Saturday’s entertainment was not brought to you by 11 masters of the beautiful game doing their stuff on the pitch. Far from it.
It was all about those pesky kids and if you switch your mind to Scooby Doo mode you can picture Alec Salmonds and his flabby chops being unmasked as the villain after a slap dash chase and some buffoonery.
There seems to be two distinct camps when it comes to the GB. Those who see them as needy adolescents who need the rush of self publicity and are a disgrace to the club they claim to love and those who love what they do but have reservations about their choice of songbook.
Update: It seems that there is a third distinct group. Let’s call them the Partisans who are calling for nothing to change and for the GB to carry on as they are.Â
I never put this group in as before now, and maybe in the aftermath of such a show, they have been silent in any on-line or off-line discussion that has taken place. They are the vocal majority at the moment. Â Â
Salmond’s Law has been discussed and even those with damaged grey matter can grasp that the law is being changed to ensure that we can be tagged the same as them. It’s been admitted to in that expensive house in Embra. It will also capture other fans of the self titled Family Clubs who have a snobby view of us and think that their $h*ts don’t smell.
I have no faith in the justice system to enforce the law. Neither do those that need to enforce it.
The banner above sums it up our situation perfectly but the protest failed to take into account the growing number – I think it is a growing number – of Celtic fans who want certain songs or slogans dropped from the repertoire not because they are illegal but because it’s time to move on.
My take is this. We will lose nothing from our identity if we stop singing certain songs. The GB will play a major part in that.
The protest on Saturday was seen by some as a petulant and selfish act. I fully understand that view. The group could only highlight their view and the problems they face. They weren’t attempting to be a wider voice.
There was also a great deal of hypocrisy in the reaction to the protest inside the stadium. You could hear the sweetie papers rustling and the players shouting before 50mins. The stadium became all singing and all dancing afterwards. Did you not feel like singing before hand?
There also seems to be a lack of understanding about the reason they have been asked to stop the lateral movement. The disappearance of a safety certificate could make that clearer to those who don’t grasp this. I think the GB should be using this to make a play for safe standing returning to the Scottish game. The game in this country needs a revolution.
So what do we do about the Green Brigade? The club and support have embraced them like an outcast Uncle at a family wedding. Glad to see him there but keeping a distance and ensuring he can be disowned if he soils himself and is sick down the bridesmaid.
Saturday was a watershed moment. But what way do we go? Vote in the poll.
[poll id=”42″]
I think I’ve highlighted my admiration for the GB’s enthusiasm and support of our team, in general. What, I personally, don’t support (and I don’t care how unpopular this opinion is) is the mindless adulation, regardless of romantic ideas of dressing it up through song, of an organisation that is responsible for the deaths of innocent civilians and whose cause, in it’s most recent incarnation, has absolutely nothing to do with Celtic FC whatsoever.
Justification for that tied to freedom of speech is lazy and holds no water whatsoever.
Wildrover,are you a fascist? you are certainly sounding like one..The IRA were involved in a war with the British and in war, there are casualties and yes, sometimes innocent people die..just like in Afghanistan,Iraq,the falklands WW1,WW2 Vietnam etc…Just because you do not agree with the singing, it doesnt mean that you have the right to take away that right of others to do so..If anything, the summing up of your post is lazy and to me and countless others, holds “no water” whatsoever
Bit strong.
Wildrover has clearly stated that why he has no time for the romanticism he doesn’t begrudge anyone the right to indulge it.
Hardly a facist statement.
It’s like me not liking shreddies but understand why people do. I won’t partake but don’t think they should be banned.
Everything has a time and a place. The lines about this are blurred as politicians poke their beaks in and we claim political songs.
The question is do these songs now have a time and a place at CP? Not are they illegal, which we are all agreed they are clearly not, but are they relevant and representative of a football club?
it’s our history and culture – songs and all- that makes us unique.
would you like to see songs about the Lisbon Lions dropped, or ‘Fields of Athenry’… each of these are old, past their time…?
make no mistake, the catalogue of songs that we have, the history we have makes us what we are… to cherry pick is to play into the hands of those that would undermine celtic… they would rejoice at us being another hibs, a club who abandoned their culture and in turn was abandoned by their culture. keep the faith, keep the green brigade.
Who mentioned anything about dropping songs about the Lisbon Lions? This is when the argument turns into farce. You could link any song with an Irish connection to us if you tried hard enough. In no-way would we end up like Hibs that is an extreme example.
If you watch some of the old footage and hear some of the songs that are sung then in the early 80’s late 70’s you hear a lot more political songs being sung than you do now. Those songs died away as the time changed as the support embraced new songs….never once was the identity diluted.
Do you really think that the singing of songs about the IRA pre 69 and post 69 is what makes us unique? If so we are in bother…..
i never said you would drop fields or songs about the lions, only to follow your principle that ‘everything has its time and place’.
well, clearly, for many at celtic park the time and place of ‘the auld songs’ is right now.
also, i never said that only the IRA songbook made us unique…
Fascist ? Haha ! Good grief..
ok so maybe fascist was the wrong expression to use and a tad strong but it is certainly bordering on it when you try and dictate to people what they can or cannot sing escpecially when they have their beliefs and reasons for doing so
The threat of removing the safety certificate is nothing more than a disgrace. The club, government and police are quick to use statistics to prove points, yet I have not seen anything to date.
I’m afraid the reason is much more sinister.
Politics has no place in football.
What have the IRA got to do with Celtic? Nothing.
Back the team and drop all this political stuff which has no place at Celtic Park.
They would be brilliant for the club and loved by all if they could kick this habit of shooting themselves in the foot every so often.
like PLC lackeys?
what a load of crap is being talked about in here. Voting on the gb, how about a poll on how to help the bhoys. lord of the wing i think you chould channel your energy a bit better then this bile crap that would be more suited to one of the daily rags then on a celtic blog.
The GB are topical. Plus I don’t think there has been any bile.
My mum and gran were at the last game of the season in parkhead and throughly enjoyed listening and watching the green brigade.So much so they both want to purchase season tickets to sit with GB, also my cousins have season tickets sitting below GB and would not change their seating arrangements for anyone as they enjoy their singing and camaderie. As the Rangers fans have also now demonstrated their feelings on the new laws at long last genuine fans are hopefully all uniteing on the new laws being introduced by the Scottish goverment.
Aye, R*ngers fans claiming they are not criminals. Fucking laughable.
If trouble is likely to flare at Parkhead where do you think the most likely area will be. The GB are die hard , brainwashed by their grandparents, immature young lads and lassies who haven’t the brain power to draw conclusions from the evidence around them. Their opinions are probably learned at the feet of dear old uncle Declan and Auntie Delmar whose grandfather back in Ireland was shot by some young squaddie from Drumchapel who didn’t fancy a .303 in the back.
To suggest that you need these morons at Parkhead to give it some atmosphere is a terrible admission and has to be wrong.
These are the same fuckwits as are to be found amongst the Derry and all they bring to the atmosphere at Ibrox is bitterness and hatred.
Both clubs are better off without them.
It’s galling though to hear as morally bankrupt a crew as politicians sermonising and legislating on the subject. The matter is now a political football and in the way of these things any subsequent legislation will be ill-thought out and impractical.
They do liven the place up and most of the time the songs are fine. They do need to stay away from the political “statements” however, and stop assuming that they speak for our fans in general. We are a club open to all viewpoints, so let’s respect that and stick to the fitba’.
I say dump them, they have fk all interest in the good of football and celtic. Theyre using celtic as a platform for thier political agenda, and fans who dont see this as clear as day are ignorant.