“Between 1969 and 2007, Scottish soldiers fought and died to keep Northern Ireland within the overall United Kingdom — over a hundred of them,” he says. “What was that all about? The IRA fought a bloody 38-year campaign to take Northern Ireland out of the United Kingdom and join the six northern counties of the island of Ireland to the republic in the south of Ireland as one sovereign state. As English, Welsh, North Irish and Scottish peoples we fought against this diminution of our country — the country of the Union flag embodying the Cross of St George, the Cross of St Patrick and the Cross of St Andrew.