Hughie – you’re immortal!

In  the summer of 2015 I was waiting outside the Assembly Rooms on Edinburgh’s George St to attend “Graham Spiers ….in conversation with Hugh McIlvanney.” It was an unmissable event really – one of our best current sports journalists interviewing a man invariably described as ‘the finest ever sports writer’. I leaned against one of

Physician heal thyself

The partition of Ireland was a temporary measure – a sticking plaster over the wound of Rebellion and Civil War, employed by Britain because they could find no other way of squaring the circle of Unionists and Republicans. However, instead of regularly changing the dressing and cleaning the wound, they walked away and convinced themselves

Hitting the spot

It seems like everybody is writing about Andy Murray. That in itself is a guide to his impact and influence. And the words they are using testify to the love and respect in which he is held by so many – in the world of tennis and sport – but far beyond that. He is