Edinburgh – Closely Related to Chester

Talking about us in Ballyclare

⁃ So you’re a friend of Matt’s then?

⁃ Yes, we met at Uni.

– And are you a rugby player like him?

⁃ Yes.

– Out-half?

⁃ Wing.

⁃ Where did you play back home?

⁃ Ballyclare.

⁃ Ballyclare? My goodness, Ballyclare. That takes me back.

We are on the 6th hole of a beautiful golf course in Fife. Members of the Irish Golf Society of Scotland. Me, 71 years of age and my playing partner, a young man of around 30 who arrived late. He was supposed to play in the first group, but has been relegated to join the old folk in the last group. I welcomed him when he arrived with a quotation:

– The first shall be last and the last first.

He looked puzzled.

– Clint Eastwood ?

– The Bible.

After the first few holes of golf, as you walk down the fairway together, it is customary to ask the other player a bit about himself. Maybe you find out that he went to the same school, or played the same sport as a lad. But you don’t expect someone forty years younger than you to know all about the most important day of your sporting life – an event that occurred long before he was born.

– Ravenhill. St Patrick’s Day 1973. My school, the Royal Belfast Academical Institution (Inst for short) in the Ulster Schools Cup Final. I was Vice-Captain. 17 years old. I’ll never forget it.

– We haven’t forgotten it in Ballyclare either. They still talk about it. First and only time we were in the Schools’ Cup Final. In Ballyclare they’ll tell you there were a hundred thousand people there.

– I remember that there were seventeen thousand. Still that’s a lot. And it was shown on TV as well. The biggest crowd I ever played in front of. Of course we were expected to win.

– Yes. Belfast Inst was often in the final.

– But we lost. We lost. 13 points to 8. Mind you we scored two tries to your one. Your kicker was on form that day. Oh, do I remember it! Our scrum-half, Colin Patterson – he later played for Ireland and for the Lions – scored a cheeky try. And Haggis – he was a Scot – Alan McGovern – made a solo break. Ran all the way across Ravenhill for a try under the posts. When the whistle blew for the end of the match I couldn’t believe it. It was over so quickly. My adrenalin was flowing. I could easily have played another half. In the changing room afterwards one of our players was in tears. But our coach Davy Haslett was a hard man. You weren’t meant to show emotion in those days.

– In Ballyclare they still talk about it today. A small town of 5,000 people. Beating the mighty Belfast Inst.

– I’ve an old photo. Published on the back page of the Belfast Telegraph. Your scrum-half, Win something…

– Wincup.

– That’s him. He is executing a diving pass – they don’t do that anymore. I’m behind him, with my eyes fixed on the out-half. There’s your wing-forward Gilmer, and your Number 8, what was his name, Cleghorn ?

– Andy Gleghorne.

– That’s right. I think they both played for Ulster Schools. Our second row Gibbo and the Number 8 Coppock are in the photo. And our out-half Glenn Aiken, who was also playing soccer for Crusaders, and full-back Alan Irwin. His younger brother David played for the British and Irish Lions. One of our wingers, also an Irwin, broke his collar bone in the second half but played on. There were no subs in those days.

– They have that photo too in Ballyclare.

– I have it hanging in the cupboard under the stairs. I must dig it out and send you a copy.

– Good shot. That’ll go.

– Nice shot. Pin high.

Back in Edinburgh I google Ballyclare 1973 and find out that in 2023, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the match, the whole Ballyclare team met up at the Titanic museum in Belfast. They were addressed by Willie John McBride, the captain of the greatest Lions team ever. As for Inst, I attended a school reunion in 2023, and was touched when the speaker mentioned the 1973 St Patrick’s Day match, in passing. But as I looked round the table of the Inst pupils from that year, I was the only one who had played for the 1st XV on that fateful day. Since 1973 Inst has been in the final and has won it many times. Davy Haslett, the coach who took us to Ravenhill that year, died a few months ago.

I sent this blog post to my old friend Tony who lives in Canada. He left Inchmarlo/ Inst to study at Belfast High School. These days he is still running half marathons.

Tony: I’m very jealous! But sadly, the High School teams in my day (’71 and ’72) never got anywhere near Ravenhill. Great story!

WH: If you’d stayed on at Inchmarlo/ Inst I’d probably never have made the team.

Tony: We would have made the finest Back Row ever – they’d still be talking about us in Ballyclare!

Reflections on the Union Canal

Morning run by the Union Canal in Edinburgh

A few days ago I rose early to Ieave my car at a garage a couple of miles away beside the Union Canal. It was a beautiful blue-skied morning, such as Edinburgh occasionally bestows on its inhabitants, and I decided to run back home along the canal. The sun was shining brightly and the trees were just beginning to put on their new leaves. As I came to the stretch of the canal near the church at Polwarth I stopped and took a photo of the scene.

When I examined the photo later I was disappointed that the church tower was partly hidden by the leaves. Nevertheless I put the photo on Facebook where many people liked it. Looking more closely I could see that the tower is in fact fully visible in the reflection. You can see this even better if you turn the photo upside down.

My father might have crafted a sermon or a children’s address out of such a photograph. Perhaps his text would have been “for now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I will know fully.”

A few days later, as I crossed the bridge over the canal, on my way to see a rugby match at Murrayfield, another beautiful sight greeted me.

There are also swans with their cygnets at the nearby Craiglockhart nature reserve. Each year the entire neighbourhood takes an interest in the birds’ nest and bets are placed on when the eggs will hatch. Ornithologists line up with their huge cameras to capture the moment of birth.

Yesterday afternoon I walked along the Union Canal, westwards this time to where it joins the Water of Leith, which winds its way down from the Pentland Hills.

I followed the river up to the village of Colinton. This is territory Robert Louis Stevenson frequented as a boy. Stevenson, author of ‘Treasure Island’ and ‘Kidnapped’ was one of my grandparents’ favourite authors and I brought their copy of his book ‘Edinburgh’ with me when I first came to the University, many years ago. I remember reading it out loud to my future wife on the January night when we met.

Robert Louis Stevenson is celebrated in the mural at Colinton

Today my son and his wife and daughters live in Colinton. Look who is coming along to meet Grandpa.

Marking the page

The packers arrive tomorrow morning at 8 a.m. As I look down from our flat to the avenue below I see that the police have already reserved a place for the removal van. This is the 17th flit of our married life.

This evening, as the sun streams through our window, at the end of a beautiful Spring Sunday, we are making our final choices of what to bring to Edinburgh and what to leave in Brussels.

In the beginning we were going to move everything of value. However last week we learned that, as a result of Brexit, we will have to pay VAT, Customs Duties and a customs charge on all the goods we take to the UK. So we have decided to leave our most expensive belongings in Belgium for the time being.

Among the books I found a copy of Kipling’s Jungle Books inscribed ‘Annie from R. October 3rd 1925’. Between pages 261 and 262 I found this picture, cut from a greetings card. On the back it says – ‘black headed shrike on bougainvillea. Drawing by the Rev B.C.R. Henry’

At the bottom corner you can see the year of the drawing is 1957. That is the year my Grandfather died. I have just read the first story entitled ‘Mowgli’s brothers’. We are introduced to Akela, Shere Khan, Baghera, Baloo – compelling stuff. I seem to recall that Gran read us these stories when we were young. Perhaps the marker shows that one of my grandparents was in the middle of reading the book when they died.

My grandsons Finn or Max are about the right age to appreciate these stories. I’ve just shown Finn the book on a phone call. As I thought he knows the film but doesn’t know the book. So this one is being added to the Edinburgh pile. I hope I’m not charged extra VAT because it is a first edition. I can’t wait to see my grandchildren again.

As a result of all our moves around the world we possess mountains of bits and pieces of things of little commercial value, but much sentimental value-added. Yet we have always found that the best moment in a move is when the packers have gone and the place is empty.