Yesterday a man was in court, and he admitted to racially abusing Celtic player Scott Sinclair at Ibrox Stadium on Saturday 29th April 2017.
These are live proceedings, and the man will be sentenced later.
However, he has admitted his guilt, and that is not now at issue.
There is no need for me to editorialise on this behaviour and the perpetrator did not seek to deny it in court.
This was racism.
There is no debate about that.
Even the usual suspects among the Sevco illiterati did not attempt to defend this ‘Bear’.
The home crowd at Ibrox have previous for this kind of behaviour, and it doesn’t have to be an opposition player.
Of course, the dominant form of racism on show most match days at Ibrox is of the anti-Irish variety.
The Famine Song was ruled to be racist when that question was considered in the highest court in Scotland in June 2009.
This ditty is aimed at a specific ethnic group; the Irish in Scotland.
Therefore, to deem it ‘sectarian’ is incorrect.
That is why the ruling, in this case, was so valuable in the fight against Scotland’s oldest racism.
I recall at the time that one particular NGO active in the field seemed to have a rabbit in the headlights stare about anti-Irish racism in Scottish football.
Perhaps they baulked at taking on The People.
That was 2008.
For the avoidance of doubt, your humble correspondent got stuck in.
On one occasion I travelled to Scotland to doorstep a chap on the turf at Tynecastle.
My question to him was why his charity had not condemned the Famine Song as racist.
He was at the home of Hearts to take part in a charity football match to, wait for it, kick racism out of football.
I then stood in the technical area and said to Lex Gold, then the top boy at the SPL, that if racism was not tackled head on then, an ethnic minority person could suffer real violence.
He agreed with me.
We were standing on the spot where Irishman Neil Lennon would be attacked years later by John Wilson.
I need irony in my life.
Also during the weekend, a video emerged showing the Unsurpassed Dignity of The People.
When a football club collapses and dies, it is natural to feel for the supporters.
They are usually working class people with an inherited emotional attachment to their club.
Uncomprehendingly loyal they often trudge through awful weather to watch awful football.
Whatever the situation, on or off the park, they’re always there.
Consequently, when a club implodes the natural sentiment is to feel sorry for the ordinary supporters.
However, at Ibrox, I think it is rather different.
I believe that the case can be made that the Ibrox match day experience has been a gathering point for a toxic subculture for over a century.
Charles of Normandy quickly picked up this vibe and played to that racist gallery.
The worldview that socialised the Ibrox clientele is rooted in the crisis over the Third Home Rule bill at the turn of the 20th century.
This was in the historical period before the Irish Republic existed and Britain was a world power.
Of course, this archipelago is a very different place now.
Any notions of Britannia ruling the waves in the 21st century is risible.
The shipbuilding labour aristocracy that gave the Rangers support of old their sense of economic superiority is also gone, just like Rangers itself.
The political economy that created the Rangers of the Bill Struth’s era is gone, over, a thing of the past.
Now in the 21st century, The People have to rely on Sevco.
Moreover, the basket of assets plays in a city that in 2014 voted to leave Britain.
Within that context, The People are stranded on the wrong shore of history as the political tide goes out on this Britishness thing.
Clearly, they cannot cling to any sporting success on the field.
That’s because there isn’t any.
Sevco find themselves sharing a city with a genuinely big football club.
One that can swat them aside with ease.
The nature of the Parkhead club means that it is more accessible and inclusive by its very nature.
Celtic is open to all; inclusivity was built into the DNA of the football club from day one.
Even the choice of the name, chosen so as to be welcoming to the native Scots, was the obverse of the Herrenvolk exceptionalism of Ibrox.
Over the last week or so two young lads from Argentina have been in Fair Caledonia to see their beloved Hoops batters Sevco and take in Alba’s stunning scenery.
They too are part of Celtic.
Bienvenidos hermanos!
You can follow these two brothers (Geronimo and Seba Ongarelli ) on Twitter @Argentinaceltic
Ibrox had another interested visitor on Saturday.
Arlene Foster (nee Kelly) from Contae Fear Manach was recently filmed speaking Irish at a Gaelscoil in the “Pravince”.
She claims that she was uplifted by the experience.
The former First Minister of the Six County statelet was then at Ibrox to watch the demolition derby.
I’m not sure how uplifting THAT experience was for her.
It certainly was for this Fenian in another part of Ulster.
I think it is worth noting that there was a time when Arlene Foster’s British Unionist worldview was mainstream on Clydeside.
It isn’t anymore.
However, it clings on at Ibrox and racism is central to that subculture.
Anyone who doesn’t face up to that fact is in denial.
These actions from the peepul will never go away while young kids are taken to ‘ra big walks ‘ every summer and taught about the Fenians and why they should hate them only through education and being bright enough to make there own minds up as they grow can possibly change it unfortunately it wont change them all
Hi Phil,
An articulate response to my post as I’d expect. While a lot of us can distinguish between the British state and being anti-British, this doesn’t extend to every song/chant in the Green Brigade’s repository. Your blog is an influential one as you well know, and I think bejng brave to call out our own issues (as I wish Brendan Rodgers would too in his current unassailable position) will actually only seek to distance ourselves further from the extremism elsewhere. Until we do we will still be seen (accurately) as part of the problem.
Rgds.
Pep.
Racisms nothing new but regarding Sevco and the pummeling they’ve endured.Racism will become Rife over in that Dark Crumbling Place.Remember the Gloating Years,Karma is best Served Chilled.How on Earth they got back into the Lower Divisions Beggars Belief.At the beginning of the League (Sevco) seemed Pretty Upbeat with Banners of GoinFor55.Then faced with Reality,The Eggs still going to be on there faces for the Forseeable Future.Phil you shine a light in a Dark Hole which is anything Sevco.Well Done and Keep Up The Honest Truthful Work.HH
Hi Phil. Over the years, through countless experiences and observations of this species,if they can be called that I’ve come to a conclusion which could be part of a PhD thesis. I will entitle it” The Journey: From The Primordial Soup to Standing On My Own Two Feet.”
Unfortunately it will delayed somewhat , as they are stuck on the shore of the Primordial Soup.
They don’t seem to realise that sometimes you have to leave your comfort to progress
I suppose I could leave the thesis to my great,great,great,great, great,great,great grandchildren to complete.
Basically,what I’m saying is that they do not have the will or the intellectual capacity to effect change.
The Sad Sac abusing Scott Sinclair, reminded me of Klan joke.
“If ah divorce ma wife, is she still ma sister?”
Idiots behave like idiots because it is tolerated or even encouraged by the authorities. If the Scottish Government, the SFA, the SPL and the Boards of decent football clubs spoke out,missuednstatements and acted against all, and I mean ALL, forms of racism and bigotry the scourge on our society would dribble away and be confined to odd walks and wee halls.
Hi Phil.
A good post but missing balance. We need to look inwards at our anti-British songs (just as racist and very insulting) – its a problem for us that is getting louder again at Celtic Park, while it was always out of control at away games.
Please call out our “herrenvolk” too……and lets tidy up the Green Brigade songbook as some of it is embarassing.
Thanks
Pep.
There isn’t anything racist about Irish Republican songs or, indeed, Irish Republicanism.
Opposing the British state isn’t the same thing as being anti-British.
If I may quote you, Phil:
“Clearly, they cannot cling to any sporting success on the field.”..
Have you forgotten their Petrofac Cup win already?
Heehee!
I suspect that they’d rather forget it themselves, what with The Sevco Facked Cup being a permanent reminder of their Crash, Burn and Rebirth as a New Club in the Scottish 3rd Division, bearing in mind that it took them 4 long seasons to finally get it.
Trust Sevco to prove that even a ‘win’ can be a loss, when viewed over the long term.
FYI, Phil – Arlene Foster did not attend a Gaelscoil in Newry. Our Lady’s is a Catholic maintained grammar which teaches through the medium of English and English only.
I think your confusion stems from media reports of Arlene ‘reaching out’ to the Irish language community by visiting the school. That narrative is very misleading because she did not visit a Gaelscoil.
The Irish medium education scoil in Newry went without a visit or any contact with Arlene Foster.
Go raibh maith agat
Hi Phil,
Very much enjoyed that info,there is a very long way to go in Scotland as regards the racist element @ayebrokes,a very long way indeed.
You stated that ‘I need irony in my life’,I’m slightly different,in that I need an ironer,and thankfully a lovely lady nearby aids with that chore.
Great to see our Argentinian brothers at the game,when last in Paradise,there in the same row as myself and some friends,I was pleasantly surprised to see five Nigerian men,two of whom were harnessed up with young babies.The Nigerian fella sat next to me had a toddler with him who was crying quite a bit,I inquiried as to why the wee bhoy was upset,and back came the answer,’that he wanted to be down on the pitch playing.’
We laughed heartily,and I said to him that maybe,one day,if he practised enough that he could,and that seemed to appease him for a minute or two.But,he started up again,probably because he could see no reason why he could not,right there and then.
At first glance at that pic I thought you had dug up another connection with Pedro and Celtic,as if there aren’t enough already.I need my glasses more and more,that just proves it.
Appreciated.HH?
Reading one of the forums, they are lost, wandering about in a daze, not knowing how they got to where they are today.
Why can’t it be like it was before, they cry?
That would be SDM’S special relationship with the bank that couldn’t say no, topped up with illegal tax scams that attracted players they otherwise could not have afforded.
Those golden days when Timmy knew his place.
Seems as if it might take another few days like Saturday before they realise the old days are gone for good.
You have to laugh when through all the bad news one of the posters takes comfort from the current stability at the club.
Really, stable? Ah well I’m sure they wil get the message eventually, be it via the SDI case, the WIFI boys, the Ibrox 3 or the TAB ruling and the daily revelations from the High Court.
That was a quite a revelation today that if SDM got rid of Rangers by a certain date the bank would give him back the metals business for £1!
The “firelighter” queen would’ve felt right at home among the Peepul. After all, they share the same idiotic and non progressive ideology. As for Sevco, get used to the “tarriers” running the football side of things for the forseeable future. Regarding the disgusting racism aimed at Sinclair, you wonder how the likes of Dodoo and Tavernier feel when they see this?
when you arrive at ‘rangers’ as a black or catholic player im sure you are ‘advised’ about what you are entering..its a job,a well paid job where all will be fine as long as the performance of you and teammates is….if not you will take take the stick
What has emerged from Ibrox and social media since the weekend has been disgusting. I’m ashamed to be a Scotsman and see people be treated the way Scott Sinclair has been.
I thought this type of behaviour was behind us. It would appear to be the opposite.
What kind of message is being sent out when you have an active element of football supporters of different age and gender carrying out this kind of act? It seems Scotland has a bigger problem that first thought.
These imbicilic people who act the way the bozo did in regards to Scotty, do so because they have no class, no focus on the park, and are about to see their new club follow their old one. Who knows, the guys who first wrote their follow follow song all those years ago may have been onto something after all. Follow follow into extinction.
agree with you …just one small point however….we sang Follow Follow too up until Hail Hail hit the scene late 50s early 60;s
Great to see those lads from Argentina, sort of shoots out of the water those huns who say we are unknown outside Glasgow. HH.
During the world cup met up with the Fergus Mccann CSC in rio about 30 tims turned up for a bevvy, we’re everywhere