The Celtic fans are being pilloried right now for the scenes at the weekend. 25,000 fans gathered for the street party where the Gallowgate met the rest of the city centre. 19 out of that number – a fraction of a fraction of a percent – were arrested.
The rest had their good time and went up the road. And you would think mayhem had ensued.
Some of the stupidest comments I have read on this debate came before the scenes themselves, and a lunatic, hysterical article by Matt Lindsay in The Herald.
He asked “Who knows what carnage will ensue?” as if pitched battles had been expected. That so many of the hacks have actually used the word “carnage” to describe some rubbish and a vandalised bus shelter shows how desperate some of them are to make this as a dark a story as possible.
Lindsay went much further than that in his article. The paragraph which stood out a mile to me was this one. “Warnings have been issued by both Glasgow City Council and Police Scotland ahead of the widely anticipated mass influx of revellers tomorrow. Alas, they look set to fall on deaf ears judging by the online reaction. “Ban Orange walks and we can have a discussion then,” was typical of the responses which appeared on social media websites.”
And he’s right that it did, and I should know as I’m one of the ones who mentioned Orange Walks. I do feel somewhat misconstrued, because if he actually read what I wrote he’d know that I don’t think these mass celebrations are appropriate and that the council should take some responsibility for making sure they don’t need to take place … so I’m perfectly willing to have the discussion on that without necessarily discussing sectarian marches.
But why are sectarian marches irrelevant to this discussion?
I mean, in some ways they shouldn’t be, because I see no moral equivalence between people parading down our streets wearing bowler hats promoting the killing of Catholics or promoting religious and cultural exceptionalism and football fans wanting to celebrate their team winning the league.
One ought to have no place in a civilised society, and in case Lindsay hasn’t sussed this, it’s not the one involving those commemorating a sporting victory.
Lindsay is a moron for suggesting that this should not be part of the discussion though. When this city allows that to happen every single year, when they allow a mass demonstration of intolerance and hatred, the politicians and the chattering classes have no business lecturing football fans.
None whatsoever.
A few local businesses are put out. Wow.
Those same local business have to close entirely for the annual display of bigotry, which marches right down those same streets.
I’ll take this issue more seriously when the same businesses, when the same councillors, when the same people squealing about our fans get themselves together and start clamouring for the end of that annual embarrassment, which shames this country, large parts of which clearly need dragging kicking and screaming into the present century.
The difference between the fan street parties and that despicable spectacle is that one is considering criminal and the other isn’t.
The one that is legal is the one where the participants sing songs about being up to their knees in fenian blood.
That sums up the sheer absurdity at the heart of this debate.
Lindsay doesn’t get that because he doesn’t want to.
And he doesn’t want to, I suspect, because he is like so many people who like to moralise; they are cowards.
You know what really pisses me off about people like Lindsay? They are also stone hypocrites.
Right there, on his Twitter feed, there is what I can only presume is an admiring retweet of a video showing St Pauli fans celebrating in the streets after getting promoted back to the Bundesliga.
The same scenes which he describes as “selfish and dangerous” when it’s our fans in Glasgow are somehow permissible when they take place in Germany.
How are we supposed to “react” to an opinion like that except with contempt?
There’s one other thing in the piece; a statement of enormous stupidity and recklessness and which could not go unremarked upon; his closing paragraphs.
“Police have promised they “will have a proportionate plan in place to maintain public safety and minimise any disruption to the community” if there is a repeat of last year’s affray. It is to be hoped there is no need for them to resort to heavy-handed tactics.
But if they do have to, those who find themselves on the receiving end will only have themselves to blame.”
Am I crazy or is that a suggestion that if Police Scotland had decided to baton-charge our fans or worse that it would have been a proportional response?
That we should consider ourselves as having provoked it?
That statement could be seen as an endorsement of police brutality, and that’s not just irresponsible but absolutely shameful.
Celtic, as a club, should examine those statements closely and decide whether it’s appropriate to give someone who holds those views media access to our ground.
the inventor of the engine room subsidiary scotlands sevco media shame.
Couldn’t have written such an article any better than you did there, James. All salient points addressed. As long as Scotland’s media and politicians allow these Neanderthals to strut about our streets and allow Scotland to be shamed, they have no right to take a totally false moral high ground and comment on our fans.
We all know the sevco mutant zombie scum will implode on Saturday and when there are noceltic supporters to attack they will go to there default position and mutant zombie on zombie mutant riots
In my opinion Lindsay is a bigot and a racist. That’s why he makes these statements.
The orange order is an English phenomenon instituted to pressurise and keep to the heel both Catholicism and the Irish and maintain control for the so called reformists.
I am atheist, as you can tell from my posting name, and I abhor this wee rrreeggion oof Britain and Britain in general for creating an abhorrent situation which adversely targets both Catholics and Irish with the intention of making then lesser beings. They are doing the very same with modern immigrants. What kind of Christianity promotes this rubbish? These people, like Lindsay, are not Christian, as their motivation is hate. They could take lessons from Lutherans, who I find to be quite impressive, although I am not of a religious persuasion.
I struggle to understand why our GREAT club does not employ someone like yourself. Someone who doesn’t take shit from all the bluenosed hacks and continuously calls them out.
Keep up the excellent work HH .
Timie know your place. Where was he on Saturday Tynecastle
Did Mr Lindsay say the same when thousands of rangers fans trashed George square, while the country was in lockdown?
Its about feckin time the Celtic Board started responding to this persistent, insipient, intolerance motivated, petty sniping by no mark hacks who wouldn’t survive a full working day at any mainstream ‘Title’ outwith Glasgow and the West of Scotland.
The Board would be better looking after the interests of its Customers , You & Me, than worry about Public utterances affecting the Markets and Share Price. One of these days the Customers may decide themselves to interrupt that cozy alliance to the Boards detriment. Ban the ignorant hacks and petty gossip spreaders, the malicious, agenda driven National ( well it’s another Nation actually) Broadcaster. They only lie, misquote, sensationalise trivialities and foment discord.
A Club of Celtic’s stature has enough resources to run its own in-house Magazine, use Celtic Tv for releasing accurate information
It should be utilising the best of The Celtic Blogosphere while allowing the Bloggers to maintain their Independent status. We as a Society are reaching the point of almost Universal Internet connectivity. Cut out the middleman, The iniquitous SMSM. Speak to the supporters direct. Encourage other Clubs to examine their own potential. Take it to its logical conclusions and the Clubs could finally at long last have full control of their Broadcasting Rights and circumvent the Amateurish SFA / SPFL.
As for the SMSM, the positive reek of envy of our success as a Club and as a people is further tainted by their despondency in the here and now for the total shitfest that is Westminster. They feel abandoned, their presumed second hand ‘English Exceptionalism’ doesn’t shield them anymore from the reality of the life experienced in Scotland by the masses of all faiths and none. Nobody tugs their forelock anymore and bows deferentially to their kind. We are the people and we expect and deserve more.
Second rate hacks not worthy of the title of ‘Journalists’ aptly named as Stenographers by PMGB. We recognise them as no more than the PR function of the Unionist Parties. Allied with their total lack of original thought or Journalistic integrity, their reliance on Press Releases to provide ‘’Copy’ and the abundant use of cut n’ paste thrown in to the mix relegates (a word favoured by them and their moronic followers) their output to the level of poor quality Fanzines. They are a disgrace to this Country and they ill serves it’s People.
When the last print run finally shudders to a halt I for one will cheer, they will not be missed. The Proprietors, CEOs, Editors, Journalists ( the good and bad), print staff all will have different futures. The online News Media is pretty well established and its direction of travel doesn’t look good for Truth and Civil Liberties.
Those coming late to the Party will have difficult choices to make. For the Journalists perhaps the most difficult choices may need to be made. Do they stay with Agenda driven Publishers relying upon News Aggregating sites for Copy, sitting at home, cutting and pasting snippets here and there while trying to put a Gloss or Spin on the same material that everyone else has and not caring whether it’s ultimately true, false or fair. All because it pays the Bills. Will most of the Journalists remain in situ or could we possibly see a renaissance for the role of the intrepid hack running down real stories, holding people to account, speaking Truth to Power, standing up for the poor, the abused, the neglected victims of Power and remote Ideological Governments?
Personally I rather doubt it.
James I would go further than call lindsay a moron .he’s nothing but a bigoted anti-celtic anti-irish anti-catholic type of bigot . Lindley went from being rangers press officer to the evening Times and like all mssm outlets it’s sectarian and that I do know because I experienced it I was unemployed long before I retired two friends who worked at the Sunday Post said they would talk for me. A week later they came.and told me they where told because I’m a Catholic they would not employ me.another told me if they took me on it would be to clean the toilets not the jobs they had advertised. It’s a sectarian bigoted industry.
Remind me again how many were arrested in the george square riots ???
Everything I have read on local media since Saturday in regard to the fan gathering at Glasgow X has been dog whistle,exaggerated and dangerous rhetoric,designed to have an impact on Celtic and it’s fans,and the Irish community in general.