Makes you proud…..that our wee country can produce a footballing legend like Sir Alex Ferguson. His retirement at the age of 71 after 26 glorious years at Manchester United, has earned him
Sir Alex Ferguson
the tributes he deserves as the best football manager the game has ever seen. Even before he won his 38 trophies at Old Trafford, he took my home team Aberdeen from the sidelines of Scottish football to the championship of Europe.
He is the outstanding example of the breed of cantankerous Scots who grew up in the shadow of the shipyards in Glasgow to be football managers of the top English teams — Kenny Dalglish, Alex McLeish, Owen Coyle and David Moyles who now inherits the manager’s donkey jacket at Old Trafford.
So despite recent results and shenanigans, we are still one of the great footballing nations of the world. We’ve been playing the game since at least 1424 when the Scottish Parliament passed a law forbidding it. Queens Park – the Glasgow amateur club where Sir Alex began his football career – is the oldest club in the world, outside England, being formed in 1867. And we’re had a proper football league since 1890. All we have to do now is to live up to Sir Alex’s reputation.
Troon Harbour
We can also be proud that we can still produce seafarers like Gerry Hughes from Glasgow. Despite being profoundly deaf, the 55 year old teacher has just completed a solo voyage around the world in his yacht Quest III. He sailed into Troon harbour on Wednesday to be welcomed by his wife and two daughters after spending eight months at sea. Do not read his logbook before going to bed, it will give you nightmares. It can be summed up in three words …storms, courage and perseverance.
And the same words can be used to sum up the war time Arctic Convoys which have been commemorated this week with a series of events at Loch Ewe on the north west coast. It was from there that most of the convoys set sail with precious supplies for our then allies in Russia. The men who faced the perils of the Nazi submarines and the icy storms of the northern seas have campaigned ever since to be given a special medal, acknowledging their part in the war effort.
Arctic Convoy 1942
Veterans Acknowledged
Some 30 veterans, now in their 80s and 90s, were presented with the “Arctic Star” at Loch Ewe. Unfortunately, one of the leading lights of the campaign Jock Dempster from Dunbar was not among them. He died on Sunday. He did receive his medal however at a similar ceremony in Downing Street in March. It is one of the many injustices of war that these old soldier-sailors have had to wait so long to be honoured by their country.
Cherry Blossom
And one other thing made me proud this week, our fine spring weather. It has finally turned mild and occasionally sunny. Temperatures reached 22 degrees in Glasgow. The cherry tree outside my kitchen window has blossomed so white it lights up the whole room.
Researchers at Edinburgh University have urged us to make the most of the sunshine. They’ve discovered a clear link between sunlight and low blood pressure. They’re suggesting that the benefits of exposure to the sun – less risk of heart attack and stroke – far outweighs the risk of skin cancer.
But fair-skinned folk are still urged to be careful. We may be a proud and sunny nation this week, but we are also Scots. Pride comes before a fall and sunshine is inevitably followed by rain.