Scottish Catholic Observer

When St Margaret’s High pupil Ryan McGuigan isn’t raising money for projects in Malawi, he’s taking the mickey out of Scotland’s former first minister.

The youngster (above) from the Airdrie school performed an affectionate impression of Alex Salmond at the Scotland Malawi Partnership Youth Conference yesterday, only for his performance to be filmed by one of Mr Salmond’s fellow SNP politicians.

Humza Yousaf MSP, minister for Europe and International Development, uploaded a clip of the impression to Twitter where it has been retweeted more than 700 times, including by Alex Salmond himself.

“This boy will go far!” the former first minister said. “Absolutely fantastic!”

Ryan’s performance also attracted praise from comedian and impressionist Rory Bremner, who agreed that Ryan’s impression was better than his own.

Andrew McKay, an English teacher at St Margaret’s who help leads the school’s Malawi project, said Ryan, an S2 pupil, is ‘a deeply religious young boy and has helped out with a number of charities in the school and the community such as Seeds of Hope from St Augustine’s in Coatbridge.’

“He also works for the school’s Bvumbwe [Malawi prison] group making educational resources for boys in the youth prison,” he said. “He’s quite a character.”

St Margaret’s has a long running programme in Malawi, with pupils regularly visiting the country, and assisting Italian missionary Sr Anna Tomassi with her work with vulnerable women and prisoners.

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Met Ryan from St Margaret's at Scot-Malawi event – he showed me his @AlexSalmond impression – I'd say he nailed it! pic.twitter.com/PZsnDCly14

— Humza Yousaf (@HumzaYousaf) November 23, 2015