The Bremen Bod Blog

Many years ago, I was fortunate enough to spend a short period living and working in the Catholic heartlands of the Rhineland and Münsterland. At weekends I would visit places associated with my own German forebears and cycle out into old Catholic villages where, as the locals liked to say, "even the dogs and chickens are Catholic." These were often remnant Catholic communities. Mass attendance had declined dramatically and many of the old certainties had faded. Yet among those who remained there persisted a distinctly social form of Catholicism, forged in the struggles of the nineteenth century and sustained through the memory of Bismarck's Kulturkampf. What endured was not merely a set of beliefs but a way of life: a dense web of relationships, institutions, duties and loyalties that bound people together. Travel has a way of teaching us something about ourselves. In Germany I learned that I am a layman, and that I shall always be a layman. More importantly, I realised ...

It will come as absolutely no surprise whatsoever to learn that my fellow West Ham supporting friends and family in London took great delight in watching Scotland toil against Haiti and get stuffed by Morocco at the World Cup. Oh the banter! I like to gently remind my ain kinsfolk and other Hammers, that West Ham are essentially a Scots club created by Scottish shipyard workers, just as Millwall were established by Scottish dockers.  I often remind them that, like so many East Enders, our greatest ever Hammer John Lyall, was immensely proud of his Scottish heritage - his mum from the Isle of Lewis and his Dad was from Kirriemuir. I briefly met John Lyall once, he was a lovely man and during the pre-season he used to take his family up here to Scotland and go fishing. Just as Chelsea fans singing along to ‘One Step Beyond’ every Saturday, would do well to remember that Suggs from Madness was born Graham McPherson and is also of Scottish ancestry. His Dad, William McPherson, was Scot...