GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - AUGUST 22: Rangers fans display a tifo during a UEFA Champions League play-off round first leg match between Rangers and PSV Eindhoven at Ibrox Stadium, August 22, 2023, in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Rob Casey/SNS Group via Getty Images)
As every Celtic fan knows, Scottish football culture still carries echoes of darker times. Those echoes are impossible to ignore when certain supporters behave violently, sing sectarian songs, and treat hatred as though it is part of the matchday atmosphere.
What we sometimes see around the Ibrox club does not come from nowhere. It has a history. And that history leads directly back to one of the ugliest chapters in Glasgow’s past. The Billy Boys.
The comparison between the Billy Boys gang and parts of the culture surrounding the Ibrox support today is uncomfortable, but it is also hard to avoid. To understand why, we first have to understand who the Billy Boys actually were.
The Billy Boys were a Protestant street gang operating mainly in Glasgow during the 1920s and 1930s. They were led by Billy Fullerton, a man whose life symbolised the violent mix of poverty, sectarianism and political extremism that defined parts of interwar Glasgow.
According to the stories that surrounded their creation, Fullerton formed the gang after an altercation with Catholic youths. Whether that origin story is fully accurate or not, the hatred that shaped the group became unmistakable. The Billy Boys were fiercely anti-Catholic and openly loyalist in their outlook.
Their name came from William of Orange, known to supporters of that tradition as “King Billy”, the Protestant monarch who defeated Catholic forces at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. The symbolism was deliberate. The identity politics behind it were obvious.
The Billy Boys were not merely a group of rowdy young men. They were known as one of Glasgow’s infamous “razor gangs”, notorious for violence and intimidation. They fought turf wars with other gangs, ran protection rackets, and brought sectarian hatred onto the streets of the city.
Their story also became darker still during the 1930s, when Fullerton and his followers became associated with Sir Oswald Mosley and the British Union of Fascists. Members of the gang acted as bodyguards and muscle for Mosley’s rallies in Glasgow.
This was not just hooliganism. It was sectarianism tied directly to extremist politics.
And that culture did not simply disappear.
One of the most disturbing legacies of the Billy Boys gang is the song that bears their name. “The Billy Boys” chant eventually found its way onto football terraces and became associated with sections of the Ibrox support.
The lyrics are notorious for a reason. The line “up to our knees in Fenian blood” is not subtle. It is not harmless. It is an explicit celebration of anti-Catholic hatred.
Because of that, the chant was formally banned from Scottish football grounds in 2011. But anyone who has followed the sport for any length of time knows that the ban did not magically erase the culture behind it. The song still resurfaces, especially during matches involving Celtic.
When you hear it today, it sounds like something from another century. Yet it is still there. That should trouble anyone who cares about Scottish football.
This rivalry has always carried cultural weight. Glasgow in the early twentieth century was a city deeply divided along religious and political lines. Irish Catholic immigrants and their descendants gravitated toward Celtic, a club founded to help the downtrodden and the marginalised.
Across the city, the club based at Ibrox became associated with Protestant identity and unionist tradition.
Football terraces quickly became an extension of those social tensions. What should have been rivalry over a game turned into something far more poisonous. Songs were sung not simply to support a team but to attack the identity of the people on the other side of the divide.
That is where the legacy of groups like the Billy Boys entered football culture.
The gang itself eventually faded from Glasgow’s streets. But the attitudes and symbols associated with them did not disappear as easily. Instead, parts of that culture migrated onto the terraces.
Even today you sometimes see imagery, banners and chants that clearly draw on loyalist symbolism and identity politics rather than football. The Union Bears earned the club a European football sanction for their “woke ideologies” banner; that is the sort of hate speech which is prolific on the far right.
They have also openly endorsed anti-immigrant sentiment in some of their tifos and banners. There is an ugly strain of this in the Ibrox support all over again, something dirty and awful and right out of the gutters.
To be clear, this does not describe every supporter. Most fans simply want to watch their team and go home. But a large minority continue to behave as though the old sectarian divisions of Glasgow are something to celebrate.
When aggression spills over into intimidation or violence, it becomes impossible not to think about the historical culture that once produced gangs like the Billy Boys. It is all there for those who want to see it, and the similarities are uncomfortable. But ignoring them does not make them disappear.
Some people argue that we should stop talking about the Billy Boys altogether, that raising the subject only keeps the past alive. That argument misunderstands how history works. The past does not vanish simply because we stop mentioning it. In fact, silence often allows toxic traditions to survive quietly in the background.
Understanding where those attitudes came from is part of confronting them.
And that means acknowledging the influence of groups like the Billy Boys on the darker side of Glasgow’s football history.
History is rarely comfortable. But it is necessary.
Sometimes I wonder whether Scottish football will ever fully escape the ghosts that linger around this rivalry. When the passion stays within the boundaries of sport, matches between Celtic and the Ibrox club can be incredible spectacles.
But whenever racist and sectarian hatred creeps back into the atmosphere, it drags the whole game backwards.
The shadow of the Billy Boys should have faded long ago. Yet every time an old chant resurfaces or symbols of division appear in the stands, that shadow stretches across the pitch once again.
The challenge for Scottish football is not pretending the past never happened. Ignoring that history will not make it disappear.
If anything, facing it honestly might be the only way the game in this country can finally move forward and leave those darker shadows behind.
Choose The CelticBlog as a ‘Preferred Source’ on Google News for quick access to the news you value.
The huns have the intelligence of the Ibrox wall bricks. They sing the Billy Boys, yet, they wear poppies and have mad British imperialistic fantasies for past colonial wasters of life and limb. Not forgetting the modern wasters sending the working class into illegal wars with similar outcomes. I wonder if they know anything about the alignment of Fullarton to the British Union of Fascists and their subsequent support for the classic European fascists of that dark era? (if you know your history) and all that.
Natavist banners depicting Bill the Butcher, the Billy Boys, the recently dusted down Famine Song and a few other ditties that express anti-catholic/Irish sentiment are all elements of the Ibrox matchday experience. Remember their ‘Anyone Everyone’ inclusivity campaign? an utter sham.
Bootlicking servile morons who ought to read up.
Every article depicting Sevco’s hatred must be accompanied by a photo of Andrew Cavanagh so that his face becomes synonymous with it. He has chosen to back hatred with financial clout and has gone over to the dark side as opposed to coming out and blasting his fans for an Orc-like attack on opposition.
It should also be an opportunity to drag the ’49ers into the mix however tenuous the link is.
It looks like Cavanagh ( I believe he is one )and the ’49ers are anti-Catholic. I wonder if they know it. Someone should inform them.
Absolutely Cgreen. The SMSM are quick to mention the 49ers when it suits a positive narrative for everyone involved with rangers. Get their name and pics of Cavanah next to the banners of billy Fullerton “up to his knees in fenian blood” and see how quick he changes his tune.
We have the singer Bob vyllian being investigated for singing death death to the idf.
Meanwhile the manky mob get to sing up to their knees in Catholic blood.
Excellent article Paulina. Most of us know the background you’ve described, but it’s a eloquent reminder at a time when it’s needed.
I remember just after the Northern Ireland Peace Agreement, we had prominent Northern Ireland politicians and police chiefs attending debates in Glasgow about how the agreement in Belfast would affect sectarianism in Scotland/Glasgow. Most notable the Northern Irish Police Chief said that he didn’t feel that sectarianism would improve in Glasgow as a result of the peace agreement. His reasoning was that the Irish wanted peace and to get back to being able to live together, but that Glasgow did not want to move on due to that culture being interwoven in football rivarly and being so ingrained that people wouldn’t let it change. He’s been proved correct as Belfast and Northern Ireland have moved on, Glasgow and Scotland haven’t.
Good article again Paulinha…
I take it that’s why the only Sevco bar in Glasgow City Centre is called Oswalds then…
Thankfully for the good non football residents of Glasgow City Centre most of the pubs are our ones (the more the merrier) !
Clach, believe it or not, that pub used to be a crackin’ wee spot back in the day…it was called The Quarter Gill. The upstairs lounge Karaoke nights were legendary. By the by, I believe it is now called Oswalds, cos it is on Oswald Street. 🙂
Hail Hail.
Cgreen123 @ 9.52am…
Good point that…
By allowing that statement saying Sevco would protect their fans ‘robustly’ he has shown what way his ideology lies…
That said if he said anything else to upset these men children with the mental age of a four month old baby he’d lose every penny he invested within a bloody month…
He must be privately regretting ever setting eyes on Sevco and Liebrox !
I mistakenly though that when the Yanks took over that their fans would be forced to tone down their aggressive behaviour and that their sectarian song book would be challenged by the new regime. How naive am I?, for there yesterday the players were out there in all their Orange glory in their ludge strips that totally encourage their hate-filled fans to go to whatever extreme they want to reach.
Their club colours used to be red, white and blue, but orange seems to be their colour of choice in the modern era.
That’s because they’re Orange Bastards of the highest (pardon the pun) order Johnny !
Just to be clear on my reference to the peace agreement comparisons, I believe the hatred stems around 90% from the blue side.
When you see unionist politicians crying about putting up signs in Irish around Belfast, saying that folk shouldn’t be flying the Tricolour on St Patrick’s day and that bigoted idiot from Derry slabbering on to the new Irish president about not calling Derry the fake anglicized version of the cities name how can we ever expect the sectarianism and bigotry to go away. It never will- if they had their way they would go back to the old days of never having signed a Catholic player
Their songs are abhorrent but we need to stop singing about the ra.
We need to go back the being “the club like no other” but first we need to get rid of the board
I see the chelski filth have been caught doing the same as the original hun club
Both chelski and sevco should be wound up and closed down immediately
BigStevie @ 6.09pm…
That Gregory Campbell is utterly abhorrent an absolute cretin perpetually poking his nose into Celtic affairs that he accused Celtic of misusing public money and was proved to be a liar…
He is always having a go at Celtic in Wastemonster (Westminster)…
If only SDLP hadn’t stood for East Derry he was out at the last election but they did and he sneaked in by around 150 votes…
Hopefully he’s out the next time if he lives to then (he’s old)…
He must be pure fuckin sick seeing The West Bank of Derry so vibrant and on its way to being a United Ireland while his Loyalist community rips itself to pieces !
He is an utter gobshite and Catherine Connolly dealt with his crap superbly. He is unfortunately only one a few in the occupied 6 counties who whips up the hatred which we also see at the scumderdome
Great article Paulina.
It’s a pity our board didn’t read this and use some of it to defend the club and fans against the bile and lies from the pro loyalist rangers supporting media who try to deflect the bitter hatred coming from ibrox.