TRIBUTES were paid to Winnie Ewing by some of the people who knew her well, and others who have been inspired by her life’s work, at the Yes rally in Stirling on Saturday.

Ewing, an icon of the Scottish independence movement who served in three separate parliaments, passed away aged 93 on Wednesday.

Once the march, which began at Old Stirling Bridge, arrived at Bannockburn, the estimated 6000 people present held a minute’s applause for the former MP, MEP, and MSP.

Jim Fairlie, a former deputy leader of the SNP who now works with Sovereignty, recalled how he had been part of the team which helped win the 1967 Hamilton by-election that propelled Ewing, and the SNP, into the public consciousness.

“I cannot let this occasion go without paying tribute to Winnie Ewing,” Fairlie told the crowds at Bannockburn.

“Tribute has already been paid to her, but this is a personal tribute from someone who knew her for over 40 years. I was with her in Hamilton in 1967, along with another great nationalist icon who also died recently, George Leslie.

“The death of Winnie, hard on the heels of George, hit me hard,” he said. “I had known them almost all my political life.”

Fairlie later told The National how the “marvellous” Ewing had taken him on a week’s trip to Brussels during her time as an MSP.

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“You could just see the affection, as well as the esteem, for her in the European Parliament. The number of people who came up to speak to us, we were introduced to all sorts of different people.”

Fairlie said he had spent an evening talking to the great John Hume at a pub known locally to MEPs as “Bang the Bells” thanks to the connections Ewing had in Brussels.

As Fairlie told the crowd, tribute had indeed already been paid. Hardly a speaker took the stage that didn’t mention Ewing in passing or at length.

Alba’s MP Neale Hanvey and the SNP’s Dave Doogan both talked about the independence icon and her life.

“She did indeed blaze a trail. She lit a torch that really ignited the movement around you today,” Hanvey said.

“Each of us, every one of us, shares the responsibility to take that torch forward and keep that fire burning.”

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Angus MP Doogan said: “On this weekend, more than any other weekend, after the loss of a bright shining star of the independence movement in Winnie Ewing – we celebrated her life there just a wee bit ago – nothing has summed up yet the ambitious and righteousness of our movement to deliver independence any more than when she said, in her words: ‘Stop the world, Scotland wants to get on’.”

The quote was applauded by the gathered crowd.

Alba’s Eva Comrie also paid tribute to Ewing, telling the Bannockburn rally: “Madame Ecosse. What a woman …

“We all owe Winnie Ewing an enormous debt of gratitude for the service that she gave to our nation.”