PICTURES: Caley Thistle flag taken on 2,700-mile journey from Inverness to Euro 2024 and back in memory of much-loved die-hard supporter from Aviemore
A Tartan Army foot soldier from Inverness has taken a Caley Thistle flag on a poignant 2,700-mile odyssey to the Euros and back in memory of a late friend.
When Aviemore kitchen porter Michael Diamond passed away in 2013, he was sorely missed by many fellow Caley Jags die-hards.
One of them was Robert Wright, an Inverness exile then living in Stirling, who has since returned to live in the Highland capital.
ScotRail employee Robert (49), who now stays in Slackbuie, often enjoyed a pre-match pint with Michael on football away days where the treasured old-style Caley Thistle flag was a frequent sight down the years.
After Michael’s death, the famous flag was gifted to the ICTFC supporters’ travel club by Michael’s family. It was proudly unfurled at the 2014 League Cup final defeat to Aberdeen in the top tier at Parkhead by fans Lynne Macdonald and Jen Aitchison - among other big match occasions.
More recently, though, it had lain dormant before being tracked down by the travel club’s Rosemary Webb, its present custodian.
Now it has completed a cross-continental journey with stops at Stirling, Edinburgh, Dublin Munich, Frankfurt, Cologne, Stuttgart, Nuremburg, Amsterdam before being flown back to Inverness.
“I go to a lot of Scotland games, home and away, and managed to get tickets for all three of the group games in Germany,” Robert explained.
“Michael was a character and a half. He lived in Aviemore and didn’t attend a lot of home ICT games, but was a really well-liked character within the Caley Thistle travel club.
“The bus used to take a special detour into Aviemore just to pick him up, which shows how popular he was.
“I actually met him in Blackpool in the Terry Butcher era when Caley Thistle faced Fleetwood Town in a friendly, the year we got promoted.
“I remember helping him put the flag up in a Blackpool pub. That’s how we got in tow.
“It was one of those friendships where we didn’t see each other from week-to-week then bumped into each other for the football.”
Michael worked at La Taverna restaurant in Aviemore for 33 years, assisting two generations of the family owners.
“He was still relatively young when we learned of his death, although I know he had a few health issues,” Robert recalled.
“You always knew he was at a game because of that great massive flag.
“We were in the Caley Club one day and I was speaking about Caley Thistle’s current sorry situation and also the good old days.
“Someone asked where Michael Diamond’s old flag was and after I asked the question, Lynne from the travel club told us how the family had gifted it to them but that no-one had taken it out.
“I used to be a member of the Larbert Tartan Army in my Stirling days and a few of lads liked to take their club flags abroad on Scotland trips
“I thought taking Michael’s one out to Germany would be a nice wee tribute to him. I think he would have been proud to see it over there.
“That’s Michael. He lived for his football, Caley Thistle on a Saturday.
“He never gave away much personal stuff, it was just football chat all the time.”
The reaction to the flag from fans in Germany during the mass invasion of 200,000 Scots amazed Robert.
“Wherever we displayed it, people were coming up and asking if they could get their photograph taken with the flag.
“It is one of those old, heavy-type flags which meant I couldn't actually get it into the stadiums, but when we went to the fanzones, we would hang it over a bridge or on the wall of a pub.
“So many folk came up and asked about Caley Thistle because of the club’s situation and all the Kelty stuff.
“I didn’t expect the flag to be so popular.
“Clubs have these characters like Michael but they can easily be forgotten over the years, especially at a young club like Caley Thistle.
“It is just about trying to keep his memory alive, especially at a time when a lot of us are nostalgic for the old days.
“Michael’s flag, for a lot of us, is quite iconic. It'll now be handed back to the supporters’ club for someone else to carry on the journey.”
