Rangers. No Irish need apply?

Does discrimination in employment against Irish people exist in Britain today?
The Irish in Britain of a certain age can recall in-your-face job discrimination. The West of Scotland of my boyhood was full of anecdotes about major employers from Shipyards to banks who didn’t employ anyone from the Irish community.
However the plural of “anecdote” is not “evidence”.
My new view on encountering the question that started this article would be an emphatic “no”.
Moreover the answer would have been “no” for at least several decades.
If someone claims that there is some structural discrimination going on in this day and age in a modern democracy within the EU then I need evidence.
I really do.
I need numbers.
I was recently challenged in my Pollyanna view of fair employment in Britain by looking at what is, perhaps, the last place where an Irish passport is a bar to employment.
I was contacted by through my website by a reader who stated, as an assertion, that Rangers football club had not in his living memory-ever signed a Republic of Ireland player.
I started out as a sceptic on this, which is always a healthy starting point for a journalist on any issue.
It was once said by, I think Walter Cronkite, the veteran American news reporter, that journalists must remain sceptical so that the public doesn’t become cynical.

So I decided, in as much as I was able, to look at the players who had represented the world famous Glasgow club in the last fifteen years.
This is an arbitrary timescale for sure, but it seemed appropriate.
It was post Maurice Johnstone (1989) and five years into the tenure of Sir David Murray, the current owner of Rangers.
What I found was that players from 46 countries (excluding Scotland) had been in the Rangers first team squad since 1994.
These 46 flags are of countries from every populated continent on the planet.
It would be a reasonable cross section of humanity as represented at the United Nations.
However there was one surprising omission. In the last 15 years Rangers football club have not had a single player, either full international, or Under 21 from the Republic of Ireland.
Since the year 2000 every other Scottish Premier League (SPL) has had an ROI international in their ranks.
Since the year 2000 every current English Premiership club has had a full Republic of Ireland international.
Every Championship club in England has had a full Republic of Ireland internationalist since the year 2000 apart from Bristol City and Doncaster.
However these two clubs have had Republic of Ireland under 21 internationalists since the turn of the millennium.
Also thirty-three clubs from the leagues below the top 2 divisions in England have had full Irish internationalists since the year 2000.
Therefore over 100 English clubs have either had a full Ireland or under 21 internationalist in the last 10 years, not just an Irish citizen, but a Republic of Ireland internationalist.
This doesn’t constitute evidence of anti-Irish discrimination.
There could be other explanations for the absence of ROI players from the Ibrox home dressing room.

Perhaps the managers at Rangers over these past 15 years just didn’t fancy any ROI players?
Such things are possible.
Since Alex McLeish became manager of Birmingham City just over a year ago he has signed two full Irish internationalists in Lee Carsley and today Stephen Carr and has also in January signed Keith Fahey who was playing the League of Ireland and who has represented Ireland up to under 21’s.
The delighted McLeish stated on signing Carsley that he had admired him for a long time.
The current Rangers manager had signed Carsley in 2002 when Walter Smith had been the manager of Everton.
Carsley had been available on a free transfer last summer when Smith was back at Rangers for a second stint.
Any structural discrimination it is very hard to prove until someone is a whistleblower.
I rather doubt that Scotland’s whistleblowers will be of any help with this issue.
Ex-Rangers manager Dick Advocaat now is in charge at Zenit St.Petersberg very frankly stated that he couldn’t sign a black player because the supporters of the Russian club would not tolerate such a signing.
It was a shocking revelation of the state of racism among the Zenit supporters.
However the Dutchman is, in my opinion, to be commended for his frankness.

When Advocaat was in charge of Rangers the “little general” had the light blues playing an expansive, classy game, which required the deployment of two wingers.
One of the best in the business at the time was Blackburn Rovers Damien Duff.
There is little doubt that Rangers could have paid the transfer fee and met Duff’s personal terms.
Duff went to Chelsea when Rangers paid the Stamford Bridge club £12 million for Tore Andre Flo.
Perhaps Advocaat just didn’t think that Duff was a good enough player for his Rangers team.
However there is the behaviour of a section of the Rangers supporters towards Irish players.
The racist abuse of Aidan McGeady and James McCarthy are explained by the fact that they are Scots born who “turned their backs on Scotland” by declaring for the Republic of Ireland.
In recent years several other ROI players have played at Ibrox Stadium, some of them in friendly matches.
Ian Harte, Robbie Keane were continually booed by Rangers fans in recent years.
Both these players are Irish born.
Perhaps the Rangers fans didn’t like their playing style?
Then consider Alan Thompson, a Celtic player with a habit of scoring vital goals against Rangers. He was sent off three times against Rangers at Ibrox for violent conduct. Interestingly the English midfielder was never booed by Rangers fans despite the fact that they had several genuine on field reasons for disliking him.
When Ireland was partitioned there was-for a time-two teams claiming to be “Ireland” and at least one Rangers player Alex Stephenson did play for an Ireland team.
Galway born Alex Craig played for Rangers and Ireland in the first decade of the 20th century.
However since there has been a definitive Republic of Ireland team I have not been able to discover a Rangers player who played his international football for the Republic of Ireland in the last forty or fifty years.
Certainly during the stewardship of Sir David Murray and his four mangers there have been no ROI players at full or U21 level who have taken the field of play for Rangers in a competitive match.
Is this important?
Modern football players are hardly the huddled masses of the Victorian era in urgent need of the factory act to protect them.
These talented young men are paid sums of money that the average person seems difficult to comprehend.
The concern we should have over this apparent inability for Rangers FC to find a suitable player who turns out for the Republic of Ireland is what that message it sends to Rangers supporters.
The old   unwritten, unstated policy that barred Catholics from playing for the club is certainly gone.
The Ibrox club have had, during Sir David Murray’s ownership of the club, a Catholic captain and a Catholic manager.
However anti-Irish racism seems, perhaps, to be the core emotional contract between Rangers football club and their loyalist supporters.

I contacted Ex-Republic of Ireland footballer and anti-racist expert Kieron Brady and put this question to him:

Q: Rangers have fielded players from 45 countries other than Scotland in their first team squad in the last 15 years.
Since the year 2000 RoI (either full international or U21) have played for every SPL club and all 92 English League clubs from season 2008/2009. Do these facts indicate that there may be a signing bar operating at Rangers regarding players who represent the RoI?
A: “It is very difficult to definitvely and conclusively say that such a policy, whether official or de facto, exists but given the persistent anti-Irish racism that emanates from a section of the support I think there is a validity in raising such a question as it could be argued by some that the club are operating a policy of conformity to those with such profound anti-Irish attitudes. The notion of conformity to racism is not a new phenomenon as Verona FC and Zenit St Petersburg have had to contend with similar problems in recent times.

Migratory patterns within football illustrate that Britain is the natural working environment for players who play for the Republic of Ireland or those who represent the Republic of Ireland but have been born elsewhere and the fact that all the major clubs have had the aforementioned players over the period of a generation or more with the exception of Rangers does point to an anomaly. When this anomaly is set against a backdrop of the racism against those of Irish origin then it only exacerbates the theory of a proscription on those players.

The most suitable recourse would be for the club to outline their position and offer clarity on this matter. In the 21st century the idea of a football player being effectively prohibited from representing a club because of his skin colour or country of origin or citizenship is preposterous and aside from the discriminatory practice in itself impacting on players it indirectly discriminates against supporters who do not hold such archaic and racist attitudes.”

Piara Powar, Director for Kick It Out, football’s equality and inclusion
campaign, looked at the facts regarding Rangers lack of players from the Republic of Ireland and said:

“There is no doubt that Glasgow Rangers have worked hard to distance the
club from the less savoury parts of its history.  The ‘Follow with
Pride’ campaign is a good example of this. But if the club wishes to counter any allegation of a bias against signing Republic of Ireland players, it should clarify that its policy is to sign players of any background, and better still, actively seek out young players from across Britain and Ireland in the future.”

Perhaps post Maurice Johnston Rangers are, indeed, “Bigger than bigotry”.
However will Rangers be finally able to rise above anti-Irish racism?
The somewhat ambivalent attitude of the club to the “Famine song” indicates, perhaps, an empathy with those who sing the anti-Irish song.
Until a player can proudly announce that his club and country are “Rangers and Republic of Ireland” then it is justified in remaining sceptical that the old Rangers hasn’t totally gone away.
Consider this when you look at the countries that Rangers football club have found players in over the past fifteen years.
Non Scottish Players to have played for Rangers Football Club in the last 15 years.
Algeria
Madjid Bougherra
Brahim Hemdani

Argentina
Claudio Caniggia

Australia
Dave Mitchell
Craig Moore
Kevin Muscat
Tony Vidmar

Belgium
Thomas Buffel

Bosnia and Herzegovina
Saša Papac

Brazil
Emerson

Canada
Colin Miller
Roberto Giacomo

Chile
Sebastian Rozental

Croatia
Dado Pršo

Cyprus
Georgos Efrem

Czech Republic
Libor Sionko

Denmark
Jan Bartram
Erik Bo Andersen
Brian Laudrup
Peter Løvenkrands
Jesper Christiansen

England
Terry Butcher
Paul Gascoigne
Mark Hateley
Trevor Steven
Gary Stevens
Mark Walters
Chris Woods
Michael Ball
Finland
Jonatan Johansson
Antti Niemi

France
Jean-Alain Boumsong
Stéphane Guivarc’h
Lionel Charbonnier
Lionel Leitzi

Gabon
Daniel Cousin

Georgia
Shota Arveladze
Zurab Khizanishvili
Germany
Jörg Albertz
Christian Nerlinger

Greece
Sotirios Kyrgiakos

Iceland
Arnar Grétarsson

Israel
Avi Cohen
Bonni G inzburg
Italy
Genarro Gatusso
Sergio Porrini
Lorenzo Amoruso
Paolo Vanoli

Jamaica
Marcus Gayle

Latvia
Arturs Vaiclus

Lithuania
Andrius Velička

Martinique
Jose Karl Pierre  Fanfan
Netherlands
Frank de Boer
Ronald de Boer
Pieter Huistra
Bert Konterman
Michael Mols
Arthur Numan
Fernando Ricksen
Giovanni van Bronckhorst
Peter van Vossen

Nigeria
Moses Ashikodi

Northern Ireland
Steven Davis
John McClelland
Jimmy Nicholl
Billy Simpson
Kyle Lafferty

Norway
Henning Berg
Tore André Flo
Stale Stensaas

Poland
Dariuz Adamczuk

Portugal
Nuno Capucho
Pedro Mendez
Romania
Daniel Prodan

Russia
Andrei Kanchelskis
Oleg Salenko

Serbia
Dragen Mladenovic

Slovakia
Filip Šebo

Spain
Nacho Novo
Aaron Niguez
South Africa
Johnny Hubbard
Don Kitchenbrand
Dean Furman

Sweden
Joachim Bjorklund
Örjan Persson
Robert Prytz
Karl Svensson
Jonas Thern

Trinidad & Tobago
Marvin Andrews
Russell Latapy

Tunisia
Hamed Namouchi

Turkey
Tugay Kerimoğlu

Ukraine
Oleg Kuznetsov
Alexei Mikhailichenko

United States
DaMarcus Beasley
Maurice Edu
Claudio Reyna

Wales
Andy Dibble

Yugoslavia
Gordan Petrić