Bonfires and Buckfast bottles

The law of unintended consequences is almost always in play.

Since the lame duck, Theresa May climbed the Magic Money Tree and sourced a £1.5bn bribe the London media has been looking closely at the Democratic Unionist party.

In the last month, I have received many  calls from London based journalists of my acquaintance.

They have, in part, been incredulous about the worldview of the DUP and their core constituency.

It is a journalistic examination that Arlene Foster and her klan have not enjoyed.

In recent weeks the Herrenvolk of Norn Iron has not taken too kindly to the DUP being subjected to the scrutiny of the London media.

Given that The People like to tell the world that they are “Bratash” makes the irony all the more delicious.

If the Metropolitan media had hung around then they would have seen the appalling vista of Palletgate.

As Loyalist self-confidence has crumbled so their bonfire has risen higher and higher into the blue skies of Ulsturr.

That these far right hate fests are partly funded from the public purse is just one aspect that would horrify anyone looking in from London.

This year a new euphemism for these events was coined by one of their main apologists:

“Unionist cultural expression zones”.

Oh dear.

In recent years houses have been burned down because embers were blown onto roofs from bonfires.

The fire service in Northern Ireland has their busiest night of the year as they try to prevent buildings from cracking under the intense heat.

The crews are often attacked by 11th-night revellers.

Perhaps Fireman Sam isn’t Sammy enough…

If London journos had a passing interest in footie then they might have looked at the match held last night in Windsor Park.

The first thing that would have been noticeable was that only one team was any good at passing.

Celtic left Belfast with a two goal lead and are in the driving seat for the second leg.

It was beautifully karmic that Scott Sinclair was the first to score last night given the appalling racist abuse that appeared on one Loyalist bonfire this week.

The football world will also now have seen the incident where Leigh Griffiths received a yellow card for trying to take a corner kick without suffering a head injury.

In the immediate aftermath of a largely one-sided match, the PSNI had to deploy officers in riot gear to cope with the unionist cultural expression zone that was extant down at that corner flag.

Not long after the game had ended I contacted the UEFA media centre to ascertain if Linfield FC would be subject to a disciplinary case against them.

In fairness to the club, they put out a statement admitting that a minority of their fans had transgressed.

However, what was on display last night at Windsor Park was a manifestation of a decaying subculture.

They know that the glory days of supremacist coat trailing parades through nationalist areas are largely over.

That is why the bonfires have become so important to them.

They must be higher and higher as their own self-esteem crumbles.

Celtic coming to town was just another opportunity for The People to reassure themselves of their Herrenvolk superiorty.

Oh dear…

Of course, the denizens of Planet Fitba are not unaware of this terminally ill world view.

Parity of esteem and equality enshrined in law for all citizens in the Six Counties will see it slowly expire like a bonfire in the morning light.

Moreover, in Scotland, all that it will take will be for the national game to be fairly and transparently governed.

In the meantime, the rest of us look on and quietly despair that such a belief system can still exist in a mature democracy in the 21st century.

49 thoughts on “Bonfires and Buckfast bottles”

  1. Buckfast Abbey: Denomination: Roman Catholic.

    Please dont tell me these thick huns are funding the Catholic church and drink papish wine ?

    You couldn’t make it up.

    Reply
  2. A blizzard of criticism on social media from fans of the club currently playing at Ibrox.
    They don’t do irony over Govan way do they as Marseille take the flak for cheating and bribery throughout the Tapie era, though UEFA didn’t see fit to strip the CL trophy from them after their win against Milan.
    How does 10 years, and more, of fielding dozens of players whose full contract details were not lodged with the SFA compare with Marseille’s crimes?
    This was no admin error as the existence of side letters were denied and hidden from HMRC.
    Perhaps one of the administrators of the illegal tax schemes, a future SFA President, could shed some light on why he remained stum on the matter whilst fully aware that SFA registration rules were being trampled underfoot.
    It’s not as if he personally benefited from the scheme…….oh hang on!

    Reply
  3. Phil, I totally agree that the behaviour of the Linfield fans was despicable and at times quite frightening. A friend actually attended the game and told me that the policing for the few celtic fans inside and outside the ground was more than adequate. The only thing I would say that we let ourselves down with is Mr Griffiths, why he felt the need to wind up the oppositions fans in such a hostile environment is beyond me, I just wish BR would have a quiet word in his ear to cut out this senseless nonsense.

    Reply
    • You of course would rather he go take a corner and be abused verbally regarding his religion whilst dodging coins and lighters with any response whatsoever?
      Eric Cantona drop kicked one fanny for less mate.
      Perspective is needed here bud.
      HH

      Reply
      • To be honest it was the tying the scarf to the goalposts that I was meaning. There were circa 300 celtic fans in the ground and they would have been the ones caught up in the mayhem inside and outside the ground if a full scale riot had ensued.

        Reply
  4. Statement issued today by the Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland in response to today’s front page in the Sunday Herald is practically identical to a statement from Club 1872 earlier this week moaning that the Record did not cover their statement on title stripping

    Surely these two organisations do not share a PR person ??? Either one on the level or one who holds the record for shortest tenure as a football club director ???

    Maybe Phil could investigate ??

    Reply
  5. The whole spectacle was similar to watching a sevco game at the crumbledome. Same colour strips, same bigoted songs, same thuggery, shite team and incompetent referee. Incidentally if anyone can cast their mind back to the sevco v Hibs play-off match at that same crumbledome a couple of years ago, the same lack of manners and sportsmanship occurred then every time a Hibs player went to take a corner. By the end of the match the rubbish was piled about 2 feet deep in one corner. No action from the referee or the SFA and NO mention of it anywhere in the SMSM.

    Reply
    • you`re quite right , i can`t understand why a ref can also let balloons ,and i mean filled with air ones , to blow about the park distracting from the football, either himself or say the 4th official should halt the game and instruct the home teams ground staff to clear it up before a restart.perhaps a directive from football authority would be useful

      Reply
  6. Linfield will get a rap on the knuckles and a small fine after all they employ one of the biggest cheats in Scottish football who intigated EBT’s and was president of the SFA.UEFA can not say they did’nt know he was involved in it all up to his bigoted neck so don’t expect them UEFA to act on anything Scottish.

    Reply
  7. Met some English folk on holiday recently. Like many of their ilk they knew nothing about the DUP and their politics.
    Neither do they have an annual bigot fest complete with marching bands passing through their town.
    The OO instructs members not to associate with Kaflicks and woe betide anyone entering a chapel!
    If thats not sectarian what is?

    Reply
  8. Phil, as you have access to UEFA’s media centre , are you going to question them on why The Rangers FC without FFP are / were allowed to take part in a European competition and what is their stance on the EBT’s and title stripping ? Will they ever investigate the SFA ?

    Reply
  9. A large battery was thrown at the Celtic players celebrating Boyatas goal in the recent 5-1 game at Ibrox, if only the SPFL were as interested in sanctioning clubs for fan behaviour as UEFA is.

    Reply
  10. Sunday Herald front page is to contain a concern over an OO hall fancy dress. With a potential ‘parent’ dressed in Nazi regalia with children (possibly his) dressed as Jews. I really don’t know what to make of this! If it is indeed funny, to those who move within these Kuklos then it is indicative of a deep routed, intolerant psyche that requires further attention from our courts, police and press…once they’ve went home and changed obviously!

    Reply
    • They don’t know what they are. One minute they are flying Israeli flags and the next they are dressed as Nazis. Confused.com indeed.

      Reply
      • Or going to Scotland/ Northern Ireland games wearing England tops …

        Wtf is wrong with these peepil?

        Identity Crisis overload.

        Reply
      • One minute they’re giving nazi salutes then they’re loving the union jack and the queen even though the nazis bombed Britain… then they’re burning tricolours even though the orange on the flag represents the protestant peepul of Ireland and also burning upside down tricolours which means its actually the flag of the ivory coast who have clearly upset the cave dwellers as well ….All very confusing and mixed up if only the education system hadn’t failed them ?

        Reply
  11. Phil, there was another game played in Scotland on Friday, the Ayrshire derby between League 1 Ayr United and SPFL Kilmarnock. A local derby which can get, ahem, heated. In all the times I have watched these games even if one or other is getting hammered or if there is a particular opposing player fans do not like, I have never witnessed the amount of objects thrown onto the pitch as I witnessed at the home of Lingfield. The bottle of Buckfast was as ironic as you can get from this hoard of animals, no disrespect to the animals. The game at Somerset park was a thing of friendly rivalry in comparison the the disgusting behaviour of the red, whites and blue scum. I hope UEFA come down hard on Lingfield, and do the Honest thing in rescinding that yellow card. Oh BTW Ayr won 1-0. No trouble. No disrespect. Just friendly banter. Compare and contrast the two games.

    Reply
    • Actually, that isn’t accurate. As a former dweller in Ayrshire I was horrified to read that a Kilmarnock fan was hospitalised after being kicked and beaten… not what I would call friendly banter… not really something you would associate with Ayrshire either.

      Reply
      • Agreed. The point I was trying to make is that a local derby in Scotland can go off relatively peacefully (with the usual idiots that support either club) whereas a game which is as high profile as you can get has loon balls lobbing Buckie bottles and lord alone knows what simply because of some perceived history in Ireland. UEFA must act to boot Linfield out of the future competition.

        Reply
  12. Brilliant work, btw, Phil.

    You should forward it to every London based journalist you know, and those that you don’t.

    There’s plenty there to catch the eye of anyone wanting to make a real name for themselves in that still noble profession.

    And we need them now more than ever to take this outside of the secrecy and codes of the game up here and bring it to national, if not international, attention.

    If I knew who might act on it I’d do it myself but all the names in the current bunch are seemingly incapable of uttering a single word on it, because that’s all they all are, a ‘currant bunch’, Rangers to a man, as if any of us, or they, need reminding.

    It’s time to seize the moment and carpe diem before this mess too gets brushed under the ever bulging chequered rug walked on by these bandits and criminals who have stolen all that was good about our game.

    Altogether now, Scotland’s true fitba fans, let’s stick it to them while we still have the chance.

    Fortitudinem per unitatis.

    Strength through unity.

    It’s time for our supporters to unite to save our fitba or rue these days forevermore.

    Reply
  13. Me thinks that in the present age we are going a bit to far with the PC stuff regarding racism and getting all upset every time some so call loyalist idiots put a banner like the one on that pallet bonfire, although its easier to get attention to that in the local media than when they put abuse up regarding the holy father or such.
    I remember when Mark Walters played his first game for the huns against us way back when, two guys I was with at the time came dressed as gorrilas and the amount of fruit thrown on to the side track was a assortment of bananas, and while it was condemned rightly at the time, there was as always, no condemnation of the vile sectarian abuse spewed out by the hun support.
    So by all means call it out as racist abuse as indeed it is but to call it appalling is over doing it, if Scott Sinclair played for them he would be praised and sung about, he is being targeted because he is a Celtic player who scores goals.
    my point is this we need to get over being upset at every wee slight , as you point out Scott replied in the best possible way, by putting the ball in the back of their net, thats the way to beat them.

    Reply
    • The world has moved on in the last thirty years. I was at that game also.
      My friend has a mixed race child who was first racially abused in the street aged three. Racism may not seem like a big deal to whitey- try telling that to a three year old and their mother

      Reply
      • By calling me or anyone whitey are you not using a racist term??
        If I call the child you mentioned blacky, which I would not, you would be outraged no doubt.
        I take it by your comment that the mother is a a single parent, that to me is a bigger hardship and a worse thing to do to a child and is the cause of some many kids going off the rails, but of course saying that will upset you as well, no doubt. Being called names happens to every child, for whatever reason, so dont be such a upset, outraged moaner, I did not at the whitey jibe.

        Reply
        • No, you did, or you wouldn’t have mentioned it at all.

          We can call each other ‘Whitey’ because we’re white, we’re equal in terms of skin colour, the same as black folk have pejorative slang for each other.

          The point yyyer man’s making is that a lot of white folk have sympathy for and understand the history of black people in the west and recognise the blame on the rich ‘whitey’ that’s caused this situation down the years.

          Because that’s the same guy who not only keeps the Rangers & Sevco sins under the carpet, he’s also created much of this religious and sectarian chasm across both Scotland and the rest of the western world and beyond.

          And you’ll know him by his handshake, his exposed knee and certain words and phrases, like ‘On the level’ or ‘Divide & Conquer’.

          But not a lot of people seem to know that.

          ‘Political correctness’ is just another fakey bullshit idea thought up by some government PR company to control what we can and can’t say but the simple fact is that you can’t insult people without expecting some blowback, and why would you want to anyway?

          What difference should it make to anyone what colour someone’s’ skin is?

          There’s more serious stuff to be worried about these days than something as irrelevant as that, and I can assure that skin colour has nothing to do with it, although the term ‘being skinned’ does most certainly come into the equation.

          Reply
          • And that’s one mighty big assumption that the child is cared for by a single mother, and an even bigger one after that again, that single mothers are somehow the cause of ‘kids going off the rails’ …

            Most especially when you consider that the child would already be ‘off the rails’ if they had no mother to take care of them at all.

            And why blame the absent father when you can much easier blame the attendant and caring mother, eh …?

            You see how many ways you’ve given yourself away here, zero ..?

            Bigotry isn’t just restricted to fitba clubs, you know.

        • If you are in the majority/privileged community then you can accept racial terms and digs at your community with good grace. But if you are in the minority/oppressed group, then racist terms take on a whole additional edge. They reaffirm your place in that oppressed group and give sanction to the oppression. The black-white divide (or in NI the blue-green divide) is not one of two equal communities who share parity of esteem. Therefore what one group says or does to the other does not have the same context or morality if the groups were reversed.

          Reply
    • Nah, they just don’t do irony at all.

      Battery, bigotry & misogyny, yes, but not in any way irony.

      Cos if they did, they’d have no fans left.

      Reply
  14. . Apologies to Tom Wolfe . What about ” The Bonfires of the Insanities?” Observing these people, either on their pointless , triumphalist and threatening parades, dressed in their stupid garish uniforms, or supporting their football club, if you can call it that,would be worthwhile for genuine journalists.
    Anthropologists of the future will be confounded and surprised that such a sub species existed in 21st century in Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland.
    If I was religious in any way, which I am not, I would pray for them. Otherwise I will damn them to hell, if that exists as well.
    Excellent piece Phil. Sorry about the rant.

    Reply
  15. People shpuld not be allow to bring food or bottle’s in to be thrown at the player. This bottle could have really hurt this player but i don’t think people can see this. What if it had of hit him and broke and cut him would you still be on saying the celtic fan’s and this banana.

    Reply
  16. The Scottish media again seem fainthearted at reporting what happened at Windsor Park. The ref is a disgrace to the game and should be permanently sidelined. Griffiths is owed an apology. And the BBC had better stop presenting sectarianism as a minority pursuit in the Northern Irish context. The statelet is based on sectarianism, ffs, and the DUP is just the latest manifestation of its ideology. Sadly from a Scottish perspective, pace Phil, the roots of that sectarianism is Scottish, a reaction of a planted protestant underclass from Scotland by English kings who would not have them close to him, but saw fit to have them act as ‘ranger’, native troops raised by the British Army, in his colonies. The crossover is the Rangers mindset. Unfortunately there are few in the Scottish media to call sectarianism by its real name, anti-Irish racism and religious bigotry.
    Linfield, as a club, seem aware of the risks of attempting to defend that persecuted minority, the racist bigots on its terraces, but surely neither Uefa or the SFA will let the Windsor Park incidents go unpunished.
    Meanwhile, for those of us who love football as spectacle, let’s hope for a masterclass from the Hoops next week.
    Keep up the good work!

    Reply
  17. Phil, there was also Banana’s thrown onto the pitch from the same corner, you can see it when Jonny Hayes takes a corner. it was intended for Sinclair.
    Not a thing has been said about it

    Reply
  18. Phil, what you write is thankfully now within general public awareness. Hats off to you for continually beating your own” big drum”on that. Great that it is all out there. I must state however, that I have felt for some time that some of those who follow us from Belfast, can also be classified as anti social, and at best not very endearing.

    Reply
    • I take it that you are referring to the Rangers fans who terrorise all decent people and the staff on the ferries every second week during the football season.

      Reply

Leave a Reply

error: Content is protected !!

Discover more from Phil Mac Giolla Bháin

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading