An elderly woman spat on just for wearing a Yes lapel sticker, the night out for a meal with her husband ruined by bullies.
Cars flying Union Jack flags full of thuggish, foul-mouthed men and women deliberately blocking a street adjacent to Glasgow's City Chambers, some of the women so drunk they were vomiting from the doors of their stationary vehicles onto the pavement as citizens passed hurriedly by disgusted and not a little intimidated.
Always the jeers, swearing, aggression, threats, often within feet of police officers on "crowd control duty".
What, I kept asking myself, might people from across the world where as a reporter I so often work make of my home city and country right now?
I got my answer the other night when some of those loyalist troublemakers blocked Glasgow's Cochrane Street, delaying an airport-bound bus. Worried about missing their flight, some Spaniards were forced to find another way to the airport.
"We've had such a fantastic time in Scotland, but these people ... why if they have won your referendum, are they so angry?" enquired one of the tourists bemused, as I gave him directions to a taxi rank.
"I've never been so ashamed to be Scottish," confessed the caretaker of my block of flats in Glasgow's Merchant City near George Square after witnessing much of the enmity.
I knew exactly what he meant. For two nights, one before and one after the referendum vote, I watched as my neighbourhood became a cauldron of bile and hatred fomented by a cadre of loyalist bullies and bigots.
In the wake of that grotesque bout of loathing, I find myself asking why it should be that the vast majority of decent ordinary Glaswegians and others should be subjected to such an experience. Such displays are not new, but the time has come to see them for what they are and the damage they do. They have no place in the Scotland that most of us hope for and aspire to.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article