Journalist, author, broadcaster
Before the discovery of North Sea oil in the 1970s, Aberdeen was a regional town and nationalism a marginal concern. With weeks to go until Scotland’s historic vote on independence, Aberdeen is a city transformed. It’s Scotland’s oil capital and the city’s resulting wealth is apparent. But not everyone has benefitted from those riches. As […]
Last Tuesday night, I watched, along with most of Scotland, two besuited, middle-aged men argue with each other on national television for the best part of two hours. In the main it was pretty unedifying stuff. Alastair Darling refused to accept that Scotland could function as an independent country; Alex Salmond made the frankly bizarre […]
What a difference a century makes. In 1912 Ireland’s constitutional future seemed irrevocably bound up with that of Scotland. That year the Government of Ireland Bill was introduced by Liberal prime minister HH Asquith, shortly to be followed by a similar home rule measure for the Scots. The rest, of course, is history. The first […]
The longer any online discussion goes on, the greater the probabilitythat someone will make a comparison involving Hitler or the Nazis.This maxim – known as ‘Godwin’s Law’ – is so widely accepted that ithas even made it into the Oxford English Dictionary. So today I wouldlike to propose an #indyref equivalent (but please don’t call […]
Scotland’s Alex Salmond (L) and Alistair Darling (R) engage in a TV debate over independence [Getty Images] Coatbridge, Scotland – “Independence is forever. You can’t take it back if you don’t like it,” the lean, wiry-framed Jim Murphy proclaims on Main Street. About 60 people are congregated in a semi-circle in front of the Labour MP, who […]
A pack on the Irish in Coatbridge and Scotland’s independence referendum from RTE’s Morning Ireland in March.
In 2014, Scotland will hold a referendum on whether or not to end the union with England. Artists have always played a role in national movements, so will they vote yes or no? The Centre of Contemporary Arts is among Glasgow’s most popular venues. Earlier this week, a fashionable crowd of artists and “creatives” gathered […]
While opposing factions argue over attendance figures at the Yes rally, Catalonia musters 1.6 million for the cause , writes Peter Geoghegan EARLIER this month, I spent an afternoon outside the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. I didn’t go to admire the haunting spires of Gaudi’s unfinished masterpiece – impressive though they are – but to […]
Edinburgh, Scotland – In 1992, on the same evening the Conservatives won a fourth successive UK general election, a small group of campaigners started a vigil for a Scottish Parliament at Calton Hill in Edinburgh. Their constant watch lasted five and half years, until Scots had a chance to vote “yes” to devolution in 1997. Thousands […]
BARCELONA, Spain — People in Catalonia formed a 250-mile human chain across this Spanish region in the latest push to create an independent state. At least 400,000 people took part in the event on part in Catalonia’s national day. On Tuesday evening, a crowd walked slowly through the narrow streets around Sants, a neighborhood west of Barcelona, […]