sport news Poetry in vision: A celebration of the Scottish game in words and pictures trends now

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JULIE McNEILL is the Poet-in-Residence for St Mirren Football Club Charitable Trust, the only female poet — as far as can be established — attached to a professional football club in the UK, perhaps in the world. She is the Makar for The Hampden Collection, set up to preserve and protect Scotland’s footballing heritage. Here, she explains her motivation for her latest book, We Are Scottish Football... 

The story begins in 2018 when the Scottish women’s national team were busy qualifying for the Women’s World Cup in France.

My daughter was five at the time and we went along to all the games. I started writing about the experience through her eyes — growing up in a world where it was completely normal to see the women’s team performing at such a high level and playing their games at Hampden Park.

It was early 2019 when I got to know the Hampden Collection volunteers, led by Graeme Brown. They were set up in 2017 to preserve and protect Scotland’s pioneering football history through the story of the Hampden Parks and all who played on them.

I wrote poems for the SWNT Poets Society, charting the journey to France and beyond, then became their Poet-in-Residence in 2020. Since then we have amassed an online collection of over 150 poems celebrating the men’s, women’s and children’s experiences of the game.