Hundreds pay tribute to 'media colossus' Bill McAllister
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Hundreds of people gathered in the Highland capital this week to pay respects to "media colossus" Bill McAllister.
The funeral for the columnist was held at St Mary's Catholic Church .
Celebrant The Rev'd Fr James Bell described Mr McAllister as a "media colossus" adding his weekly columns had a following.
- Thirst for information and zest for life – family pays tribute to Highland journalist
- How Ross-shire raised journalist put his stamp on Highland football
Tributes came from his eldest son Mark McAllister and friend Jimmy Gray.
Donations were collected towards Blythswood Care Highland Food Bank.
In honour of Mr McAllister, here is a republished version of a profile piece written for The Inverness Courier in March 2008:
Top of the priority list for campaigner Bill McAllister is removing the Northern Meeting Park from the sites being studied by Highland Council for a new multimillion-pound museum and art gallery for Inverness.
The 63-year-old public relations officer and owner of McAllister Media, continues to spearhead moves to retain the home of Northern Counties Cricket Club and the city's annual Tattoo as vital green space.
Although two alternatives – the former Inverness Royal Academy building at Midmills and the council car park in Castle Street – have proved more popular in an Inverness City Partnership public survey and Inverness Courier online vote, Bill was adamant he would not rest until the park was completely ruled out.
"We're still campaigning vigorously against it because that land was given to the council at a peppercorn price on the basis of retaining its use as recreation," he said.
"It's the last big green space within a couple of minutes walk of the city centre and because it has big walls some people never see it and don't really appreciate it.
"But once these places are concreted over, they are lost forever."
The council's Inverness city committee is due to discuss the matter on 17th March [2008], with a decision expected to be made by the education, culture and sport committee on 22nd May [2008] – a contentious issue for Bill, a former Inverness District councillor who felt there should be more than one council committee dedicated to the city.
"As it is, it goes to people including those from maybe Caithness or Wester Ross who may never have seen the park and might not have picked up the local strength of feeling," commented the chairman of the Highland branch of Fields In Trust (FIT), formerly the National Playing Fields Association, and vice-chairman of FIT Scotland, which launched the Save the Northern Meeting Park campaign last October [2007].
For his services to the National Playing Fields Association, Bill was invited to Buckingham Palace to receive the President's Certificate, from the Duke of Edinburgh and as chairman of the district council's leisure and recreation committee he successfully moved that an all-weather running track be installed at Queen's Park stadium, as a major boost for north athletics.
But as campaigns go this pales in comparison to the movement to create Inverness Caledonian Thistle.
Bill, currently the official spokesman of the Scottish Premier League club, was involved in the merger of two of the city's Highland League sides – Caledonian and Inverness Thistle – in 1994. Numerous fans of both clubs refused to contemplate being associated with their bitter rivals and made themselves heard. "It was a very bloody campaign," recalled the ICT shareholder. "The vast majority was always in favour but there was a very noisy minority."
Bill praised the effort throughout the 14 years to get the club to where it is now, regularly competing alongside his childhood heroes Celtic. He added the formation of the club has created a unique marketing brand with a name people retain in their memory.
His links with the club include being the father of defender Mark McAllister, otherwise known as Mad Dog, a nickname Bill laughed off. "We've still got a mug with that on somewhere," he recalled. "It definitely reflected the nature of some of his challenges."
Mark (36), made his debut with Caley in October 1988 going on to make 138 appearances, scoring nine times. Bill noted that his eldest son was the first to make 50 appearances for ICT and netted its first Scottish Cup goal before moving to London for work reasons and continuing his career at Dulwich Hamlet, then Fisher Athletic.
However, while Mark was playing in the Highland League, Bill, who has been the region's football correspondent for BBC Scotland for 30 years, had to be as objective as possible.
"It made it difficult for me," he said. "Being a tough tackler, Mark was often involved in controversial incidents and got a red card or two. I could never praise him because people knew he was my own son, but if he did anything wrong I had to give him a harder time than may have otherwise been the case."
His love for the Highland League shone through in his topical radio reports and was put into text when he wrote the league's centenary book, published in 1998 after about a year of research which he recalled was both tough but fascinating with him becoming engrossed in the topic.
Bill, who has been married to current Inverness Central Labour councillor Bet for 38 years, has two other children who both live in the Highland Capital. Kerr (33) works at LifeScan Scotland, while Gemma (22) is an employee of Orion, owned by another of Bill's public relations clients Alan Savage.
The engineering company boss is also current chairman at ICT and was successor to another member of Bill's portfolio, David Sutherland, chairman of Tulloch Homes.
Arguably, the duo are among the city's most powerful businessmen at present and a pair Edinburgh-born Bill considered to be friends. "Working with them is really stimulating," he described. "Both know what they want but you can argue with them because they enjoy a good debate. I've done the PR for Caley Thistle since before Caley Thistle were formed. They are still both involved with the club and are very driven men with extremely outgoing personalities.
"It's easy to see why they have made such huge success of their businesses and become major Highland employers."
He recalled David, in particular, was one of the reasons he moved into public relations, after asking Bill to publicise something soon after he quit being a newspaper journalist after over 25 years in a job he largely enjoyed.
Bill, of Harris Road, changed direction in the profession as a result of the bitter 1989 strike at Aberdeen Journals, publisher of the Press and Journal and Evening Express. At the time he was editor at the Highland office of the Aberdeen-based newspaper, which he joined after starting with the North Star in Dingwall when he was 17, before moving to the Highland News.
"When the first strike happened I worked on – because I was on a management contract – for a few days and then it was settled," he said.
"But I was in Tenerife on holiday when I read in the paper that it had started again and that they [union members] had all been sacked.
"They [Press and Journal] were very keen to keep me, but once the 13 other journalists had gone there was no way I was staying. So I walked away from the guns and started up alone. The good thing was that people I had known in other regards were able to come to me and ask me to do some work for them."
He said it was a fairly traumatic time.
"It was a very difficult decision for me to give up an employer I had worked for over 24 years, but I couldn't have carried on with new staff while the other guys were looking for a job," he added.
"It was terrifying to be without a job after being employed for so long and I didn't really know what I wanted to do. It was just phone calls from people asking me to do this and that for them that gradually led me towards public relations and eventually made me realise that this was a viable occupation."
Although he was a member of the district council between 1977 and 1996, much of his time as a reporter was spent on sports stories and there was rarely any conflict of interest. Former Dingwall Academy pupil Bill also does media work for Inverness Leisure and has been a member of both the Scottish Sports Council and Scottish Leisure Forum.
The ex-president and now life member of Scottish Association of Local Sports Councils relaxes by watching all sports and doing exercise. He enjoys walking, hill walking, jogging and playing for an over-35 football team headed by Inverness Millburn Labour councillor Jimmy Gray, although Bill injured his calf muscle last year and has not played since.
Every year he takes a New Year break in Tenerife at a time share and was a founding trustee member of the Highland Homeless at Christmas campaign which was launched with over £100,000 of funds from David Sutherland and is maintained by the council.
Bill, who has been involved in politics with the Labour party since he was 16 – also the age he applied for membership to the National Union for Journalists – only wishes he had moved into public relations earlier.
"I shouldn't have been a wage slave for so long," he concluded, vowing to continue being active where it matters.
"I keep saying that I am going to retire but I couldn't do nothing.
"I have been busy all my life and putting my feet up in the garden doesn't particularly appeal to me. But I'm quite happy at the moment because I enjoy life and it's a pleasure working for all of these people."
