Celtic FC have issued 2 recent statements with the air of some pontiff who is so far removed from reality that, if it wasn’t so serious, we’d all fall off our metaphorical chairs clutching our sides with painful laughter.

The Celtic FC 131 statement (see link below) was to celebrate the work done by the Irish Catholic priest, Brother Walfrid acknowledging the ‘charitable’ work carried out in the good name of Catholicism. The statement even mentioned “dinner tables for the children”. What moral fortitude and foresight Br Walfrid had shown, after all, we all know how precious children are to the future of the Roman Catholic cult. It’s an abuse factory. Now, I’m no historian but the Irish Diaspora had been coming to Scotland and especially Glasgow for a generation before Br Walfrid’s soup kitchen turned up, what took him so long?

https://mobile.twitter.com/CQN/status/1059860499486121984

The latest statement is about the twice convicted paedophile Jim Torbett acknowledging the abuse but arrogantly stating that the Celtic Boys Club and Celtic FC are separate entities. How gracious and endearing that dis-association must be for the people abused and polluted by Torbett for a generation before, what took you so long?

http://www.celticfc.net/news/15222

The statement issued is grotesque. It states how terrible these crimes are and how brave the victims and victims families have been. But never far from the narrative and the thrust of the statement is, “nothing to do with us” so please move on with your life so that our cherished delusion can continue without a stain on our perfect virtue. We are Celtic FC and we are above scrutiny, investigation and above all we are infallible. 

That is pretty much it. We are perfect, never wrong and we are superior to you and your moral code, with a little tongue in cheek flourish for internal use only of “look it could have been so much worse.....I think we may get away with this bhoys”. Never mind the ruined lives and the ritual humiliation, how best to demonstrate that the victims are no better than an inconvenience to be dismissed in an astonishing act of hubris.

This is what happens when institutions are given free reign and not held to account in a proper manner. Put bluntly they become the self appointed moral arbiters and dictators for significant parts of our culture, I include the SFA and SPFL in this and little has less significance in Scotland than our national game. 

Not only do they think they are untouchable, they are deranged in their cosseted belief that the boys club and Celtic FC are separate. There is a list as long as Cardinal O’Briens fondling arm stating and showing evidence of how both clubs are intertwined. It is irrefutable unless you’re seriously confused or just downright egregious.

The directors and lawyers who wrote that scandalous statement are every bit as heinous and monstrous as their counterparts a generation ago who allowed this paedophilic behaviour to be initially covered up then facilitated by re-employing this animal. 

This trait of temerity and overconfidence is now going to be their undoing. Let me just pick one part of that loathsome statement issued today.....“we have always taken these allegations extremely seriously because of our historic contacts with Celtic Boys’ Club”. 

The snippet of that statement I have quoted above is a blatant lie. They did not take the allegations seriously otherwise Torbett would not have been in a position to prey on children after the initial allegations and crimes took place. Off the cuff there have been other allegations and convictions of a sexual nature at Celtic Park relating to the Club photographer and admin staff, both after their groundbreaking code of conduct was introduced in the 90’s to protect people.

Jim Torbett is a multiple offender, he is a serial sexual predator. He is responsible for crimes over 3 decades at least. His last known act was in 1994. He has been convicted for a second time, 24 years after his last known offence. He carried out sexual abuse at Celtic Boys Club in the 70’s, 80’s & 90’s and these cretins at Celtic FC express regret! What are they regretting? The fact that their infallible institution now has to try, but failing, to distance itself from something it discovered, hid then aided by future business deals and continued endorsement of Celtic Boys Club, the feeder club for Celtic FC?

What is needed is an “unpacking” of the contempt that Celtic FC clearly has toward anyone who is rightly questioning this perverse logic. Powerful institutions and individuals have been dethroned recently with tiny acts that soon grew and overwhelmed them. The preening and the flawless turned out to be gruesome and after all that certainty, fallible.