Seamus Logan: My earliest memory? My mother crying when Kennedy was shot

The SNP MP grew up in the Northern Irish countryside. He tells Holyrood about studying in Stirling and falling in love with Scotland

What’s your earliest memory?
My mother crying one evening in the house. I couldn’t understand why, but I realised later it was because President Kennedy had been assassinated. I have vague memories of things before that, but that memory stands out in my mind. I had never seen her crying before.

We were lucky in those days – we had a TV. I had a very ordinary upbringing, and we lived in a farmhouse. My mother was a nurse, my father had a small farm he inherited from his father. We had an outside toilet but we were one of the first to get a telephone. Myself and my brothers always joke that we grew up in a house with a 25-acre garden, which is small compared to the farms in Aberdeenshire, but that was our playground. My mother’s earnings really helped us – the land was basically bogland and my father tried potatoes, he tried dairy farming, and none of it worked and so eventually he sold the farm. I was at school at that stage.

What were you like at school?
I went to primary school in 1963, and for Catholic parents in the 60s the main aspiration for their children was education. We were able to get access because of the 1947 Education Act. What my parents wanted to do was invest in their children’s education. I had three brothers and a sister, so it was a very expensive business not in terms of fees but in terms of uniforms and sports gear – all the things parents have to contend with now – and there was real poverty in the 60s, particularly for Catholics in Northern Ireland where I grew up. I was different at school. My nickname was Spock – like the Star Trek character – I was not particularly emotional and very logical. 

Which subjects were your favourite?
I was never attracted to money-making professions, but I had ideas about maybe doing medicine or psychology. But I was never any good at science, so I gravitated towards things like geography, English, and history.

How did you end up studying at Stirling University?
They sent an ambassador over to our school to promote the idea of going. I was really impressed by what this person said, so I visited the beautiful campus. I always tell people I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Stirling for my undergraduate education. I loved it. This was four formative years and I studied things I really wanted to study – sociology, psychology, social administration. It was great to be alive in the 70s.

What’s your most treasured possession?
My accordion. I had a few lessons as a child but I’m largely self-taught – I had the gift of a good ear for music. It has opened so many doors for me during my life. 

And what would you play for us?
A tune I wrote myself, Logan’s Lament. It’s a slow air.

What was the last book you read? 
Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell, inspired by a visit to Barcelona in September. What an amazing book it is. I loved Barcelona and was very privileged during my visit to meet with some of the political representatives at the Catalan parliament. Junts per Catalunya welcomed me into the parliament, gave me a tour and we had a great meeting. I hope to welcome them to Westminster in the new year. 

Who would you invite to your ideal dinner party?
Eamon de Valera – I want to take him to task for the writing of the Irish constitution. Also, Marie Curie. And the former Labour leader Hugh Gaitskell, who died in the 60s – I’d like to find out what he would have done if he had survived and realised his ambitions. I’ll also have John F Kennedy to ask him a lot about the side of his life we don’t know about. The writers Seamus Heaney, Patrick Kavanagh and Robert Burns, and the director Ridley Scott, and from Derry, the songwriter Phil Coulter. And my two daughters Aislinn and Eimear, who would love to meet them.

Seamus Logan with his daughters

What’s the greatest ambition you haven’t achieved yet?
To shoot my age in golf. At 76 or 77, there’s a possibility I could shoot that score. Another is to be a professional gambler, and to write a book about my life in Scotland. 

If you could go back in time, where would you go?
There’s no question: Jerusalem in the year 30. I would like to dispel any doubts that I have in my mind about the reality of Jesus Christ, and I would be there when he was in the Holy Land. I’m a practising Catholic but I’m not interested in ramming my religious views down everyone else’s throat, and, like anyone, we have our doubts. If I was able to visit, I’d very quickly find out if he was who he claimed to be. 

What is your greatest fear?
That I will die before Scotland has achieved its political right to self-determination. I’m finding being an MP very enjoyable. I spent 30 years in health and social care and when I retired in 2018 I thought that would be the end of my working life, but I took up another job as a coach driver and tour guide, then I became a councillor and now an MP. I couldn’t have predicted these things, and I never planned them.