Another interesting article on Cardinal O’Brien and Scottish independence:

Thus, to leaders like O’Brien and his predecessor, Cardinal Thomas Winning, whose world views have been shaped entirely by the Church they serve, the idea of an independent Scotland is entirely natural. In a speech in 1998 Winning declared: "You might say that in purely ecclesiastical law the Church has been ahead of the game in terms of recognising Scotland’s distinctiveness."

Echoing him eight years on, O’Brien concedes today: "It is difficult to argue that ecclesiastical independence is acceptable but political independence is not." For such leaders, independence in Scotland is not a foreign concept, but a daily reality.

What is clear is that O’Brien is also personally sympathetic to the idea of an independent Scottish state – a position Winning never adopted. Ironically, O’Brien is not even a natural Scot. Born in Ballycastle, Northern Ireland (on St Patrick’s Day), he only came to Scotland as a teenager. He then studied at Edinburgh University before being ordained a priest in Edinburgh in 1965. Far from diluting his patriotism, however, O’Brien’s non-Scottish background is said by friends to have concentrated it. "There’s something of the zeal of the convert about his Scottishness," says one close colleague.