Sharing not Sledging

It’s a long way from the parish of Kilbeacanty, near Gort in Co Galway, to Rondebosch in the suburbs of Cape Town, but they are linked, sadly, as the homeplaces of Galway county Hurler, Niall Donoghue, and England Test Cricketer, Jonathan Trott. Donoghue took his own life in October, just days before his 23rd birthday,

Making it all possible

I have a theory that, when people ask of my generation: “Can you remember what you were doing when Kennedy was shot?”, the inquiry is about far more than it appears on the surface. (And, by the way, you won’t find mention of ‘theory’ or, indeed, ‘conspiracy’ again in this piece.) I think that, inevitably,

Light and Shades

Tomorrow will be the 50th Annniversary of the day I started attending live football – and every other weekend since – and frequently more often, attendance at a football ground has been my norm. I must have seen thousands of players and games, and, inevitably, a lot of the action merges into a blur. However,

Dancing at the Crossroads

So, as Pat Fenlon leaves and Terry Butcher is welcomed to Easter Rd, where stand the Hibs now? Well, first to assess Pat’s reign at Hibernian FC. Success or failure? Always a tricky question that but there are many who would claim quite simply that he failed and it was time for him to go.

Footsteps

Walking down the hill from Craiglockhart to Slateford today, it seemed to me that I have often walked in the footsteps of war poet, Wilfred Owen, who was killed in action just before dawn 95 years ago today. Of course, when he was at Craiglockhart War Hospital – the site of his fortunate and influential

Joe – I hardly knew ye….but

J J McPartlin, Scotland, Harlequins, Barbarians, captain of Oxford University, teacher and raconteur, has died in Folkstone, aged 75. Joe was also my cousin – well to be precise, my second cousin, and, though I met him only once – and even that is a dim memory and maybe false, he was one of my