Why I'll never forget being a young journalist during an 'electrifying' Scottish independence referendum

I turned 24 in the summer of 2014. I had only just embarked on a career in journalism, first at a news agency, and then at the Edinburgh Evening News. 

For the previous 12 months, I had been down in Cardiff, learning shorthand and media law and gaining a postgraduate qualification in journalism. When I returned to Scotland, it seemed like the most exciting place in the world. 

The entire country was ablaze with politics. The coming referendum was being debated everywhere, and everyone had a view, even if they had still to make up their minds on the central question.

Yes activists gather in George Square on September 17, 2014 | Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

It felt vital and unmissable. This was about the future of Scotland; it was about who we were and where we wanted to go. There are moments when you feel the weight of history. This was one of them.

I can’t pretend I was much involved in covering it as a journalist, however. A look back through the archives shows I barely touched politics.

In September alone, I reported on a daylight robbery in a city newsagent, a family home targeted in a drive-by shooting, a pensioner left fighting for his life after a stabbing, the closure of a popular snooker hall, and plans for a new trampoline arena (or a “gravity-defying bounce bonanza,” as I described it).

Such is the life of a local journalist.

But on the day of the referendum itself, the whole newsroom got involved. I was sent to cover one of the many counts taking place around Scotland. I still remember the fizzing anticipation; the sense of a fork in the road.

I spent a chunk of the following day outside Bute House, the First Minister’s official residence in Edinburgh, soaking up the reaction of those who had gathered outside following Alex Salmond’s resignation speech. Yes supporters expressed their shock and sadness. I remember it being damp and drizzly.

"I feel quite broken-hearted,” Sara Hastie, 28, from Dalry, told me. “I thought today would be the start of a new chapter in Scottish history, but you have to be graceful in defeat."

Despite the result, many independence supporters look back on the summer of 2014 as a time of great optimism and hope. For some of those on the No side, however, it wasn’t such a positive experience.

Blair McDougall, the head of the Better Together campaign, recently told me he had “strange, mixed feelings about that time”. He was proud of what had been achieved, but also spoke of receiving abuse and feeling the entire thing was “at best” a distraction.

"Referendums are effective ways of engaging people in a debate,” he said. “I don't think they're a good way of having a debate. Politics is complicated. It's difficult. There are a million shades of grey on every issue and I think referenda reduce things into that binary choice."

Political journalists also came under huge pressure, and I have no doubt there are mixed feelings within my own trade about that extraordinary time.

All of these experiences should be taken into account. They are all equally valid. But for my part, I’ll never forget the atmosphere of that summer, and the electrifying feeling of playing even a tiny, miniscule part in it.