13  March 2026 – From My Diary 1996

The parish of Logie bounds on Dunblane Cathedral. Thirty years ago today, the news was dominated by the wicked actions of a man called Thomas Hamilton from Stirling  who walked into Dunblane Primary School and shot sixteen five year old children  and their Primary 1 teacher in cold blood.

Mary-Catherine brought the news back to Logie  Manse. She was studying at Stirling University and her class had been discharged after  news of this heinous crime was reported. I contacted the Presbytery Clerk and offered help. He was trying to get to Dunblane himself to get some first hand information.

Maybe because this tragedy had unfolded in a Primary School, I was drawn to visit Riverside Primary where I was School Chaplain. I sat with the teachers in the staff room listening to the news. A member of staff from Dunblane had already gone home. The head teacher was angry at the lack of security in the school.

Everyone was stunned, numbed by the enormity of what had happened. The feeling of helplessness and sadness and disbelief permeated the day – interviewing a couple about their marriage, meeting BB office-bearers, visiting an elder’s family in Dunblane and viewing  a member’s fire-damaged house.

Ten days later, I received a card from one of the teachers at Riverside Primary. It was written in appreciation of my presence in the staff room on 13 March. Conscious of my inadequacy to do or say anything except be there, I was surprised. But her beautiful letter inspired the rest of my ministry.

‘That day must be the longest day I have ever spent at school and the longest lunch-hour ever.’ she wrote. ‘We were all feeling so low and utterly devastated, but you were there through that terrible time – just your very presence there with us all spoke volumes.’ The memory continues to  affirm the often unacknowledged  value of parish ministry.