Union Bears in crisis! The Rangers fans split over violent sectarian idiocy ahead of Celtic match

Several fans of The Rangers have hit back at the 'open goal' flyer while others blame (this) 'Taig website' 

Scanning social media to cobble together online posts as some sort of news story is both the epitome of lazy journalism and typical of the modern media.

However, a Google search led me to stumble onto the FollowFollow (FF) discussion of the Union Bears flyer inciting sectarian violence.

(Confession: Yes, I occasionally used to log in to laugh at the delusional expectations or disproportionate reaction to disappointments. It was a guilty pleasure that I weaned myself off.)

For those who don't know FF, it was once the staunchest of all opinion-formers for Rangers fans and the Scottish mainstream media.

Now that “former” is more accurately applied to the club that once played out of Ibrox  – and other forms of social media reign supreme – the old site run by Mark Dingwall (a sort of Jim Traynor with reduced charm) has seen its influence wane.

However, FF would still be considered a hotbed of the most extreme reactionary Ibrox-related opinion to be found on social media.

So responses to the Union Bears flyer on its forum have been interesting.

Yes, many are echoing their post on Friday claiming victimisation with a defiant “No surrender”.

Some are even blaming this “Taig website” for publishing the story on Wednesday.

But numerous others have declared the flyer a massive own goal that will finally end cooperation between The Rangers FC and the fans' would-be Ultras (or perhaps more appropriately, “Ultras”).

With apologies to the FF posters here, who will almost certainly be declared “Timposters” due to being quoted here, the range of replies is revealing.

SuperA: “While  I love what the UB do I did think the leaflet was going to draw unwanted attention.”

BroomloanWATP: “Call me a handwringer all you want but the second I saw the word "fenian" on that flyer I knew this would happen. “

Wilkinsvolley: “That’ll be us boxing clever again.”

The Crimson King: “We could spend 10 pages agreeing with each other over the real meaning of the word, and the waste of police resources, but come on, the UBs have to be a bit smarter than sticking 'March against the fenians' on a bloody poster in modern Scotland.”

Papa Smurf: “Regardless of the lack of a level playing field, it's a bloody rediculous [sic] flier. What on earth did the creator expect.

Does not show anyone in a good light.”

arnietac1: “Unless someone can explain the mindset behind this then all I see as an Auld timer is a cluster %^*& of an own goal here.”

Herbie53: “UB should have anticipated this being the response, bit naive of them to use that word so openly, an unnecessary “own goal” it seems like.”

HCMC_Loyal: “As others have stated...a massive own goal. Hopefully it goes off without incident and the only thing the press can report after the game is a magnificent home win.”

Gattuso72: “What do you expect from a group who will spend a large majority of the game singing about religion/Irish terrorists then wondering why nobody else is joining in.

“IMO they make it impossible for the clubs board to support them in anyway.

“You can see why the club are so reluctant to safe standing if it’s the UB who take centre stage.

“I await the accusations of ‘imposter’ etc. but in reality I’m just a bear who thinks these guys could/should be doing much more to promote our club in a better light.

“You’ve got the platform. Let’s try not to be like our ugly neighbours.”

Buffallo72: “Another example of our obsession with them. If the GB had made a flyer showing a bear being kicked with the H word their would be uproar. Yet another example of so called fans damaging the clubs [reputation]. I’m sure there will be plenty of bears with young kids who will avoid this like the plague. I await the many videos uploaded to social media showing loads of wee guys dressed in black singing the ‘Tiffany’ song among others. A march to celebrate our great club now why not do that? Celebrating late great players like D for example? Or is all that just a bit too leftfield because it doesn’t mention them? Saw a video of Porto and Basel fans doing this and it looked great. Pity we couldn’t lose our baggage for once on this.”

Tommyhlrsc: “So a Taig website [this blog] asks this morning for the Polis to take the boys of the UB's to task?....The puppets that run Police Scotland do exactly that....Tail wagging the dug right enough.

“Wolf Tone was a Fenian, folk in Scotland not allowed to say that now?”

We'll leave the last word from FF to Southpaws:

“F*ck sake! Have the ‘union’ bears been living under a rock for the past twenty years? Of course a banner with the word ‘fenian’ and the depiction of a knuckle dragging Neanderthal kicking a [Celtic] fan on the ground was going to bring huge condemnation.

“I would imagine more than one complaint was made to police Scotland. Just as the club is beginning to get its act together on the pitch an element of its support is dragging its good name once more through the mud with this sectarian sh*t.

“Rangers is a football club and not a religious or political organisation with a support, the majority of which is happy to have moved on from the religious baggage which had previously demonised and damaged the clubs reputation.

“Sadly there is still a sizeable minority bent on pushing their own agenda of [ignorance] and intolerance more akin to their upbringing and lack of a desire to put Rangers FC first and foremost in their actions.

“The whatabootery is just plain facile, since when did we take our behavioural cues from the ‘beast from the east’? Rangers F.C. does not operate nor play to the base standards of that club, nor should its supporters. Rangers songs and Rangers songs only should by sung at our games, barring perhaps GSTQ and rule Britannia.

“Enough is enough, if you want to protest religion, politics, eulogise the death of Bobby sands or any such totally unrelated to football and therefore Rangers FC. Why not try and find the correct platform to so do and spare the rest of us from your outdated and bigoted repertoire.”

The messages above are highly selective. There are numerous others praising the Union Bears, insisting that they will attend the march and using the kid of bigoted, racist language that has become associated with fans of clubs based at Ibrox Park.

As I said in my last post on this blog, this story is not yet finished.

None of the posters on FollowFollow expressed even the slightest sympathy with Celtic and that is absolutely fair. We don't expect compliments from our rivals.

But it is clear to see that the actions of the Union Bears have created a schism in the ranks of The Rangers, which could only be a good thing.

Maybe those calling for decency, 21st-century tolerance and common sense will eventually win the day.

With the support of The Rangers Football Club and the Scottish Football Association, the club might one day be defined, not by its hatred of all things Celtic, Catholic or Irish, but by its football.

We patiently await that day.
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Song for a Glasgow University chaplain

O Paddy dear, an' did ye hear the news that's goin' round?
A Chaplain would ban Athenry from every football ground;
Of Irish times no more we'll sing, and love for her must die,
For we must respect his hatred of the Fields of Athenry.

O I met with Stuart MacQuarrie, and he shook his fist and said:
“I will not raise a Christian prayer for Irish starved of bread,
“I will not hear them remembered; their strife’s of no account,
“For the gods I follow-follow are the Rangers and the Crown.”

Is it such a crime to sing of times when love was lost and torn?
Can you only hear of famine when you send the Irish home?
And at Glasgow University, how little they have learned,
For death united Christians as they prayed and as they yearned.

When a law can banish lost love’s pain or hungry children’s tears,
And when lies change our history or memories of the years
Then my own voice will silenced, a vow I’ll keep until I die,
But 'till then I’ll sing of Celtic and the Fields of Athenry.

• James MacMillan: The Fields of Athenry is a song of love, not hate
• Phil Mac Giolla Bhain: Scottish clergyman attacks Irish love song as “racist”
• Herald Letters: Fields of Athenry is just an Irish ballad
• Glasgow University: Protestant trust stirs sectarian debate
• Pete St John: The Fields of Athenry
  
  
  
  
  

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Cheap shots and dirty tricks in vain as hamstrung team beats club on its knees

We should have known something was in the air. Indeed, we would have been warned had we been the sort of people to buy the Daily Record: Incorporating the Rangers News.

As the worst paper in Scotland heading further into decline, the Record is the ideal vessel as the tabloid of choice for Rangers. However, even by its low standards, choosing the morning of a game against the Scottish Champions to announce David Murray’s team of all-time Rangers greats was questionable. The content of that list pointed at a man transparently desperate to regain popularity with the lowest form of his club’s fans.

Conveying a bizarre message that he intended to pick only players who “knew what the club was about”, Murray therefore confined himself to Protestant Scots, scorning the contributions of the likes of Brian Laudrup, Mark Hately, Paul Gascoigne, Ray Wilkins, Trevor Steven and even Terry Butcher. (His man at the Evening Times surprisingly got a mention).

He began by declaring that Andy Goram, a known associate of terrorists and other gangsters, recently quoted as having boasted about his racial and sectarian abuse of Pierre Van Hoydonk, a notorious debauched drunk and incorrigible gambler was “a great character, … the best we’ve ever seen”. (Presumably a role model for young Rangers fans).

In case you need reminding, this is the same Rangers Chairman who celebrated his 20 years wreckage of the club by insisting that he acts with “dignity”.

So much for the value of the Record-Rangers alliance – they thinking they’re helping Murray but in fact are only giving him a platform to make an even bigger fool of himself and stripping him of every last shred of credibility in the process.

By the time the teams left the tunnel, it was clear that Murray would do anything to regain that respect that others understand as notoriety. Long ago, when he still occasionally bemoaned the “FTP brigade”, however unconvincingly (he never mentioned Donald Findlay by name, after all), Murray admitted that he had to stop playing the Tina Turner number, “Simply the Best”, because his supporters insisted of shoe-horning “F--- the Pope and the IRA” into their rendition.

On Saturday, however, the strains of the song – and the sectarian abuse that goes with it – were again heard echoing around the stadium. Already, we had some indication that Murray policy at Ibrox is dangerously close to being dictated by the kind of supporters groups usually noted for their fondness of Nazi salutes.

On the pitch, there was something more sinister. There has again been criticism of the Ibrox pitch, with the suggestion that the grass had been watered on the coldest day of the year and the undersoil heating “not working properly”. This is clearly a farcical euphemism. Every time a better team plays at Ibrox – that means every time Celtic play there – the pitch, once described by Murray as one of any football club’s most valuable assets – seems to be in any condition from atrocious to dangerous.

Only a very friendly press and Scottish football administration would continually ignore the fact that this has been a deliberate ploy to frustrate superior teams.

They do have form for this, after all. As far back as their European tie with Dynamo Kiev, Rangers illegally narrowed the pitch between Dynamo training on it and the start of the match. Before their tie with Marseille, the pitch was mysteriously flooded. When they are forced to do so in order to play a team seriously hampered by injuries, it makes clear just how desperate their sense of inferiority has made them.

As usual in the game, the match was notable for the Rangers culture of cheating and dirty tricks – apparently the only speciality of the Walter Smith-Ally McCoist coaching partnership. From Kirk Broadfoot throwing Artur Boruc into the net to Celtic reject Kenny Miller’s diving, it was clear that this was to be a day for winning by unfair means or foul.

Having controlled the ball with his hand before diving outside the box to see his Scotland team-mate Gary Calwell booked, Miller screamed at the referee, apparently believing that his cheating merited a penalty. In doing so, he merely further illustrated that bitterness and second-rate football is now the order of the day at Ibrox and that he is better suited to Rangers than Celtic.

However, in contrast to his last outing against Scotland’s top team, when he seemed to celebrate scoring by shouting “We are the f---ing peepul”, at least his form in front of goal showed that he didn’t discriminate when it came to missing chances. It is unlikely that a Premiership club will be pursuing him this season.

The highlight of the match was, of course, the perfect Celtic goal. Brilliance by Scott McDonald, helped by Georgios Samaras, against a backdrop of Kirk Broadfoot defending. McDonald has shown in recent weeks that a player can work his way through periods of poor form and looks ready to find a goal-scoring streak.

There were several outstanding performances but none more so that Scott Brown. Those who think that Brown must be a defensive or “nullifying” midfielder because he makes a lot of tackles are to be pitied. You will rarely see such a compilation of aggressive energy and attacking instincts in any one player and Brown is an asset far too precious to be allowed to leave.

Along with Barry Robson and Paul Hartley, who both performed heroics in the midfield, Brown seemed to particularly relish the occasion. Brown is maturing rapidly and the day when he utterly dismantles a Rangers team is coming soon.

At the end of the match, the Ibrox PA system belted out Rangers songs in a piqued attempt to drown out the singing of the Celtic supporters.

The attempt failed but did allow for ironic context. As the Celtic fans and players shared the victory, the words rang out: “There’s not a team like the Glasgow Rangers; no, not one and there never shall be one.”

To which the obvious response is: “Thankfully true; and we certainly hope so.”





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The inalienable right of the Hun to sing the Hokey Cokey

A few years ago, I was passing a pub when I overheard a conversation between two men. It became clear that one was advising the other on his heroin habit, summarising by saying: “Listen, get oantae the drink; get affae the drugs – and stop aw this pish!”

On first hearing snippets of this sage advice, some might have sneered at its crass nature. For sure, alcohol can be – and often is – a desperately destructive drug. But it is presented in many a benign form, its consumption is ingrained in the social and religious cultures of millions of people worldwide, and it is relished in its many forms across the social spectrum from cherry brandy to tonic wine.

And yet wasn’t there something in those words of street wisdom? Addicts, after all, often replace one destructive behaviour with another less hazardous obsession.

So why shouldn’t someone suggest that a sometimes dangerous, potentially damaging and often obnoxious – but socially accepted – vice would be an almost desirable alternative to something with the even greater attendant physical dangers and social tragedies associated with heroin?

Such thoughts echoed around what was once my mind in recent days, when the right of loyal Rangers supporters to sing the Hokey Cokey became newspaper hot gossip.

Trying to understand the culture of the archetypal Rangers fan is a soul-destroying fool’s errand. For sure, we know that there are thousands of decent, respectable inoffensive football fans amongst them. It is equally clear that those who are not an acute embarrassment to the sport are being lost among the increasingly loud and aggressive drone of the collective moron that assembles itself in the name of Rangers FC.

Suffice it to say that these are the very people whose culture provided the basis for the development of the American Redneck, a “glorious lack of sophistication”.

On the internet, their hatred and prejudices are laid bare, with any whose appreciation of irony might warn of impending embarrassment banned from the forums.

For example, what religious education has to do with Rangers, only a bigot could explain but it seems to creep into every second forum thread or article by the Rangers illiterati.

Do fans of other clubs obsess on the “sectarian” or “apartheid” youth organisations that meet their approval, despite separating young children on the grounds of religion?

When displaying their hatred of the Irish Catholic community in Scotland, do they ever wonder if they might be asked the question: “What part of Scotland is Ulster?”

Do any of them consider that in singing, “The famine’s over, why don’t you go home?” they are denigrating their own fans and families? Probably not.

Do they ever ponder how they might logically navigate their aggressive rejection of Nil By Mouth (who dared to challenge sectarianism), while at the same time claiming that NBM’s ridiculously flawed condemnation of the word “Hun” made the term “officially sectarian”? Well, we’re talking about the Huns here, after all.

In the last 18 months or so, we have seen Rangers fans contribute the single strongest argument for creationism in demonstrating their ability to defy the forces of evolution. 25 years after the most appalling display of football thuggery, pre-Heysel, they celebrated the anniversary by again embarrassing the nation they claim to love in Barcelona.

And of course, May 2008 was the occasion in which the most vile display of hooliganism, post-Heysel, was manifest in the celebration of Rangers values that was the Manchester UEFA Cup Final.

Today, their celebration of culture stems around besmirching the name of Jock Stein and defaming companies by associating them with the Rangers form of racist banter.

So imagine their joy when they discovered that the old favourite, the Hokey Cokey was alleged to have its origins in mockery of the Catholic Mass. Some might have mused on the nature of a country in which such abuse becomes so ingrained in the culture that it is taught to children.

But, instead, the combined creative and intellectual powers of Rangers have revelled in their ability to try to offend in a novel way – and fight for their right to do so, brothers!

Is this a desirable trait? No. Would it be better if they just tried to sing some positive songs that didn’t celebrate the principles of ethnic cleansing or religious intolerance? Absolutely.

But seriously, given the alternatives, like the advice to the drug addict mentioned before, isn’t the lesser of two evils that Huns should celebrate and define their identity through the Hokey Cokey, that is presuming that they can multi-task enough to perform the actions and remember the words at the same time?

In the words of Homer Simpson: let the baby have its bottle.

Who knows – they might even develop a sense of humour.
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A present for our hosts on Saturday - a cut-out-and-keep Christmas mask






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The words of shame that Scotland ignores

Today, before a ball has even been kicked, Rangers supporters can clearly be heard on Setanta singing their "Famine's over song" at Easter Road - the one that self-appointed social commentators like The Herald's Darryl Broadfoot and PA Scotland's Ronnie Esplin (who supplies a large chunk of the Scottish press with reports) think do not merit condemnation. These same people who supplied endless columns and reports on Artur Boruc's T-shirt and told us, falsely, that Celtic would face a UEFA investigation for alleged "sectarian" singing after a journalist sent Youtube clips to Europe's governing body, think this latest song unworthy of mention.

In case anyone is in any doubt, here the words are printed in full.

Why don't they go home.

I often wonder where they would have been
If we hadn't have taken them in
Fed them and washed them
Thousands in Glasgow alone
From Ireland they came
Brought us nothing but trouble and shame
Well the famine is over
Why don't they go home?

Now Athenry Mike was a thief
And Large John he was fully briefed
And that wee traitor from Castlemilk
Turned his back on his own
They've all their Papists in Rome
They have U2 and Bono
Well the famine is over
Why don't they go home?

INSTRUMENTAL

Now they raped and fondled their kids
That's what those perverts from the darkside did
And they swept it under the carpet
and Large John he hid
Their evils seeds have been sown
Cause they're not of our own
Well the famine is over
Why don't you go home?

Now Timmy don't take it from me
Cause if you know your history
You've persecuted thousands of people
In Ireland alone
You turned on the lights
Fuelled U boats by night
That's how you repay us
It's time to go home.

Rangers 2008 - Scotland's shame. The Scottish media and football authorities - complicit by your silence.


Update: In Monday's Herald, near the bottom of Darryl Broadfoot's piece calling for a knighthood for Walter Smith and demanding unstinting praise for Rangers (with an ill-considered swipe at the Celtic of Tommy Burns) carried this comment :

"Intense rivalry makes the Old Firm unique. Intense loathing and religious intolerance makes them a national embarrassment.

"For example: the 2200 fans inside the Artemio Franchi stadium were impeccably behaved yet spoiled a magical trip to Florence with a drink-fuelled chorus of Why Don't You Go Home - a reference to the Irish famine - at 3am as the players and backroom team attempted to board the charter home."

Although it is not clear that the term "impeccably behaved" is appropriate, at least, coincidentally, the issue has now been mentioned by Broadfoot, albeit arguably "shoehorned" into a piece of unbridled sycophancy, perhaps as an afterthought. Now, will the issue actually be addressed in the manner of the Artur Boruc's T-shirt which was linked to a death on Sunday night and an assault on Aiden McGeady with Boruc caricatured as a bringer of mayhem? We watch with interest.

Westminster Rangers provoke and offend

Thou great star! What would be thy happiness if thou hadst not those for whom thou shinest!

There was once a convention that people associated with Celtic or Rangers would be careful to avoid any action or comment that might further heighten tension prior to a match between the sides. The reason was obvious – innocent people are battered, stabbed and occasionally killed by thugs who can’t confine their anger to shouting at players or kicking their televisions.

What then should we make of Democratic Unionist MP Gregory Campbell, vice-chair of the Westminster Rangers supporters club, who has today tabled a motion to honour former Rangers player Sam English?

For those who don’t know – English was the unfortunate player who collided with Celtic’s goalkeeper John Thomson (pictured), resulting in the young Celtic star’s tragic death. English was blameless in the incident, which it is said affected him for the rest of his career.



However, what purpose can a member of the House of Commons hope to serve by calling for him to be honoured just days before Celtic visit Ibrox? Is he pandering to that low and vociferous element amongst the Rangers support that vocally dishonours the dead to provoke and offend?

Whatever the motives – and questioning the thinking of a Unionist MP is akin to debating the culinary merits of a cheeseburger – it is at best, grossly insensitive, at worst a deliberate attempt to inject yet more hatred into an encounter that has already left parents without sons.

No doubt, there will be some visible demonstration from the Rangers support on Saturday as they take a break from besmirching the name of Scotland’s greatest ever manager.

It has to be said that this exemplifies a distinct difference between our club and our city rivals. While Celtic have a small number of fans who let the club down, Rangers, from top to bottom demonstrate an appalling lack of dignity and even decency. Of course, that does not apply to all Rangers fans or people associated with the club – there are some who are embarrassed by such behaviour (and even a few are found on the internet, usually when banned from the most popular fans’ forum).

But with a wide range of Rangers fans, from Bridgeton to Barcelona; in the boardroom, in our courts and now even in our parliament, one theme pervades – the desire to confront and offend.

• John Thomson memorial
  

SPL should tackle St Mirren after Celtic abuse

Way back in November 2006, a St Mirren stadium announcer took it upon himself, without prior authorisation, to remark on "disgraceful chanting" by Celtic supporters at Love Street urging fans "to keep the good name of St Mirren intact by not responding to sectarian songs being sung at today's game".

At that time, St Mirren chairman Stewart Gilmour responded: "The comments were definitely off his own back but I thought it was fair comment. We certainly did not ask for it to be said. I have no problem with what [the announcer] said and I am glad to say this is not a problem we have at St Mirren."

Well, Mr Gilmour, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander and anyone who witnessed the behaviour of St Mirren fans at their ground in the 5-1 thrashing by Celtic should be asking the club and the SPL to take a stance against the conduct of their own supporters.

The recent standards of unacceptable conduct as set out by the football authorities, specifically prohibit fans from abusing players by raising doubts about their sexuality. Yet Paul Hartley was continually abused by St Mirren fans with the chant “Paul Hartley is GAY”.

Therefore, unless the SPL match observer was deaf or only paying attention to Celtic fans, the rules in place now clearly demand an investigation into St Mirren.

It is amazing that the fans of Scotland’s other clubs continually sneer at the conduct of Celtic and Rangers fans when they are often rife with bigots of their own. But St Mirren chose to make themselves part of this story and now is the time to insist that they take their own responsibilities seriously.

A person present at or in the immediate environs of an Official Match engages in Unacceptable Conduct where their conduct is violent and/or disorderly.

Disorderly conduct includes (i) conduct which stirs up or sustains or is likely or designed to stir up or sustain, hatred or ill will against or towards a group of persons based on their membership or presumed membership of a group defined by reference to a category mentioned below or against an individual who is or is presumed to be a member of such group; (ii) using threatening, abusive or insulting words or conduct; or (iii) displaying any writing or other thing which is threatening, abusive or insulting.

“Presumed” means presumed by the person or persons engaged in the conduct.

The categories referred to above are:-

• female or male gender;

• colour, race, nationality (including citizenship) or ethnic or national origin;

• membership of a religious group or of a social or cultural group with a perceived religious affiliation;

• sexual orientation;

• transgender identity; and disability.