<START> Celtic fan Paul McBride a force of nature who has left legacy to Scottish football He certainly had more than a dash of Don Quixote about him in that he sometimes sought out subjects to be championed, with a marked preference for the underdog, the inarticulate or the marginalised. It was certainly this observer's impression that Paul's combination of forensic intellect and sometimes impulsive commitment to causes was a consequence of his progress from working-class boyhood through private school, a precocious admission to university life at the age of 16 and, 20 years later, elevation as the youngest QC in the UK. It should go without saying to anyone familiar with the mores of Scottish public life that, as a gay Roman Catholic lawyer who defected from the Scottish Labour Party to the Scottish Conservatives, only to quit last year when the Tories elected Ruth Davidson as their leader, McBride was going to knock over the furniture in several staid establishments. However, it was his involvement with football - and, in particular, his advocacy of Celtic - which granted him access to a stage on which the limelight rarely dims. In that respect, he followed an example set by one of his courtroom heroes, Donald Findlay. Findlay, though, was an official voice of Rangers as the Ibrox club's vice-chairman. McBride was a proxy spokesman for Celtic and neither he nor the club took much trouble to disguise the fact, as he would cheerfully admit in private conversation. I have personal memories of both Findlay and McBride shaking with indignation because of what they perceived as serious injustices perpetrated on high-profile employees of the clubs they supported - in each case by the Scottish Football Association. With Donald Findlay it was the SFA's decision to slap a record 12-game ban on Duncan Ferguson after a head-butting incident involving John McStay of Raith Rovers. A judicial review quashed the sanction five games into the suspension and Findlay described the SFA's procedures as "incompetent" and "a shambles." For Paul McBride, indignation overflowed last year when the SFA upheld Ally McCoist's appeal against a two-game suspension imposed after a touchline altercation with Neil Lennon at the end of a Scottish Cup replay, saying that the then assistant manager of Rangers had no case to answer. Lennon was banned from the touchline for four games for his part in the confrontation. McBride's visibly seethed with anger when he heard the McCoist decision and shortly afterwards gave a TV interview in which he accused the SFA of being "not merely dysfunctional and not merely dishonest but biased." He added: "Frankly, anybody with the tiniest brain could only regard them as being biased and prejudiced." He insisted he would not apologise for his remarks but he subsequently realised that he had crossed a line, especially since the SFA had taken its legal advice from the Dean of the Faculty of Advocates. After a discussion with the SFA, brokered by this correspondent, Paul did indeed say sorry - although he was delighted that, because of other newsworthy events, hardly anybody noticed. That episode plus Celtic's head-on collision with the SFA, made him a target of rancour from many Rangers fans and he was the intended recipient of a mail bomb, currently the subject of a criminal court case. Yet it was entirely in keeping with his appetite for the unlikely battle that he told me that he would gladly represent Rangers if they appealed to Uefa against sanctions imposed for sectarian singing in Europa League ties last season - an offer the Ibrox club did not take up. But another of McBride's ideas that could have borne fruit - and might yet do so in the right circumstances - was that the Old Firm divide would benefit from a rerun of the Northern Irish peace process in which contending parties would be brought together for candid exchanges. "Everything would be on the table," said Paul. The Billy Boys, Irish tricolours, anti-poppy slogans, whatever - everything that gets people agitated or defensive. Nothing is taboo and the meetings go on until we reach a stage of mutual understanding. Then we can all just get on with supporting two great teams - still with a huge rivalry, but about football rather than the baggage. I passed on Paul's proposal - he offered to convene the meeting, of course - to Stewart Regan at the SFA. We will never know if he could have brought it off, but if someone else, with equal partisan passion and honed intellect, would agree to chair the proceedings, what a legacy Paul McBride would have left the Scottish game. Donald Findlay, anyone?