Asking for a Fenian

Yesterday my thoughts turned to someone who was taken too early from us on Planet Fitba.

The irreplaceable Paul McBride QC.

When I was working on the Rangers story in 2011 he was of great help to me in explaining complex legal situations in simple terms.

It was corroboration of Albert Einstein’s observation that “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough”

Paul McBride QC understood a great many things.

There hasn’t been anyone since who has been able to skewer the world-class administrators on the 6^th floor at Hampden with such elan.

In one memorable joust, he observed that the SFA’s legal threat was like “a missing page of a Monty Python sketch”.

It was a withering put down.

The football equivalent would have been to nutmeg the entire defence before stranding their keeper with a dismissively nonchalant Panenka.

Two things got me thinking yesterday about the man who died tragically young at only 48.

I was not surprised last night when the clock struck Statement O Clock.

Clearly, the Sevco High Command had to say something about the absolute trouncing in the High Court.

Paul would have brilliantly dissected the judgement of his learned colleague Lionel Persey QC.

I also thought of him because of this rather bizarre PR stunt at Ibrox yesterday.

I am sure that the decision to launch it just as the fallout from the Ashley court case was bouncing around inside dignified heads like a pinball was entirely coincidental.

When the Paul McBride QC died suddenly while on a trip to Pakistan in March 2012 his death was greeted with malevolent glee across social media by the Ibrox klanbase.

The following year the fine fellows at the Vanguard Bears posted this on Twitter.

You will note that your humble correspondent is also on there.

I’m sure that one day my demise will be similarly noted.

Of course, it would be easier to write about these matters and remain courageously concealed.

Since 2008, when I called out the Famine Song, I have been on the radar of these lovely chaps.

Well, someone had to…

Moreover, it was important that it was a named member of the NUJ.

Also on that “death wall” is the image of my friend and colleague Angela Haggerty. She is someone else who does not cower behind a username.

One of the..ahem…“Rangers Family” was sent to prison in 2013 for threatening Ms Haggerty on the “Rangers Chat” podcast.

Angela had been “Taig of the day” by David Limond.

Within the Ibrox subculture, ” Taig” is their equivalent of the N word and a derogatory term for an Irish Catholic.

Since Limond was imprisoned Angela has been hounded in every job she has held in journalism by the same dignified demographic.

I’m proud that the NUJ has supported her throughout this testing time.

When the Sunday Herald newspaper sacked her as a columnist for backing Graham Spiers my union accused the newspaper of “pandering to the mob”.

She was later re-instated and then made news editor of the Sunday Herald.

Since then the abuse on social media has been unrelenting against this young woman from heroically anonymous chaps.

The officially sanctioned line in the Stenography Corps all of this is the work of a tiny unrepresentative minority and in no way reflects the generality of the Ibrox clientele.

Of course, this narrative does rather fall down when the vast majority of those at Sevco matches can be heard singing about being up to their knees in Fenian blood.

When the Billy Boys song was banned by UEFA in 2006 the Ibrox klanbase were at a loss as to what to do.

For the uninitiated, it fondly remembers a street gang in the inter-war years in Glasgow that was founded and led by the eponymous Billy Fullerton.

He was a self-identifying fascist and a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

Of course, it was the Irish in Glasgow who were the people of colour within Fullerton’s world view.

In 2019 the extremely decent folk at Ibrox still laud his memory.

In 2019…

UEFA’s judgement in 2006 was something of a blow to the Good Ol Boys at Ibrox.

After all just going to watch a football match was no fun if they couldn’t express their hatred for Catholics, particularly Irish Catholics.

So something like the Famine Song was needed.

That was in 2008 just at the time that this site was blog enabled by my tech guy.

I had no idea about what I was about to step into.

It is worth remembering that the racist ditty that mocked the victims of An Gorta Mór was defended as banter by many within the Fitba Fourth Estate.

Thankfully in 2009,  the Famine Song was ruled racist at the High Court in Edinburgh.

The Billy Boys also made a comeback and in 2016 the Sevco’s Stewart Robertson said there worse things that his customers could do at the national stadium.

I think I know what you mean Stewart…

Ten years on from the Famine Song being branded racist the multi-generational Irish community in Glasgow is no longer at the back of the bus.

They are well on their way to building their own monument to those who fled An Gorta Mór and settled on Clydeside.

Moreover, now when anti-Catholic marches pass by Catholic churches in Glasgow there are protests.

I’m told that the Sevco High Command had engaged the services of an outside company to put together the new PR campaign.

I’m told that at a screening of the video some of the more traditional employees were unimpressed with the content.

However, I’m sure that my source is wrong on that.

The very idea that someone at Sevco would harbour prejudices against Irish Catholics in 2019 is stretching it a bit.

No, seriously…

Because of the Ashley case, the basket of assets has been shorn of any real merchandising revenue for the foreseeable future.

The Ibrox klanbase were yesterday on the horns of a dilemma as to whether or not they should still keep buying replica kits.

They do not want to fill the coffers of General Ashley even further.

However, they do love to strut around in the traditional Norweigan Blue of the seven-year-old club.

Sevco is also trying to offload players at fire-sale prices.

Daniel Candeias Exhibit “A”.

Given that financial reality, they now need the klan pound more than ever.

So, how will that square with the new putative inclusivity?

Asking for a Fenian.