Today there was an anti-British rebel song played over the PA at Ibrox.
The song celebrates those who opposed to crown in arms to break away from London rule.
These rebels in a British colony wanted an independent republic with separation of church and state.
Unable to face down the might of the British military they used guerrilla tactics where they could utilizing their local knowledge and support of the people.
Sound familiar?
Today was a celebration of Americana at Ibrox.
How many of the home crowd at Ibrox know of the origins of the United States of America?
The 13 colonies treasonably rebelled against the British crown. The Americans engaged the Brits on their own terms.
There was no essential difference between the Minutemen and the IRA flying columns.
They used the same tactics against the same enemy-the British.
They established a republic that was modelled to be the antithesis of Britishness:
elected head of state, written constitution, checks and balances written into the DNA of the new state. The constitution of the United States of America screams for every line: “we are not British and we aren’t like them in any way!”
It isn’t just the Americans of course.
There are fifty modern states from Kenya to Cyprus, Ireland to Iraq to India and from Swaziland and
South Africa to the Solomon Islands. Many are small nations, islands communities and I don’t doubt
many of them would have suffered from oppression from the British, but basically they would not
have had the population to resist a global superpower. That fifty include Israel and the British
Mandate over Palestine and Cameroon who got their independence from both Britain and France,
also Pakistan as they got their own nation after partition with India.
Some of those states were granted their freedom very graciously from the London imperium.
Others, like the Americans and the Irish seized it violently.
It is nice to see the quintessentially British football club having no issues with this concept.
Just like the British monarch honouring the IRA in the garden of Remembrance in Dublin earlier this year.
As if secession from the empire wasn’t bad enough the newly constituted upstart republic declared war on the “mother country” in 1812.
The empire struck back, but was ultimately defeated.
A key target for the British was to blockade Chesapeake Bay and seize Baltimore.
The defence of Baltimore’s Fort McHenry in the battle inspired Francis Scott Key to compose the poem “The Star-Spangled Banner” which later became the lyrics of the national anthem of the United States of America.
It was this anthem that was heard over the PA at Ibrox today.
There are many national anthems around that are “rebel songs.”
It would appear that some treasonable secessionists who establish a republic by force of irregular arms are more acceptable at Ibrox than others.
I have some questions after today:
(1) Are the people running the showbiz side of things at RFC historically illiterate?
(2) Do they have a complete irony bypass?
(3) Or do they believe that the only bad guys in the RFC World view are Irish rebels?
So to all my Fenian cousins in America have a great Thanksgiving this Thursday.
You got the better of the deal in growing up in a country where public expressions of Irishness aren’t verboten.