When this site started in 2008, the first issue it tackled was a new addition to the Ibrox song sheet.
To the tune of the Beach Boys’ Sloop John B, the Irish of Glasgow were encouraged to go home as the Famine was over.
It was, of course, a mocking reference to An Gorta Mór.
Anyone with the facility of reason could discern that this was xenophobic nativism.
The new ditty was a response to the banning by UEFA in 2006 of their favoured anthem, the Billy Boys.
This shows that the Ibrox klanbase needed some song or chant to vent their hatred of Scotland’s multi-generational Irish community.
What became known as the Famine Song was even discussed on the floor of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
The MEP who raised it, Eoin Ryan, was then invited over to Fair Caledonia for a charm offensive.
I made sure I was there to cover this whitewash exercise for the Irish Post.
At the time, it was clear to me that political Scotland wanted to deny that there was even such a thing as anti-Irish racism.
They were hiding behind the sectarian narrative.
Thankfully that Orwellian fiction is visibly breaking down.
The disorder in George Square last May seems to have been a teachable moment for many in Scotland who had previously turned a blind eye to the true nature of the Ibrox mob.
Now, in 2021, the existence of anti-Irish racism is openly discussed in the Scottish Parliament, usually after yet another shameful display from the Ibrox klanbase.
Of course, it didn’t take the criminal justice system in Scotland very long to realise that the Famine Song was racist.
The year after Eoin Ryan MEP was invited to Scotland to find out how the authorities dealt with this Rorschach stain of sectarianism Mr William Walls was in the High Court in Edinburgh.
He had been a member of the travelling genocide choir to Rugby Park when the original rangers played Kilmarnock.
The local court dealt with his racist outburst and found him guilty as charged.
However, he decided to appeal.
This allowed Lord Carloway and his eminent colleagues to rule on the sentiments contained within the lyrics.
The judgment was damning on the lyrics and, ipso facto, anyone who would sing them:
(Famine Song lyrics) are racist in calling upon people native to Scotland to leave the country because of their racial origins.
During that time, as the site archive will show, I had an ongoing problem with the charity Show Racism the Red Card.
They seemed, at best, reluctant to step up on an issue that was central to their stated goals as an organisation.
Today, the new club that pretends to be the original Rangers has put out a video about their putative origins in the 19th century.
The tune they chose was the same one that accompanies the lyrics of the Famine Song.
Despite the protestations that it refers to another song beloved by the Ibrox crowd, no one in Planet Fitba was buying this.
Journalist Matt Leslie, a Hearts fan, was clear about what the club video was about.
If this is all just a huge misunderstanding, then it must surely be Statement O’Clock at Ibrox before long.
A buddy just sent me this in a DM:
“I wonder how many Sevco people were involved in the chain that scripted, produced and approved this ‘showcase’ piece?”
It’s a very fair question.
However, it is certainly a hit with this dignified chap.
So far today, Show Racism the Red Card has not mentioned this new club video from Sevco.
Others have stepped up though.
Of course, it is one thing for a club to have a delinquent element in their support who indulge in discriminatory chanting and anti-social behaviour.
It is quite another when the official output of the club itself appears to pander to that element.
The problem at Ibrox is that the Genocide Choir is such a large proportion of the overall support.
In 2008 the public face of the case for the Famine Song was Mr David Edgar, then of the Rangers Supporters Trust.
This piece from 2009 by Ewan Murray in the Guardian gives some background to this chap’s career in defending the Ibrox klanbase.
These days he is a podcaster with some rather questionable colleagues.
Just as in 2008, he was out of the blocks as the Famine Siong was back in the news.
Many years ago, an SPL employee stated to me that Martin Bain, the Rangers CEO, had to cope with the reality that up to “half his season ticket holders” indulged in bigoted chanting.
Any reasonable person surveying this PR shit show would be forced to conclude that Ibrox remains a safe space for anti-Irish racism.
In 2021, that isn’t a good look.
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QED
Racism and Bigotry is a top down problem
Cast your mind back to Feb 2019 Rodgers had led us on the way to a third consecutive treble – tthe klan were in their box, no Orange walks (Covid related), hardly a sevco top to be seen on the streets of Glasgow and we were battering them home and away on the park.
We had our foot on their throats in every way possible all we had to do was hire another professional, tactically astute young manager (bear in mind we got £9m in compensation for Brendan !) but no, Celtic in their infinite wisdom took the cheap option.
Fast forward a couple of years later and Lenny had managed to undo all Brendan’s work, the Klan are back loud and proud, strips everywhere, mass gatherings galore etc.
Dermott, Peter and Lenny – that’s your legacy !
SG has won ONE out of the nine trophies available to him and he’s a hero.
Lenny won FIVE out of the seven available to him and he gets pilloried??
I’m not interested in Gerrard.
Rodgers left in place a squad and system that meant whoever came in would be able to keep winning trophies.
Lennon owes those trophies to Brendan’s hard work.
But, but it’s just a minority………
Celtic and the rest of Scottish football had the chance to kill this team off in 2012 or at least lay down stringent terms and rules for the new club playing out of Ibrox Park. They either bottled it or more likely looked the other way for financial reasons. We are now reaping what they sowed, Thanks a lot PL and DD. The new club and the extremists among their support feel more empowered than they have ever been in the history of the original club or the new one.
The fact is that under hate crime legislation the crime itself does not need to be racist in itself it only need to be perceived as racist.
This is a hate crime end of and Police Scotland should be investigating and The Rangers should be getting sanctioned for bringing the game into disrepute.
What a truly ubiquitous sign of desperation the entity created by the big handed south Yorkshire man has become. Wheeling out the tacky and self-defeating is nothing new from this vacuous entity pretending to be relevant, why should we be surprised, we should be looking at this act of ignorance as something to set our watches by, and from where I see things, they are declaring to all that they are in their eleventh hour.
Remembering my father, he said something that really does fit the bill as a reminder to these degenerate illiterates and how defeated they are, I told him of being called a “Fenian bastard” by a local loyalists, he laughed and said, “Don’t to get annoyed, we can’t all be orange ones” How right he was and don’t they know it, but what really makes me laugh is and neither can their own days of old demographic, they just don’t buy it.. This lot are in the last throws of bang the drum…Their days are numbered..
I still cant support the jailing of someone for speech. It is vile but it can’t be illegal. Free speech must be protected.
What are you on about. You can say what you want and call it free speech.
You can’t spout hate speech, threaten someone or racially abuse someone and claim free speech.
You comment is idiotic
A cancer on society.
Tonight’s Clyde Super Scoreboard full of condemnation of UEFA for their judgement on the Prague supporting children and their booing of Glen Kamara. The host and Keevins have decided that the actions of these children amounted to racism without producing any evidence to support their views.
I do not know if the children booing Kamara and co. were acts of racism and neither does Hugh Keevins or Gordon Duncan.
I wonder when they’ll use their show to highlight this blatant disregard for the anti racists message the Ibrox club purport to champion. And the “Up Yours” message the neaderthals are sending out to Scottish football authorities and the Scottish footballing public.
They’re behaving like they are untouchable, it’s time for the football authorities and or the Scottish government took them to task.
I look forward to hearing from you Clyde SSB.
First up…this Club is vile and needs shutting down.
And Bloggers, like Phil, can highlight this “behaviour ” …and we can respond to it and express our disgust and anger…
However…
When organisations like Show Racism the Red Card ( total waste of space btw) stay silent on this kind of issue…
When our FM or appointed Minister stays silent on this kind of issue….
When the SFA stays silent on this kind of issue…
When the Scottish media ( in the main) stays silent on this kind of issue…
And when OUR CLUB stays silent on this kind of issue…
Then it will never go away.
Finally…I also have to remind you that Phil “re-produced ” an article condemning this Club and its support for the exact same thing…from the year 2009.
This is Scotland…and some things will never change….Unless those who can change it…
DO JUST THAT !!
We know why the SFA stay silent on the matter…there’s that wee secret agreement thing hanging over them.
Why has this Document still remained a secret what almost a decade later?
Perhaps someone (some brave MSM hack 🙄) should be pursuing the answer to that question.
We all know that show racism the red card Scotland are not fit for purpose and stealing public money. We’re still waiting for them to comment on the racist abuse Scott Sinclair received from the ibrokes sevconuts yet can’t respond quick enough when a sevco player accuses an opponent of a racist remark and I’m not holding my breath for the Scottish first minister to condemn anything that lot do.
Just as another wee ditty of theirs confirms “ Nobody likes us, we don’t care,we hate Celtic f….”
A puss filled sore on the arse cheek of Scottish Football that really does need lancing.
The still to this day 5 Way (secret) Agreement has however ensured that it never will be.
Well done Dermot,Peter and Company for closing your eyes and zipping your tongues. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
W ⚓️‘S
Phil,
I wonder if Universal Music Group, repertoire owners of the Beach Boys song, were approached by Sevco for permission to include their song in this video. Apparently Universal, being an American company, are very hot on copyright infringement.
I predict another avoidable court case. Picking fights with “everyone, anyone!”
Hail and Hail again!
Its a trad melody. Not The Beach Boys
But funnily enough, despite a trawl of the internet, I can find no reference to the song Four Lads Had A Dream until after the Famine Song was proscribed (unless someone can point me to the provenance that I’ve missed). I think most folk with common sense can see what the agenda might be in setting alternative lyrics to that particular tune and also then using it to celebrate the mythical 150 year history of a club formed in 2012.
Dodgy songs aside…
Any sporting organisation claiming to operate to 21st century standards would simply not have a member club such as the Ibrox club. It just wouldn’t.
The WHOLE of Scottish football is impacted in/directly with every negative action associated with that club.
The Ibrox club is certainly a continuation… of embarrassment and disgrace,
whilst the SFA continues to be the bigger culprit: for looking the other way.
It’s time the other teams in Scottish football refused to play this b**tard offspring. Let them win 3-0 every game for a forfeit – it will get old very quickly. The rest of the teams can play for what we would all know is the real league title.
What worries me in this case and in other similar racist cases from the Ibrox hordes, is the silence emanating from the Scottish Government (with a couple of notable MSP exceptions). The Government really needs to step up to the plate and call this out for what it is or they may find the Scot/Irish vote disappearing elsewhere. Why the silence? Maybe they believe they can covert the hard line unionists among the Ibrox support to the independence cause – good luck with that one Nicola.
Queen’s Park was Scotland’s first football club, founded in 1867. It is the oldest existing football club outside England.
“We were here before everyone else”
There cannot be any denial when challenged, that this line as they would claim is referring to their club been the first before the rest, when in fact any one with half a brain could decipher i that it is about something else, that something been their hatred for the Irish and Catholics of the City.
Going by their forums, they seem to be caught between enjoying the club sneaking ‘The Famine Song’ into the advert, or claiming it to be either ‘The Sloop John B’ or a song called ‘Four Lads had a Dream’.
I’d never heard of the latter, and it seems that many of their own support hadn’t either.
A wee Google search showed that the song was published in 2012. I’ve little doubt that this would have been as a deliberate response to ‘The Famine Song’ being banned.
The whole advert is filled with racist double entendres.
“We were here before everyone else”, “Glasgow is our city” all to the tune of ‘The Famine Song.
They really are a sad and pathetic bunch