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Gaeilge

C*ltic Ban IRA Chants

It is thought to be the first time any C*ltic official has ever linked the IRA to the fans in any way. But what compelled the club to take this action?

On the eve of the anniversary of the September 11th attacks in the United States C*ltic were scheduled to play Motherwell in a game which was being broadcast live on BBC Scotland. As with all fixtures that day, a minute's silence was being observed. Well, almost everywhere with Motherwell's Fir Park being the notable exception. As the players and home fans stood in silence in respect of the victims, the sound of C*ltic fans chanting IRA slogans was clearly heard on the TV broadcast. The C*ltic PR machine went into overdrive. The papers wouldn't be a problem as C*ltic knew the press would turn a deaf ear to the fans' latest obscenity. However, the this game was being broadcast live in the box. A story surfaced that the fans doing the singing were infact outside the ground and had no idea that there was a minutes silence being observed. Apparently these fans hadn't heard about 9/11!

This is only the latest in a long line of minute's silences that have been desecrated by these 'fans'. Others are the two held for the anniversaries of the Ibrox disaster, the Omagh bomb and the Queen Mother's death. The disgrace at Motherwell, like the other events, received no commentary from the jock meeja. Celtic supporters have learned that no matter how obscene their behaviour, they are able to act with absolute impunity and without any criticism from the press. One question that begs an answer is: if this game hadn't been televised live, would Ian MacLeod have made his statement?

MacLeod's historic statement received blanket coverage in the Scottish meeja with the exception of the Glasgow Herald who didn't feel the story needed the oxygen of publicity. Just why this rag failed to cover the story is open to conjecture. Perhaps Kevin McKenna believed that the rest of the meeja would continue to toe the line and keep up the denial. The fact that jock hacks (Herald journos excepted) now accept that C*ltic fans did actually abuse the memories of the 9/11 victims should be congratulated, although we must bare in mind that this only came after the game was broadcast live in Scotland AND after C*ltic had made the statement.

This of course leaves the Glasgow Herald isolated and not for the first time. Could this be a sign that the jock papers are now no longer prepared to tollerate the behaviour of the C*ltic fans? It's doubtful.

The handling of these events by the meeja has led to a strange form of historical revisionism from the beggars. Take Mark Walters' debut for us at the piggery on January 2nd 1988. For years the meeja have refused to awknowledge that C*ltic fans created the worst demonstration of racist behaviour witnessed at sports event in British history. Each time Walters got anywhere near the ball the bigots would subject us to a deafining crescendo of vile monkey chants. So many bananas were thrown onto the pitch that the game had to be held up while stewards cleared the fruit off the playing surface. Astonishingly this was never awknowledged in the meeja allowing the bigots to get off. This non-history propogated by the jock hacks has led a bizaar revision which can be illustrated by the following two examples:

On Saturday September 14th 2002 Mark Walters was being interviewed on BBC Radio 5 Live about the current state of Scottish football. The interviewer led the discusssion into racism in Scotland asking Walters to comment on the vile treatment he received on his 'debut' at Tynecastle against Hearts. This is not a one-off mistake by an ignorant, illinformed reporter, this is now the establish belief among the meeja and fans that the Walters' first game for Rangers was the week after his real debut at the piggery. Walters, of course, set the hack straight about the first time he pulled on the light blue shirt and the treatment he received from the beggars.

The second example beggars (excsue the pun) belief. Sanjeev Kohli wrote and article in the Sunday Herald (no suprises there then!) on April 7th 2002 about Asian footballers in Britain. In it he stated that "by the time Mark Walters arrived at Ibrox and was showered with exotic fruit by his own team's supporters, I was, if not a fully-fledged, then certainly a partially-fledged Celtic fan". So now, not only have the beggars been exonerated, the blame has been shifted to Rangers fans. Yet even C*ltic fanzines awknowledge the behaviour of the beggars that day. The openly sectarian and fascist beggar fanzine TAL wrote "There was a black player, Mark Walters, playing for Rangers at the time and our fans at his first game against Celtic behaved in some really bad ways. There were supporters who turned up at the ground wearing gorilla costumes. There were others who came with bunches of bananas and who made loud monkey noises at the player throughout the game. By the end of the game, the track around the pitch was covered with bananas." The less controversial publication Not The View stated "Sadly we had to reflect on the behaviour of some racist *rseholes and their abuse of the black Rangers player Mark Walters during the Ne'erday fixture that year".

If partisan C*ltic fanzines can admit this sad event happened then why not the 'impartial' jock meeja? Lets look at other examples.

In May 1999 Rangers played Celtic at the Piggery. A win for Rangers would virtually gaurantee the Gers the title at the ground of their great rivals - a double coup. In the end Rangers cruised to a 3-0 victory and the title. Sadly, the result was incidental. As Rangers banged the goals in the beggars descended further into violence and anarchy. C*ltic fans massed at the touchlines trying to invade the park in an attempt to have the game abandoned and coins and other missiles rained down on the park, one of them striking referee Hugh Dallas leaving him with a bleading head wound. All of this from the home fans, yet how was the game reported? As the "Old Firm Shame Game". Yet Rangers fans behaved impecibly that day but the hacks just couldn't stick the idea of a "Celtic Shame Game" so lumped the bears in with the thuggish yahoos.

The BBC's Richard Gordon wrote "In the early stages of Sunday's encounter a number of 50-50 decisions went the way of Rangers and all around us it was clear that the Celtic fans were being pushed to the limit." No let's digest this claim for a moment.

"A number of 50-50 decisions went the way of Rangers". Well by definition, a number of 50-50 decisions must have gone to C*ltic also.

"All around us it was clear that the Celtic fans were being pushed to the limit". By "all around us" does Gordon mean the press box? Also, is he really trying to admonish the vile behaviour of the beggars that day by claiming they were not responsible for their actions and that they were "pushed" by the referee's decisions?

Ultimately, the refusal by the meeja condemn C*ltic uniquely has led to some twisted beggar logic. One example of this is the a statement made by one demented yahoo that the coin that hit Dallas was thrown by a Rangers fan!