View across the Outer Harbour of Stornoway

Sunday 18 March 2012

Sunday 18 March

Happy Mothering Sunday to all in the UK. Mother's Day in the US will be on the second Sunday in May.

It was a bright and sunny day here in Stornoway, but with a regular if infrequent litany of short showers. Not warm by any standard, only 7C / 45F. Spent the afternoon transcribing two sections of the Napier Report, namely Lochaline and Lismore. Apart from Boxing Day evidence from Tarbert (Argyll), I have now finished all the Highlands and Islands evidence. What remains is a large amount of blether from the hearings at Edinburgh and Lanark. Last week, I did the sections related to Islay for a local historian in that island, and can be read here

It is rare for me to comment on football, but two things have happened this weekend that made me break my rule.

I was sad to hear of the footballer who collapsed during a match. Premier League footballer Fabrice Muamba, who plays for Bolton Wanderers, apparently suffered a cardiac arrest and required at least 6 minutes of CPR on the pitch before his heart started working again. The match, a cup-tie with Tottenham Hotspur, was abandoned.
And just as I am about to close this post, news comes through that the father of a player of Kilmarnock FC (Liam Kelly), whose team beat Celtic in a cup-final here in Scotland 0-1 this afternoon, has died after suffering a heart attack at the game.