News
NAKED HATRED
By Redbiddy
Despite last Sunday's hard fought 3-2 victory over our arch-rivals and yesterday's battling 2-1 win over Motherwell moving Celtic eight points clear at the SPL summit, it is with heavy heart that I write today. Last week another Celtic supporter died on the streets of Glasgow after being attacked by bigots.
This is how it was reported by Scotland's leading tabloid newspaper, the Daily Record:
“A Celtic fan has died after being attacked in Govan, Glasgow. Patrick McBride, 51, was assaulted by a gang around 9.30pm on Sunday.
It's believed the Gorbals man suffered a heart attack.
He was not wearing any football colours but cops believe the confrontation was triggered by the Old Firm game.”
Remarkably, this was printed at the end of a story, the headline of which implied that a Celtic player, Aiden McGeady, had been involved in a “punch up”. The fact, rather than the headline, was that a Celtic player was attacked in the street by Rangers fans. Never mind that prominence really ought to have been given to the far more serious and fatal attack that took place in Glasgow on the same day.
A family has been torn apart yet the scandal sheet that passes itself off as some kind of voice for the Scottish people saw fit to tag the story of a man's death onto the end of a distorted depiction of other, far, far more minor events.
Never mind that “real Tims don't buy it”, decent human beings need to think long and hard about paying for this trash and the rest of the tabloids, the Herald included.
Look at the language of the Daily Record's reporting of the incident. It is a classic case of the airbrushing of Scotland's Shame (and I mean here the wider problem of which Rangers Football Club are the most prominent manifestation) at work. It reads “cops believe the confrontation was triggered by the O** F*** game.” At best this is rubbish. At worst it is a deliberate distortion of the truth. You can reach your own conclusions on that. But ask yourself, is there an implication in the reporting of this incident that it was an occurrence at the game, the game itself or Celtic beating Rangers that caused a number of young men to attack another human being?
Last month a Celtic supporter had his throat slashed by Linfield / C18 thugs in Belfast City centre as they attacked a bar where dozens of Celtic supporters had earlier watched their team lose to Rangers. It is safe to say this attempted murder was carried out by people with Rangers sympathies and more definitely anti-Celtic, anti-Irish, anti-Catholic intolerance. They are people for whom intolerance is a habit, a way of life and a part of what they claim to be their “culture”. The fact that there was a match on meant simply that there were visible targets about, simple as that.
Nothing that happened at a football match caused these evil deeds.
It was a Rangers supporting bigot who murdered a young Celtic supporter who was returning from a Celtic home match through the Bridgeton area. Rangers weren't involved in that game. To my recollection they were not playing at all that day.
God only knows that I feel a deep sense of distaste for the Rangers support when they gather together and belt out their songs of hatred. Yet I have never felt like going out and stabbing them, beating them to death or shooting them with a crossbow. An ex-colleague of mine provoked me more than I could describe during the tail end of their 9-in-a-row, but we often shared a pint, found common ground in other aspects of life and so on. The joy of watching his miserable coupon after we stopped 10-in-a-row and the satisfaction of knowing I was a Celtic fan, despite many a set back against them in those days, was enough for me.
No, these incidents are not caused by Celtic versus Rangers games. They are caused by hatred, deep and genuine loathing and centuries of “we arra peepul” attitudes and the superiority complex that comes along with it. It is the attitude that says it's alright, no, not just alright, vital to parade their “culture” through areas where they are not welcome as if it were their God given right. As long as the national papers are too frightened to challenge and confront the real causes of sectarian hatred and as long as they airbrush the facts to suit their twisted agenda that one side is as bad as the other, then things are not going to get any better.
Celtic supporters cannot change Rangers. We cannot change the Scottish press. What we can do is continue to distance ourselves from them. Don't pay any hard-earned cash to fund the Daily Record, the Scottish Sun (ask a Scouser about the English version!) or any other of their ludicrous chip wrappers. More so, don't behave like the bigoted element of the Rangers following. Do not let your following of Celtic be defined by a hatred of Rangers. When you are wearing Celtic colours you have a duty to uphold the finest traditions of our all-inclusive support and not to act like a thug. Try not to pre-judge the guy walking down the street in a Rangers jersey - hard to do, I know - because he may not be a Loyal Son of Bigotsville. He may just have had the misfortune to have chosen them as his first team and never grown out of it. They are not all the same. You know that as well as I do. In short, we must continue to rise above them and walk away from them.
Is there room for a memorial in Glasgow to victims of sectarian violence, from both sides? It is time for a permanent reminder of the cost of Scotland's Shame, but perhaps such a memorial might be too revealing for some in the sick parts of society in an otherwise wonderful country.
Redbiddy
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