Blowing the old world back into the new...

There is a line from a poem by Iain Crichton Smith which talks about “blowing the old world back into the new”.

I am sure we have all had that experience - the moment when life suddenly and unexpectedly  shifts focus and forces into the foreground , with a thud, things almost forgotten but of great emotional and personal resonance.

It happened to me the morning in Belfast.    I had just set off from the hotel for a tour with Gerry Carlile, who was my host on behalf of the Ireland’s Future organisation, when he pointed out - very much  and literally in passing - the buildings of the Royal Belfast Academical Institution.  In fact I think he only did so because we happened to stop at traffic lights right out side it.  

It would have meant nothing to 99 out of a 100 visitors, but my alas long dead best man, former flat mate ( and closest friend I ever had)  David Graham, was an ex pupil of the “Inst”, to which he had won a bursary . He talked about it often, but I had never seen it before - and suddenly here it was.   

He was very much atypical as regards being  an “Inst” former pupil, and being David revelled in that.   He was active in the Labour Party in Northern Ireland whilst still at school, was involved int the civil rights movement and then  was very focused on in carving out a career in Labour politics at Edinburgh University .   He was on the Labour NEC as a Labour student rep whilst still studying and after graduation had already stood as a Westminster candidate .   He and I were both on the SRC and  once tried to take over the "Student" newspaper (we failed !).  His sisters used to come and stay with my parents in Troon on occasion, and his parents would occasionally visit the flat I shared with David in Edinburgh.

Then however, he went with the SDP founders into that party and ended  up as a Liberal Party member and candidate whilst teaching in a variety of places including the Royal High School. 

He was very much more politically active at that time than I was , but just as I was beginning to be involved on the national scene for the SNP (I had joined just after Unviersity)he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died in 1992,  a few months after his 40th birthday.

I still wonder what would have happened had he lived.  Would he and I have eventually faced  off across the Scottish Parliament Chamber (the founding of which was by no means certain at that time).  That would have been highly entertaining but I hope very civilised in debate too.   

 What would he be like in retirement , live wire that he always was?  And what would he have made of my being here today , having been speaking at a meeting about Irish  re-unification last night. 

I enjoyed and learnt from my tour with Gerry and was glad to have been invited to Belfast once again.   I understood more as a result.  

But this picture crosses that newer world.  The sight took  me into  my older one, making  me reflect long after I had flown home.