My good friend Ross Taylor wrote an excellent piece this morning in which he lamented the shameful songs some of our supporters sung last night at Dundee. He said some of what I had intended to say myself, because having spent the last few days lashing the Ibrox support for their own disgraceful singing I was not going to stay silent on this.
I don’t want anything to do with these so-called fans.
They don’t speak for me and they do not represent Celtic.
Their sectarianism belongs in the gutter with those who sing songs of hate across the city. Anti-Protestant sentiment is every bit as loathsome as anti-Catholic hate and I abhor it and all decent Celtic fans abhor it.
Ours is a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic support.
We are, as has often been stated, a club open to all and if a group of our fans want to start drawing up an exclusion criterion then so be it; but I warn those people that they are ones who will find themselves excluded and driven out.
They are not part of us. Their mentality is the antithesis of what we represent.
Think for a moment of what goes through the minds of these cretins, if indeed anything can be said to go through their minds.
I don’t mind the Papa Franceso chant; I find that one frankly bizarre and think that if these people want to sing about a religious leader that they should do it in the chapel, if most of them could find their nearest one.
But whilst it’s a factional song, that still makes it one you can either join in or not as you see fit and if you don’t mind looking ridiculous to anyone who thinks the whole thing is pretty stupid.
But these folk should get any notion of their thick heads that Celtic is a “Catholic club” because it never has been and never will be, and if you have somehow convinced yourself that it is then you, idiot that you are, you have already swallowed the “two sides of the coin” narrative and you are doing your bit to promote it.
A brazenly anti-Protestant song like Roamin’ In The Gloamin’ is nakedly sectarian and amongst others it discriminates against legions of our own fans and plenty of our ex-players, not to mention – and here comes the rub – our greatest ever manager.
You demented fuckwits.
Is that me spelling it out enough? Is that me making it clear enough?
That’s at the root of what you are doing.
Is it finally getting through to you, you bigoted, shit-kicking backward facing clowns?
You would discriminate against the great Jock Stein.
As to the On The One Road add-on “soon there’ll be no Protestant’s at all” – which is our own version of “up to our knees in fenian blood” – I marvel at the mentality of twisting a song about unity into an anthem of hate, and especially when it was made famous by a band named after a Republican hero who was also a Protestant.
A grasp on history isn’t the only thing that escapes these arseholes.
I know a lot of our own supporters have spent the day emailing the club on this, and asking that something be done about it.
If these goons won’t ditch the vile singing and stop trawling the gutter, then these people need to be removed from our support and the club will have the full support of every decent fan if it sets out to do precisely that.
I said yesterday that if the problems at Ibrox were, as they often claim, confined to a “small minority” then they would be easy to deal with. The yahoos amongst our own support do represent a small minority, and that means the rest of us won’t accept their vile behaviour for very long, and especially not if the club itself is determined to act.
The mainstream media has stayed out of this, for now, but all these idiots have done is give them a chance to conflate our problem with the one at Ibrox so that when they do decide to write about it they present it in the context of a joint problem … but this is our problem and they have their problem and Celtic fans will not be as silent as the fans across the city will.
The people who are speaking out right now are amongst our own, or at least people we would regard as our friends. Jim Spence and Roger Mitchell are not enemies of Celtic by any manner of means, and when they are talking about this we should be listening.
We have a problem here.
I do not believe that we will refuse to face up to it.
Indeed, we can’t afford not to and it’s not who we are anyway.
We are Celtic, and this is not Celtic.
At a time when much of the world is watching us, the world must know that and it will.
Well said James. Theses songs you mention, and the ooh ah up the ra crap has been Far too prevalent at away games of late. Some are even sang at home. It needs to stop. The club should be more vocal on this issue.
Was never set up as a purely catholic club. You can voice an opinion but when it goes into hate territory you need to shut your fucking mouth.
If catholicism was such a great way to live your life why did I and thousands upon thousands of us reject it at the first opportunity?
People can believe whatever fairy tale they like but the moment their belief is foisted upon unwilling listeners is the moment they cross into arsehole territory and the moment they should be blanked by any sane person.
The school I went to in Ayr like most schools there was a Protestant school, I was one of about 5 Celtic fans in my entire year. Now when I see kids at the same school 30 years later, I would say about half of them are Celtic fans.. kids these days are more interested in supporting a team than they are in religious bigotry and that is a good thing.. but a bad thing for sevco as they have profited from bigotry for decades.. we are a club open to all who will go on and make sevco pay for their history of racism by dominating for decades while their watp heritage slides down the toilet pan with the rest of their horrible club.. but to get their we must flush away our own bigoted cretins for the sake of our club and humanity hh
Speaking as a practising catholic, you’re not proclaiming anything other than that you’re a sectarian wuckfit. How many of the songsters do you think have actually darkened the door of a church recently? They’re just like you. Bigots. Celtic is a football team. Nothing more, nothing less
Quinny
Obviously anyone can see that its a lack of education you suffer from.
In America you would be classed as trailer trash.
Well for a club that ‘doesn’t discriminate against Protestants’ , ‘soon they’ll be no Protestants at all’ is a strange way of showing it.
Following Celtic for 70 years these idiots have got to be removed remember standing in Celtic end as a 9 year old listening to same songs said to myself this cannot be right 3 or 4 of my pals who went to different schools how did they feel and by the way they are still going to see the Celtic please Celtic do something now get rid of them they are not welcome anywhere near Celtic park
it’s unreal, in this day and age, that there are celtic fans with the belief that celtic is a “catholic club”…such shite…ffs…
i was born into catholic family in the calton…been watching celtic since 1961…i remember hearing supporters buses going up the gallowgate to parkhead and “faith of our fathers” was being sang….i thought it pathetic…
i have since rejected Catholicism a long time ago….and if i thought that celtic was such a club…i wouldn’t be interested in them…jock stein, kenny dalglish, danny mcgrain….need i say more..
there IS, and always WAS, a sectarian element within our support….and singing about the ” ‘RA “…..pathetic…..these people are every bit as bad as the huns…the fans that sing these songs WANT and NEED sevco and their scum fans – gives them an outlet for their pathetic world view – shame on them…..
Every single away fan at Tannadice should be banned for 2 games. The same people get every away game and then act entitles about it. Now they’ve shown themselves up. I don’t care if 80% or mor eof the away fans weren’t singing that bile, if they want to keep going to away games this needs to stop. And only if their own tickets are at risk will they act.
There’s no place for this garbage..it’s become too common at away games. Everyone is sick of it. Absolutely sick of it.
Really Martin?, you condone the banning of an entire away support for 2 games?, based on the actions of the %20 you estimate are guilty of singing a lyric we all condemn,I would hazard a guess you were not at the game but,if you we’re in attendance, and hadn’t sang the song in question, I’ll assume you would quietly accept the blanket punishment you propose.
Yes, Edward, that’s exactly what I would condone. We live in a country where we will always see double standards and the slightest chance of whatabouttery will be seized upon and lead the narrative. I have no idea what % were singing this crap (but it was loud). My 80/20 point was that yes, if this crap continues all the attendant away fans should be given a suspension. Or we don’t take an allocation.
We hit this hard and we hit it early and it stops. The fans at Tannadice (and the Spaghettihad before it) brought absolute shame upon this club. We can go down the “it was a small minority and we’re telling them to behave” like the new kids down Govan way, or we can show that this will not be tolerated. I can tell you now, the Ibrox model hasn’t worked at all.
Whilst it’s correct that the views of RCs, and any other religions of course should be heard, when it degrades into offence and sectarianism it of course demeans the religion they are supposedly representing. As many people have said the likelihood of these folk practising their faith or having the remotest understanding of it is pretty low. They demonstrate this by their behaviour.
And they make it easy for us to be aligned with the huns in this respect, when we could easily sit back and watch them feck it up all by themselves.
Here Here as a Celtic fan and season ticket holder for many many years I am 68 Years young and have been through the Late fifties early sixties when we’re so poor there was a lot of singing which sometimes was if poor taste but NOt to the level that we are experiencing at this time IT Must Be Stopped Now PLEASE there is NO room for this in OUR Stadium we have so many great songs to sing without this ****
Here Here already made a comments about this nonsense i am 78years young a season ticket for many many years I have been through the Late fifties and early sixties when we’re so poor there was an issue with sum singing but not to the level that we are experiencing today it must STOP now our history and our stadium is NOT the place for this ****we have so many. Great songs that this **** Must STOP NOW,!!!!
You’re a dick. And so is the dick who posts in my name on the other “anti Protestant” entry. And so is the dick who removed my comment pointing out a simple fact that John Knox is not the head of all Protestants in the same way the Pope is the head of the Catholic Church.
I am 100% with getting rid of these songs. In fact, this discussion seemed to mysteriously appear after I pointed out that we’d better get our own house in order before pointing out hun frailties in this dept. So why I am being made to look like the dick is beyond me as there are plenty of more deserving dolts who need telt.
You have, in the space of a few idiotic posts, made this place look pretty stupid.
I’m off. A bit like this blog.
Roonsa. The real one.
This comment will suddenly disappear in 10 seconds ……
It’s still here, as is the Knox comment I just replied to. I would have thought a colossus of knowledge like you would have seen that?
Would be good if Celtic and the board made the club 50% fan owned, as without fans football is nothing . Then control of the club has ground’s for change, at present the board has very penny as a prisoner.
Would be good if Celtic and the board made the club 50% fan owned, as without fans football is nothing . Then control of the club has ground’s for change, at present the board has everyy penny as a prisoner.
Totally agree, these halfwits are ignorant of Irish history and don’t know that the majority of the forerunners in Irish republicanism were protestants or dissenters.
No sectarianism of any sort, please. Some Celtic fans’ treatment of the Israeli club was embarrassing.
Totally agree cant stand it and like that club you mentioned its was never what our great club were about!! Where has this come from tho sadly the north curve at home games has that shit going on to! Was never there for decades! We are a club for all ! Always have been makes me squirm cause then it gives people the easy comparison to that poison in govan now that a club that thrives on sectarianism! We call it out and have guys like peter Martin condemning it daily!! I dont blame him flush it out get out in the open it’s not what we are about! Whereas the poison never do or want to change strangely martin never says anything about the poison but this is because he doesnt feel he can! But we own our crap and we need them out!! It sickens me and has at away games for long time for all green brigade have been great there no doubt this has crept in at home from that area needs addressed as This Great club built on unity , solidarity, charity and love ! Leave that scum vile behaviour to the poison!
We will call it out and I have many times ! So the club need to do this to it cant go on thats the difference! We have our idiots we deal with it , that new club! Need the sectarianism to survive they also need us to have these idiots! So they can feel ok about their hate! This why I get angered even more and dont want the Australia gig with them! I hate hearing the new one to orange bas###ds” sung over and over its pathetic! Get that to f%%k these wee clowns need educated! Its embarrassing and not what our club are if this means the green brigade need to go well they go! Not blaming them but at home games they could stop this! Wee fergus sorted these clowns out quick smart we need this done again!
So what do you say to the many thousands of non Catholic members of our support?
Or even the many thousands of fans who are Catholic by birth but who no longer define themselves as religious.
Why stop there what about the many thousands of Moslems, Jews, Seiiks, Buddhists and followers of numerous non mainstream Religions?
What you propose (Sectarianism) is neither Catholic nor Christian behaviour.
Won’t deny, as an immature 14 year old,I did sing this song, that was 50 years ago, truly sad to hear it’s reappearing among some of our support, hopefully this was an isolated incident and will wither on the vine, no place for that nonsense amongst our support.