Even the briefest perusal of Twitter last night revealed the Sevco fans at their arrogant, running worst.
You’d think they’d taken five goals off Barcelona to see some of their comments, which were, of course, about beating an essentially managerless team with a last minute winner in a 2-1 win where the other goal came from a penalty kick.
Many of the responses end with a familiar old phrase, and one that’s just about had its day.
It’s hard to imagine it being adopted by the fans of any other club.
I refer, of course, to We Are The Peepil.
The origins of this particular phrase are confused and lost in the fog of time, but surely it belongs there, somewhere in the swirl of our past.
Some say it’s a reference to Ulster, and the notion of “Protestant Supremacy.”
Some say it wound up in use at Ibrox via the Govan shipyards of Harland and Wolff, one of the most notoriously anti-Catholic and anti-Irish employers on the planet. Their Belfast operation was profoundly sectarian and these practices were exported to Glasgow when the Govan yard laid its first keel.
Wherever it comes from, isn’t it time they dispensed with it?
How, in multi-ethnic Scotland, does such a phrase still have a place?
It is a clear statement of supremacy. But what sort?
Cultural? Certainly, atlhough the culture in question has its roots in the 17th century.
Socially? Yes, without a doubt, although those who most likely to use the phrase are pretty much outcasts in civilised circles.
Religious? A lot of people, including some of those who use the phrase, certainly think so.
I’ve seen the phrase tweeted by former Sevco players.
By board members and candidates for the board of their Supporters Trust.
Several prominent people linked to the club have used the phrase in speeches and written statements.
That actual employees don’t often use it whilst they are in post at Ibrox reveals that a certain disquiet exists within the place itself.
There’s clearly some degree of self-perception there.
In spite of that, this is a club still mired in the past, when others are looking to the future.
“Traditions” are all well and good, providing they aren’t exclusive and supremacist, but so much of what happens at Ibrox is exactly that; from Britishness Days, orange strips and the employment of the famous “green straw remover” … these aren’t “traditions” as much as they are fixations, unhealthy ones that damage not only the club but Scottish society as a whole.
In fact, I would argue that nothing about Sevco’s present circumstances is half as dangerous to their general wellbeing than this notion that they are somehow superior to everyone else. It makes them partly insane, forcing them into spending more than they have, living bigger than they can afford, giving them ideas that force unhealthy practices on them.
Too many of their supporters have their heads filled with this stuff, and you see other examples of it on Twitter in their references to “rats” and other degrading and dehumanising language. This is the calling card of the fascist, the racist, the bigot.
I am not in favour of laws against the things people say, far less the stuff in their heads, but I can’t be alone in thinking much of Scotland would prefer to see these vile people gone, and their obscene attitudes with them.
The true irony of all this, of course, is that Sevco fans have no reason to feel smug or superior to anybody; they’ve been duped and rooked by an assortment of wide boys and chancers who didn’t even try to hide what they were about, and this didn’t just happen once but happened time and time again.
Those who remember the glory and the pomp of Rangers, which their most infamous chairman once described as “Scotland’s second biggest institution after the church” now follow a second tier newco and can’t even bring themselves to accept the reality of what happened to the first club.
In a sense, then, We Are The Peepil is a comfort blanket and I understand that well.
But the rest of us don’t need to hear it.
The phrase is offensive, and vaguely sinister.
It has connotations that are sectarian.
When do these people dump this crazy attitude?
When do they say enough is enough and join the rest of the world in putting this kind of nonsense to bed, once and for all?
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