I have often noticed that anytime the repertoire of the Ibrox klanbase is mentioned, there is an almost uniform response from the Stenography Corps.
A critical component is that there is a certain automaticity to these gatherings.
That the klan is, in a sense, Pavlovian with the stimulus being part of the crowd watching their team.
When that happens then, the racist cultural products get an airing.
Consequently, there is nothing to be done, and there is no point in constantly reporting it.
It always happens; it is diner bites dinner.
It’s what is what’s expected.
Therefore, it isn’t newsworthy.
The one thing that invalidates that shaky thesis is when the Ibrox club are in European action.
Today I received an email from the media folk at UEFA.
As an accredited journalist with that organisation, I can ask them questions.
After the match against Braga at Ibrox, I enquired about whether or not the match delegate had recorded any instances of discriminatory chanting from the crowd.
I was informed today that there were no such incidents reported.
Compare and contrast then with what went down at Hampden with exactly the same set of fans.
On Sunday, they received a police escort to the national stadium as they belted out songs with racist content.
Collectively they know that the Scottish Football Association, unlike UEFA, will not take any action against them no matter what is sung.
If you reward bad behaviour by inaction, then expect to get more of it.
It’s almost as if in the cultural bloodstream of Fair Caledonia there’s a tacit toleration of anti-Irish racism.
Not a good look.
Discover more from Phil Mac Giolla Bháin
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Both set of songs are a disgrace. They belong nowhere near a football stadium.
The only way left to deal with this issue… and highlight it both in and outside of Scotland is to take action when it happens…
We all know how much the media live this derby game and love just as much to hype it up… but the racist songbook goes unnoticed and uncommented on so the wider audience is oblivious.
We need Celtic to take action the moment this stuff gets sung and to call the whole team off the pitch.
It might seem drastic but when your own football authorities won’t take action then there’s little options left.
The instant media attention regarding exactly why the players left the pitch would be not only impossible to avoid… but would be highlighted in detail to the very global audience that the authorities want, not only to be watching the OF sham… but to keep ignorant of what’s going on.
The immediate attention would be ‘off the radar’ as non-sports media would catch on to the story and gain further attention. It may have repercussions for Celtic in terns of the match outcome… but would be a small sacrifice to highlight the realities beyond the silent vacuum of Scottish football. I’d suspect any punishment could easily be contested as we are talking about behaviour that uefa won’t tolerate… yet the SFA and spfl WILL.
There would simply be no way that the SFA and spfl could avoid the issue … nor would the Scottish government. A spotlight would also fall on Sevco and exactly what their ‘raison d’etre’ as an institution really is.
I’m not a shareholder… but if I was I would be at the next AGM lobbying for direct action from now on. Celtic plc owe it to their support.
It is staggering in this day and age of equality that Police Scotland give a racist mob an escort to the football .
The same Police Scotland who have form for this .
And stood back and watched the destruction of George SQ.
Why are our football authorities and government allowing this .
Come the Queens Jubilee we are seeing thousands march through princes st in Edinburgh under the guise of celebrating the jubilee.When it will be no more than a march of supremacy and hate .
That is unionism for you .
Stuck in the dark ages and an embarrassment to Scotland.
After the ridiculoiusly biased display of refereeing we were up against YET AGAIN, and then to top it off, the referee trolls the Celtic board with his tweet afterwards, Because it may have been aimed at the Celtic support, but it actually targets the board, because they are the only ones who can address it, and Celtic YET AGAIN accept it – id have thought that the board was failing in its duties to the shareholders, allowing us to be litterally kicked out of the SC.and the financial implications that go along with that – Until Celtic start to take this seriously, and stand up for our club and do it publicly, nothing is going to change, and the SFA will continue to do at it does.
HH
Our own songbook wasn’t exactly above reproach, for the Boys of the Old Brigade and Off to Dublin in the Green are not Celtic songs and only serve to balance the sectarian argument in most people’s eyes, and that is why we are continually judged by the statement that one side is as bad as the other. We cannot point the finger at THEM while singing political songs ourselves, They might not be banned songs but they nevertheless do get under peoples skins who do not embrace our political views. As long as we do this we are only encouraging them to express their hatred and do what they love doing.
Sorry but you can’t conflate fine songs like these with the bile pouring out of the Mount Florida end at Hampden (and anywhere else they show up).
You’re obviously entitled to your opinion about sticking solely to Celtic songs, but singing The Boys of the Old Brigade in no way justifies the racist chanting we’re routinely subjected to by the Sevco hordes.
I partly agree with your sentiments JD and I do indeed love the songs mentioned, they are part of my upbringing and my being. in fact I whistle and sing them at every opportunity. However others don’t think the way we do and as long as we sing about the IRA at football matches we are attracting unwanted criticism and in doing so we are, to a degree, also letting them off the hook. A football ground is not the place to air our political views and at 70 years of age it has taken me a very long time to appreciate that. Supporting Celtic FC should be our only concern when watching our team, not singing about Ireland’s heroes, we are just giving them food for fodder.
I take your point, and in fairness difficult to disagree with what you say, Johnny.
I just find it very difficult to stomach the fact that the SMSM and ‘Old Firm’ think they can equate songs like these, that tell a real story, with their mix of racist and sectarian bile, not to mention their weaponising of child abuse, of all things.
Please keep whistling and singing whenever you see fit!
JD
You absolutely can conflate the two. Because that’s what people do, either through ignorance or as a willing act. The original point was that there are those who will use these songs as an argument that “one’s as bad as the other.” You cannot deny that this is true, no matter how wrong their view is. But it’s such low hanging fruit. Knock them on the head for a few weeks and suddenly only one side will be in question. It’s not rocket science. Celtic fans need to swallow their pride over this. Stubborn refusal to make allowances for the fact most people in Scotland neither know or care about the nuances is akin to getting frustrated by playing chess with a pigeon.
I understand where Johhny is coming from, JD. The media use the singing of songs of Irish independence to wrongly equate with the racist and sectarian muck from the ‘Genocide Choir’ songbook – to quote Phil.
In one of their songs they yearn to ‘kill a Catholic before they die’! I assume it’s a Catholic of any nationality, not just Irish since they haven’t declared a preference.
That’s what we are up against. That’s what the SFA and SPFL tolerate and more shamefully, it’s what our board tolerates also.
There are sometimes a few ‘eff the queen’s’ and ‘orange b’ add on’s in the Green Brigade’s repertoire which doesn’t help.
As for Irish independence songs getting ‘under their skin’, well, they shouldn’t have invaded Ireland and sparked 800 years of brutality and oppression.
These add on’s were about long before the Green Brigade.
Keep at them Phil
TAL
Phil,
Have you made the same enquiry with the SFA about Sundays song sheet?
Would be interesting to know their response
My old dad, a bit like myself, could be a right pessimist at times. He’s been dead the best part of forty years but once, about ten years before he died, we were talking about this very subject. And I think his words were more prophetic than pessimistic.
“They’ll still be the same after I’m gone, you’re gone, your children are gone and your children’s children are gone.”
As you once said Phil, the trailer trash of a dead empire.