Dunblane

[curiouswombat]

I was so happy for Andy Murray, winning the US Open. There was coverage on the TV news this morning, not only of the match, but looking at how it was watched, and celebrated, in his home town of Dunblane.

And I thought of what the name Dunblane meant to people before Andy Murray became famous.

So tonight I would like to remember

Victoria Elizabeth Clydesdale (5)
Emma Elizabeth Crozier (5)
Melissa Helen Currie (5)
Charlotte Louise Dunn (5)
Kevin Allan Hasell (5)
Ross William Irvine (5)
David Charles Kerr (5)
Mhairi Isabel MacBeath (5)
Brett McKinnon (6)
Abigail Joanne McLennan (5)
Gwen Mayor (45) — Primary School Teacher
Emily Morton (5)
Sophie Jane Lockwood North (5)
John Petrie (5)
Joanna Caroline Ross (5)
Hannah Louise Scott (5)
Megan Turner (5)

Who were all gunned down in the gym of Dunblane Primary School on 13 March 1996 - whilst an 8 year old boy called Andy Murray hid, with his classmates, under his desk just up the corridor.

Comments

[keiliss.livejournal.com]

Your final sentence made me shiver. I suppose we're not meant to understand some things, like why one child and not another and what happens inside people's heads.

Nice post.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Thank you. For so many years Dunblane has brought to mind, at least in Britain, the massacre of innocents- I am genuinely happy for the town that it now has something so much more pleasant as an association.

But it is still so sad to think that they would all have celebrated their 21st birthdays during the last school year.

[lilachigh.livejournal.com]

Very bitter-sweet post. Thank you for remembering them.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Andy Murray is less than a year older than D-d - and youngest niece is the same age as all these children making me think of 16 21st birthdays that have not been celebrated.

[zanthinegirl.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I'd never heard that about him; I wonder why? You'd think that would be a little better publicized!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I don't think it is really something he likes to talk about - but I gather he does talk about it in his autobiography.

But to Brits, until very recently, the word 'Dunblane' was always accompanied by the word 'massacre'.

[rachel2205.livejournal.com]

Yes, I was thinking it's SO nice for that town to have something good for people to associate with it. I still remember that day - I was only 13 but it's one of those things you don't forget seeing in the news...

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It really must be so much better for the town.

The children were all much the same age as my youngest niece - they would have all been celebrating 21st birthdays over the past year or so.

[spiced-wine.livejournal.com]

I don't follow tennis, so I didn't know Andy Murray came from Dunblane. I do remember when that happened; I went into the kicthen at the place I then worked and there were other women coming in for tea who had children, and they were all in tears. A dreadful, dreadful thing.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

They have mentioned it a few times on the news when he has done well... like getting his golden post-box - and it has stuck in my mind. It must be better for the town as a whole to have a happier event associated with it I think.

[jerusha]

Oh, wow. I didn't know that. Such events are so senseless, but I'm glad the folks in Dunblane have reason to celebrate today.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

The Dunblane massacre led to the laws that made most gun ownership illegal in Britain. Being the home of an Olympic gold medallist, and now celebrating his first Grand Slam win, are much better reasons to be recognised.

But it is a strange twist of fate that it was the Reception Class that was in the gym at that moment, not year 3, and so Andy Murray was not amongst the names on the memorial.

[kortirion.livejournal.com]

I hadn't realised he came from Dunblane - as you say, when I hear that word I automatically add 'massacre' in my mind. And I'd forgotten that they were all so very young... You're right, they should be acknowledged, and it is a good thing that the people of Dunblane can have a different focus, even when of course they will never forget the events of 1996.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I think the first time I registered it was a couple of years ago, when they do that 'this was his first coach, this is where he first picked up a tennis racket' and so on bit that I wasn't really watching - until I heard where it was.

And then it occurred to me that, if he was genuinely a local kid, he must logically have gone to the local school - and sure enough, in a tiny line in his Wiki entry it not only said that he had gone to the local Primary - but that he had, indeed, been in school that day.

I realised this week, when I looked at exactly what year it had been, that those families have all just had a year without a twenty-first birthday celebration... And so I am really pleased for the town that there was reason to celebrate a couple of times this year.

[gillo]

I was thinking of them too. Who knows what they might have achieved?

Thank you for posting this.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I thought how good for the town that they now have TV reporters arriving and not asking about the dead children - but that those children are part of Andy Murray in their own way.

And yes - what might they have been by now?

[ayinhara.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the memorial to those killed at Dunblane.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I found myself thinking of all the families who would not have had 21st birthdays to celebrate during this past year - and being happy for the town that they have had reason to celebrate this young man more than once this year.

[janedavitt.livejournal.com]

That day still haunts me. Eleanor was just a few weeks old and I hurt for those parents, the children, their teacher so much.

Horrific tragedy.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

D-d was not quite 8 - at the local primary school - and it felt very close to home I remember.

[dreamerjules.livejournal.com]

I was in the US Navy stationed at a NATO base outside of Lisbon when the shooting occurred and while I didn't remember the name of the town for the longest time, I could never forget the sight of the mums who were just devastated by it. I don't think they knew anyone there at all, much less lost anyone, but just the simple fact that something that evil could happen in a place of such innocence, some place their children could have been, tore them apart.

Thank you for the names. I'm thrilled for Andy - major tennis nerd and an Anglophile - and I'm pleased the town has something so positive attached to it now.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It seemed unbelievable at the time (and in many ways still does); that sort of thing happened in America, not in small Scottish towns. My daughter was a pupil in a very similar school - I think it hit so many mothers in the same way - and fathers, too.

It is odd to think that had the gunman chosen a different time, when year 4 were in the gym, there might have been no Andy Murray, Tennis Champion. And, as Gill says, it makes you wonder what those children, too, might have achieved.

One thing it did achieve, of course, was to outlaw almost all gun ownership in the UK and so it remains in the mind because nothing similar has happened since.

But I am really happy for Dunblane that now it is also becoming known as Andy Murray's home town.

[minuial_nuwing]

My daughter was about almost four at that time, and my throat still aches at the thought of the tragedy. Maybe it is a mom thing, because of Sissy's age, but in a lot of ways my memory of hearing about the Dunblane shootings is more viscerally painful than recalling September 11 or even Columbine. :(

Very thoughtful post.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

So many mothers, and fathers I guess, felt it in that deeply visceral way. My daughter was a pupil at a very similar school - I remember that I tried not to think of someone doing that at her school - but it had suddenly become all too easy to visualise.

And yet the town has survived, and it is good to see that one of the pupils that day has gone on to such amazing things - and to remember that others will have done so in less public ways.

[inzilbeth-liz.livejournal.com]

Yes, isn't it wonderful that the people of Dunblane can now be associated with a happy event.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I am genuinely pleased that the TV coverage avoided the urge to go 'Dunblane, home of the Dunblane Massacre', when they reported from the local tennis club, and his Grandparents' house, and so on.

[debris4spike]

I hadn't realised that Andy Murray came from Dunblane ... such an awful day. My mum's best friends niece is one on that list.

It is good that the town now has a positive name to remember as well.

May they continue to R.I.P

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Oh - how sad for her - it makes it even more close to home for you.

The first time he got to a Grand Slam final there was footage from his home town, of people watching on a big screen in the sports club, and I realised where he came from.

Then I began to wonder whether he had been at school at the time - or had he been at school elsewhere - and yes, he was a pupil at the school at the time and in his autobiography, I am told, he talks of hiding under his desk.

[jay-of-lasgalen.livejournal.com]

It's surprising how a single word can come to mean so much and evoke so many memories, horror and emotion: Lockerbie; Aberfan; Dunblane. I'm glad Dunblane now has a happier reason to be famous.

I was working in a school at the time, and we all sat in the staffroom in stunned silence, some in tears, as the news unfolded.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I remember how very like the school my daughter was a pupil at the school looked; it hit so many people who had no direct contact very hard didn't it?

My mother has that same reaction to Aberfan, still, as we had lived close by for a couple of years and had almost moved even closer but had, instead, come home. My sister could have been a pupil there.

And so I am really pleased that Dunblane has something good attached to its name now.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

I remember the Dublane massacre..such tragedy... and I had no idea that Andy Murray had been in the same school at the time.
It does make one wonder about fate.
Thank you for this.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It really does make you wonder about fate, doesn't it? What if it had been a different class that was in the gym when the gunman arrived?

Andy Murray's parents must sometimes wonder that - as must many others, of course - but that he is now so famous really brings it home, I think.

[chaotic-binky.livejournal.com]

I remember that day.

Several years later I was on a geology field trip near Dunblane. Our coach passed a church with quite a few people in one part of the cemetery and there were a lot of flowers decorating the graves. One of our party, a woman in her sixties, asked why so many people were in the graveyard. Our lecturer replied that the victims of the Dunblane massacre were buried there and he thought the people might be parents visiting their childrens' graves. Her eyes lit up and she asked if the coach could stop so she could photograph their gravestones. We protested and said that her request was in bad taste. We carried onto our destination while she complained sporadically about how we had all ruined her trip.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Some people have no couth...

I would have been inclined to shove her and her camera off the bus to take as many pictures as she liked- but driven away without her!

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

So good that the people of Dunblane now have a new, good memory to associate with their town.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Isn't it? The children are nor forgotten, but it is a sign of life going on, of hope...

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It was - I'm glad they are not forgotten; but happy, too, that the town now has a happier association as well.

[wildecate.livejournal.com]

Thank you for your post. I did remember all those children and their teacher when the news kept referring to Dunblane but of course Daniel is 5 so that stuck in my mind and the enormity of it just floored me.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

of course Daniel is 5 so that stuck in my mind and the enormity of it just floored me
I can understand that, especially at the moment; it is that instant connection of the heart - of the fëa - which bypasses logic or the brain.

But I am glad that there is now something else to associate with the name of the town, as well.

[ballena.livejournal.com]

I didn't know any of that - but very vividly remember hearing the tragic news back in 1996. What a traumatic event for everyone at the school that day - but thoughts go especially to the families of those in that list.

Andy Murray has done amazingly well this year.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I am happy for the town that it is now famous for something as well as the tragedy - but it is weird to think that Andy Murray was in that school on that day.

[wormwood-7.livejournal.com]

Shudder. I remember that day well. I had a daughter in primary school in Edinburgh at the time. When I came to pick her up I think every single teacher in the school was in tears. The horror was so close - Dunblane is only 45 minutes away by train.
Sometimes a Thomas Hamilton or Anders Breivik appear on the scene. Luckily it is incredibly rare, but the memory of such days stays with you.
Murray's victory was hugely deserved though.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

So many of us had our own children in such similar schools - and could only watch in horror, and give silent thanks that it was not 'our' school...

I was so pleased to see him win - and happy for the town, too.

[mylescorcoran]

Thank you for the reminder, and the thought that the town has happier memories too.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It is one of those quirks of fate that Andy Murray was there - and worth wondering what those other children might have achieved.

But so nice for the town to have TV reporters wandering around for a very different reason.