Well, that’s that then.
How was 2019 for you?
As is usual here I try and do a review of my year and it is by necessity a long read.
Note this is MY 2019 and how it was for me.
So the usual caveats are in place.
Moreover, it is a look back and inevitably there will be something significant that I will miss.
So with that subjectivity health warning in place then I will begin.
The year started with this fella being dad taxi for Baby Doctor.
It was her rural GP placement and she got one in Dún na nGall.
As usual, the family ciotóg was quietly amazing and the folk at the practice in east Donegal really took to her.
It did allow her oul da to marvel at the madness of the Border and where it had been dropped on us by Lloyd George et al.
In February the man who had stated on the turf at Hampden that he “had been born into Celtic” found out that he was adopted and he really belonged to Leicester.
With Brendan Rodgers, gone things could have gone south very quickly.
Overnight Celtic had lost a highly competent backroom team.
Cometh the hour…
Up stepped Neil Francis Lennon and the ship was steadied.
He had barely enough time to introduce himself to the squad when Celtic had to travel to Tynecastle for a league match.
In April Irish journalism lost a star and I lost a dear friend.
Her name was Lyra.
In the immediate aftermath of her murder the Dissidents faced the anger of a risen people in Derry.
Lyra’s McKee’s heartbroken partner Sara likened those who had put the gun into the hand of Lyra’s killer to paedophiles who groom children.
As I wrote at the time, those who took Lyra McKee from us have nothing positive to offer the people of this island.
Apart from providing work experience for MI5, I fail to see what purpose they serve.
This is not 1920 or 1980.
They are wedded to outdated means and have no genuine concern with the end.
Consequently, they should just go away.
Ironically in the same month, my play dealing with our revolutionary past was once more on the boards in Glasgow.
The fine folk at Sweet For Addicts smashed it again.
Their production of “Rebellion” brought this favourable review from Joyce McMillan.
A certain date in May will always be special for Celtic.
Once more on the 25th of that month, the Hoops had an appointment with history.
The Treble Treble was at stake and the Armagh man got the team he inherited over the line in a nervy cup final against a dogged Hearts team.
It is was a remarkable achievement for the club which was founded to feed the poor of the East End.
Open to all from the start it just keeps making history.
The people in charge of Celtic had the good sense to offer Neil Lennon the job on a permanent basis.
Your humble correspondent cheered the appointment but there were begrudgers who thought it a Poundland appointment.
In the summer transfer window Lennon got some new recruits in as well and an old comrade and the Great Wall was re-installed at Parkhead.
He wasn’t in goal when Celtic leaked four goals in a crucial Champions League qualifier against Dan Petrescu’s Cluj.
It was a financial disaster for Celtic and the anti-Lennon faction seized their moment.
However, the people who mind the money tree at Parkhead had banked £25m from the sale of the Bhoy with the megaphone.
His replacement at left-back had a very shaky start, he still seems accident-prone on occasions.
However, Boli Bolingoli appears to have become a cult hero with some of the fans.
However, it was a development player signed from Citeh for the equivalent of a petty cash voucher that has stolen hearts at Parkhead.
Oh my days!
The result yesterday showed that Sevco will provide cut-throat competition in the second half of the season.
Consequently, the people who appointed Neil Lennon back in May should back his judgement in the January window.
It would be a tall order to adequately adumbrate the entire Sevco shitshow in a single piece.
If I was to condense in two works it would be “Dave King”.
Through ought the year the Convict Chairman dragged the basket of assets through the courts with Sports Direct.
The Sevco car boot sale was a King connection and was always going to lead to expensive litigation and so it has proved to be.
For the avoidance of doubt, General Ashley was always victorious. In the various legal fixtures throughout the year.
He next court date is scheduled for January.
For the avoidance of doubt, Big Mike wants his money!
In October the Takeover Panel ruled that the Johannesburg based convicted criminal should be “Cold Shouldered” for his conduct in the Off Licence Putsch of 2015.
This is a very serious and rarely used sanction.
The Fitba Fourth estate did their best to soothe their dignified demographic that it was no biggie.
It is…
Of course, in 2019 Sevco failed to win any silverware.
The Stenography Corps did their obedient best to sooth the Ibrox klanbase throughout the year.
However, the League Cup Final at the start of this month will hurt them for a long time.
When the final whistle was sounded on the Great Wall’s finest hour the pain in the press box was palpable.
It was not the “Old Firm” result that they wanted.
The poor dears…
Of course, Sevco’s victory over Celtic yesterday will make their soothing duties a bit more Bearable for the foreseeable future.
In 2019 there was no other political in these conjoined islands but Brexit.
The Westminster Parliament became the set of a new Muppet movie and the term “indicative vote” was shorthand for chaos.
As a politics undergraduate over 40 years ago in an English university I wrote in an essay that the British polity was a recipe for confusion and deadlock.
My dusty old Scottish professor marked it down and said that I did not “appreciate the subtle genius of Britain’s unwritten constitution”.
Ah well…
Speaker John Bercow seemed to have read my essay and he papered to making up procedure on the hoof.
At the start of the year, the DUP from Norn Iron held the balance of power in Westminster.
Their confidence and supply arrangement kept Theresa May’s minority administration in government.
When Boris took over he decided that the only way out of the Backstop conundrum was to opt for the original offer from Brussels.
This means a trade border in the Irish Sea between the Six Counties and Britain.
As British as Finchley?
Don’t think so.
As ever, geography is destiny.
Sadly that is something that the Fleg volk do not appear to appreciate.
When Boris met Leo on Liverpool the DUP were thrown under the big red Brexit bus.
The British Prime Minister and his inner council tried various ways to get around a remainer parliament.
In the end, he needed a new crop of MPs that would do his bidding.
Dominic Cummins and his Facebook Fusiliers delivered rock-solid Labour constituencies into the Tory fold.
It was a remarkable victory based on Orwellian lies skilfully disseminated to the desperate and the left behind of post-industrial England.
Scotland now has ONE Labour MP.
Ms Sturgeon has stated that the success of the SNP in the UK general election is a mandate for a second independence referendum.
She announced her intention to ask the permission of the British government for the powers to hold IndyRef 2.
To ask the permission of the British government…
Scotland the brave?
This is a far off country of which I know little.
The UK will now formally leave the European Union at the end of January 2020.
Boris and Brussels have then got only 12 months to put together a comprehensive trade deal.
The Brits might be leaving Europe, but your humble correspondent most certainly is not.
In June I was wearing the green jersey at the European Writers Council in Riga.
It was a very successful AGM with a new committee was elected.
The grá that our European brothers and sisters have for the writers of this little island was humbling.
We certainly punch above our weight in matters literary.
Throughout this year I have been working on the sequel to The Squad.
All being well you will see the result in 2020.
2019 was, in the end, a good year for the beautiful game here in Ireland.
Thanks to brilliantly dogged journalism from Mark Tighe at the Sunday Times it was time up for John Delaney’s reign of error at the FAI.
It just shows what a functioning Fourth Estate can do to right the wrongs of a governing body.
The chaps on the 6th floor at Hampden should be very grateful that they only have to deal with the Stenography Corps.
It was also the year when the Resolution 12 guys came back to the Celtic AGM.
I think that the original requisitioners are now clear that those in the boardroom at Parkhead do not seem to be too bothered that the club was effectively cheated out of UEFA revenue in season 2011-2012.
I can only imagine what the Bunnet would have done with all of this.
In 2019 the Celtic Family lost two of our most cherished sons.
I can still see that flickering black and white moving picture show in our front room in Baillieston on the 25th May 1967.
That goal from Stevie Chalmers was a product of pure, beautiful inventive football.
Cesar lifting the Big Cup in Stadio Nacional remains an iconic image that towers above all of Planet Fitba.
My TV moment of the year was the self-inflicted implosion of Andrew Windsor.
A member of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha he thought the interview with the BBC’s Emily Maitliss had gone spiffingly well.
The British deference to this celebrity feudalism continues to baffle me.
Your humble correspondent gets to elect his head of state.
My book of the year was the updated Hunger Strike reflections edited by Danny Morrison.
Originally published on the 25th anniversary of the strike in 2019 a new version was published with many new contributions.
You can read my review here.
My movie of the year was the Irishman.
Martin Scorsese in flying form with De Niro, Pacino and Pesci.
Houses were painted.
Family is important.
Family is everything.
As I was finalising this piece Number One Daughter manoeuvred her Cailínmobile out of the driveway.
It was great to have her here for Christmas.
Madame Rusty doesn’t get all of this human stuff and she retreated to her bed in abject sadness at the departure of her bestie.
Thick as thieves those two.
We still have Baby Doctor for another couple of weeks.
She’s on the couch revising doctory stuff for exams in January.
The mother and I are currently relying on Instagram to keep up with the Big Fella’s Asian travelogue.
He and his gal spent Christmas cycling in Taiwan.
The plan is to have him home just before Patrick’s Day.
Dear reader, I hope that 2019 was kind to you and yours and 2020 will also see the universe cutting you a break.
It is that time of year when you thank folk for any kindness that they have shown you in the previous twelve months.
My tech guy occasionally reminds me that the considerable traffic to this site is made up of people who return time after time.
To all of ye go raibh míle maith agaibh!
See you next year.
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The country of which you say you know little is the home of the football club you write about on a daily basis. Your magnum opus is a pathological rant about the second largest football club in Scotland. Further, you frequently make reference in your articles to Scottish realpolitik and how it relates to both clubs. You really are an embarrassing, inverted snob. The raison d’etre of this post, along with everything else you write, is to remind us (as if anyone could ever forget) that you decided at some point in your life to go and live in the ‘gal – and that you’re still there now. You need to let go of it, and in the process, stop impliedly denigrating those of us here. You’re not special!
Phil,
If I may I’d like to wish you and yours the very best for the coming year.
I imagine it ‘ll be every bit as fascinating as the one just finishing and your blog was a great read as always.
Some of the comments above were frankly embarrasing for those who made them and very revealing of a particular mindset which is firmly rooted in a previous century (the 17th).
As this island moves forward and the discussion and debate gathers pace, I know that change is upon us and i really hope that all our people, of whatever views and perspectives, feel comfortable being a real part of shaping our future.
I’m aware that fear of change is a powerful motivator for some – for many of us though, it provides a real opportunity to make a better place for ourselves, those close to us and indeed for all sectors of society.
Athbhliain faoi mhaise duit!
Happy new year to you and your family Phil, some people making critical comments on this site don’t seem to grasp what having pride in our families means.
I’ve just telephoned my Uncle Hector in Colombia to ask him about the throat slitting gesture used by Moreorless.
He told me he has seen the footage and translated from Colombian into Glesca parlance he says it means…
” See you lavvy heid…you’re gettin’ it.”
That should clear that up then.
Happy New Year to you and the family Phil and to my fellow inhabitants of the comments section. An advisory note that New Years Day is also my birthday, so if any spare tenners are floating around, I thank you all in advance. Here’s hoping humour and understanding makes a come back this year and decade and of course that Mr Lawwell backs Neil Lennon in the January window, with a instinctive poacher, right winger to breathe down Forrests neck, centre back to keep Ajer and Julien on their toes a playmaking midfield general and for Rogic to make a storming comeback to help clinch 9IAR.
Have a great day Marty
god bless you and your family brother and all the best for 2020 x
I am no fan of sevco and think their demise would have been enormously beneficial to Scottish football and Scottish society.
However two things:
1.The existence of Rangers and old firm is of more benefit to Celtic than any other club in Scotland. (Peter Lowell)
2. The love for Mike Ashley perpetrated on this site is sickening to anyone with a social conscience. He is an exploiter of other human beings regardless of religion and should be condemned as such.
By Bigging Mike Ashley up you diminish yourself Phil?
Just read an article published by the Daily Mail last year congratulating Morelos on his season breaking record as he notched up 5 red cards overtaking Ramos 4 card previous record at Real Madrid.
Can”t see the Daily Record or Evening Times running with such a headline, not in a trillion years.
No surprise to see Rangers play the race card to switch attention from the Colombian man/child who has managed to amass 7 red cards in 18 months.
It should have been more if the refs were doing their job properly.
This must be some kind of record for Scotland’s premier league but no chance of the MSSM running with that story.
No one around me abused Morelos because of his colour but because of his antics as he threw himself to the ground at will whilst peeking up to see if he had done a job on the officials.
He’s once again not managed a goal against Celtic and any scout watching him at the weekend won’t he rushing back to prospective buyers with a must buy this boy now message.
He cannot control his discipline and never will.
I trust there is some topping up procedures for serial offenders who get themselves sent off twice in three games?
What I find strange on this page, is the denial that the gap between Celtic and Sevco was closing. No warning, no rational thinking at all. While just about every other Celtic supporter knew it, felt it. Journalism is about telling the truth. Not following the general narrative. Would be good to see it more often here, as well as elsewhere. Hail, hail.
When is Patrick’s day? Never heard of it before
All the best to you and your family for 2020! May the next year be kind to us all.
Phil, I too wish you and yours a happy and Holy New Year and please keep up the blogs.
And to you and yours Joseph
You really are an arsehole.
And some of the stuff you print on here is utterly cringeworthy. Baby doctor, Davos for Geeks, to name but two of the gems you regularly regurgitate on here.
Get a hold of yourself gasúr, you are coming across as an Amádán, or should that be Poll tóine an amádáín, mar a deir muid anseo i dTír Chonaill.
I’ll 2 nd that motion.
I have to agree, Phil may be a good Celtic supporter, but I also cringe at his terminology that tells so much about his limited views and hates of anything he sees as not being in line with his way of thinking. Now of course after the lost to the sevco, he changes again, and while I hated to lose to the cheats, it will be a blessing, in so much as a wake up call, as we were getting too lackadaisical in our approach.
You could always not read Phil’s stuff. Just a thought.
Thats right I could do that but I like to read all things and form my own opinion and expect others to do the same, I know that the left wing loonys dont like that, they want you to agree with there way and if not then keep quiet,
Not this Tim, Hail Hail and God bless and keep all people of goodwill safe and secure this year of our Lord 2020.
Socialism has been under attack for decades in this Country.
Neoliberal Capitalism has spread like a cancer in the minds of many it is a controlled sickness that needs cutting out.
Fairness,equality and compassion have been replaced with greed,inequality and self preservation.
Mind you don’t choke on that fillet steak or drown on that £20 bottle of wine.
Meanwhile the que for the Foodbanks grow steadily longer.
We now have a Narcissistic lunatic in charge for the foreseeable future.
Take a bow and pat yersel on the back.
Bravo 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Ah Yes Socialism, never known a socialist country or government to be long lasting, of course blame everyone else for your failures and squeal every time someone is successful, I used to think like you, but I eventually realized that its socialism that wants people to be poor and downtrodden, and feeling victimized, after all if everyone was successful in their financial life and did not need the so called socialist squealers to keep telling them that its the big bad capitalists fault, then they would have no need to vote for headbangers like corbyn or that nut job and liar and hypocrite diane abbott,,
HAIL HAIL COYBIG
Scotland got the government of its choosing, no good squealing about Boris after al even though the Scots knew that they would not get the government of their choice if the tories won as so ofter happens, they the Scots did not want independence, Now of course like wee babies they squeal, after voting no to being their own bosses, so all i can say to those who moan about fairness equality and compassion, you had your chance, and shat it as a country, Oh and if it was a Socialist country you would not even been given the vote. lets face without mother england, you are too scared to go on your own, then you would have no one to squeal and blame.
I may be wrong but I believe both the Kent and Morelos gestures were referring to the fact that Celtic had just committed suicide, by gun and blade, respectively and if so, they are not wrong. You say Big Mike wants his money, but if I may, I see the Sports Direct judgement being put back, by Persey, until after the league is finished, allowing Sevco their chance and if truth be told their only concern. King claimed he would be still be involved with Rangers Retail and I see it going down like this. Big Mike, seeing a chance to milk a revived fan base, forgoes any future damages in lieu of a new brutal deal with King stepping down, thereby, allowing King to retire with grace, I know, and the media to declare victory now he has had the court judgement for compensation “dismissed”.
Phil…May I wish you and your family and all the good folk who contribute to your Blog…A Happy, Healthy, Prosperous and Peaceful New Year.