Post by Admin on Dec 15, 2011 18:10:01 GMT
Here's an interesting article,give us your thoughts.
“Ooh, aah, up the RA.”
It’s probably borderline illegal for me to even type that now, as the SNP force through their farcical bill that deals with a small symptom of a larger social problem in Scotland. Legislation for legislation’s sake – but that’s an argument for another blog.
UEFA have deemed our singing against Rennes to be illicit and have fined us accordingly. It took over 24 hours for us to get confirmation that the above line, part of Celtic Symphony, was the offender. Celtic will not appeal the decision, and I don’t think anyone is surprised by that. So what next for the Celtic support? Where do we go from here?
There’s several issues we have to deal with. We have a fan base that can’t agree on what we should and shouldn’t sing, we likely have factions outside our control that wish to stamp out any ounce of Irishness from our club, and we have rivals that we deem to be getting away with similar offences.
Lets deal with that one first… by not dealing with it. “Whataboutery” does my head in. It happens both ways, and is almost always a response to someone pointing out what you are currently doing is wrong. It’s like a nervous reaction – “ahh but what about when they sing blah, that’s just as bad.” It’s a diversion tactic and does nothing but fuel the “two sides of the same coin” theory. No one ever changes because the other side do it and they should be dealt with first, right?
Stop it. We need to clean up our own act. Only then can we possibly be in a position to point out what they’re singing. Until we do, no one will listen – not even our own support. Which takes me back to the first point.
Some will say we don’t have to clean up anything because we’re not doing anything wrong. I’ve said it myself, because I still firmly believe that the singing of songs has never and will never be a problem. The hatred beneath the songs is the problem throughout Scottish society and banning the songs won’t remove that hatred. The songs should be a moral issue for the singers rather an a legal issue, and it’s time we looked at our own morality.
If you’re singing about the IRA – no matter what version – you’re singing about people who killed other people. It doesn’t matter how, it doesn’t matter why, the death of other human beings is not something we should be proud of however it comes about – whether it was necessary or not. Half the Celtic support are embarrassed any time they get mentioned, and that is what divides us as a support the most.
No one among us – not the Celtic support, not Peter Lawwell and not the rest of the Celtic board – is saying get rid of the Irishness, but they are saying get rid of the IRA mentions. It’s high time we did just that. There are plenty of Irish songs that don’t make any mention of them. Housey plays some I’ve never even heard previously on Over and Over – among other far more “illicit” stuff of course – and I’m sure Seamus of iCeltic fame could teach us loads. Of course, we have plenty of football songs to supplement them. The Green Brigade have been writing new ones of late, using the same tunes as Irish songs in some cases, so there’s a whole host of songs to be sung that cannot possibly offend any reasonable person.
Which brings me to the other point. There are those who are not reasonable. Those who would happily see the Irishness of Celtic stamped out once and for all. Eddie Smith, the man who reported us to UEFA without first telling the club, could be one of them. His circumventing of proper procedures is another thing that needs dealt with, but not to the detriment of dealing with our own songs. Jim Traynor at the Daily Record is likely another, as his previous articles have indicated he’d like us to lose our Irishness yet the Famine Song is a harmless ditty. So what do we do with these people? Well first we need to get smart to fight them.
At present, we have a Celtic support who can’t agree on what to sing. Unite the Celtic support, remove any opportunity for “them” to suggest we glorify terrorism, and we will be in a much stronger position to fight back. Peter Lawwell won’t appeal this time because it was an IRA reference for which we were pulled up. I can’t imagine he and the club wouldn’t appeal if it was some other Irish song we had been fined for instead. Ditch the “terrorist” angle – misunderstood or otherwise – and suddenly these kinds of people are exposed as nothing more than anti-Irish racists. UEFA won’t fall for that, the Celtic support won’t stand for it and the EU and even the Human Rights people won’t stand for it either.
I can already hear the arguments against what I’m saying here. There are those that will say that they will continue to sing what they want. It’s hard to expect otherwise, they are “rebel” songs after all and this is one way to rebel. But please realise, you are the ones dividing the Celtic support. I’ve spent enough time on message boards to know that this argument never changes anyone’s mind. It’s time for a bit of give, and the IRA chants should be the obvious give on that side of the argument. There needs to be give the other way too, as there are Celtic fans who think we should sing nothing but football songs. It doesn’t need to be that way either as the Irish music reflects who we are and where we have come from. That should never be lost at Celtic.
If you still think we should be singing about the IRA, ask yourself why. If you’re saying “because we always have” then you need to understand that times change. The IRA aren’t blowing people up any more, they’ve found other ways to carry on their cause. If they can change, so can you. Singing these songs isn’t going to forward the cause either – the UK government won’t suddenly decide to hand back six counties to the Republic of Ireland because 60,000 people sang some songs about it in a football ground.
Yes, we need to fight against an establishment in Scotland that want to stamp out our Irishness. But we need to do it smarter than we’re doing now. We need to do it as one and stop arguing amongst ourselves. Irish pride is not a crime – not even after this new legislation comes in – but no one is asking you to stop being proud. Stop listening to what those who want to oppress you are saying – they are more than happy to divide and conquer. Listen to what your fellow Celtic supporters are saying. They’re saying:
“We can be better than this.”
“Ooh, aah, up the RA.”
It’s probably borderline illegal for me to even type that now, as the SNP force through their farcical bill that deals with a small symptom of a larger social problem in Scotland. Legislation for legislation’s sake – but that’s an argument for another blog.
UEFA have deemed our singing against Rennes to be illicit and have fined us accordingly. It took over 24 hours for us to get confirmation that the above line, part of Celtic Symphony, was the offender. Celtic will not appeal the decision, and I don’t think anyone is surprised by that. So what next for the Celtic support? Where do we go from here?
There’s several issues we have to deal with. We have a fan base that can’t agree on what we should and shouldn’t sing, we likely have factions outside our control that wish to stamp out any ounce of Irishness from our club, and we have rivals that we deem to be getting away with similar offences.
Lets deal with that one first… by not dealing with it. “Whataboutery” does my head in. It happens both ways, and is almost always a response to someone pointing out what you are currently doing is wrong. It’s like a nervous reaction – “ahh but what about when they sing blah, that’s just as bad.” It’s a diversion tactic and does nothing but fuel the “two sides of the same coin” theory. No one ever changes because the other side do it and they should be dealt with first, right?
Stop it. We need to clean up our own act. Only then can we possibly be in a position to point out what they’re singing. Until we do, no one will listen – not even our own support. Which takes me back to the first point.
Some will say we don’t have to clean up anything because we’re not doing anything wrong. I’ve said it myself, because I still firmly believe that the singing of songs has never and will never be a problem. The hatred beneath the songs is the problem throughout Scottish society and banning the songs won’t remove that hatred. The songs should be a moral issue for the singers rather an a legal issue, and it’s time we looked at our own morality.
If you’re singing about the IRA – no matter what version – you’re singing about people who killed other people. It doesn’t matter how, it doesn’t matter why, the death of other human beings is not something we should be proud of however it comes about – whether it was necessary or not. Half the Celtic support are embarrassed any time they get mentioned, and that is what divides us as a support the most.
No one among us – not the Celtic support, not Peter Lawwell and not the rest of the Celtic board – is saying get rid of the Irishness, but they are saying get rid of the IRA mentions. It’s high time we did just that. There are plenty of Irish songs that don’t make any mention of them. Housey plays some I’ve never even heard previously on Over and Over – among other far more “illicit” stuff of course – and I’m sure Seamus of iCeltic fame could teach us loads. Of course, we have plenty of football songs to supplement them. The Green Brigade have been writing new ones of late, using the same tunes as Irish songs in some cases, so there’s a whole host of songs to be sung that cannot possibly offend any reasonable person.
Which brings me to the other point. There are those who are not reasonable. Those who would happily see the Irishness of Celtic stamped out once and for all. Eddie Smith, the man who reported us to UEFA without first telling the club, could be one of them. His circumventing of proper procedures is another thing that needs dealt with, but not to the detriment of dealing with our own songs. Jim Traynor at the Daily Record is likely another, as his previous articles have indicated he’d like us to lose our Irishness yet the Famine Song is a harmless ditty. So what do we do with these people? Well first we need to get smart to fight them.
At present, we have a Celtic support who can’t agree on what to sing. Unite the Celtic support, remove any opportunity for “them” to suggest we glorify terrorism, and we will be in a much stronger position to fight back. Peter Lawwell won’t appeal this time because it was an IRA reference for which we were pulled up. I can’t imagine he and the club wouldn’t appeal if it was some other Irish song we had been fined for instead. Ditch the “terrorist” angle – misunderstood or otherwise – and suddenly these kinds of people are exposed as nothing more than anti-Irish racists. UEFA won’t fall for that, the Celtic support won’t stand for it and the EU and even the Human Rights people won’t stand for it either.
I can already hear the arguments against what I’m saying here. There are those that will say that they will continue to sing what they want. It’s hard to expect otherwise, they are “rebel” songs after all and this is one way to rebel. But please realise, you are the ones dividing the Celtic support. I’ve spent enough time on message boards to know that this argument never changes anyone’s mind. It’s time for a bit of give, and the IRA chants should be the obvious give on that side of the argument. There needs to be give the other way too, as there are Celtic fans who think we should sing nothing but football songs. It doesn’t need to be that way either as the Irish music reflects who we are and where we have come from. That should never be lost at Celtic.
If you still think we should be singing about the IRA, ask yourself why. If you’re saying “because we always have” then you need to understand that times change. The IRA aren’t blowing people up any more, they’ve found other ways to carry on their cause. If they can change, so can you. Singing these songs isn’t going to forward the cause either – the UK government won’t suddenly decide to hand back six counties to the Republic of Ireland because 60,000 people sang some songs about it in a football ground.
Yes, we need to fight against an establishment in Scotland that want to stamp out our Irishness. But we need to do it smarter than we’re doing now. We need to do it as one and stop arguing amongst ourselves. Irish pride is not a crime – not even after this new legislation comes in – but no one is asking you to stop being proud. Stop listening to what those who want to oppress you are saying – they are more than happy to divide and conquer. Listen to what your fellow Celtic supporters are saying. They’re saying:
“We can be better than this.”