A PUMPING STATION TOO FAR; KINFAUNS
"'S FEAIRDE BRATH A BREACADH
GUN A BRISEADH"
["a quern is the better of
sharpening without being broken"; i. e. too much of a good thing]. For the first time since 1972, when
the Sword was taken, the Tartan Army fell into disagreement. It so
happened that in between the bombing at Crook of Devon and the
Government's collapse, Gerry had located another pumping station at
Kinfauns on the North side of the Tay river, five miles from Perth
city and fifteen miles from the H. Q. of the S. A. S. just
outside Dundee. Don, Eoin and Gerry went to have a look. Paterson dropped
them off at some woods and they walked through the trees and up to
the station. The security was the same as at Crook of Devon; ludicrously minimal in spite of
what they had done at the Crook. But
shortly after they had set it up, the new Parliament building and all
had been announced. Gerry said that there was now no need; their
work had been completed. Don disagreed and said what if Westminster
reneged again. Then we will bomb again replied Gerry. Gerry then went
down with a very heavy flu and retired to bed. Because they
never spoke on the phone, Don was unaware of this and decided to go
ahead himself but with yet another recruit, a loud mouthed young
boozer from Ayrshire who apparently had been told by Gloria
Monaghan that Don and Gerry were the Tartan Army. He had a
mouth that was too big for his brains. He had previously tried to
persuade them to let him join up. Don and Gerry denied all knowledge of
the Tartan Army and told him to get lost. He had come back again
and Donald, thinking that Gerry was out, took him in.
When Gerry had recovered from the flu, he
got in his car to drive over to visit Donald. Switching on
his radio, he heard that the pumping station at Kinfauns had been
completely destroyed. When he arrived at Menstrie, Donald told him
who had helped. McGuigan was depressed but the deed was done.
Donald had made a major blunder and he would pay dearly for it. The usual furore erupted in the media and
Parliament as the news went round planet earth. Two pumping
stations out of the total of five had been completely
destroyed in the space of a few weeks. That other book incorrectly states
that Kinfauns was blown in September 1974. In fact it was
September 1975. The police and Westminster aroused out of their slumber
had to do something. They thought that they had wrapped up the
Tartan Army when they put the A. P. G. in jail, and now they
were looking at two oil pumping stations destroyed within two weeks of
each other. The Tartan Army was running riot. Westminster was furious.
The game was over and the Tartan Army had won eight to nothing,
if you include the two own goals in England. Whatever they did
now was too late. There was no way that they could renege on their
promise to build a new Scots Parliament on the Calton Hill. All
they could do now was something that would earn them the wooden
spoon. They had only one forlorn hope. As the chief of Strathtay
police , Mr. Lamb, would tell the Tartan Army in 1976 at the trial;
after ignoring George Ronald's intuition for three and a half
years, that McGuigan was behind it all, they had decided to give
it a try and put a round the clock surveillance on McGuigan.