association and Glasgow City Council would not repeat the horrendous planning mistakes of the 1950s and 1960s, he led a campaign to ensure the residents of Darnley would enjoy the local shopping, leisure and community based-facilities that had eluded the tenants of the vast housing estates such as Easterhouse and Drumchapel with all of the attendant social problems that followed. He successfully lobbied to have a library built on the estate and was a founder member of the bowling club, persuading Glasgow City Council to fund the building of the clubhouse and greens. He also campaigned against the poll tax.

Other projects included the preservation of Darnley Mill Farm and the preservation of The Darnley Sycamore, a tree on Nitshill Road where according to local legend Lord Darnley, King Consort of Scotland and spouse of Mary Queen of Scots, was nursed by Mary whilst they where residing at nearby Crookston Castle.

Mr Donnelly was a well-known figure around Darnley and he promoted his passion for music in the local primary school by begging and borrowing musical instruments from wherever he could find them and teaching the guitar and violin to local children and adults.

He was immensely proud of his children Ann, Mary, JJ, James, Kate and Patricia, his daughters and sons in law, his nine grandchildren and four great-grand-children, who survive him.

In his later years he could be seen on his disabled buggy with his red bobble hat making his way up Nitshill Road to do his shopping at Sainsbury's.