The match yesterday held at the stadium John Brown played for, no doubt, gave the attendant members of the Fitba Fourth Estate plenty of opportunities to recycle cliches.
It also provided yet another opening to explain the worldview of the Ibrox klanbase.
Why the cinematic creation of Daniel Day-Lewis and Martin Scorsese had a cultural utility function yesterday, as Sevco hosted the club formed by Irish immigrants, is instructive.
Here is mine from 2023 for context.
Ewan Murray in the Guardian deserves two cheers for at least referencing the performance art at Ibrox.
However, he failed to get top marks because he relied on the S Word:
At this point, Ibrox was raucous. Far too much of the racket involved the kind of sectarian trash that Scotland’s football authorities and Rangers themselves have allowed to return due to pitiful inaction. Rangers, now under American ownership, should be working much harder to remove this archaic stain on the club’s reputation.
He is spot on with “pitiful inaction”.
Moreover, as per my previous reporting, discussions have been held between the new owners and fan media influencers regarding a desire for “the club to be perceived differently”.
Yesterday, at two-nil up, I’m told by someone who was there that The Billy Boys was clearly audible.
Singing about a street gang led by a self-identifying fascist who was a member of the Ku Klux Klan safely ticks the racist box.
Always believe people when they reveal themselves.
Especially when they claim to be The People!
That which is cultural is not amenable to reason.
There seems to be something deep in the collective psyche of Fair Caledonia that prevents the basic acknowledgement that a multi-generational Irish community is extant in Scotland.
If the media there could complete that ethnographic baby step, then they would learn a new term to accurately describe the unique selling proposition of the Ibrox match day experience:
Anti-Irish Racism.
When this site started in 2008, I was addressing the emergence of the Famine Song amid UEFA’s ban on the Billy Boys song.
The highest court in Scotland ruled in 2009 that the ditty that mocked the genocidal crime of An Gorta Mór was racist.
Lord Carloway, who heard the appeal of Mr William Walls, with temporary judges Alastair Dunlop QC and Brian Lockhart QC, ruled that the lyrics of the Famine Song were racist.
“They are racist in calling upon people native to Scotland to leave the country because of their racial origins.”
With the Billy Boys ruled out by UEFA in 2006, the poor dears at Ibrox needed another cultural expression to encapsulate their ancient ethnic hatred.
They came up with the Famine Song in 2008, and it was ruled on in 2009.
The reason for the recent adoption of the fictional character Bill Cutting from The Gangs of New York by the Ibrox klanbase shouldn’t be too difficult to grasp.
Indeed, I didn’t think that in 2026 the Fitba Fourth Estate would still need tutoring on this subject.
Unimpressive.
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In a parallel universe, could you imagine the reaction if the line was ‘up to our knees in Jewish blood’ ?
I have noticed that they don’t belt out the ‘German Bombers’ song anymore………but that will be back in the songbook when der Anführer ultimately gets the boot.
I still say ’Build my Gallows High’ is every bit as racist. In that one they want to kill a Fenian before they die! Again, this was belted out early doors and yet again nothing said or done by football authorities or media. That’s quite an item for a bucket list.
It is also historically illiterate as there was no execution of a Loyalist in Ireland in the 20th century.
There is no equivalent, for example of Kevin Barry.
Yes, a totally annoying song sung by the delusional mob. As if they would ever face capital punishment, while the Irish were hanged for the wearing of the green.
4 mins in bb was clearly heard and sung!!
The SFA Know Nothing.