They are a forward-thinking people in Ferryden. Fiercely independent of their dominant neighbour Montrose. And wise enough to have their own national anthem.
It is an anthem about life’s brevity. It recognises the power of small, positive personal actions. The benefits are greater than the sum of these acts of kindness, it proposes.
The Ferryden National Anthem is not heard much outside east Angus these days.
It will be given an airing at the end of a social gathering and gets an occasional blast by my father-in-law in the Commercial Inn, Arbroath, on a winter Saturday afternoon.
It is a democratic choice. People buy into its uplifting chorus. Perhaps it reflects shared experience, seascape and landscape.
Should Ferrydeners cede from Montrose, they have an inspirational song with which to promote themselves.
Should Scots cede from the UK, we will have a surly protest chant with which to embarrass ourselves. Flower of Scotland. Great for a folk night sing-song but a melancholic dirge tinged with chip-on-the-shoulder aggression. A whiff of the 1970s Hampden nationalist about it. Chipped melamine bars, cheap watered whisky and Player’s No 6. Not a showcase for a nation with aspirations.
Of course, post-independence, we would retain the monarchy and God Save The Queen. But we would still need a song to bind us together and project a collective vision of a fair and prosperous Scotland.
Do we want to hark back to Braveheart battles and forever see ourselves as blue-faced parodies of Hollywood reflections, or should we mine the rich literary heritage of this educated and inventive people for a more fitting anthem? Or should we open a new chapter and commission our writers and musicians to script a new, forward-looking anthem?
The Ferryden National Anthem is a warm song of nautical rhythms, tones of rich, dark wood, dark rum and fraternalism. But a song for Scotland it is not.
So what about Scot’s Wha Hae? Too blood-curdingly reactive? Burns must have been in a mood. Scotland the Brave. A touch too swirly and kilty?
Caledonia? Wonderful song but maybe a Saturday night belt, not a Sunday anthem?
Or there is, Is There For Honest Poverty, the song performed by Sheena Wellington when parliament was reconvened in 1999, better known as, A Man’s A Man For A’ That.
It contains Burns’s timeless, seditious lines . . . “The rank is but the guinea’s stamp, The Man’s the gowd for a’ that.” Surely the right choice for an energetic, challenging and at times irreverent Scotland?
Not according to the public. When I edited the letters column I polled readers on an anthem. The kicking taken by Is There for Honest Poverty was absolute. It polled 2.97%, 7% behind Caledonia and 14% behind Scotland the Brave. Raging ahead on more than 50% was our morose old bruiser, Flower of Scotland.
The people had spoken. Their will was settled.