THE FAMINE SONG IS OVER. WHY DON’T YOU GROW UP?

The supporters of Rangers Football club had a special message from their club last night as they took their seats to watch the match against Hamilton Academicals. If they sang “The Famine Song” they were liable to be arrested. This statement had been written after consultation with the police. Strathclyde police later reported that there was only one arrest at Ibrox Park and that was for drunkenness. James McCarthy, the young Irish midfielder for Hamilton who had received sustained racist abuse from Rangers fans on Saturday in the SPL at New Douglas Park, was allowed to go about his job …

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Abuse of Hamilton FC player McCarthy (Radio Interviews)

Phil phoned George Galloway’s radio programme to inform him of the awful racist abuse that young James McCarthy had received from Rangers fans that day at New Douglas Park. Phil also told George that James had been racially abused the previous week by a section of the visiting St.Mirren fans. Phil was emailed to say that there had been a caller to George’s show claiming to be a St.Mirren fan in Bolton who claimed that James McCarthy had NOT been racially abused by St.MIrren fans at New Douglas Park. Moreover that postings to this site putting the St.Mirren side of …

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Show hypocrisy the red card

As a journalist you usually know you’re doing your job when people aren’t pleased to see you. My family are pleased to see me, and my friends welcome me into their homes, so I don’t take it personally when people don’t want to see me and my press card. Its only business it isn’t personal. Billy Singh of “Show Racism The Red Card” (SRTRC) wasn’t pleased to see me at Tynecastle last Friday. It is ok Billy this is business, nothing personal. I had, since, mid September been trying to get an interview, a comment even, from Billy Singh of …

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In a parallel universe.

 In a parallel universe there is an ice hockey match in Canada.   One club draws its’ support and its’ narrative from the thousands of Scots who left Scotland during the “Highland Clearances”.    The other club are their bitter rivals and their support is largely drawn from the English ascendancy in Canada.   The Toronto Royals are Canada’s establishment club.  The religious ethos of the club has always been Anglican. Their ex-players and managers populate the upper echelons of Canadian ice Hockey. Until 1989 they did not hire any player who had a Scottish background, especially of the player …

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NEW WORLD ORDER.

  I had studiously avoided watching the Olympics, much less write anything about it when they were on.  I had caught a section of the opening ceremony on the news and it was a stunning spectacle.   In that I was drawn to the closing ceremony as I expected the same eye-popping, jaw dripping display. I was not disappointed.  For all the majesty, energy and synchronisation of motion I was unsettled by the similarity to the Nazi Olympics.   This was all too much like “Triumph of the will” for the digital age.   This is an empire on the …

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Irish Politician writes to Rangers about Famine Song

By Phil Mac Giolla Bhain Last week Alan Shatter TD submitted a Dail question to Foreign Minister Micheal Martin about the Famine Song controversy in Scotland. The Minister stated, ” in common with the vast majority of people in Britain and Ireland, I condemn the singing of songs or other actions which promote or encourage racism, sectarianism or xenophobia of any kind. “. I spoke with Deputy Shatter last week and he confirmed to me that he had also written directly to Rangers Football club to express his concern for this “anti-Irish chanting” indulged in by thousands of Rangers’ fans …

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Socialism in our lunchtime

  We are in the eye of a perfect storm. The shockwave is yet to crash against our lives, but be advised that which you thought was immutable. That which you thought was self-evident I being found out in front of your disbelieving eyes.   When I was teenager my first job in Glasgow was in a railway factory maintaining the rolling stock of the then nationalised British Rail.   The official name of the factory was British Rail Engineering Springburn Works.   To everyone inside and to the local people it was “the Caley”.   Thos was short for the …

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Radio Interview about ‘The Famine Song’

Phil was interviewed by Matt Cooper on Today FM’s “The Last Word” on Wednesday 8th October. Click link to hear audio  The Famine Song Phil was invited onto the show because he had broke the story on his blog earlier that day that a parliamentary question about the Famine Song was going to be asked the next day by Alan Shatter TD to Micheal Martin Foreign Minister.

The Famine Song a Timeline of Official Inaction

April 16th – Celtic v Rangers.  It is aired for the first time. Within days Show Racism the Red Card are innundated with complaints. Week beginning April 21 – Complainants receive responses from SRTRC that the song is racist and they are in dialogue with the SPL, SFA and Rangers FC about the song.  The request for an ethnic group to go home is a racist mantra and has been for many years. It is NOT the Famine reference that makes the song racist. April 27th – Celtic v Rangers – It is sang in greater numbers and on at …

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Famine Song Question in Dail Eireann

By Phil Mac Giolla Bhain Exclusive Irish politician Alan Shatter TD has submitted a Dail question to Foreign Minister Micheal Martin about the Famine Song controversy in Scotland. I spoke with Deputy Shatter last week and he confirmed to me that he had acted after a constituent had contacted him. “I am urging Minister Martin to directly contact Alex Salmond, the Scottish First minister in Edinburgh, to deal with the racist chanting of the “Famine Song” by Rangers supporters at soccer matches in Scotland,” said Deputy Shatter  ”Rangers supporters should get behind their world famous team and move on from …

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