The Scotsman Sessions #413: Julie McNeill

In her latest poetry anthology, We Are Scottish Football, Julie McNeill writes of the optimistic anticipation that comes with following the national team, going “forward wide-eyed, full-hearted, full-bodied, foolhardy”, defying the slim odds of Steve Clarke's men emerging triumphant at the Euros. Tracing the history of the beautiful game, from Glasgow's southside to South America, and passion for the sport through generations, it's an evocative, emotional collection that doesn't shy away from the negative, tribal aspects of football, but which finds community in a spectacle that still brings enormous numbers of people together in a 90-minute drama of “damned hope”.

Flying out to the tournament with her family, with a ticket for the match against hosts and perennial European powerhouse Germany, McNeill laughs as she affirms that “there's always a chance, that's genuinely what I think.

“We've had a wee bit of a slump but anything could happen,” she says. “Whatever the result, Scotland being involved in the opening game, it’s such a huge occasion. It’ll be amazing.”

Julie McNeill

Poet-in-residence at St Mirren FC’s charitable foundation, and with her verse shared on the BBC’s Sportsound to kick off the start of the 2022/2023 domestic season, McNeill is inspired by the tiny but telling details of football that “reflect a bigger story.”

“You might not think it’s a huge deal that somebody wears the same scarf to the game or sits in the same seat, goes to the same toilet or puts a bet on in the same place,” she suggests. “But why do they do that? Do they do it because their dad always did it? Or they did it once and Scotland scored? I’m fascinated by what makes people tick, far more so than whether it was 3-1 or 4-1. That’s what I’m really excited about.”

Connecting the Euros to the game’s 19th century origins, We Are Scottish Football celebrates Football's Square Mile, 21 sites of historical significance on the southside of Glasgow, from Hampden Bowling Club, site of the first Hampden Park, to 29 Eglinton Street, birthplace of Alexander Watson Hutton, godfather of Argentinean football. Commemorative plaques have been placed at the sites within the last month and UNESCO is being lobbied to make the “open air museum” a world heritage site.

“We're gathering all the evidence, it’s a long process and it may not come to fruition,” says McNeill. “But these sites are so important in the history of football and the history of Scotland, and it really feels like we've got momentum now.”

The book also pays homage to Rose Reilly – “an absolute hero” of McNeill’s – the only Scottish player to have won a World Cup, albeit with Italy in 1984.

Along with the current generation of female footballers, McNeill encourages her daughter to play the game, as she recounts in her poem Kickabout for the Scotsman Sessions. It seems incredible now, but women’s football was banned in Scotland until 1974. Later this year, with sport historians Professor Fiona Skillen and Dr Karen Fraser, McNeill is publishing a lost history of that suppressed talent, The Unsuitable Game.

“Obviously there’s still a long way to go in terms of real equality and investment,” she reflects. “But there have been huge strides in recent years for the women's game. “I’ve loved being immersed in the project because Fiona and Karen are so well versed in the subject. And I've loved turning that inspiration into poetry.”