Jealousy, as they say, is the root of all evil. As a supporter or employee of the world's most successful football club, it is therefore, par for the course that your team needs to put up with a certain amount of envy from those who support provincial clubs or clubs with delusions of grandeur. In Scotland, however, the old adage above is proved to be very accurate.
The staggering discrepancy between the treatment of Rangers, and that of other clubs is a warning to all. Scotland is on a very slippery slope, and the silent majority need to fight back before it is too late. This slippery slope does not only apply to Rangers Football Club, but to the Protestant, Unionist & Loyalist communities in general.
Since as far back as I can remember, our club has been singled out for harsh treatment from fans of other clubs, footballing authorities, political figures & of course the Scottish media. As a child of the 80's & 90's I blamed one person for this. All David Murray had to do was issue a statement that Rangers Football Club and its fans would bow to no such hypocrisy, and the institution's freedom of speech would never be diminished. Alas, that statement never came, and indeed Donald Findlay was banished from the club after the uproar caused by a private sing-song. His crime was to sing a folk song of Ulster Scots heritage.
Step up another old adage, 'Give an inch and they'll take a mile'.
John Reid, Brian Wilson, Frank McAvennie, John Hartson, Stephen Pearson, Anthony Stokes and others have all been caught on film singing songs glorifying the murder of British soldiers or a proscribed terrorist organisation. Their club backed them to the hilt, and not one of them lost their job through their actions. Then Celtic manager, Kenny Dalglish, even held a press conference in a bar which is now closed due to its deep-rooted sectarian policy.
This persecution of everything Rangers or PUL minded has only worsened since devolution, and the rise of the SNP. A party whose MSP's Roseanna Cunningham & John Mason have both admitted that their much maligned Offensive Behaviour at Football & Threatening Communications Act was created with the sole purpose of stopping anti Irish discrimination. In 2015 the Scottish Government published figures showing 27.2% of race hate victims in Scotland were indeed classed as White British. 21.2% were classed as Pakistani and only 14%were classed as other white (which includes Irish). Seems odd that your focus is to clamp down on one of the least likely groups to suffer from hate crime, and ignore the group most likely to be a victim. But that is a Nationalist agenda.
Everyone knows that the vast majority of Rangers supporters are from the PUL community. Monday's rousing rendition of the Billy Boys, Derrys Walls etc leaves nobody in any doubt. The vast majority of Rangers fans are proud of their heritage and there is no better sight or sound than the Blue Sea of Ibrox declaring its love for that heritage and history. It is spine tingling, and it helps bring the PUL community together like nothing else on God's fine earth. It is also the only reason The Nationalist Stazi are so eager to consign it to the history books. Whilst the Rangers fans are in full voice, rallying the Unionist cause, independence will never happen! Billy Boys is football's equivalent of the Haka!
A few years back, a lie was concocted that a letter had come from UEFA to advise that the song was banned. The letter does not exist. I urge everyone to ask for a copy of this letter. Failure to produce the letter will show the contempt the footballing authorities, riddled with Rangers haters, hold us in.
The 'faux' outrage over Monday's heart warming sing song has been made all the more sweet by the fact that it was all a sting. Rangers fans sick of the selected deafness from English, McGillivan, Spiers et al, led to a concerted effort to get everyone singing the song, with amended words. From where I was sitting I heard, 'Up to our knees in EBTs', 'Up to our knees in paedo blood' 'Up to our knees in trophies' and various other versions, but within minutes the usual suspects had fell into the trap.
Killie fans sing about being up to their knees in 'Ayr blood', Dundee of 'Arab blood', Hearts of 'Hibee blood', Morton fans of 'St Mirren blood', etc. Singing about being up to your knees in the blood of your living rivals is ok, but the second you bring up the members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood from the 19thCentury then you are out of order! How does that work out?
Every week at Ibrox we are subjected to 'Orange Bastards' this 'Proddy bastards' that from whatever away fans we have breaking our seats that day. As a member of the Orange Institution, I am subjected to vile and vitriol like this every time I go to a match, or even look at social media. That is seen as acceptable by the media and politicians of Scotland.
Only 24 hours before the Rangers v Hibs game at Ibrox,Celtic visited Tynecastle. As expected, the visiting fans subjected us TV viewers to 90 minutes of anti British abuse. Songs about 'Huns', 'Orange bastards', songs about 66 innocents dying in the Ibrox disaster, the murder of British soldiers, glorification of the IRA, hoping for the death of Nacho Novo' and even about someone raping our Queen. Perhaps more predictable was the silence from the media. A club with 7 UEFA fines in 3 years and another 2 from their last European trip, are given carte blanche to sing as they wish without so much as a mention from the mock offended journalists of Scotland.
One of the mock offended, Darren Cooney, Online Editor of the Daily Record allowed the following comment from a user called Gerrybhoy67 to stay on an article for over an hour; 'Why don't you go and ask the Chief Constable of Glasgow why a club can Murder 66 of its own fans yet nobody was held accountable..Go in I Fkn dare yi'.
Personally, I couldn't care less what people want to sing at a football match. The only one that gets under my skin is when they use the word 'hun'. It is used as a derogatory term against people of the Protestant faith, and indeed Celtic Football Club were warned by their deceased lawyer, Paul McBride, that the word should not be used. The club which introduced sectarianism to Scottish football even had to write to employees advising that the word was banned. Before you accuse me of being a hypocrite, these are not the reasons I hate the word being used. My father and grandfather have often told me of the Old Firm games when they would shout at the 'huns' in the Celtic end. It was Celtic Park which was closed during the war for pro-Nazi chants, and it was the Ireland that they love so much that helped the Germans. These are acts of treachery that should have every level-minded British citizen disgusted that they could have the audacity to try and turn the tables. It gets under my skin that the apathetic Rangers support could allow them to do so. Celtic fans always have been, and always will be the Huns.
I will sign off the year with a few messages.
To the Rangers fans; It was great to have the best anthem in world football back on Monday. The Billy Boys must be sung at every game. No concessions, no changing of the original words. They are hurting, they know we are coming back. They tried to kill us and couldn't. If they want to be offended then give them what they want!
To the club, don't make the same mistakes that David Murray did. Do not 'build bridges'. These clubs, their fans and Chairman tried to kill us. Never forget that. Let's do to them what they couldn't manage to do to us. If need be take them to the EU court, but we will sing our anthem. Ban, for life, any journalist who tries to single us out. Oh and if it's not stretching it, lets have the Orange Order Divine Service back at Ibrox on an annual basis. It's time to take our club and country back.
To the footballing authorities - Show us the UEFA letter or shut up!
To the haters - We are up to our knees, it could be worse, it could be our necks!
To Vanguard Bears - Keep fighting the good fight. No Surrender!