IN case you haven’t noticed today is a special day for The National ... we’re celebrating our fifth birthday. Yesterday’s edition featured tributes from readers, contributors and supporters. And elsewhere in today’s Sunday National you’ll find the story of our first five years told through some of our favourite front pages.

But this seems like the right time and the right place to pay tribute to the most important people in The National’s story ... you, our readers.

It is so obvious that it hardly needs saying that without you we would not have survived the first week in the newspaper’s life, when we trialled The National to judge if there was enough support to press ahead with our plans on a permanent basis. After all, a newspaper without readers wasn’t going to last very long.

However the response from readers took us all aback and has continued to do so with every passing year.

Back in that first, rather fraught week your support kept us alive. But more than that ... you showed us that there was a real hunger for a newspaper which not only supported Scottish independence but offered a new alternative to a media which was to varying degrees antagonistic, not just to the whole idea but also to those who argued and campaigned for it.

You came with us as we tried to work out what type of newspaper would satisfy that hunger and you forgave us when we inevitably took a few wrong turns on that journey.

And when we met you at independence rallies and meetings up and down the country your warm words and kindness helped us shrug off the criticisms from those who wanted to see us fail and those who predicted our imminent demise with monotonous regularity.

It was apparent early on that our relationship with our readers would be one to cherish. I’m proud to recount at public indy meetings that we regularly answer random phone calls to our newsdesk to readers wanting only to thank us for existing ... you have to believe me that is not an everyday experience at many other newspapers.

The host of National roadshow events which took us all over Scotland, from Skye to Orkney to Dumfries to Aberdeen, has helped to deepen and broaden that relationship.

Wherever we have travelled we have found supporters eager to brave all types of weather to discuss the benefits of independence and the various ways of achieving it.

The National was born in the days after the 2014 referendum failed to deliver the Yes vote we dreamed of, but this newspaper is not a product of despair and depression. On the contrary, the Yes movement has been tireless and energising in campaigning to change minds and prise them open to the possibility of re-imagining and recreating our country.

Now, after a summer in which independence marches have grown ever bigger and after First Minister Nicola Sturgeon promised indyref2020 in front of a joyous crowd at The National’s rally in Glasgow’s George Square, independence looks and feels like it has never been closer.

Once pushed to the political margins, that dream has spawned a movement with unstoppable momentum, with a political leader lauded even by those who do not (yet) share her ultimate ambition.

One day soon we will be independent. Those who now regard that development with trepidation will one day soon be working hard with us to make it a success. One day soon there will be other newspapers – maybe even a majority of newspapers in Scotland – who regard an independent Scotland as an entirely normal state of affairs.

And although we look forward to that day we hope you will keep just a little piece of your hearts for The National ... because we will certainly keep a place in ours for you.