And to mark the Irish national airline carrier’s opening of a new route to the capital of the Scottish Highlands we trust some will claim that they have seen the Loch Ness MonstAer.
Only there is no such creature, and there I’ve said it, although there are no shortage of fluffy merch toys.
As we found out on a visit to the Loch Ness Centre where the Son and Heir left the glove puppet soothing toy he carried everywhere.
Among all the other Nessies.
Of course, you’d be forgiven for thinking that it was the fabled Loch Ness Monster which put Inverness and its environs on the tourist map.
When, in fact, word of the beauty of the Scottish Highlands had long been known.
From forays from friend and foe alike over the century.
With no less a chronicler than Samuel Johnson waxing lyrical about its beauties on his 1775 A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland.
Walking in Boswell and Johnson’s footsteps
Witchcraft: Macbeth country
Johnson commented on the diction of the Invernessians, to this day praised as close to ‘Queen’s English.’
Saying ‘The soldiers seem to have incorporated afterwards with the inhabitants.
‘And to have peopled the place with an English race.
‘For the language of this town has been long considered as peculiarly elegant.’
Johnson and Boswell were much taken by Inverness Castle, reputed home of Macbeth, and a particular fort nearby.
‘It was no very capacious edifice, but stands upon a rock so high and steep, that I think it was once not accessible.
‘But by the help of ladders, or a bridge.
‘Over against it, on another hill, was a fort built by Cromwell, now totally demolished.
‘For no faction of Scotland loved the name of Cromwell, or had any desire to continue his memory.’
All of which will be music to newbie Irish visitors to Inverness.
With the famously warty religious zealot no friend of our Celtic cousins either.
When we got our Erse kicked
Castle in the Aer: Inverness Castle down below
Today’s Inverness Castle may be different than the one B&J visited but you’ll still be able to take in the atmosphere on your visit.
Johnson goes somewhat off track though here.
With the kind of demeaning and belittling descriptions of the Invernessians which would have him cancelled today.
Although he helpfully reminds us that the Highlands and Islands is the home of the Gaelic or Erse language.
And stop giggling there at the back.
‘There is I think a kirk, in which only the Erse language is used, he notes.
‘There is likewise an English chapel, but meanly built, where on Sunday we saw a very decent congregation.’
Go West
Spooky: Traitors Castle
B&J seemingly don’t linger in Inverness, preferring to get on their journey to the remote Hebrides.
Saying: ‘At Inverness we procured three horses for ourselves and a servant, and one more for our baggage, which was no very heavy load.
‘We found in the course of our journey the convenience of having disencumbered ourselves, by laying aside whatever we could spare.
‘For it is not to be imagined without experience, how in climbing crags, and treading bogs.
‘And winding through narrow and obstructed passages, a little bulk will hinder, and a little weight will burthen.’
Bonnie Prince Charlie’s last stand
Battle weary: Charlie at Culloden
Why B&J chose not to visit the site of the last battle on British soil, at nearby Culloden in 1746, we never learn.
Although it might still have been too raw.
But you can, and learn about the fate of Bonnie Prince Charlie, and how he too fled to the Western Isles.
Which I do after the Son and Heir drained my Czech licquer with his pals on one of the occasions we left him with a Free House.
And he defensively told me that he would replace it after thinking that I would be duped by him and his Daft Pals leaving just a dribble at the bottom.
So if it’s Pittsburgh or Prague, Montpellier or Santiago be sure to get on board and get those stickers on your suitcase.
To show off, of course, but also to ensure your luggage stands out on the carousel.
It’s just another staging post on the Tartan Army‘s world tour, and no doubt we’ll be coming down the road singing No Scotland, no Boston Footie Party.
We have, of course, been here before in Beantown, where Scotland’s first two games against Haiti and Morocco will be played.
With Scots early pioneers out to the American colonies.
And obviously being a Scot I got to walk this Son Of Liberty’s footsteps.
A Scot’s Swansong
James, I discovered, was quickly identified by Samuel Adams and the leaders as important to the cause.
Through his work at the mercantile house Thaxter & Son and their dealings with the sale of tea.
James, or Swannie as he was probably never known but would have been if he had been a footballer, brought his Scottish ways with him to New England.
I learned that he became a member of the St. Andrew’s Lodge of Freemasons, the Scots Charitable Society of Boston, and enlisted in the Revolutionary Army.
Ya dancer: The Boys in Blue
Where this Scottish soldier rose to the rank of colonel for the Battle of Bunker Hill.
And also held positions on the Massachusetts Board of War and Legislature.
My own time working as a busboy at Guadalaharry’s in Quincy Market and an ice cream shop in Faneuil Hall.
Stars in Stripes: Boston, cradle of the Revolution
Swannie, of course, would have been too busy fighting the English, and no doubt some Scots with the Brtitish Army, to have concerned himself with such pastimes as football.
Although it was a game, having been played back in the Old World since the 1500s with the oldest ball housed in Stirling Castle, not far from Swannie’s Fife fiefdom, from 1540.
Coming down the road: SuperMac Scott McTominay
Even if organised or Association football, from where we get the word soccer, had not taken hold in Scotland until 1873, 43 years after Swannie’s death in Paris.
Scotland’s famous Tartan Army will, of course, get a warm welcome from Bostonians.
And we will doubtless repay our hosts by supporting the Boys in Stars and Stripes when they play.
Just as Greenock native Ed McIlvenny did when he captained America to victory over England at the 1950 World Cup.
And there’s a trivia question for you and money you can take from your English friends in a bet.
America The Bountiful
In with the bricks: Your bartender
All of which trips down memory lane lead us neatly to our modern-day American friends at Brand USA.
Who hae put together a handy guide for footie fans for next summer.
Which celebrates this sports-mad city’s rich legacy.
Inside TD Garden, home of the Boston Bruins and Boston Celtics.
And would-be sportscasters can sit at a replica New England Sports Network (NESN) desk, where visitors can ‘Be the Broadcaster.’
This time: Scotland’s World Cup odyssey
So you can practise: ‘And Andy Robertson makes history as the first Scot to lift the World Cup.’
For those of who will go native, of course, there is the hub of American soccer fans, The Banshee.
A 14 television sports bar across two floors where the Tartan Army will converge.
Because No Scotland, no Boston Footie Party.
The wailing Banshee
Off your rocker: Boston Airport
This is where, The Banshee, the American Outlaws (supporters of the U.S. national football team) congregate as well as fans of other major sports leagues.
And on special celebrity bartending nights, local athletes pour drinks at this mainstay Dorchester-based Irish pub.
Now what Swannie and his pals would think of the America of today we can only imagine, but we’d say pride would be their foremost emotion.
Particularly as the tournament coincides with America 250, and Brand USA is spotlighting 250 things to do.
Across the US through a themed content series.
And as with all else with transatlantic travel from these islands to the Oo Es of Eh, we always advise travelling through Ireland.
And Aer Lingus with pre-clearance where you can get a sample return flight for a week, covering both matches from £963.58.
IT seems unimaginable now that basketball that has created more Afro-American idols than any other was once a white preserve, so it is worth marking the first black pioneer of the NBA 75 years on.
Charles ‘Chuck’ Cooper may not have the global adulation.
Of a Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Steph Curry, Magic Johnson or Shaquille O’Neal.
But were you to ask any one of those black colossuses of sport for his contribution to the sport.
And their passage into it they would as one place him on the highest pedestal.
King James: LeBron James
Because on this day back in 1950 the Pittsburgh native became the first Afro-American to play in the NBA.
We found an Aer Lingus flight from our home airport here in Edinburgh through Dublin with pre-clearance for a sample week’s return dates this month from £668.40.
