Olympic Truce…..A Wee Break From Scotland’s Wars – by Bill Fraser

It was a tradition in Greek antiquity that warring between states should be put aside for the duration of the Olympic Games, an event held every four years to celebrate athletes who excelled in warrior skills. When the games were resurrected by Baron de Coubertin in 1896 they were not considered important enough to warrant such truce between belligerent nations and this resulted not only in the cancellation of the games in 1916, 1940 and 1944 but war-based political events led to the horrendous Munich massacre and the boycotts of 1980 and 84 (yes, they really did happen because of the Russian invasion of Afghanistan).

The Baron de Coubertin, architect of the modern Olympics, and winner of the Gold Medal for finest moustache at the Games of 1896, 1900 and 1904

So what, you are all asking yourselves, has all this got to do with Scotland and what is all this about Scottish warfare?