http://www.newsnow.co.uk/h/Sport/Football/SPL/Rangers Thursday, 19 March 2009
It’s shocking but no longer surprising that the under classes who follow Celtic Football Club have once again shamed themselves, the organisation they support and indeed humanity with their latest sick stunt. Following hard on the heels of the truly nauseating “Poppy Day” fiasco, Celtic fans thought it funny to wave pizza boxes at Rangers fans at Larne Ferry Terminal and at other locations around Great Britain. Their sick stunts were of course in reference to the Masserene Army barracks murder by IRA cowards of two British soldiers who were going out to collect pizzas that had been delivered.
Predictably, the Celtic media machine immediately went on the defensive, an unnamed spokesman declaring “We have received absolutely no report of this incident whatsoever. However, as a club open to all since it’s formation in 1888, Celtic stands firmly against all forms of bigotry and sectarianism
Where do you start with inane tosh like that? First they infer the incidents never happened. Then they propagate their “open to all” fable. Well it did happen (as the photograph below proves) and not just in one location. That’s a fact. I’ll leave those shameful events and the increasingly despicable actions of Celtic fans for now as I’m sure they’ll be well covered elsewhere.
Not one single complaint from a Scottish politician - wonder why?
It’s the tiresome “open to all since 1888” drivel that really needs to be challenged. As the cowards of the Scottish media wouldn’t dare, let’s examine the matter ourselves.
Perhaps the same spokesman could explain to us all how a business managed to exist for 106 years with a “Roman Catholic-only” board of directors in a country that is 85% non-Roman Catholic? Perhaps he’d further like to explain why a manager (who happened to be Protestant) who brought them their greatest triumphs was offered a job selling club football pools instead of on their board?
Celtic Football Club was formed for sectarian reasons and thus introduced bigotry to Scottish Football. Don’t take my word for it; try the words of football historian and Celtic supporter Bill Murray from his book “The Old Firm”:
“But as well as concern for the suffering poor, brother Walfrid was also prompted by a fear that Protestant soup kitchens might tempt young Catholics into apostasy. Moreover he was equally worried about the dangers of young Catholics meeting Protestants in their place of employment or leisure, particularly during the years after leaving school which he considered the most dangerous as far as "religious duties" were concerned. A Catholic football club then, could serve the dual purpose of easing the pain in starving stomachs at the same as it kept young Catholics together in their leisure time, free from the temptations of Protestants and Protestantism. The aims of his helpers may have been more prosaic, but when the circular announcing the formation of a Catholic club in the East End of Glasgow was circulated in January 1888, its religious foundations were stressed".
That the founder of Celtic Football Club was dead-set against Catholics mixing with Protestants is not up for debate. If that’s not a demonstration of bigotry of the worst type then God knows what is. Celtic and their apologists are wrong to misrepresent the truth behind the clubs’ formation. To neglect the sectarian aspect of the founding of the club is tantamount to revising history. Presenting a partial truth whilst neglecting the whole truth is not only misleading, it is a contributory factor in perpetuating the myth, eagerly seized on by those whose have no qualms about history being re-written, that Celtic were founded solely for charitable reasons. This lack of historical accuracy seems to be a deliberate omission of an uncomfortable truth.
Celtic may have fielded several non-Catholic players over the years, and this is frequently used as a defence against sectarian accusations, however this seems to have been inconsistent with the wishes of their founder. One non-Catholic player, Celtic legend Tommy Gemmell, explained in his book “Lion Heart” that a bad game could provoke angry words from team-mates; “What do you expect of an Orange bastard? They would say it directly to you, and they were not having a joke or a laugh”.
Tommy gives the real truth about the bigotry
Does that comment suggest Celtic is an inclusive club? I don’t think so. And let’s not forget that had Walfrid got his way Gemmell may never have appeared in a Celtic jersey in the first place.
Allow me to repeat the Celtic spokesman’s claim of “a club open to all since it’s formation in 1888”. This quote is nothing more than a bare-faced lie. If you can get a hold of legendary Celtic manager Willie Maley's book he clearly states that it was documented in the Celtic structure that you had to be of Irish Catholic origin to play for the club. They moved away from this policy for one reason and for one reason only, that being that they couldn't get eleven players good enough to consistently compete with Rangers.
Let’s move on to the “charity” fairy story. Perhaps Celtic’s very own Goebbels could explain to us where a poor Marist Brother found the money to build a ground complete with dog track whilst covertly offering illegal financial inducements to Hibernian’s Roman Catholic footballers to join the newly founded Celtic? The uncomfortable truth is that as well as being founded for sectarian reasons, Celtic Football Club was set up to make money from the poor Glasgow Irish. The delicious irony is that the only recipients of Celtic charity were the capitalist families who got rich off the backs of their own kind. Indeed the first grandstand to be built at Celtic Park was “The Glass Stand”. Yep, the Glass family built their own grandstand and charged a shilling entrance fee to their fellow Roman Catholic Celtic fans. Further, the Glass family kept all the profits for the next 30-odd years. Celtic charity at it’s very best!
Celtic managed to buy the ground, build a stadium with two grandstands and a velodrome (cycle track), and have an exhibition match between Hibernian and Renton played on the ground before they themselves took to the field a month or so later. The opposition was a Rangers second XI, known as “The Swifts”. Half of the Celtic team had been Hibs players the month before, the other half had been Renton players.
The six middle class Roman Catholic businessmen that founded and funded the club offered substantial remuneration to the better players of both Renton and Hibs, so long as they were Catholic of course. Hibs folded (later to reappear) and Renton faded quickly into junior football obscurity. Charitable eh?
This quote from “The Origins of Hibernian” defines the situation re the formation of Celtic to a tee:
“Some Irish Catholic leaders however could see some of the danger signs, as it was becoming apparent in these meetings that some of the men coming to the fore were business-minded with hints that personal gain rather than charitable aims were uppermost in their thoughts…………the businessmen, a builder from Donegal named John Glass and Pat Welsh, a tailor who had left Ireland under furtive circumstances (he was a Fenian on the run from Ireland for murder, helped to escape by Willie Maley’s father) 20 years previously. These men had seen the earning potential of a professional football club, and their subsequent methods of achieving their aims was to prove catastrophic for Hibernian Football Club.
It’s a great pity that the Hibs men were so trusting, as John Glass and his partners were already making their own plans and these included financial inducements being offered to the best players in the Hibernian side that they might join Glasgow Celtic for the following season.
Even if Hibs had wished to take Celtic on like for like, they could not do so, the very being of Hibernian was that every penny earned went to charitable causes, Celtic had undertaken no such principles.
John Glass had recognised the massive financial rewards that would ensue from professional football. The game had gone professional in England sometime before, and Scotland was about to follow, all the same the way he set about using the loyalties of the Irish immigrant population left a sour taste in many a mouth.”
As Jim Royle might say “Charity? My Arse!”
Of course the bad smell of militant Irish Republicanism and its sectarian undertones was also to taint the formation of Celtic. Walfrid's co-recruitment agent was a Fenian, Pat Welsh, on the run from Ireland having murdered a policeman. Choice company for a man of the cloth. This would of course be the same Walfrid that Celtic history books clearly document as leading the singing of Irish rebel songs in St Mary's Parish Hall, Glasgow, in November 1887. The opening ceremony for Celtic Park saw the convicted Fenian, Land Leaguer, gun-runner and “embittered Irish Nationalist who was anti-British to the backbone” Michael Davitt lay the first piece of turf. Again, the words of historian Bill Murray:
“It (Celtic Football Club) recognises Ireland as the country of its spiritual origins,
and although today it has lost all formal contacts with Irish politics, in its early days it was closely associated with the fight for Irish Home Rule.”
And of course the anti-British bigotry and hatred that came with it.
In summary, Celtic Football Club was founded in 1888 as an Irish Roman Catholic sectarian and political entity, by a priest of dubious Christian morality and wealthy "businessmen" whom it would seem had few values if any. Their aims were to prevent apostasy and social-cohesion with the mainly Protestant host community in Glasgow……..and to make money. The rich Roman Catholic families that bankrolled the project were also Scottish footballs first unreconstructed capitalists, out to rip the poorest of the poor for as much as they possibly could.
The same founders proceeded to “entice” the best of Hibernian’s Roman Catholic players using bribery (at a time when football was strictly amateur) and emotional-blackmail. These Hibs players, who were "superstars" of their time, abandoned Edinburgh for the fledgling Roman Catholic club in Glasgow. This "poverty-stricken" Celtic also had an all-purpose, state of the art stadium to play in which was well in advance of anything owned by of their rivals. It was firmly in place for the ex-Hibs players’ arrival, as well as their illegal under the counter wages. But not before Celtic had gratefully accepted a sizeable cash donation from naive Hibernian officials towards the expenses of forming the new club.
A few other questions Mr. Celtic Spokesman may care to answer:
1. Is this the same all inclusive Celtic whom former Chairman Fergus McCann once described as being infested with “Celtic-minded Catholic bigots” ?
2. Is this the same all inclusive Celtic who in 2001 had to ban their staff from using a sectarian term commonly used in Ulster by Republicans to decry Protestants?
3. Is this the same all inclusive Celtic who allowed Irish Republican Patricia Ferns to sing the IRA anthems and refer to Rangers fans as “animals” at Celtic Park on 29th May 2005?
4. Is this the same all inclusive Celtic whom allowed mock appearance of the Pope blessing all four corners of the stadium at the same game?
5. Is this the all inclusive Celtic whose Chief Executive Jock Brown told of being presented with a list of staff who were Catholic, a move he described as “sinister and undesirable” ?
6. Is this the same all inclusive Celtic who were the only club in the United Kingdom to remember our war dead with a minutes applause as opposed to the traditional and respectful silence, fearful their hate-filled fans would disrupt proceedings?
7. Is this the same all-inclusive Celtic whose captain mouthed the words “orange bastards” at the Rangers dug-out?
8. Is this the same all inclusive Celtic who were the only club in Britain not to have a minutes silence for victims of the Omagh bomb?
9. Is this the same all inclusive Celtic who employed a former fanzine editor whose production featured a cartoon family called “The Dirty Orange Bastards”?
10. Is this the same all-inclusive club whose fans regularly sing a song featuring the line “Soon there’ll be no Protestants at all”?
11. Is this the same all inclusive Celtic whose fans perpetrated the worst incident of racism ever witnessed in a British sporting arena on the 2nd January 1988?
12. Is this the same all inclusive Celtic whose under class shouted “IRA” and “Free the Prisoners” at Fir Park during a minutes silence for the 96 victims of the Hillsborough Disaster?
I really could go on all day, but I think by now I may have proved Mr. Celtic Spokesman’s “all-inclusive” claims have about as much credence as Bishop Richard Williamson’s “no holocaust” claims!
Today’s newspapers feature a headline article where former Scottish Tory Leader has called for changes in the way anti-sectarian laws work in football. Amongst his comments Mr. McLetchie states:
“Whilst on one side of the sectarian divide in Scotland, it clearly applies in practice to malice directed towards people of the Roman Catholic faith, the contrary sectarian behaviour in Scotland is primarily expressed in practice through the glorification of Irish nationalism and terrorism against the British state.”
Glorification of Irish Nationalism? Terrorism against the British State? Who on earth could he be referring to? Whoever it is, they certainly couldn’t be considered to be “all inclusive” by any stretch of the imagination.