As a boy in Blackhill, Paul Ferris was tormented for years by the Welsh family and their hangers-on. This film reads the chapter of his book, The Ferris Conspiracy, where the tables turned. He called it A Dish Best Eaten Cold.
Royston Road
One night on Royston Road, across from Arthur Thompson's pub, the Provanmill Inn, Ferris passed John Welsh at a bus stop. Welsh was one of the older members of the family and had never harmed him directly. But he was a Welsh. Ferris turned, drew an open razor and cut his throat. Welsh almost died and never spoke normally again. Nobody knew who had done it for months. One down, Ferris told himself, more to follow.
The party
Ferris was living with his sister in Barrowfield by then, slipping in and out of Blackhill so his hunters never knew where he was. One night he and a friend lay in wait outside a party the Welsh brothers were at. Instead they saw a girl Ferris had known at school being attacked by one of the men from the party while others hovered, waiting their turn.
Ferris went in with two knives. One man took a blade in the chest that missed his heart by a fraction. Another was cut down the arm. A third, a cousin of the Welsh brothers, slashed Ferris down the cheek and chin before Ferris stabbed him. That night, lying in a cubicle at the Royal, Ferris heard the Welsh brothers next door asking where he was staying. He kept quiet and smiled.
A contender
It was the first time people in Blackhill saw him as a contender. For the first time in years, he writes, he had self-respect. His reputation brought an invitation into a crew doing cash bag snatches, and a botched robbery in Airdrie got him arrested at 17. He was sent to Longriggend on remand, then bailed, and he chose not to go back to court. For the first time, Paul Ferris was a wanted man.