16th August 2018
I was in my home town of Edinburgh last week. August is a great time to be in Scotland’s capital city. The Edinburgh International Festival was born out of the destruction of the Second World War, its creators conceiving it as a “platform for the flowering of the human spirit”. From modest beginnings in 1947, […]
9th February 2017 Vientiane, Laos
I was recently delighted to host my first Burns Supper in Vientiane. It was a wonderful evening of poetry, food and dance for which the organizational credit must go to Scottish community stalwart, Clare Hepburn, ably supported by her husband Alistair and others. As someone who grew up in the southern Scottish town of Dumfries. […]
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30th November 2016 Vienna, Austria
30 November is St Andrew’s Day, named after the Patron Saint of Scotland. St Andrew offers continuity across cultures: he was crucified at Patras, in modern-day Greece, and his body was taken to Constantinople before being transferred to Amalfi in Italy in the 13th Century. Language Teaching Assistant Dan explains St Andrew’s Day The official […]
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21st October 2016 Kolkata, India
One of the surprises of Kolkata for me has been to discover how keen Kolkatans are on sport, and how many sports are played in and around the city. I knew that Kolkata is the home of one of the world’s great cricket grounds – Eden Gardens. As I expected, there is huge interest in […]
30th November 2015
The celebration of the Feast Day of the apostle St Andrew, brother of St Peter, is one of the high points in the Scots College year. It is an opportunity to invite many friends in the city, as well as some from home, to join the community in celebrating both the College and Scotland. The […]
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16th September 2015
It is already five years since the historic visit of Emeritus Pope Benedict to England and Scotland. Shortly after David Cameron won the 2010 General Election, he asked me if I would co-ordinate government support for this visit. I agree on three conditions to which he readily acceded. First, I said that the Catholic hierarchy […]
25th January 2015 Skopje, North Macedonia
Burns’ night is a big deal in Scotland. I come from the west of Scotland, just up the coast from where Robert Burns lived and worked in Ayrshire. As a child, I remember in the middle of every dreich (cold, rainy and grey) month of January, my parents, aunts & uncles etc, would get dressed up to […]
25th January 2015
There aren’t enough Scots in Ethiopia. Strange, because they seem to get everywhere else. Even when we organised a Burns Evening in Addis Ababa last year with the help of Diageo, there weren’t that many Scots there. This 25th January, we will have to mark the 255th Anniversary of Robert Burns’ birth in 1759 virtually, […]
23rd January 2015 Budapest, Hungary
Guest blog on the occasion of Burns Night (25 January), written by Deborah Moss, Organising Committee member of “Wee Burns” It is a tribute to the poet, Robert Burns, that Scots have held Burns Suppers for over 250 years to remember a man whom many consider to be Scotland’s most famous son. According to the Johnnie […]
30th November 2014 Skopje, North Macedonia
The people of Scotland account for 8,3 % of the total UK population. Today, Scotland marks its national day – St Andrew’s Day. It’s a chance to really celebrate all that is great about our heritage and culture – our people, our food, and our skills, many of which have been passed on through generation […]
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