Protester’s cranes of peace land in Melrose on 75th anniversary

CND member Kath McDonald hangs her peace cranes on the Melrose noticeboard.

Hiroshima was bombed on August 6, 1945, and Nagasaki three days later, effectively bringing an end to the Second World War.

Local CND member, yoga instructor Kath McDonald, has fought all her life for the cause of nuclear disarmament.

She said: “I’m concerned that weapons, which are much more powerful than those used in 1945, are still being manufactured and are stored in Scotland, ready for immediate use.

Kath has made 8,000 of the origami cranes for a national exhibition in Edinburgh.

“The consequences of their use, either by intention or by accident, would cause devastation of the planet and our resources would be better employed in finding ways to live in peace and harmony with other people, and with the environment.”

Kath, who lives in Newstead, had single-handedly made around 8,000 origami cranes for an exhibition of 140,000 of them at the Edinburgh Festival this year.

That event was postponed due to the coronavirus lockdown, but another event has been planned for August 2021.

Kath said: “Cranes have been made over the past few years by many contributors from workshops in Edinburgh as well as from further afield, and the significant number has been achieved – the significance being that 140,000 people were killed in the immediate aftermath of the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima.”

Kath tied some cranes to the information sign in Melrose’s Market Place at the weekend to mark the anniversary.

She added: “I have no plans to hang up any more in the Borders, but may do so again next year to publicise the exhibition.

“Four years ago we hung about 100 strings of cranes all over the Borders, with information about crane folding workshops and about the nuclear convoys which carry the nuclear warheads through the Borders on their way to Coulport in Scotland from Boroughfield in England where they are manufactured and serviced.”