Hamish MacDonald

This poetry collection is a journey through the grassroots of Scottish football, and, as ‘It’s Comin Hame Ye Say’ attests, by extension the DNA of all modern-day football.

The verse is delivered by the inaugural Scots Scriever, and as you read and feel the passion and beat of the lines like the thunderous clapping of a chanting crowd, it is no surprise to learn that the author is also a slam poetry champion of world renown.

MacDonald, the Bankies Bard of Clydebank Football Club, invites the reader to journey to some of Scotland’s oldest grounds, that lie haunted by the ghosts of heavy industry and the voices of a proud footballing past that echoes around the old stands and across carparks that were once pitches. He also guides us through history from the nineteenth to the twentieth century from Hampden to Buenos Aires. We find ourselves in the terrible trenches of the Great War, following young footballing souls to Ypres, where kickin a ba boot seemed the only sane thing to do in a world in flames. And the poems bring us to the present day, reminding us that we still have lower leagues, and clubs that bring communities and families together, and we are still a people that dreams of crossing the Atlantic (in 2026) to cheer on the national team in the dark blue jerseys.

Not since Robin Jenkins’ The Thistle and the Grail (1984) have I read literature addressing the passion of spirit and social traditions that connect Scotland’s working classes to fitba, as the rising momentum of a community, rife with unemployment and poverty, escape from misery while following the local club to a cup final. Not since William McIllvanney’s ‘Waving’ (included in The Walking Wounded, 1989) has the passion of fitba been rendered so powerfully, as a textile factory worker, filled with resilience and belief, is prepared to do whatever it takes to get to Argentina for the 1978 World Cup.

As the title of this brilliant collection suggests, it is presented in Scots, and MacDonald’s rendering of the language is powerful and fervent and graphic. For those that yearn for the glory days of fitba when there were working-class heroes on the pitch, and for those that want to revisit the old grounds where their ancestors still sing in the stands, ‘Square Baw’ is for you.