A big bad Proddy made me do it and ran away…
…Or so many a commentator, journalist or blogger would have you think. It has been a strange week, we have had the conclusion of two planned international events to take place at Celtic Park.
No one needs reminding of them both. The Commonwealth games was a truly international event with participants across the globe proud of their own identity and proud to be associated, albeit loosely in some cases nowadays, with the UK and the colonial past of Great Britain. The national anthem of the UK when it arrived that night was belted out with all the passion you would expect to mark such an occasion and kick start the games.
In sharp contrast to this, the same song for the England football team was pounced upon by nationalist fervour, jingoism and downright anger for some that independence just didn't happen. For other Scots who consider themselves British watching that through the prism of TV being beamed around the globe was depressing. Watching the country of your birth boo and disrespect it's Union partner, closest ally and the country it would turn to immediately (remember even when the Nats were in full throttle, they wanted the Queen and her head on the currency) isn't something I identify with. It is a sad reflection of how myopic the swollen head minority have become.
Only one of the above was reported. I'll let you guess which one.
Our English guests duly turn up and their national anthem is disrupted and disrespected by a hostile Scottish crowd made up of zealots. My main point is the lack of reporting in relation to deeply offensive chants by the Scottish support going unrecorded and justified as banter or plainly ignored and not deemed worthy of newsprint. The journalists in England believe it or not turned on their own team's support and criticised them for anti- IRA chants. The journalist Henry Winter produced this tweet.
Winters’ colleague Jason Burt is just as critical. He describes the behaviour as "distasteful and unnecessary". What is distasteful about chanting in a negative way about a terrorist group which bombed, murdered, maimed and held this country to ransom with constant bomb threats? They would both do well to remember the victims of the IRA atrocities and the families affected. The IRA and the support of Celtic FC deserve every bit of criticism that comes their way. Journalists like these two seem to forget Celtic FC have already been fined a few months ago in relation to a political banner showing the image of Bobby Sands alongside William Wallace to highlight the plight of their "freedom fighter".
Plenty of Scots would like to profoundly thank the English fans for highlighting the agenda which pours from the terraces of Celtic Park, it does not happen enough. I find the very fact that both of these men feel the need to condemn the England fans for reminding the watching audience and the surrounding residents of Parkhead about the overt political support for the IRA in that part of Glasgow absolutely incredulous and odious.
The other aspect to remember is the way the media allows high profile commentators to shape the narrative. Notice how subtly Winter has introduced "No Surrender" to his tweet and therefore the narrative. Next, James McMillan did the same thing. James McMillan is a composer and high profile bigot who extols the virtues of the Roman Catholic Church and apartheid schooling. Here's a copy of his blog from a while back.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk//jmacmillan/...catholic-roots./
So here we have two stories by three journalists saying different things in different ways about the same group, the IRA. They are both saying back off from the IRA. Winter and Burt are saying it should not be criticised by the English fans and McMillan saying it should not be supported by the Celtic fans. When did the IRA become something of a 'no go' subject for journalists? I know who was right from the start, the English support at the match.
As a side point, this is also produced in the Telegraph, the same newspaper which houses the journalists listed above, Henry Winter and Jason Burt.
McMillan lays the charity foundations of Celtic on very thick, he plays on the conscience and the souls of the catholic sect to the extent he promotes the confessional as a way of Celtic removing itself from its shady terrorist links. Doesn't he get the fact, this is the Catholic way - sin, repent then go and do it (support terrorism) all over again.
McMillan even hints that the priests guilty of working with/for the IRA (delete whichever is appropriate) are probably Celtic supporters. Therein lies the truth and the issue. They are not mutually exclusive, they are symbiotic and intertwined. McMillan does what most commentators do at this point - mention the polar opposite as a calibration mark to make their point.
He mentions Rangers no fewer than four times and Hearts once. He even mentions the National Front and the British National Party. He even mentions support for Hamas via the TUC in relation to anti-Semitism. Yet another trick played with the sleight of hand that we see all too often. As I suggested in my title, McMillan, Winter and Burt are suggesting that the Celtic way of justifying their support for terror was due to other people and institutions. This is not the case and never has been.
At what point in Celtic's history, or the history of the Roman Catholic Church for that matter, did they decide to support the IRA because of what Rangers, Hearts, the BNP or the England support were doing? The answer is never. Do Winter and Burt think that by chanting anti-IRA songs they are upsetting the sensitivities of the terrorists? When I read the Telegraph I thought I picked up the Guardian and Roy Greenslade had taken over as editor for the day.
McMillan mentions it in the same breath, therefore by association, and must be looked at in the same political landscape. McMillan is being disingenuous to say the least and treating the reader as brainless and incapable of thinking for themselves.
As one contributor to Vanguard Bears has explained. You may find the BNP distasteful but they have a right to their point of view. Using the justification of supporting these parties as a starting point to explain why Celtic and the Roman Catholic Church are entrenched within each other is poor in the extreme. I'm trying to think when the BNP have planted and detonated bombs, bought arms from Gaddafi or were caught in the jungles of Columbia being trained by another terrorist group FARC. When did the BNP get letters giving them immunity from prosecution?
Finally I agree with McMillan. Celtic should ditch their horrid and current association with Irish terrorism. I disagree that it will happen as his commentary was from a few years ago. As he is suggesting that Celtic distance themselves from Irish terrorism, I would like to give him a hint for his next article about acceptance.
To James McMillan, accept and then condemn the cover up of the child sex abuse which took place at Celtic FC and put your comments on paper, as you have done about this latest topic.
To Jason Burt, cover up of child sexual abuse is "distasteful and unnecessary" to say the least, shouting down terrorism should be celebrated.
To Henry Winter, “No Surrender” indeed.