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	The Flag in the Wind A weekly online newspaper bringing you information on the political scene in Scotland: part of the monthly Scots Independent.
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CAMPAIGNING FOR SCOTLAND
(Owned, Edited and Printed in Scotland since November 1926)
"Promoting all that is best in Scottish Nationalism and all that is best in Scotland."
Content of the Flag in the Wind Web Site is the copyright of the Scots Independent Newspaper.

[ Issue 363 - 18th May 2007]

Compiled by Peter D Wright

Lots of great information to read and enjoy under our Features Section:
Scots Language | Scottish Food | Dates in History | Scot Wit and lots more

DATES IN HISTORY

18 May 2005
The manslaughter trial of the owner of the Solway Harvester collapsed in the Isle of Man. The court in Douglas found that 41-year-old Richard Gibney, who denied killing the seven man crew by breach of duty of care, had no case to answer. The Isle of Whithorn 69 ft scallop dredger went down amid high winds while heading for shelter in Ramsey Bay, Isle of Man, on 11 January 2000.

20 May 1953
Celtic beat Hibernian 2-0 with goals from Neil Mochan and Jimmy Walsh to win the Coronation Cup final at Hampden Park.

21 May 2006
Auchinleck Talbot achieved a historic seventh Scottish Junior Cup success after defeating Bathgate Thistle 2-1 at Rugby Park, Kilmarnock.

22 May 1668
Kilmarnock was badly damaged by a fire which made almost almost the entire population of 180 families homeless.

22 May 1784
Famous leading English actress Sarah Siddons made her Scottish debut in Edinburgh.

23 May 2006
Former Scottish Culture Minister and Labour MSP for Glasgow Cathcart Mike Watson, Lord Watson of Invergowrie, was released from Edinburgh’s Saughton Prison after serving half of a 16-month sentence for wilful fire-raising.

24 May 1941
The Clyde-built 42,000-ton battle-cruiser HMS Hood, the world’s largest warship, following a refit at Rosyth, Fife, was sunk by the German flagship Bismark in the Denmark Strait, 13 miles off the coast of Greenland. Only three of her 1,421 crew survived.

24 May 2006
Glasgow Rangers were fined £13,300 for chants during their Championship League quarter-final games with Villarreal by EUFA’s Appeals Body. The club were also issued a severe warning about any further offences.

See Dates in History in our Features Section

SCOTTISH QUOTATIONS

I like to have quotations ready for every occasions - they give one's ideas so pat and save one the trouble of finding expression adequate to one's feeling.

Robert Burns

Statements in prose and verse which reflect all aspects of Scottish life and outlook from the 1^st century to the present day. New quotes added every week. The quotations are not restricted to native Scots but include observations from abroad which help us, in the words of our National Bard, Robert Burns, "To see oursels as others see us"

After 93 weeks this feature now contains over 400 quotations
reflecting views of Scotland over the centuries. This week’s quotations all reflect a positive message for 21^st century Scotland.

Nicola Benedetti

Being on tour so often, in fact, enhances my appreciation and pride in being from Scotland. In such a competitive world I believe it is my Scottish roots that have enabled me to keep a sincere and realistic approach to everything I do.

(April 2007)

Alexander (Alex) Fergusson

Let us all remember that our electorate, the people of Scotland, want this new politics to work for them and we have a duty to deliver what the electorate expects.

(Acceptance speech on being elected Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament 14 May 2007)

Lady Claire MacDonald

My life is food (lucky me) and I am passionate about Scottish food, believing with all my heart that what is grown, raised, produced here in Scotland is better than anywhere else in the world. I consider food to be the most important aspect in luring visitors to this fantastic country.

(April 2007)

Flagnote: Lady MacDonald was one of the many prominent people who backed Alex Salmond as First Minister in the 2007 Scottish Parliament Election.

Nicola Sturgeon

I think, as a nation, we do have unique attributes and values, not least a belief in fairness and equality. As women, this belief has helped us, because although there are barriers and hurdles like anywhere else in the world, we live in a culture that’s conducive to letting us get on and succeed.

(April 2007)

See Scottish Quotations in our Features Section

THE BLUE TOON SONG BOOK

A selection of popular Scottish songs compiled by Anne Fowler and published by Peterhead branch of the Scottish National Party in September 2000.

NO MAN'S LAND (THE GREEN FIELDS OF FRANCE)
Eric Bogle

Gunners in France

Well how do you do, young Willie McBride,

Do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside

And rest for a while 'neath the warm summer sun

I've been working all day and I'm nearly done.

I see by your gravestone you were only nineteen

When you joined the dead heroes of nineteen-sixteen.

I hope you died well and I hope you died clean

Or Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene.

Chorus :

Did they beat the drum slowly, did they play the fife lowly,

Did they sound the dead-march as they lowered you down.

Did the bugles play the Last Post and chorus,

Did the pipes play the 'Flooers o' the Forest'.

And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind

In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined

Although you died back there in nineteen-sixteen

In that faithful heart are you ever nineteen

Or are you a stranger without even a name

Enclosed and forgotten behind the glass frame

In a old photograph, torn and battered and stained

And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame.

The sun now it shines on the green fields of France

The warm summer breeze makes the red poppies dance

And look how the sun shines from under the clouds

There's no gas, no barbed wire, there's no guns firing now

But here in this graveyard it's still no-man's-land

The countless white crosses stand mute in the sand

To man's blind indifference to his fellow man

To a whole generaation that were butchered and damned.

Now young Willie McBride I can't help but wonder why

Do all those who lie here know why they died

And did they believe when they answered the cause

Did they really believe that this war would end wars

Well the sorrow, the suffering, the glory, the pain

The killing and dying was all done in vain

For young Willie McBride it all happened again

And again, and again, and again, and again.

Flagnote: Whether you know this song as ‘No Man’s Land’, ‘The Green Fields of France’ or ‘Willie McBride’, it is a sang whilk rugs at the hert. A brilliant songwriter Eric Bogle was born in Peebles but emigrated to Australia where he found fame with this poignant song. Yet another contemporary song which has quickly found its way into the folk tradition.

See the THE BLUE TOON SONG BOOK in our Features section

SCOTTISH FOOD, TRADITIONS AND CUSTOMS

There is no finer sight for any visitor to Scotland than to see a pipe band in action, and a car banner spotted during the recent victorious Scottish Parliament Election campaign – ‘Pipers do it with Amazing Grace’ – acted as a reminder that the pipe band contest season is once again underway. Many competitions are held in conjunction with Highland Games, such as Markinch Highland Games on Sunday 3 June 2007 in the John Dixon Park but this week we aim to highlight the major competitions run by The Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association.

Starting this Saturday (19 May 2007) with the Scottish Championships which will take place in the Levengrove Park, Dumbarton. Like all four competitions to be mentioned these cover All Grades and Drum Major competition. The British Championships will cross the Irish Sea and be held at Ballymena in the north of Ireland on Saturday 23 June 2007. Back on home soil the European Championships takes place in Inverness on Saturday 28 July 2007. Finally the high-point of the pipe band year – The World Championships – will once again be held on Glasgow Green, Glasgow, on Saturday 11 August 2007. So popular are The World Championship that tickets are already on sale. Basic admission tickets for 2007 are £7 with concessions at £4. Visit www.rspba.org for full details of what is happening on the Scottish pipe band scene.

In honour of the European Championships this week’s recipe is for Continental Fingers – a delicious traybake.

Continental Fingers

Ingredients: 4oz margarine; 1oz sugar; 3 tsp cocoa; 1 egg; 1 tsp vanilla essence; 6oz crushed digestive biscuits; 2oz coconut; 2oz chopped walnuts

Filling: 2oz butter; 9oz icing sugar; 2 level tsp custard powder;

Topping: 6oz chocolate; 10 oz butter

Method: Put margarine, caster sugar and cocoa into saucepan and bring to the boil. Remove from heat and add 1 beaten egg and 1 tsp vanilla essence. Do not boil but keep on heat for one minute. Remove and add biscuits, coconut and walnuts and mix well. Spread on greased Swill roll tin (12” x 8”) and harden in fridge. For filling beat butter, icing sugar and custard powder and add 2 tbsp of boiling milk. Spread on top of base and leave to set. For topping melt chocolate and butter and spread on top of filling. Allow to cool and cut into fingers.

See our Scottish Food, Traditions and Customs in our Features section

A KIST O FERLIES
A Keek at the Guid Scots Tung

By Peter & Marilyn Wright
(Note: All words underlined in this section are RealAudio links)

bourach: heap; confused heap
flumgummerie: tomfoolery
gloamin: dusk
spurtle: porridge stick
veesit: visit
wabbit: exhausted

A braw pennie: A large sum of money

The ploomen hae lowsed an the day's darg is ower,

An hame comes the hauflin as hungry as fower;

Weel wabbit is he, but he's young an he's cheery

An, ance he has suppit, forgets that he's weary.

The yett swings ahint him, he's oot again roamin,

An walks doon the glen in the quate o the gloamin.

frae "The Hauflin" - W D Cocker

COMPLETE POEM

Be Waukrife, Scotland!
by W D Cocker

Click here to listen to this in RealAudio read by Marilyn P Wright

This poem appeared in the March 1931 issue of the Scots Independent. W D Cocker was born in Glasgow and worked there as a jounalist on the Daily Record, but his poems mostly evoke the Stirlingshire farms of his mother's family.

Wae's me ! auld Scotland's in a dwam ;

The Lion Rampant's lost his smeddum,

An' coories like a frichtit lamb,

Puir dwaibly cratur, wha would dread 'm ?

Be waukrife, Scotland ! Up an' roar,

An' get ye into fechtin' fettle ;

Dinna be blate, in days o' yore

Ye were na feart to show your mettle.

Ower lang ye've tholed the Saxon rule,

A "Union" that but meant suppression,

Ye've learned, in bitter days o' dool,

What England gets by that concession.

They've ryped your pooch, an' taxed ye sair,

They've taen the last bite frae your mooth ;

They've strippit puir auld Scotland bare,

An' spent the siller in the sooth.

Wi' alien croods your toons are thrang,

Your industries hae dwined awa',

Your sons ayont the seas maun gang,

Or thowless-like the "dole" maun draw.

An' what's cam' ower the glens an' hills,

Whaur bonnie crofts the e'e did cheer ?

To mak' a sport for feckless fules

They've laid bare for droves o' deer.

Gude kens, we wish the Empire weel,

We'll no' ding doon the Constitution,

Gin we're respeckit - wha the deil

Thinks Scotland's sons want Revolution ?

But yet oor ain affairs we'll redd,

An' guide oorsels. Then dinna swither,

By Wallace an' the bluid he shed,

For Scotland's richts, let's staun thegither !

See Scots Language in our Features Section
for other poems, stories, songs, sayings, jokes and words in the Scots language

SCOT WIT

Enjoy a Scottish Joke every week and listen to it as well

East Fife Training

Caitlin Wallace, distraught after East Fife were well-beaten 7-2 by Queen’s Park over the two-leg Second Division play-off final, pleads with The Fife manager Dave Baikie to get the team on track for next season.

"Now lads, this is a ba'. You kick ba'. Next slide please."

Read and listen to Jokes in our Scot Wit section

Gordon & Carmen Wright

Second-hand, Fine & Rare Scottish Books.

Regular catalogues issued by email. To subscribe, email us at: Gordon.Wright11@btopenworld.com

Gordon Wright’s Scottish Photo Library

Spanning forty-five years and featuring a wide variety of illustrations in colour and black and white covering all aspects of Scottish life from Orkney to the Border country. Thousands of personality portraits.

Images for reproduction. Prints for collectors.

Gordon.Wright11@btopenworld.com