When he scored for Ross County, Regan Charles-Cook was just doing his job in Dingwall.
He Tweeted that he was on the receiving end of “multiple messages of racist abuse”.
I was heartened by the immediate supportive response from his club
Now, I do not think that it would not strain the deductive powers of Dame Cressida Dick to locate the likely culprits.
The circumstantial evidence clearly points to Sevco’s klanbase.
Of course, the ten-year-old club from Ibrox has the same supporters as the one that died in 2012.
Candidly, anyone who doesn’t see that anti-Irish racism is at the core of their collective worldview is probably beyond help in 2022.
The Stenography Corps will be parrot lines like “decent Rangers fans will be outraged”, etc.
The inconvenient truth for the hacks is that this is a subculture that lovingly remembers in song a street gang that was led by a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
Billy Fullerton, their eponymous leader, was also very tight with Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley.
I cannot think of any group of football fans in Britain who have this kind of affection for a street thug who was a self-identifying fascist and member of the KKK.
Therefore, no one should be surprised at the treatment of Regan Charles-Cook today.
This site started in 2008 when The Famine Song had emerged as a response to the fact that UEFA had ruled the Billy Boys to be racist.
The Ibrox klanbase doubled down and invoked the harrowing folk memory of An Gorta Mór to taunt the multi-generational Irish community in Glasgow.
Although The Famine Song was ruled racist by the High Court in 2009, the Stenography Corps still cling to the false equivalence comfort blanket of “sectarianism”.
There is a lesson here for those in the Fitba Fourth Estate who cannot acknowledge the reality of anti-Irish racism within the Ibrox klanbase.
And it is this:
If you are silent about one type of racism, then you implicitly leave habitable space for other variants.
Regan Charles-Cook is a victim of that ongoing journalistic cowardice.
Discover more from Phil Mac Giolla Bháin
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
I can’t understand why the SFA take no action against Rangers when banned songs are blasted out every week. UEFA would take action and SKY should refuse to screen any games!
Alls well with Aaron Ramsay on his way to Ibrox says the headlines.
A coup for the Govan side? He’s hardly kicked a ball for Juve since his arrival a couple of years ago.
I see Rangers have put out a statement saying that they have not driven a horse and cart through their wage structure to sign the player.
If that’s the case, and assuming £35k per week is the current top weekly wage at Ibrox, then that leaves Juve picking up a weekly bill of £365k per week, around £18m per annum for a player plying his trade elsewhere!
Really, though apparently there is a permanent option to buy when the loan period is up.
Aye right, as if a club struggling to put together a few hundred thousand pounds to bring the Hearts centre back in today will be shelling out squillions that they clearly don’t have.
It’s a strange one and no surprise to see that none of the EPL clubs with millions to spend have gone anywhere near it.
Straight into the team for Wednesday night?
Scottish Football was in a better place when the new club was playing against the likes of Brechin,Stirling Albion and Alloa etc. for many reasons. Banter, Schadenfreude, to name a couple but the relative Peace n Quiet was almost tangible.
It may have triggered it, even though I am not actually sure I heard the lyrical and virtual “rattle of Thompson gun” earlier, but when Bitton was receiving his red card, Warren’s Zevon’s eponymous and dandruff-free hero sprang to mind.
“…the CIA decided they wanted Roland dead so that son of a bitch Van Owen blew of Roland’s head”.
I wondered if the SFA decided who to “kill” before the Sevco game on Wednesday and who better than the stand-in Captain.
Just an aside. How many times will Celtic send up both Carter-Vickers and Starfeld for corners before it is realised it is a waste of time and dangerous defensively?
Celtic still don’t do dead-ball situations
Racism everywhere is shocking and needs to be called out and rooted out and eradicated. It will take years but everyone needs to keep pushing. I know several Rangers* fans who have expressed disgust to me at this weekends racial abuse. Thankfully they have also turned their back on the anti-Irish racism …. We need to encourage them as clearly there are tens of thousands of their fans who sing these songs. It will slowly turn. We need to also root it out in the Celtic support.
Good on you Phil. Call out the racists and truth deniers at every opportunity. keep fighting the good fight.
If the Ibrox club leave Celtic Park on Wednesday with zero points and the Hoops move to the top of the table the shit will hit the fan big time in Govan.
GVB is already under the cosh from their fan base with regards to formation and team selection.
Despite the money generated from the sale of the young full back it’s clear that cash is tight thus the haggling with Hearts over the attempt to take Souter in this window.
Hearts will also be looking for any agreed transfer fee up front so that they too could move late in the window to replace the centre half.
However a big improvement on today’s showing will be required to keep the points at Parkhead.
Bring them home Celtic.
Everyone, Anyone indeed…..
Terrific post.
The treatment of Regan Charles-Cook today comes as no surprise. This is an opportunity for Scottish journalism to come of age with their universal voice of condemnation. Why am I not holding my breath?
Utter pondlife . These scumbags should be called out but I’ve yet to see or hear of one of them going to court and getting their just desserts.
It was always ” A big boy did it and ran away “. Racist cowards .
Keep up the good work Phil.
Actually makes me embarrassed to be Scottish
“If you are silent about one type of racism, then you implicitly leave habitable space for other variants.” Seems to me that this is one of those self-evident truths that should be beyond debate these days.
The klan have always, and always will, be racist bigots as long as NO ACTION is taken against the club that skillfully alludes to being non sectarian and non racist.
I wrote to SKY following a game where clearly audible was the singing of the klans favourite song…”THE BILLY BOYS”….
The excuses given where merely that….and I informed them of such in what became several tat-a-tet exchanges of mail.
In the end I asked if SKY who were now aware of the racist chanting, would condemn and offer an apology to viewers who may not be so happy listening to the klans singing which was clearly audible.
They refused…….
The song in question is banned by the high court I believe…..yet is sung and heard on TV etc every ti.e the tribute act plays…today at Dingwall being no exception.
Why has the sports governing body NOT acted on this matter…..and why is the club not acting to bring a stop…..the same club who have DUP man (their only of that)..as their pr supremo.
Fines and then further punishments would end this disgrace….imo
An impressive player, Celtic should certainly be looking at the current top scorer in the country, playing wide !
“Everyracist, Anyracist, WATP!” 🙁