Murder in Maybole

Maybole is a wee place in Ayrshire, Scotland, where I lived probably for the longest continuous time in my life, apart from my childhood in Germany. Maybole is a very small place of about 5000 inhabitants, over an hour's drive from Glasgow, and on the main road to Stranraer. When I moved there, in 1983, there was talk of a bypass being built imminently. As far as I know, it still does not exist.

Given that Maybole is stuck to the side of a hill, like Tbilisi (200 times the size) the views across the Ayrshire countryside are stunning. It has a fairly strong community spirit, though the town is quite mixed between long-term residents and incomers. I would not say that the religious tensions (protestant/catholic) are as strong as they are in other parts of Ayrshire, but they certainly exist.

Last year there was a murder, and yesterday the murderer was convicted. I'm not sure if I knew the murderer (though in my work I may have come across him) - he actually looks a nice guy in the photo accompanying the story, though his history is quite something else. But I do remember the victim, Amjid Ismail, who was working in the family's wee shop opposite a primary school, even as a boy, at the time we lived there.

Let him rest in peace.