There seems to be a causal link between success on the field for Sevco and expressions of ethno-religious hatred from their customers.
However, I would be surprised if any sports journalist made that connection today.
The unexpected victory at Pittodrie was applauded by the visiting fans with chants about Catholics and Fenians.
Last week I was contacted by an Austrian filmmaker and journalist.
His name is Martin Leidenfrost.
He gave me permission this morning to use his name.
This is rare for me as most of my sources prefer to remain anonymous because they live and work in close proximity to The People.
Martin had read “Minority Reporter” and was interested in the subject of anti-Irish racism in Scotland.
However, he wanted to witness this phenomenon for himself.
Last weekend he was in Glasgow.
We had several conversations about where best to witness the klan in the wild.
I suggested several hostelries in Glasgow that are renowned for their unsurpassed dignity.
It was important that I explained to him the central tenets of the subculture that he wanted to examine.
Consequently, he knew what to listen for and the significance of songs like “The Billy Boys”.
He did a double take when I explained just who Billy Fullerton was and that he was still being fondly remembered in the city of his Birth in 2017.
I’m happy with “Minority Reporter” as a piece of work.
However, for someone like Martin, who wished to write about this sub-culture, it was important for him to experience it for himself, up close and personal.
So he decided to go all Trainspotting 2 on the issue.
This morning I received this email:
“Dear Phil,
just a short notice that I survived the Louden tavern on Duke Street last night. I happened to be invited by the drunken owner of the neighboring Rangers bar (Bristol). The first hour in Louden was quite difficult, with people suspiciously looking at me, and at once singing a chant “Everybody hates … Catholics”. I wondered, if they were testing me. I sticked to my legend and pretended to be amused. In the end they trusted me and played and before midnight one young supporter called Scot sang played and sang lots of Rangers songs for me, including the Billy song. Indeed an astonishing subculture. 21st century, with an echo from the Thirty Years War…
Wish you the best.
Martin”
In a follow-up email he then added:
“It was a very important hint of you not to mention that I am Catholic. I wouldn´t have worked that way…”
The obedient stenographers in Glasgow know the rules about calling out the klan.
However, there is a real professional on his way back to his native Austria and he saw the reality for himself.
“Indeed an astonishing subculture. 21st century, with an echo from the Thirty Years War…”
For the avoidance of doubt, the conflict to which Martin refers took place in Europe in the years 1618-1648.
The Peace of Westphalia was meant to put such things to bed in our continent.
Sadly, The People did not get the memo.
Martin’s work will be published in June in a German language publication.
He has promised to send me a translation and I will reproduce it here.
In other news, Sevco won a game of football, but all that their supporters could think of as the goals were scored was wading in the blood of the Irish-Catholic Untermenschen.
This is 2017.
One of my great, great grandfathers was murdered by members of the Black and Tans, his crime, he was a Catholic who owned his own business just outside Derry. I also had a great grandfather who had his ribs, nose and jaw broken by the B specials in Portadown, his crime, he was a Protestant who married a Catholic and was told to leave, or next time they would kill him.
Both family’s decided to leave and go to Glasgow, thinking it was safer to raise their family without the fear of attacks and discrimination.
In Glasgow they did find a level of security and peace to raise a family, but also found resentment, discrimination and violence but no were near the same levels as in Ireland.
I grew up in Glasgow during the 70’s and 80’s and yes, I had the same experience as many others or a regular basis, being turned down for work due to my faith, asked to leave house parties I had been invited to because of my faith, been bombarded with bricks and bottles when leaving Chapel on a Sunday by groups of teenagers wearing Rangers tops, been threatened on public transport because of my faith…
This is why I decided to leave my home City 30 years ago…and now live in Surrey…I did not want my children to grow up in that environment…and they haven’t…I still Love my City and the Good people who I grew up with…family and friends…Glasgow has got better in the last 30 years…but scratch the surface and it is not far away…
People here in the South struggle immensely in trying to get their head round such nonsense if the subject is ever raised in dicussion….and to be honest I struggle explaining it…
The Scottish Government need to tackle this head on…if they don’t they are either cowards or complicit.
The Green brigade do not sing anything that is religious hatred in any way shape or form.
Anti British songs yes maybe and many of those young lads are from Irish stock families that were up against all odds. Independent Scotland and united ireland to me are the same thing and that is to end British political rule.we also in Scotland are up against a British Tory
Army that we all want rid off.
Sorry but not once have I been in company of any Celtic supporter that has used words such as that bile you constantly here from them.
Carson and Cromwell haven’t gone away you know.
Phil your friend sadly has seen what we put up with on a daily basis.
Unlike us rangers is there religion.
Sad
The anti-british, Green Brigade songbook is racist too – pot & kettle – we all need to take responsibility to to move our society onto a batter place. Nil by mouth…..
Pep.
Please supply objective evidence of which songs are racist.
Yes, please do, Pep.
Take your time …
Hyman only plays first half……?
Is this contractual ?
Or conceptual ..? 😉
I have a dream that Desmond will buy up sevcos debt.
In my dream he issues an ultimatum that the sub-cultured members of the board are to be replaced and any person caught singing from the hate song sheet will have their season ticket cancelled and banned for life.
The best part of my dream is when they refuse and Desmond calls in the debt forcing them into liquidation never to return except as a remembrance society.
I am 70 years old and fervently hope to see and end to this vile organization before I join my ancestors
I was on Buchanan St a couple of weeks ago when the Union Dobbers numbering about 100 came marching up the street singing their bigoted shite. As anyone who’s a regular in Glasgow city centre will know that there are socialist, Communist and a Palestine stalls on this street. The abuse of the people manning these stalls varied from fenian bastards, race traitors and
a whole plethora of abusive phrases and language. This is what the sub culture brings to the streets, bigoted shite that was alarming people going about their every day business. Scotland, not the tolerant place it’s made out to be
Tomorrow could be The New Glorious Twelfth – open season in the City on King and his co-conspiritors if he can’t make the 20p offer required by the Takeover Panel.
Does anyone expect King to play by the rules and do the decent thing?
No, me neither.
Phil,
As a Glasgow catholic I am as offended as anyone by the chants in the Loudon Bar, Ibrox Park or indeed Pittodrie at the weekend. However I was at Celtic Park last midweek for the Partick Thistle game post winning the league and I was equally offended (and embarrassed) by the catalogue of anti-British songs from the Green Brigade. The blue side of Goasgow certainly hasn’t moved into the 21st century but neither has the green side. Had your Austrian correspondent visited and reported on Celtic Park too then we would have had balance. Both are the only football supports I know of who are mired in the past and have somgbooks about things that have nothing to do with football. We need to clean our own act up before we go throwing stones at glasshouses.
Pep.
Could not agree more with p pendry let’s cut it out green brigade it’s your only fault as far as I can see let’s move out of dark age chanting we have plenty of Celtic songs to sing he.
Phil; I emigrated 30 years ago and this is the only thing that I don’t miss. But I still get back to Scotland, almost every year so I get to take a pulse of the place, even if only a brief 2 week one. It has definitely gotten better than when I was a young man, although the one place I make a point not to give away being a Tim and Celtic fan is when I go into Glasgow.
That said, I am ashamed when I tell people about this issue here where I live as people look at you like you are crazy, or making it up. I may not live in Scotland anymore but I still love the place to my core and, hopefully not for a while yet, will die a proud Scotsman. My fervent hope is that once we get Independence that some of this will go away because the crutch of acceptance and support given to it by Unionism will no longer be there.
The notion that the west of Scotland is unique in having a problem with anti-Irish sentiment is fanciful. I started in a public sector organisation in Edinburgh in 1990; two years earlier the same organisation had had to get rid of its “Catholic Room.” The assignment of a new recruit erroneously tagged as one of THEM who’d contacted his MP in outrage caused a management reappraisal with mixed results since some fuckwits were fast tracked for compensatory promotions well beyond their minimal levels of competence.
Then there was https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_Action_Society. The letters page of the Herald circa 2005 was graced by the reminiscences of a correspondent (¿Alan Clayton of Strachey?) on the antics of John Cormack at the Edinburgh Festival in 1959 and the horror of the tourists who witnessed it. Big deal? Ancient history? Based on the three years I worked there I’d say it’s not blatant like West/Central Scotland but it’s there all right.
Strachur if memory serves.
I have many times been called Fenian Bastard , Tarrier prick and my favorite of all time timmy traitor . The reason? I went to Paisley Grammar School and supported Celtic . Maybe it was the fact i never hid the fact that Celtic were my team or the fact i wasn’t a catholic ,but i had never thought that religion had anything to do with whatever football team . I went to school with 2 people you might recognise one was called at the time David Macdonald , You will know him better as David tennant. The other was a year above me , an Identical twin who was the brighter of the 2 Craig Thompson referee extrordinaire. I cant remember what team he supported though but it could only have been 2, St.Mirren which it possibly could have been or Rangers as most of the School did . I hated school …
I was on a Dublin-Glasgow flight about 5 years ago,on board the flight were a bunch of Spanish kids complete with mentors.The kids were decked out in Leprechaun hats and other clobber after celebrating St Pats day in Dublin and we’re buzzing in a good natured way,Thankfully an elderly passenger(a Scot) and a member of cabin crew (Est European) advised the kids mentors it would not be advisable not to walk around Glasgow wearing such clobber.Needless to say they were absolutely gobsmacked,both kids and and adults, thankfullly they heeded the sound advice and promptly removed all the leprechaun hats,beards and green tee shirts before landing in Glasgow.
I was spat at and called a “dirty Fenian bastard” for the first time in my life at the age of five and on my way back to School after nipping home for lunch. This was from a group of older laddies making their own way home for lunch from the local non catholic High School.
I had no idea what this meant at the time but soon learned that because of my religion I was going to be a target for these bigoted scum.
The abuse continued through higher education and into the workplace. In a previous job I was forced to take action against a work colleague for sectarian abuse which resulted in that individual being issued with a final written warning before he eventually stopped his vile behaviour.
It also soon became clear that conversations which started to go down the well worn route of what school you went to, or what football team you supported were precursors for the at best snidey sarcastic remarks and at worst verbal abuse or violence.
I recall my mother and sister telling me about an incident in Glasgow City centre when they were bombarded with disgusting anti catholic abuse after they were overheard by a group of bigots in conversation with each other. Their crime was to be overheard calling each other by their Christian names, Margaret and Mary.
What is truly depressing about all of this is that my family and I are just ordinary people who happen to be from Irish Catholic descent and are not in any way deserving of any of this disgusting abuse. We don’t go around shouting from the rooftops about our ethenticity or heritage. None of us feel the need to parade around the streets proclaiming our religious beliefs. In fact if anything we have learned not to draw attention to ourselves for fear of becoming the target of sectarian abuse from the dregs of Scottish society.
Anyone that argues that my experiences are untypical or extraordinary are talking out of their arse. This is a real problem in Scotland and is prevelant across the entire country. I will rejoice when this cancer is ripped out of the country that I call home. The famine may be over but I will be staying put in the land that I was born to. Change is happening far too slowly and it’s shameful that this anti Irish Catholic abuse is tolerated by ordinary Scots. I sincerely hope that with the inevitability of Scottish Independence it heralds the beginning of the end for all forms of abuse suffered by so many in society. Maybe one of these days we will build a society that we can all be proud of and where abuse of any description is not tolerated.
Arthur,
above you have explained exactly why I’m so glad that my son isn’t being brought up in the west of Scotland,it really is so very sad that even today this type of klan culture is permitted to exist.I totally agree that it is a whole of Scotland problem,and not just the west of the country.
Charger take heed.!! FLYBE anyone??
Same experience as above and my kids as well even though at that point i hadn’t had them baptised that’s when I put a stop to it called out the father of each and everyone of them told them every time it happened I would be back at the door to see them. I grew up in a village where there was only a handful of catholic families and had to defend myself almost every day and I wasn’t having that for my kids.
Born & raised in a notorious Protetstant stronghold, myself, my friends & my family had to put up with this racist sectarian abuse almost every day of the week, even from folk who knew us well, when the mood took them.
I got it from grown men from before primary school, from drunken family members of the opposite persuasion. from doltish teenagers while playing marbles in the street, aged 7, (Most memorable line:
‘If Ah see you wearin that Celtic jersey roon here again Ah’m gonny slit yer Fenian throat’)
And it still goes on to this day.
No one dare talk back to them, or you would have a mob of them at your door later that night, and it wouldn’t be a ‘South Park’ posse, but a hardcore gang of hammer and axe wielding bigots and sociopaths, some who may or may not have served time for illicit activities on behalf of such fun loving organisations as the UDA.
This is the everyday reality of western Scotland, certainly, but I’ve also had grief over my ‘religion’, which I don’t ‘have’ in any conventional sense, although I am deeply spiritual in a human sense, across various parts of Scotland.
For example, when in my teens, I met a girl who invited me all the way up to the Scottish wilds to spend the weekend at her parents place, as she knew I was a decent sort and needed some fresh country air to cheer me up.
So, having travelled the few hours by bus to get up there, I wasn’t in her house 5 minutes before I saw the horror on her mother’s face, a woman who refused to even look at me when she saw me.
I recognised her utter disdain instantly for the bigotry and hatred that it was and, sure enough, she pulled her daughter aside and told her she had something else to do that day and that she had to drive me straight back to the bus station immediately, and send me on my Fenian way back to Glasgow.
(I had had this experience with other girls’ mothers, & fathers too, though none were as unashamedly blatant as this spiteful cow.)
So, if I come across on this page as being somewhat insensitive in my remarks on the stupidity of the Klan, or appear to wallow in glee and with great relish as I watch over their ongoing suffering, please know that these are just some of the reasons why I would take such enjoyment from someone else’s pain:
For these heartless, twisted, violent hateful bastards deserve everything that’s coming to them, with bells on, and preferably a hefty cudgel attached, that will knock their venomous hatred for their fellow man back into the stinking cludgie of the 17th century from whence it came and where it still belongs.
I never have been, nor ever will be, a bigot of any stripe, but I’m sure that even the dullest of the dull yins can well understand my point.
For every action there’s a reaction, amd the laughs I get watching those Silly Billy Boys suffer every day is a source of endless amusement to me, and every other right thinking person who has ever had to put up with their vile hubris and abuse.
Revenge isn’t a big enough word, this is pure karmic delight.
So, nae luck, Billy!
You still sniffing that glove?
Scotland’s shame continues…. Police Scotland stand by as the bigots sing their sectarian and racist bile.
Why?
Hey Phil,
Think I may have gone insane. According to the daily rectum Hibs are in the Premier League, with Hamilton in the “Championship”
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/science-technology/celtic-top-social-media-table-10194557
Have I had one too many?
Cheers,
B.C
You most certainly have if you’re still reading that shite.
I’m a Hibs (armchair) fan who lives in Gkasgow.
I must admit I was really quite depressed that the Dons didn’t hump that shower of bigoted scum yesterday. More so than Hibs inability to score a fechin goal!
After the game I took the dog for a walk in the park. Got talking to an old dear, originally from Inverness. Another SNP member. She came out with the classic. “I’m not Catholic, but I much prefer Celtic to those shites”.
Says it all really.
The tables produced represent social media engagement on Facebook and Twitter.
That is what the story is about.
How the tables would look based on the barometer of social media.
As per usual yesterdays singalong was the work of a significant minority, ONE lonesome zombie in fact. Five arrests were made, the Sevco soloist and four Dons supporters. You couldn’t make it up.
It started long before Miller scored too. The Aberdeen fans booed the Billy boys and a few minutes later Mr Miller sought the fans out to glory I his excellent goal perfectly happy to overlook their explicit hatred. Until everybody takes responsibility this will continue
I look forward to reading this piece. Austria is a country very close to my heart. I first went there skiing the best part of thirty years ago. When I mentioned to a ski guide that he lived in a very beautiful country he looked at me, looked around, looked back at me as though I was insane and said “Now! It’s covered in snow. Come back in summer!” I returned again for the skiing but eventually went in the summer. The Wilder Kaiser Valley is probably the most beautiful place on the planet. The skiing days are long gone but going back in the summer is like going home. If I had nothing to tie me to the institutionally bigoted land of my birth I would be happy to spend what’s left of my life there.
Just do it Charger.I left the bigotted place 40 years ago & have never regretted it for 1 single day.
Definitely,100% correct Brian,life can throw all sorts at you and sometimes you just have to seize the day.
You could wake up deid the morra Charger,seriously though;go for it.
I’m 33 years away from the land of my birth and of course,yes there will always be things you’ll miss.But,you can always go back and visit,see your family,friends and return for matches,you can’t reach old age and wonder,what IF?
Carpe diem Charger.HH⚽️
You can also return if you don’t like your new situation,but you’ll have to go for it firstly.
Good luck.?
Phil, I’ve read your blog since it’s conception and have donated and enjoyed the vast majority of what I have read.
I do feel I have to take issue with you making this a Scotland problem though. Born in 1964 and bred in Edinburgh and a staunch Hearts fan I have only ever seen this as a Rangers, and now Sevco, problem and not a Scotland wide problem. Only Sevco fans I have encountered have this issue, fans and friends of every other club I have had the pleasure of meeting do not share the Sevco view so please don’t tar all us non Catholics with the vitriolic Sevco brush.
I doubt that any reasonable person reading my piece today would agree with your take on my work.
I am quite clearly writing about a sub-culture that is almost entirely connected to the Ibrox club.
Neil Lennon sectarian attack mate at Tynecastle.
Born in Edinburgh in 1957 , and a died in the wool Hibee , I can only recommend to you, a visit to a well known high street optician who now offer excellent hearing tests, as the song book recited from the Westfield stand at Tynecastle ( not to mention the flags) more than illustrates the affinity a significant minority of Hearts fans have with their Govan compatriots.
In fairness, I think that Ann Budge has been very clear that the John Wilson fraternity is no longer welcome at Tynecastle.
Your joking right….have you ever been to an Airdrie game…they have a sizeable bigoted element too with a hatred for those of a Catholic persuasion when it books down.
Sorry, but no. One encounter too many with pissed up Jambos, and the only workplaces where the apparently excessive green-ness of an otherwise ordinary jersey was questioned and where I heard The Sash being whistled were both in Edinburgh mean I don’t buy the whole “it’s a West Coast thing” deflection.
Like alcoholics, until Scotland accepts it has a sectarian bigotry problem it can’t start dealing with it.
Hi Phil,
Good read,I’m looking forward to his conclusions.
Yes,the sooner UEFA get to grips with their disgusting songbook the better.
The nonsense that is the sfa has had nearly a hundred years to deal with it and done nothing,and sure,We’d wait another hundred years for them actually do something.
sfa OUT,unfit for purpose,sorry to repeat myself again,but it needs sorting.
Thanks for this,HH Brendan Rodgers for a Knighthood,c’mon lets make them do it…..
I’m a Dons fan but couldn’t attend yesterday due to working offshore. My other (OK, I’ll admit, better) half took my 12 year old along, using my season ticket as she does when I’m at work, (he’s the real fanatic and he doesn’t like to miss a game) for her first game against the tribute act. She, like me, is a stereotypical child of the North-East of Scotland and has never been exposed to the behaviour of the travelling *Rangers support and always thought that I refer to them as scum and animals for solely footballing reasons.
Called home yesterday evening and was treated to a ten minute diatribe from her about how shocked and disgusted she was at their behaviour and singing, to the point where she’s now reconsidering our daughters plan to study in Glasgow next year in case she gets exposed to it.
I did note from watching the match that Sky’s sound man wasn’t quite quick enough to turn down the crowd mikes and the whole world watching was treated to the full version. Surely the SFA and Police Scotland can’t just turn a blind eye to that with video evidence.
Also, as a side note, the dung heap got off lightly with only one toilet and a mere hundred seats destroyed
Oops. `insidiously` !
browny
I agree and would add that our media is beyond hope. This article shows that the way forward might lie in involving the Media of other countries.Even that, unfortunately, leaves itself open to copious amounts of ` whataboutery`. It would be difficult to convince `outsiders` of just how ingrained and insiduously influential is the Protestant/Masonic culture in Scotland.
JB
It gives me the shivers just driving past these establishments and could never envisage going in as it would give me the boak! Brave man indeed. Nutter actually!
Superb piece. If this sort of conduct wasn’t so appalling it would be utterly tiresome. I look forward to reading Herr Leidenfrost’s piece in due course.
I briefly wondered quite what had prompted yesterday’s songs of peace, love and joy, and I must admit that I came to some rather surreal conclusions…. [Just for a change… And if I may…]
https://theclumpany.wordpress.com/2017/04/09/provocative-fenians-and-catholics/
Unfortunately so long as the klan are ignored by the ‘media’ or they can use the IR chants from the Green Brigade as mitigation – they will always claim “one side’s ss bad as the other.
I’m a Celtic fan based in Aberdeen and attended the game yesterday at the dung heap. The songs were all too predictable and really came into their own, so to speak, after Millers 2nd goal. Up to that point, barely an audible cheep came from the away end as the dandy dons dominated………..indeed, a goal looked inevitable. Sadly, it was, but at the wrong end. Far more surprising than the sevco songs of hate was the presence of about 100 or so lads from Berliner FC Dynano in the Aberdeen end. Certainly looked like lads not to be trifled with……….shorts, close-cropped hair and sunglasses, not to mention, broad shoulders and muscles, we’re all de rigueur. I have since discovered there is some kind of ‘in Freundschaft’ thing between Aberdeen and BFC fans. They were perfectly behaved in the stadium, though whether there was much ‘Freundschaft’ on show in the bars later is anyone’s guess! They have quite a reputation in Germany, it would appear.