Scottish clergyman attacks Irish love song as “racist”.

EXCLUSIVE

By Phil Mac Giolla Bhain

A controversial Scottish churchman tonight slammed the well-loved Irish ballad “The Field of Athenrye” as “ vile, vicious and racist” and compared the Pete St. John ballad to the infamous “Famine Song.”

Reverend Stuart MacQuarrie is part of the chaplaincy service at Glasgow University and he made the outburst on a BBC Radio 4 debate on Celtic Rangers rivalry on St.Stephen’s day night.

Reverend MacQuarrie is no stranger to Old Firm controversy.

In a 2007 book  “Its Rangers for me”  Rev Stuart McQuarrie, a Church of Scotland minister and chaplain to Glasgow University, accuses Celtic fans of holding “romantic views about Ireland.”

He added: “They see themselves whenever possible as victims and resent their victim status, yet at the same time they wallow in it.”

“Part of this flawed psychological state is that they cannot accept that they might have made any contribution to their misfortunes, but seek rather to blame someone else for it, thereby deepening their sense of shared tribal grievance against the rest of society.”

When contacted about his statement about the field of Athenrye Rev MacQuarrie stated:

“The song with the reference to rebelling against the Crown is anti British and if you consider the British people a race it is in that context racist.”
Pete St.John, the man who wrote “The Fields of Athenrye” said:

“At this stage I am long past the ranting of people like McQuarrie. I have heard all   that world-weary rubbish for years! This is just the sad rehashing of one man’s self-hatred! It is also very sad that football games are now war zones and sport boot camps for prolonging bigotry. And songs as wounds that never seem to heal songs should be magic carpets! My Fields is and always was just a sad song from a horrible moment in Irish history. Nothing more and nothing less!”