There is no pain so great as the memory of joy in present grief.

                                                                                                Aeschylus

Today like everyone else in the Celtic community I have a sense of numbness at the news of the death of Tommy Burns.  If truth be told it did not come as a great surprise given recent bulletins about his health, but the impact was no less because of this. 

I was busy searching the web and listening to the radio for news of our rivals’ travails in deepest Lancashire – or as it is now known Greater Manchester – but for some reason on hearing Chic Young’s voice coming from the kitchen radio I sensed that he was no longer bemoaning the fate of the blues and went through to hear exactly what he was talking about.

My first reaction was to send messages to my wife who had set off for work only minutes earlier and to my offspring in the Colonies, even though I knew it was the middle of the night in Chattanooga.

Throughout the day I have listened to the great and good, and many ordinary fans, talking about their memories of Tommy and it is in the nature of things that the same or similar sentiments are expressed again and again.  I found the press conference quite moving and it is clear that this was a man who touched many people during his really quite short time with us.

Obviously the greatest impact will be on those who are close to him – his family and his colleagues who knew him well – but the esteem with which he is regarded by the community of Scotland is remarkable and it is to be hoped that they can gain some solace from this.

A feature of some Celtic sites that I have seen today is to suspend the normal gloating which would follow such an enjoyable evening as last night and to focus on the life and works of a great Celt – a decision which I thoroughly applaud.

We all have our own memories of Tommy Burns and I crave your indulgence dear reader if I set out some of my own.  I do this because they are not really to do with Tommy the Celtic player and hero of the Hoops, but are more reflections on Tommy the boy and the man and may be of some interest to those in our community who have him in their thoughts and prayers this evening.