Scottish summer – to Scots, an oxymoronic term. Scotland’s rainy drudgery is mostly incompatible with sunshine and warm weather, and Scots will often point out that summer in Scotland lasts a matter of days, not months. So why, then, is there a discussion every year in Scotland to switch Scottish football to a Scandinavian style […]
Read more "Scottish (Football) Summertime"On the 17th of April 2016, Scottish Championship side Rangers defeated Scottish Premiership Champions Celtic on penalties in the Scottish Cup semi final. After having lost the League Cup semi final 3-1 to Ross County earlier in the season and suffering a hopeless European campaign that saw Celtic fail to qualify for the Champions League […]
Read more "Celtic – Season Review 16/17"Another day, another mass shooting in America. I could write this on any day but in the aftermath of one of the worst gun massacres in American history in Orlando, Florida, it feels particularly apt. Once again, a psychopathic, evil individual had the means to use an assault rifle to kill a large number of […]
Read more "Live by the Gun, Die by…"In 1941, a collection of short stories written by Argentinian author Jorge Luis Borges was published, including a story by the name of La Biblioteca de Babel (‘The Library of Babel’). This story, later translated into English, imagines a library made up of interconnected hexagonal rooms: “There are five shelves for each of the hexagon’s walls; each […]
Read more "The Library of Everything"You’ve probably seen it. A Facebook event for a 365 day arts ‘performance’ in Glasgow, performed by an artist being bankrolled by Creative Scotland. Explanations for the content of this performance are thin on the ground; all we know is that it involves an artist living in Glasgow and only in Glasgow for an entire […]
Read more "The Art Effect"Originally published in the Glasgow University Magazine’s Glasgow Issue. Part edited by Rhys Harper. It’s the evening of the nineteenth of September 2014 in George Square, central Glasgow. It is one day on from Scotland’s most majestic political moment; an independence referendum that brought about arguably the greatest moment of political engagement in the history of Scottish […]
Read more "Orange (Out of) Order"Every year, on the 11th of November, people in Britain commemorate one of the most important days in recent British history; Armistice Day, 1918. It has become a day to celebrate the lives and mourn the deaths of all those soldiers that have died in British wars in the last century. The most iconic part […]
Read more "James McLean v The British Empire"On the 7th of July 2005 I woke up in the living room of my auntie’s flat in Islington, North London. It’s a tiny little place in a vast city – she still lives in that little flat today. It was only a 10 metre walk for my 8 year old legs to carry me […]
Read more "7/7/15"Tonight marks the next chapter of one of world football’s greatest stories. Hundreds of millions of people around the world will sit down to watch arguably the pinnacle of the sport being played out at Barcelona’s Camp Nou. A rivalry that transcends its geographical distance, it is one of political and sporting intensity. The Spanish […]
Read more "The Classic"So this weekend is coinciding with one of the most irritating times of the year for me, when my Dad’s birthday and Mother’s Day almost totally coincide. This meant that I had to go out and buy some greetings cards. I find the cards section in Tesco. First up, Mum. So that’ll be the big […]
Read more "Greetings, Generic Fellow Human"
L A Murray 