Whilst hating to get caught up in the whole sectarianism debate no doubt the whole hipocrisy of the Irish diplomats making an official complaint regarding an ‘inappropriate’ song sung by Rangers fans will ignite debate from the followers of every Scottish club side.
How one complaint from a Celtic supporter has made national headlines is quite frankly a kick in the teeth to the majority of supporters who follow clubs outwith the Old Firm and have to hear ‘party songs’ from the fans of the Glasgow clubs whenever they play in their towns or cities.
Trying to complain about songs which question your clubs ancestoral history are fruitless and often end up with the complainant being warned about their behaviour rather than the masses who chant about events to which they have little, or more commonplace, no idea about at all.
Yes Rangers fans were out of line with their chant ‘the famine’s over why don’t you go home’ but is a chant of ‘dirty orange b******’ better? – now before Celtic fans and their paranoid minds start pointing accusing fingers I’m a supporter of Hibernian Football Club and couldn’t really give a toss about the Hoops but fair’s fair and this complaint simply ridicules the Scottish game.
For the Scottish Government even to give the diplomat a response stinks of desperation at ending a problem which has dogged Scotland and in particular the West of Scotland for decades.
Surely rather than pandering to the complaint of the poor wee soul who was offended the Government should instruct those from both halves of the Old Firm support who continue to sing offensive ditty’s on their travel that they will be arrested and perhaps even enforce the Police to act upon sectarian singing.
As it stands it appears the Police force are quite happy to arrest an individual for sectarianism but will leave the masses alone.
Lazy Police work or orders from higher above?
You can answer that one.
As for the Irish diplomat – evidently you have nothing better to worry about than receiving a complaint from a football fan – I wonder if you offer the same service to all Irish residents in Scotland who have a complaint – maybe even about important issues such as housing or schooling – I doubt it.
And finally the Scottish Government – shame on you for taking this on board without even trying to eradicate the root cause.
Credit to Rangers FC for admitting ‘In the days following the recent Old Firm match, the Club were made aware that a substantial number of complaints had been made regarding the singing of the chorus of a song known as ‘The Famine Song’ by our supporters at this match.
‘Rangers Football Club approached Strathclyde Police for guidance on this matter, with a view to issuing a joint statement indicating that persons singing this song in future may face the possibility of arrest.’
Surprise surprise though – the Police force refused to comment and as usual will hide their head in the sand.
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I now what the name of the song which contains the words ?DOB? where it was sung and some sort of evidence to prove this whether it be youtube or documented articles.
This is the problem. Pedantic morons talking about things, which they quite frankly have no knowledge of whatsoever. Typical that Celtic should be brought into this despite being the victims of the bile. This is a racist song and it?s actually embarrassing that it has taken an Irish government official to do the job of the SPL/SFA. It?s deeply offensive and had the lyrics been ?the holocaust is over go on home? been sung to a Jewish support I wonder what the response would have been? The famine was equally as devastating and traumatic for the Irish people. A million died and another million were forced to emigrate. But here we have the usual narrow minded approach. Let?s tolerate racism and apportion blame to the innocent in the process. Clown.
A fairly balanced piece, and well written.
There are two extremely disappointing aspects to this, one of which impacts on every football supporter in the country.
Firstly, the hypocrisy here simply beggars belief. To have people pulled up for singing this whilst songs about the Ibrox disaster, “go home you huns”, orange ********s and the IRA go almost without a mention to the extent that the Celtc fans are actually quite incredibly pro IRA, and getting away with it – I simply cannot comprehend this is happening in my country.
Secondly, the hope for any football banter where Celtc are involved has now gone out the window. They wake up in the morning to look for something else to be offended at to the extent they complained about “No Tims in Europe” scarves until people were threatened with arrest for them.
I had no idea football supporters could ever be this precious, but we are now dealing with the utter dregs of humanity who will go out of their way to be offended. RIP Football.
Did you just refer to the deaths of a million people as “football banter”.
amazing coming from a so-called supporter of hibernian fc, a club set up by Irish immigrants.
and also a club which itself was known, like rangers, to have a sectarian signing policey with regard to only one religion being allowed to play for the club,
thankfully celtic never took the suggestions of the hibernian chairman on board when the club was formed to do likewise,
if only the irish creators of edinburgh hibs could see the people that follow their club now eh, happy to sit in their nice stadium and hear anti-irish songs without even a whimper
And to the writer, who I think has missed the whole point. Maybe we shouldn’t pander to the “poor wee soul” who was offended, but instead try to respect the memories of the million “wee souls” who starved to death.
Yeah well ,, lets just get back to the good old days when religeous intolerance was practiced by rangers football club courtesy of their bigoted signing policy ,, life was so much easier for our multi – cultural society in those days when these practices were sanctioned and rubber stamped by a totally institutionally biased home association wasn’t it ????? were it not for the intervention of the Uefa spoilsports we wouldn’t even be having this debate ……… how dare they seek to demand impartiality and fairness from the SFA ,, since when was it not acceptable to ridicule the most horrific natural disaster ever to befall a nation and the fortunate descendants of such ??? tut ,, tut ,, what next ???
Larcher – typical of the permanently offended. I was refering to chanting at a bunch of fourth generation, wannabe Irish plastic paddies with zero desire to be Scottish as football banter. wishaw bhoy – You’ll get a response when you learn to type in English.
hibs davie, maybe your brain has stopped functioning after sitting through all the dross at easter road recently. The reason why a complaint was made is because rangers embarrassing sectarian anthems go unchecked in the scottish press because people like you say “i’d rather not get involved” and “leave them to it” and “they’re both as bad as each other” while at the same time, every time aiden mcgeady (and previously neil lennon) kicked the ball at your ground, they would be met with sectarian abuse, anti-irish abuse, illegal abuse which is also at odds with the direction the game is going. Recently there was an inquiry in the english press into the abuse meted out to emile heskey after england vs croatia game but the utter silence from everyone (except graeme spiers) in the scottish press after the sickening bile meted out to aiden mcgeady and any other son of irish ancestry, is the reason why angry victims who are sick of swallowing sectarian abuse in their own country are resorting to official and political channels for action because clearly the police/press/football-authorities have no desire to address the problem and people like you hibs davie are part of the problem. Do you agree that abusing black players because of their skin colour is wrong? OK So do you also agree that abusing the sons of certain immigrant community simply because of their national identity is wrong? or is that ok? do you ever engage your brain before typing? leading up to and during the second world war the press and the public in Germany were silent or castigated the jewish victims of abuse who had the cheek to stand up for themselves in the face of overwhelming abuse. If any press stay silent in the face of clear sectarianism while on the other hand hypocritically jumping on someone who stands up for themselves in the face of abuse (boruc) then they are no better than the hypocrites and scumbags in nazi germany who told the jews to put up and shut up. The silence is over hibs davie, why don’t you pack up your keyboard and go home?
acoustamatix – Support of terrorists is also illegal so when you outright condemn that and erradicate it from the support at the Glitterdome and away from home, then we’ll take you seriously.
So, where was this Irish official when there was Bomb after Bomb going off in our cities, allegedly by Irishmen, was he listening to those complaints from the dead peoples families. did he pass it on to his fellow compatriots.
Don’t sing the song myself, but i will say that it is a song, and if i’m being perfectly honest …. it may offend the irish … but what you have to remember is that most irish may not have outwardly approved of the bombings but rarely condemned them.
So in that section of society there are foundations for singing their song aimed at the irish who like to live and work here but did not disapprove of their fellow countrymen blowing the place up.
….and remember, as we are speaking i am listening to the celtic fans, and not a few, singing their “AND SOON THERE’LL BE NO PROTESTANTS AT ALL …. just before the 2nd goal …. easily heard.
HUGGYLOCH talks SHIOTE!!!!!!!!
FACT!!!!!!
your lies have been told, now go home
Pardon me for being offended Arnold, but that can happen when people like you take so much pleasure in the deaths of 1 million human beings.
Larcher – I take no plesure in anything of the sort and only a member of the permanently offended could wake up one morning and fabricate such deluded, attention-seeking nonsense. However, I do recognise there is little difference between this and “go home ya huns”, which the beasts from the Glitterdome seem to love so much.
Arnold ,, if you would kindly enlighten me of which part of my post you refuse to understand I,d be delighted to help you understand better a subject that you would much rather forget ………. yes ???
We stopped singing ” go home ya Huns ” to your lot when you started doing it voluntarily Arnie …….
That’ll be the outraged Hibs fans who were incandescent with rage as the celtic goalie clapped provocatively at them last season!!!
Perspective springs to mind
I would be obliged if you could help me understand the similarities between the death of 1 million people and the song “go home ya huns”. As I am permanently offended, deluded, attention seeking and a beast, I fail to see how the two compare.
Larcher – Quite clearly the song, distasteful as one may find it, doesn’t mock what happened in the manner you lot do with your disgusting songs about the Ibrox disaster, but instead pokes fun at the plastic paddy element of the Celtc support, complete with xth generation Scots who would rather be Irish than Scottish.
Arnold, I have never heard the song about the Ibrox disaster, but I have heard people talking about it and I for one would never condone it. Innocent death should never be laughed at. The fact that you can describe the ibrox disaster song (and I agree), as disgusting but say that the famine song is just poking fun at plastic paddys is ok is beyond my comprehension.