Paul Kavanagh

Paul Kavanagh was born in the East End of Glasgow in 1962 and got involved in online Scottish politics and digital media while living in Spain with Andy, his English partner of 25 years. He contributed to Newsnet Scotland from its early days during the 2011 Holyrood elections right up until February 2013 when Andy’s declining health meant that they had to return to Scotland where there was a support network of friends and family.

Shortly afterwards, Andy was sadly diagnosed with vascular dementia and his health deteriorated rapidly. Stuck indoors as a full-time carer, Paul began the Wee Ginger Dug blog. It was better to laugh than to cry at the hand life had dealt him. And as the referendum campaign progressed, our Unionist politicians generously provided him with a great deal worth mocking. 

Andy passed away just before the independence vote, but Paul continued to blog and to write. Early in 2015 he was offered a weekly column in The National, and is grateful to the then editor Richard Walker for giving a wee dug a weekly bone to chew over. His columns have proven so popular that he's now writing twice a week for The National, as well as a monthly column in iScot Magazine.

Paul remains heavily involved in the independence campaign and does speaking engagements the length and breadth of the country. He has once more found personal happiness with a new husband. He's also soon due to publish the fruits of a project he's been working on for many years, drawing detailed Gaelic maps of Scotland. In 2015 Vagabond Voices published Paul’s first collection of articles from The National, titled Barking Up the Right Tree (2015), and a year later published a follow-up: Barking up the Right Tree 2016.