As is usual at this time of year I allow myself a look back.
This is not a review of 2017 per se, but how the year was for me.
Therefore, it is an entirely subjective and personal adumbration of the last 12 months.
Consequently, please treat this tour d’horizon on that basis.
Firstly, it was quite a year on Planet Fitba.
Brendan Rodgers and his Bhoys delivered the Invincible Treble.
The Tom Rogic goal that won the Scottish Cup is, for me, one of THE historic goals for Scotland’s most powerful club.
I watched the match in an Irish pub in Lisbon.
I was there for the 50th anniversary of that day in May.
The nine-year-old me wasn’t allowed to travel to Lisbon in 1967.
However, my uncle by marriage did take my scarf.
On the 25th May this year I was in a taxi with Henrik Larsson’s next door neighbour and long-time friend.
The driver was taking us to Stadio Nacional.
The scarf had made it back after 50 years.
I smiled all day
Celtic went 69 domestic games unbeaten beating their own British record set at the time of Willie Maley.
For the second season in a row, Rodgers navigated his side into the group stages of the Champions League.
This puts the Parkhead side into another financial postcode from the other clubs in Scotland.
Across the Clyde 2017 was a hilarious omnishambles even by the calamitous standards of Sevco.
In twelve months they have had three managers.
The Admirable Warburton turned on the TV back in February to find out that he had resigned.
Sevco still owes him money.
Then there was Pedro.
I loved his pressers.
Quality entertainment.
He made big plans for Sevco’s inaugural campaign in Europe, but they met with little Progrès.
The caravan has passed on, but the Ibrox clientele is still howling at the moon.
Then Derek McInnes debacle suggested to The People that the hot seat at Ibrox might not be so tempting after all.
Of course, everyone else already knew that.
The Sevco job isn’t so much a poisoned chalice as a toxic chamber pot.
As the year closed it was that nice young Master Murts in charge.
Oh dear…
As the year was drawing to a close the Penny Arcade was dropping for a lot of The People.
Off the field, it wouldn’t be Sevco if there wasn’t a lot of court action.
Craig Whyte walked and Dave King was bang to rights.
My reportage on the Sevco sitcom here has been evidence-based at all times.
With each passing month, my earlier reports have been largely vindicated.
Sometimes I have to wait a bit longer for a story to be proven correct.
In the summer of 2017, the Big Tax Case was finally concluded when the UK Supreme Court rejected the appeal.
The stenographers tried to sooth The People, but the verdict is in.
Rangers (1872-2012) cheated for a decade.
The titles won during that period are fraudulent.
Like Lance Armstrong’s victories and Ben Johnson’s medals, they are tainted.
Consequently, the record must be amended with an asterisk.
Of course, the Fitba Fourth Estate merely looked the other way when the incontrovertible case for sporting integrity was advanced.
It was seven years since I had broken the story on the basic arithmetic of the Big Tax Case.
It was a nice feeling to see it finally concluded in a legal sense.
Now only the chaps on the 6th floor at Hampden are holding out against sporting justice.
They’re lucky in that the local media are on the same page as the world-class administrators at the SFA.
As 2017 draws to a close I think even The People realise that their beloved basket of assets is rather fucked.
The Penny Arcade has finally dropped.
What has been inflicted upon the customer base at Ibrox since 2012 is crueller than anything that Stanley Milgram or Philip Zimbardo ever did in the name of science.
If my information on the current state of Sevco finances is correct then 2018 will not be any better for The People.
Of course, they’re unlikely to believe me, but I’m sure that you do dear reader.
The traffic on this site over the last 12 months has been consistently excellent.
The analytics thingy tells me that most readers return again and again.
Míle buíochas.
Outwith Planet Fitba 2017 was a worrying year.
The Trump Presidency looks like the West Wing sscriptwritingteam have hired some of the guys that bash out editions of the Sevco shit show.
If it wasn’t so serious the weekly offering from Designated Gobshite would be hilarious.
Everything about the Trump Presidency keeps coming back to Russian involvement.
This is Cold war 2.0 instigated by a senior KGB officer who became top man in Moscow.
It reads like the draft of a Tom Clancy thriller, but it is destined for the non-fiction shelf.
Only Thomas Jefferson can save us now.
Because, if the checks and balances within United States Constitution manage to control and curtail President Trump then that will be the most telling proof that America really is great.
This side of Impeachment I worry for the world and particular for the inhabitants of the Korean Peninsula and I have a very personal reason for that.
That is where the Big Fella is currently working.
To calm the anxiety of his old dad my son thought it a good idea to cycle right up the DMZ electrified fence and send me the pics!
Jaysus…
Fearless doesn’t begin to describe him.
He’s home next June and his mother and I are counting the days.
In his absence his two siblings are killing it at university.
Number One Daughter is in the home strait of her degree and she’s already been snapped up by Big Pharma for their high flier programme.
They’ve hired a star.
Baby Doctor is now officially half way through her medical training and that stuff is already embedded into how she now lectures me about my health.
My three young Irish millennials every day convince me of the wisdom of rearing them on their grandfather’s island.
They’re part of the global Gaeltacht, Gaeilgeoirí and culturally confident.
Moreover, they have benefited from a life experience a world away from that of their parents.
They’ve grown up in a country that values them as Irish people.
Wherever they go in the world their Irish passport is an official recognition of who they are.
We’ve been discussing these official travel documents over Christmas and my trio were laughing like drains about the Brits and their blue passport nonsense.
I think that their derision is fully justified.
For the twenty years they’ve been a growing here in Donegal the Partition line has blurred away to nothing.
Then there was Brexit.
That act of self-harm in the UK has certainly put the partition of this country back on the political agenda in both Belfast and Dublin.
So, in the law of unintended consequences, it is no bad thing.
It has been fascinating from my vantage point in a Border county to watch the UK become the Sevco of Europe.
In 2017 Theresa May proved herself to be the Pedro Caixinha of political timing.
Her calamitous decision to call a general election in June wiped out the Tory majority and put them in bed with the DUP.
It was instructive to look at the collective horror on the faces of the good people of England as they realised just what Arlene Foster’s party actually stood for.
The RHI scandal in Norn Iron is a breath talking saga of cronyism and corruption by the DUP.
It was, literally, public money going up in smoke.
The reporting on the scandal justifies a serious hat tip to excellent journalism there.
Sinn Féin took the outrageous stance that the DUP should deliver on what they had signed up to in the St Andrew’s agreement.
I am referring to the need for an Irish language act in the Six Counties.
It has become the “one man one vote” civil rights demand of this generation of Northern nationalists.
The symbolism of this desired piece of legislation cannot be overestimated.
As the nationalist community in the Six Counties continues to grow then the utility function of the Northern statelet as a vehicle for unionism seems to be on borrowed time.
2017 saw Ireland lose one of its greatest sons, Óglach Martin McGuinness was a singular man.
In time historians will judge him to be one of the most important figures in Ireland’s long story.
He towered above those he negotiated with in London.
In 2017 Downing Street resembled the set for a remake of Fawlty Towers.
The last twelve months has been like a slow moving Suez Crisis for the Westminster political class.
Like Sevco, they have ideas of their place in the world that have no basis in reality.
It won’t end well.
Sevco in Luxembourg and the Brits in Brussels.
I’m seeing a pattern here…
Actually, I have an image of David Davis stuck in a hedge in Brussels arguing with the Brexiteers that he’s got this.
He hasn’t.
They’re fucked.
In 2017 the Irish government found itself in a rather unique position in 2017.
For the first time in centuries a polity based on this island held power over the one on the Thames.
Quite simply the Irish government could prevent the Brexit negotiations moving onto Phase 2.
Our legitimate concerns about the reintroduction of a hard border enraged the Brits.
Sadly, it didn’t take long for the old racist stereotypes to emerge in London.
The British government backed down at the 11th hour, but I have learned never to underestimate the duplicity of Perfidious Albion in these matters.
That’s how we got the Border in the first place.
However, this time our gallant allies in Europe appear united in their determination to put manners on the Brits.
Meanwhile Narn Arne is still Bradaish.
So it is.
It amused me to see the ongoing clamour in the Six Counties for Irish Passports, as the folk sending in their forms self-dine as “Loyalists”.
Now, I would hate to have to live in that head!
The self-styled PUL community (Protestant Unionist Loyalist) presented a baffling image to the world.
At this stage pity is the main feeling that they evoke in me.
Across the water the turn out shell of Grenfell tower was a shameful image of a society that doesn’t value people.
Here in Ireland the homeless crisis shames us all.
The numbers of rough sleepers in Dublin is appalling.
However, our trendy Taoiseach thought it was all under control.
It isn’t.
2017 was a significant year for this writer.
In the summer I submitted the draft of my debut novel to my publisher.
The project had started on a train journey from Dublin to Cork in 2006.
I was travelling to meet a sound comrade when I was a journalist with An Phoblacht.
He’s now a Sinn Féin TD and I can, with more than a little justification, call myself a writer.
It was originally a screenplay and a very successful film director was engaged with the story.
As with many of these projects, it was stillborn because of the inability to raise the necessary finance.
That was in 2008 and it remained on the shelf until the final months of 2016 when I decided that 2017 would be the year that it would be finished.
It might one day make it onto the screen.
That said I’m happy if I never have anything to do with Hollywood.
2017 was the year that the veil was drawn back on the darkness of Tinseltown.
Hopefully, the fall from grace of Kevin Spacey and Harvey Weinstein marks a cultural change in Hollywood.
Of course, sexual harassment isn’t confined to the movie industry.
If you put someone like Damien Green in a political thriller it might seem far-fetched.
Last month, with the editing finished and the acknowledgments section written, it was a strange day when I submitted the finished work.
The project is still under wraps, but I can’t wait to see the cover design.
That’s the bit I can claim no credit for.
The provisional publication date is March 2018.
That represents a personal triumph, but 2017 was also a year of major tragedy for me.
In September I bore the weight and felt the crushing sadness of carrying my mother’s coffin.
She was 90, she simply slept away. It was her time.
Every time I visited her over the final couple of months I knew it might be the last time I would see her.
Each time there was hidden tears as I walked away quickly. There are tears now as these words blink to life on the screen.
It is a type of broken heart that never fully mends.
Like me Bridget grew up in a country that never wanted her.
When she attended primary school in Baillieston in the early 1930s the teacher decided that the young Murphy girl would do better in life if she was given another first name.
I laid all of this out in Minority Reporter.
For the last ten years of her life the care staff who were visiting her at home would call her Bridget.
It was like she had got something back.
The circumstances under which she brought me successfully to term were tragically heroic.
I owe her everything.
The week I was arranging Bridget’s funeral I was re-taught a tough lesson that a lot of people talk the talk, but when it comes down to it they crumble when they’re threatened by the Ibrox klan.
An anti-racist charity that doesn’t want to upset racists might be the daftest thing I’ve ever heard of.
It is one thing to have Madiba Nelson Mandela as your hero, but if you can’t face down racists for a single day then you might just be in the wrong line of work.
Next year this blog will have been around for a decade.
You can view the site archive here.
The first major story that it tackled was the Famine Song controversy in 2008.
The response of the klan back then was to threaten and smear your humble correspondent.
Their clear objective was to silence the messenger in order to neutralise the message.
They failed.
I’m Bridget’s son.
A decade on from calling out the genocide choir at Ibrox my work is not yet complete.
However, the belief system that created the Famine Song is more loathed by decent folk in Scotland than The People could have imagined possible in 2008.
The Volkstaat on Edmiston Drive is now home to Español Glasgow.
The death of Rangers in 2012, and the independence vote in Glasgow in 2014 has shown their Über Britishness to be out of date and out of place.
However, there is still much to do.
Official Scotland has yet to decisively act with good authority against the fascist subculture within their midst.
I have done my part, both as a journalist and a writer.
Others cannot claim the same.
That was my 2017.
I hope yours had more happiness than heartbreak, more successes than setbacks.
If, like me, 2017 was year of personal loss and sadness then I hope that the year ahead is better to you.
I’m a Bluenose who occasionally pops by here for some amusement. However, football aside, I pass on my condolences re your mother. Mine is going through an illness just now and I recognise the feelings you had of not knowing if I will see her again. It’s very sad and puts fitba way down the list of what’s important in this short life.
Phil , condolences, recently lost my mum as well , she was always an ardent Tim and would tell me stories of my great Grandad John who came over here during the famine , anyway I’ve been reading your blog for a good few years , it’s outstanding, please keep it up
HH
As a footnote. 2018 threatens to be a year where it starts to fall apart for Celtic.
So come in Brendan, shake things up. Get a couple players in and ship a couple out. Take the dosh for dembele. 20m plus, hold on to Kieran. Hold onto our Carlos Alberto that is Kieran Tierney.
Get into that boardroom and fight them if that’s the problem. Yes we must be prudent but same time there’s dosh due in 7-8m in instalments over next 12months. Get cash freed up and give Brendan £5m more for January. Get a couple free transfers in and ship out a few. Lustig I love him but he has to go by summer time. Keep Griffiths. Brown obviously.
Get arses in gear Bhoys or prepare to lose the the back to back treble we want so bad.
And then the poor showings in Europe will follow. So let’s keep at it and vow to improve. As the hapoels, the Astanas Anderlechts and heaven persevere the zenits and then the big boys of Barca Bayern city etc will all keep improving and we will not even get to dine at their table anymore.
Keep at it and keep on up!
Nice piece phil. Condolences on your mothers passing. Appaling looking back on the way she was introduced to mainstream Scottish society.
Brexit is a disaster to this point. I’m an honest guy, I voted for it. My concerns aren’t/weren’t with the whole getting power back to U.K. or some sense of British power trip claptrap.
It was and is simply this the EU is deeply out of touch with its people. Away there in Brussels, the ordinary people’s across Europe are being shat on. Ireland as I have mentioned many times twice said NO to one treaty or another and the EU just kept sending it back until they got the answer they wanted.
If you look at Catalonia, (this by way is coming from a no voter in our Indy ref in 2014). Their was a vote, during that vote people were brutally beaten by police, Spain has acted with impunity. And the EU?? well it doesn’t give a flying fuck does it for the Catalans.
This is a corrupt organisation that must be reformed, or ultimately one day it will colllapse. When I was a wee boy, it was the EC. A 12 nation trading bloc that did things similarly now it’s a whole go knows how many? 27 nations, it’s a big hegemonic sloth on the European continent, and its crushing people at a local level.
Catalonia for example. Yes voters In 2014, don’t be fooled by sturgeons love in the EU. they showed what they thought of you back in 2014 when they essentially said they didn’t want scotland. Also despite the opportunity possibly presented by U.K. leaving EU for Scotland to have another go, and stay in EU…..don’t be fooled. These bastards in Brussels don’t give a shit about you, or Scotland. It’s all in what they feel can keep them empowered and they will play chess, and use us as pawns as they see fit
It’s like America pissing on its backdoor of South America.
Russia shitting on its neighbours around the Baltic’s/Cacausus regions.
China around its area an so on
Having said all that we weren’t lied to by the bastards of the vote leave campaign, one that I was never in tune with. This is one big clusterfuck, and now to pander to the CUNTS out there, in big Blighty, they rave about a fucking blue passport!
I hope we get another vote on this, I will fall in line. And got e to remain in the EU. But I won’t be happy cos I am voting to stay in something that isn’t ideal. A bit like I voted to stay part of U.K.
I will sit down dumb down and get on with it. Just as the bloody great machines of world power, corpoarations, the EU, US, NATO, WORLD BANK and the supermarkets want me to
Happy 2018 to all when it comes.
HH
My mum is in her 80s and is my best friend Phil. I value every precious minute that I spend with her when I pop up to see her. Best wishes to you and yours for 2018
Hi Phil, its been another great year of reading your blogs and looking forward to plenty more in 2018. Like yourself, I had personal sadness this year, when my mother passed away in November at the age of 78. She succumbed to that hellish disease cancer, I miss the phone calls, visiting, etc, but think back that it was her influence that made me the person I am now.
I hope to be writing again at this time next year, but you never know what’s round the corner as Donald Trump will not be happy until nuclear weapons are flying back and forth across the globe,which worries me greatly for Escocia seeing as we may become a target thanks to “weapons of mass destruction” being based here. As for brexit, I know many people who voted leave, who regret voting that way now, and feel sad for the ordinary workers who will loose their employment this year, thanks to this disastrous vote, only brought to us by Tory party infighting. One final thing, whilst my wife and I are braving the sub zero temperatures in the North East of Scotland, the wife’s two daughter’s are having a ball in Australia, one in Sydney (Xmas day on bondi beach) and the other in Tasmania at present, in their second year there, and looking to stay as they see nothing here to come back to, which sums up brexit for me. So all the best to you and yours for a successful 2018 Phil and keep up the good work. Hail, Hail!!!!
St. Bridgets was the chapel in Baillieston…still is I think…
I found this blog about 6 months ago. I’ve enjoyed every update, but I have to say this is f**king fantastic. Happy new year Phil.
From Co. Tyrone
Hi Oliver
You should check out the blog archive.
It goes back to 2008.
There is a link to it in this post.
Dear Phil, I am one of the many returning readers. Thank you for all the entertainment and substance your articles provide me.
I wish you and yours a very happy new year.
Keep it up!
Putting the “sooth” into “soothing fantasies” since 2008.
All the best for 2018 Phil.
Phil, your fact based reporting on the trials & tribulations of sevco is deserving of all accolades you get, however, your political opinion doesn’t stand up to same scrutiny.
“New Cold war 2.0 instigated by KGB officer now head man in Moscow” & “Everything about Trump presidency relates back to Russia..”. Seriously? Have you not followed the Washington political elites attempts to prove this and have nothing after 18 months other than shining a light on their own corruption. ‘Uranium one’ was just the recent scandal to be not reported.
Putin has done well under continued provocative and aggressive Western policies. The CIA orchestrated coup in Ukraine and ramped up satellite Nato states on Russian border as well as US funded proxy war in Syria to create terrorist state next door have all been dealt with admirably. Within U.N. law!
Then Brexit. You recall EU making your brethren vote again in Lisbon Treaty when democracy didn’t give them outcome they wanted. Witness same happening again in UK with slow negotiations and increasing effort to over turn the vote of the majority. Catalans got another glimpse of EU dictatorship with their backing of right wing Madrid governments disregard for freedom of speech and protest.
Stick to your strong suit Phil unless you can substantiate your whimsical ‘lamb fed’ opinion of the MSM.
All best to you & your brood for 2018.
You are correct J80 – All lies by the establishment who are behind all of the corruption and the funding of terrorism and they have to demonise Russia because Putin actually went into Syria at the invitation of the Syrian government and defeated the US, UK etc funded and run ISIS while the US, and UK had forces in Syria totally against International Law and the Syrian governments wishes all to take out yet another democratically elected government to put in their own puppet government on behalf of the ELITES who control most of our governments in this world including Phils Irish government and the EU which is going to be the United States of Europe with all countries being simply REGIONS with NO voting if they get away with their agenda.
Not that I trust Trump either as our countries leaders have always been puppets of these Elites apart from the countries we go bomb and invade and demonise of course. People just need to question why their government is not printing their own debt and interest FREE money instead if accepting loans of absolutely NOTHING from Elite PRIVATE Bankers and owing them this absolute NOTHING plus interest and then when they get no answer from their government they will find out that their Country, Government, Political Parties, Councils, Courts etc etc are all just parts of the corrupt banking system run on behalf of these Elites who are amalgamating the Countries part of their banking system into three giant blocks that George Orwell warned everyone about in his book 1984 – people who do no ask such questions or are happy to be part of this are too stupid to realise that they are slaves in this system via their Birth Certificates and NI Numbers etc.
A heartfelt piece to end 2017,time will help,but for me;never heals.
Bridget’s Bhoy Brings The Joy.
That’s a statement I’m sure many of your dear readers would agree with too.
You have done more than anyone in exposing the sordid,racist,duplicitous,
quite often illegal goings-on at iBrokes,for that I am truly thankful.
It is great to see a fan from their ranks thanking you in the comments,jeez,IF only more of them had taken your findings to be the truth,well,maybe they wouldn’t be in the state they’re in.
I wish you every success in your new ventures’ fruition come March ‘18.
‘The Run’ Celtic had was something else,truly memorable,Sir Buck & The Bhoys have given us their All.
Health,Happiness and Love to you and yours Phil,and to All The Celtic Family In 2018.
HH And Noo it’s hunskelping time.
Thanks Phil, Keep Up the Great Work.?
Hello Phil, loved the story and deepest sympathies regarding your Mum. My Mum has gone 20 years now, but she was also a Bridget, well Bridie to everyone. A Derry woman fresh from the shirt factories when she came to be with my Dad who came to Glasgow to drive the buses. The racist abuse they and my siblings experienced you can only imagine. I was an after thought born in Glasgow. But you made me think of Bridie tonight and remembered she was formidable. A co worker in the school she cleaned called her a fenian b one day and was promptly wearing a bucket of dirty water over her head seconds later. Another neighbour who called her a Papish b was rag dolled all over the close before the police separated her. Im laughing with a tear in my eye. No body messed with Bridie. Those Derry shirt factories taught her a thing or two. Have a great year in 2018.
A mother’s love is a blessing….
I know your pain Phil….my wife passed away last December 14th….one year on l am still gutted.
May they both rest in peace.
Best wishes to everyone for a happy New Year.
Condolences Seamus.
Pax Vobiscum.
I would like to see Trump impeached for collusion and obstruction in 2018 by Mr Mueller and Sevco Scotland 2012 liquidated. Trump and King are on the same page for corruption, lies and malfeasance.
My mother left us just a few weeks short of 90.
She was a daughter of Ireland who grew to womanhood in a Glasgow rotten with sectarian bigotry where Catholics and Irish were routinely discriminated against.
She never lost her pride in and love of her faith her family and her Irish heritage .
I still miss her down through the years as you will miss your mum Phil.
Happy New Year to you and yours.
A great read as always, Phil. Thank you for all the great reporting during this year, and previous ones. Wish you and yours all the best for 2018!
A cracking read Phil…
Thank you for the work you do…
When a Phil piece appears on my timeline I more than often stop what I’m doing and read it as priority…
This can cause me grief from time to time but is invariably worth it because it’s always fearless, frank and often funny…
Have a better new year than this one on a personal basis and even more successful one professionally
Hail Hail ?
Brendan
A lovely tribute to your mother .The Murphy family were a great Irish loving people. Cousin John Got your book at Xmas .
Thanks for sharing all those thoughts and emotions Phil, 2017 was a momentous year for many of us in so many ways and hopefully 2018 will also be for you and yours without the loss and only happiness.
God bless
Fantastic piece Phil
Wishing you and family a successful and prosperous 2018
Hail Hail the Celts are here …..
Very well written piece Phil…its a great way to end your year ….well done.
I have no connection with Ireland…but I fully understand and support the feelings of anyone who is regarded and treated as a second class citizen…by white supremacist twats.
All the best for 2018.
we are all bridget.
Very thought provoking piece Phil. We just don’t think about those we love and treasure only at this time of year but all the time, even when they are gone.
They make us what we are I think.
I will not besmirch this this excellent piece by commenting on anyone or anything else.
The powder is well and truly dry.
Have a good and prosperous 2018 to you and your family.
Thanks.
May 2017
A very appropriate heading for one of the best years of my life.
My most amazing mother in law over in Kilbeggan is also a Bridget, I digress
In reflection 2017 was quite an amazing year on a number of fronts
It would be the 50th Anniversary of Lisbon Lions
We would see our club continue to execute plans / investments made many years before
We would be spoiled by Brendan’s Invincible Team, a Treble and an unbelievable unbeaten run
Champions league qualification
After coming up with the dream in November 2012 and two years of intense recruitment, planning and promotion, 30 cyclists would embark on the journey of a lifetime. Departing Celtic Park on the 11th May 2017 we would arrive in time to Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Lisbon Lions at the Estadio Nacional on the 25th May 2017
On a personal basis, we are very grateful to the ongoing support from the humble journalist/writer/blogger who continually supported this project and many other projects over the years, consistently tweeting, giving air time to our projects.
This support is very much appreciated as it helped promote our project, raise awareness and raise tens of thousands for charities close to our hearts.
Ahead of their Billy McNeill moment at the Estadio Nacional, our wee team were pleased to have met one of our supporters at the team hotel, thanks for all your help in this respect
Wishing you and your family good health in 2018
Hail Hail
Mouldy67
Supporting your project was a privilege for me.
Chapeau Phil !
A truly brilliant piece of writing.
Excellent reading Phil all the best to u and yours for 2018.
Superb read. All the best to you and yours for 2018.
Many thanks
Like you phil,im a son of bridget. My wee mammy is a proud donegal woman and always has been. The anti irish racism in scotland will take years to die out,if ever. My wish in 2018 is for hate preacher parents to give up their bigot/racism classes in their own homes so their children can grow up to be accepting of all faiths,ethenicity,sexual prefences and so on. My daughter is 14 now and when i hear her opinions on all of the above,im one very proud father. All the best to you and yours in 2018 and all my kin back in the emerald isle. ?
An excellent piece to bring the curtain down on 2017. RIP Bridget, a lovely Irish name which was bestowed on my dear wife.
P.s Is DCK under the wheels yet?
Great read Phil, it’s a crazy world we live in but it is’ getting better a little better all the time ‘ala Lennon and McCartney!! Sorry about the lose of your Mother, sounds like she was a great lady God bless her. I lost my wee brother in the summer a young man and Celtic to the core!!! The line ‘ A type of broken heart that never fully mends’ rings so true as the tears roll down my face. Hope it’s a better New Year for everyone! Enjoy the game tomorrow I’m sure my Wee Brother will be there beside me at our beloved Paradise ??? Hail Hail!!!!!
Phil,
Like you I laid my mother, also 90 and from down the road in Greenfield, to rest in the same patch of ground in Glasgow’s East End as her father and mother… at home once again.
RIP to both our mothers.
Phil – that’s a classy piece of writing. Keep up the good work and here’s hoping 2018 is everything you hope for.
From a lapsed and disgusted Rangers (IL) supporter, all the best to you and yours for the year ahead, Phil.
Many thanks
Love your work Phil, Bridget I’m sure is very proud.