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Andy Goram Should Not Be Allowed To Re-Write His Sordid Personal History.

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Image for Andy Goram Should Not Be Allowed To Re-Write His Sordid Personal History.

Listen, I am aware that this, for some folk, will not be a nice time for this subject, but I’m also aware that there’s a tradition that we don’t speak ill of the dead.

Andy Goram is still with us.

So is it permissible to tell the truth, right now, and refute some of the garbage in the media lately without being accused of dancing on a grave? There’s no grave yet. Nor is this kicking someone when they are down.

I didn’t choose the timing of this article; Goram and the press did.

I don’t mind people lying to themselves and others around them.

I do mind re-writing history which is in the public domain, and especially on the sticky subject of sectarianism.

We already had to swallow a bucket-load of this garbage when Bell passed away recently, and I wrote about that at the time. I cannot stomach another helping of it, especially when the facts are widely known and publicly available.

Goram is in the papers today talking about how he has “no regrets” over his failed marriages; well, of course not.

Remember what Rust Cohle tells Marty Hart in True Detective?

“People incapable of guilt usually do have a good time.”

Goram certainly did that, at the expense of his partners and just about every other person he ever came into contact with.

The Record would prefer to pretend he was just “unlucky in love”, but in fact Goram treated his wives and assorted other women like shit, and that’s the unvarnished truth of it. He was out for himself, always, and all he’s doing now is serving his own interests and trying to leave behind a reputation that isn’t mired in squalor.

The Record is more than happy to have him tidy his reputation up, and for the most part they are welcome to do so if they wish, and pile insult on top of injury for those who know Goram left wreckage in his wake.

But where I draw the line, the chapter that interests me most, is the one where he defended his “friends” in the north of Ireland whilst denying that he is a bigot.

I found it a fascinating insight into his character, and it kind of made me think of Boris Johnson, another serial liar and womaniser incapable of guilt. Johnson does this as well, repeatedly, using the media and his assorted acolytes to rewrite history on a never ending loop.

My problem with all this, my problem with the Bell thing and now the Goram thing, is that a national newspaper is pretending not to know who this guy really is. It’s pretending not to recognise that we’re talking here about someone who has consorted with some of the vilest people on the planet, and who feels very comfortable in those circles.

We’re pretending not to know that when he says he only met Billy Wright once, on a plane, that it’s not even a particularly veiled nod and wink to the wise. Goram has long used the same pitiful excuse for the black armband; we’re not all as stupid as he seems to think we are, and those in the national press who know some of the stories which are in circulation without being in the public domain are well aware that this whitewashing treats us like mugs.

We know why Goram feels comfortable in the warm embrace of the support from the North of Ireland, and to be honest I’m not sure what purpose the fig leaf serves any longer. A man in his position has nothing to fear from wearing every one of this prejudices and rancid opinions out on his sleeve, except the prospect of fewer people at his funeral.

Our press does not take the issue of sectarianism seriously. It’s quite evident that they refuse to deal with it on the level that it deserves, and so of course they would rather help rehabilitate the reputation of a bigot – even if that means wilfully spreading a distorted version of events – than call him one and deal with it on that level.

This article wouldn’t be necessary if this guy wasn’t using this moment to rewrite his personal history and if the media wasn’t helping him do it.

If he was in the papers expressing contrition and regret for some of the things he’s done, the choices he’s made and opinions he’s held and the quasi-legitimacy he’s conferred on some truly despicable people by being their buddy, then that would be worthy of a full scale re-evaluation of the man and his character, but he isn’t doing any of that.

I find it distasteful to have to write a piece like this, but I remind myself that if Goram was fit and well and talking this same crap that I wouldn’t even hesitate to put my thoughts on it down, and especially if the media was playing its usual dumb role in it.

At the end of my article “Scottish Football And The Truth That Dare Not Speak Its Name” I wrote the following;

“Scottish football is like a tiny town where everyone knows everyone else intimately. And the wife beaters sit and drink with the preachers. And the fraudsters sit down with the bank managers. And the guy who murdered his former wife sits and sups beer with the school mistress. And the barman keeps on pouring for the not-yet-acknowledged alcoholics and tells them they earned a drink after a long hard day. And the wheel keeps on turning because although everybody knows nobody ever says it outright and although nothing is a secret everyone acts as though there are no secrets to tell. A town where the word community means that everyone lives in blissful ignorance, although nobody is ignorant of anything. A town where if you never acknowledge it, maybe it didn’t happen at all.”

Well, I refuse to live there, and I refuse to play that game.

If the Scottish media wants to play a role in rehabilitating every person who ever waded up to his knees in fenian blood that’s up to them, but the rest of us should be vocal in telling them where to shove it.

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  • Johnny mcglinchey says:

    Heard the sad news that goram has 6months to live, i was hopeing it was 6 minutes the diseased orange cunt, the sooner they burn him the better. HH

  • Eamon quigley says:

    I wonder why he wasnt allowed back on the shankill road ? Prisoners wives springs to mind

    • Paul says:

      Hear,hear James,another frank & honest piece of reading,We know & have always known about the BIGOTED daily ranger & sunday mason plus other daily newspapers who print shite day in day out,saying that I haven’t read a newspaper in decades so keep up the good work & look forward to your next post. ?HH?

  • REBELLIOUS says:

    I know it’s easy for me to say, but, you should at least try to not get so irate about the dr.
    We All know that their comic(newspaper-LOL) isn’t worth the pulp it’s printed on, yet you let that rag annoy almost daily. I do know it’s your job to do so and I’d probably be just as annoyed as you if I HAD to.
    The dr is constantly printing absolute SHITE on a DAILY basis, r’angers didn’t die and all is well in castle mordor, EVERYONE including that lot, KNOW 100% that’s EXACTLY what it is; UTTER SHITE.
    Maybe give it a miss for a day or two James, it just might be a wee help for you.
    I’ve not laid eyes on a dr for 15/20 years and I feel fanfuqntastique aboot that.

  • alex says:

    shagging loyalist prisoners wives while they were in jail hero worshipping him great friends in Ulster

  • REBELLIOUS says:

    ?I see now from an above comment that goram is dying WOO-HAIL!HAIL!-HOO?

    I’m away for ice cream and jelly noo before the rush starts…FQ HM.

  • SFATHENADIROFCHIFTINESS says:

    Excellent pièce James.
    It’s a pity it will not be available to a wider audience.

    Acceptance of a thing is necessary before change can be made and for people / Society to move on.To know what was and what still is and how it holds us all back. The Elephant (dressed in Green) that is ignored in the twee sitting rooms of middle class genteel Scotland.

    The unspoken National’ dirty secret that is glossed over by the powers that be. A whole Political class, on both sides of the chasm, that dare not speak of this National disgrace as the naming of it is to admit their self interest or impotence in dealing with it.

    As part of a corrupt, increasingly dis functional ‘Union’ or an Independent State we are truly Fuxed if we don’t eradicate it.

    Saor Alba.
    H.H.

    • Martin H. says:

      This guy is the ultimate bigot, and serial shagger of so called loyalist friends wives that were in jail, also in later life, a total ponce, will he be missed, no.

  • MND says:

    James if you are an arse when you are alive you are still an arse when you die.

  • Mick Doherty says:

    Well said HH

  • Gerry Graham says:

    Brilliant read James..Rather than the media call out these bigots they crawl up there arse..I was barred of Facebook for calling Bell a bigoted Ba—urd..I paid the price for telling the truth..I’ll also comment on Facebook when this bigot meets his maker..Every single one of them are absolutely rancid..But we know the truth..All we had to do was listen to the bile they were spewing about the Lisbon Lions and how much better they were going to be when they won the Europa Cup..I was never so glad to see them getting pumped..Keep up the great James…???

  • RUTH FRASER says:

    Well written and very true article

  • Thomas Mccreadie says:

    100% James

  • Yvonne says:

    Well said. What you’re saying is absolutely spot on. I also can’t tolerate people like that. Hail Hail

  • Martin says:

    There is absolutely nothing to be gained by joining in the “what a shame, legend of the game” crap.

    The man was a dreadful human being who lived in hatred and self service. I will not be idle witness to his revision of history. I wish a slow painful death on nobody, and I won’t celebrate his death. But I will certainly shed no tear nor celebrate the life of such a hateful, spiteful man

  • Jim McLeod says:

    Spot on the truth should out no matter the circumstances

  • Peterbrady says:

    I seem him in the 90s in glass ford street lying in gutter covered in pish with two of his teammates standing over him laughing then walked away and left him walling in his filth

    • Robert Cairney says:

      Who cares what the clown says ?, its got absolutely nothing to do with Celtic …

  • Tony B says:

    A despicable wretched creature, a bigot and a liar to boot.

    In other words an Ibrox legned.

  • Bhoy4life says:

    Here here…

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