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Gaeilge

Dublin Riot and Jock Meeja

In the past few months C*ltic fans have been involved in two major disturbances that I know of. Firstly there was the Royston 'street party' riot which I am sure we were all aware of. Secondly there was a Dublin riot in the City's O'Connell Street after the 3-0 Old Firm game at Ibrox. While Scottish journos put a PR spin on the Royston riot, ironically their Irish counterparts saw no requirement to gloss over the Dublin disturbances in a country that the club loves to romantically view as its spiritual homeland.

Let's first look at Royston. In The (Glasgow) Herald on April 9th, Hugh MacDonald wrote a piece entitled "Home boys hooping it up' about the 'street party' that so romanticised the event it made Brigadoon look like Trainspotting. Typically he took the opportunity to attack Scotland and a barely veiled stab at the Protestant religion. He claimed "The fans who congregated in street and house parties across Scotland were forming a huge identity parade. Irishness and its associated religion were once spoken of in subdued whispers…Now the show is for public consumption. Scotland's Shame, once famously articulated by James MacMillan, has now found a raucous and assured voice."

Once again the Scots are portrayed as oppressive, anti-Catholic bigots. The suggestion is that the 'ethnic Irish' were living in constant fear under a crypto-nazi Scottish regime. Sadly, it is a claim we have been bombarded with in recent years and one that no-one in the media seems prepared to challenge.

Another irony is that while the Scots-Irish have now apparently 'found their voice' ('raucous' as it may be) to express their Irishness and its associated religion i.e. Catholicism, Ireland itself is desperately trying to throw off its image as a uni-religious state and promote one of a more cosmopolitan society. The belated Paddy's Day Parade here in Dublin is testament to that. Any reference to religion is hard to find and strictly ecumenical. The Catholic processions of old have been replaced by samba dancers and Chinese dragons.

So what else did MacDonald have to say about Royston? He quotes one of the organiser as saying "There was no sectarianism involved in the night at all, everyone was just there for a good time."

A few lines later he cites a publican, "There was…no sectarian singing inside the pub at all."

Do you think he is trying to tell us something? Now we all know the truth about C*ltic fans. We all know the lie that is Bhoys Against Bigotry but the Scottish meeja will do everything in its power to give us the sanitised, C*ltic-friendly version. MacDonald waxes lyrical about a shared heritage and 'folk songs' but none of this nonsense is ever held up for scrutiny (except within the pages of fanzines). Had it been our year and the street party, complete with flute bands, been a Rangers celebration, would we still have been reading about "an absolutely fantastic night" and a "tremendous sense of community"? For any non-Rangers fans reading, that last question was rhetorical. The journos would be foaming at the mouth at another chance to churn out those well-worn clichés about how we have failed to combat sectarianism etc. And what would they have said about the trouble?

MacDonald did concede that the police made 34 arrests though he is at pains to point out that the "offences were mostly minor breaches of the peace".

And what of Dublin Old Firm riot then?

I had been back in Scotland for the game and flew back to Dublin on the Monday morning trying my hardest to dodge the minks, many of whom were still in their beer and sweat stained C*ltic tops from the day before. The morning papers in Glasgow had mentioned nothing of any trouble anywhere. The Irish papers told a different story though. The Irish editions of The Sun and Mirror declared that sellik fans had rioted in O'Connell Street. For those that don't know Dublin, that is where the GPO is situated, the rebels' headquarters of the 1916 uprising. Not a case of history repeating itself, surely? The main difference of course is that this time the 'rebels' were not battling the imperialist forces of an oppressive British regime but the gardaí. There is that irony again.

After the event, the Irish Times reported (1/5/01): "Criminal proceedings have been initiated against almost 30 people for participating in what gardaí described as a "riot" on Sunday night in O'Connell Street, Dublin. A Garda spokesman said a file was being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions arising from the incident and those involved were due to appear in court between today and the end of the month. A total of 29 people were arrested for public order and criminal damage offences after fans of Celtic Football Club spilled on to the streets to celebrate their victory against Glasgow rivals Rangers in a televised match earlier that day. According to gardaí, scuffles broke out after the crowd were asked to move from the junction of Cathal Brugha Street and O'Connell Street. The rear window of an unmarked Garda car was smashed, a number of gardaí were assaulted, traffic was stopped and passers-by were abused, said gardaí. However, people in the crowd claimed gardaí had over-reacted to what began as harmless singing and chanting by about 50 Celtic fans who had been drinking at a nearby pub. They were joined by local youths, swelling the numbers to over 200. As arrests began to be made, the crowd became increasingly angry and running battles ensued. Reinforcements were brought in and the crowd was dispersed within an hour."

So the Garda described it as a 'riot', a Garda car attacked, gardaí assaulted, running battles, 29 arrests. How many column inches did this warrant in Scotland? Well, none. The jock meeja might try to claim that it isn't newsworthy as it didn't happen in Scotland but that didn't stop them getting weeks' of copy from a single piece of graffiti about Neil Lennon in Belfast. Indeed, The Herald was at pains to report that the culprits responsible were most likely Rangers fans as we have a large following among the Protestant population in Northern Ireland.