A Celtic season ticket holder convicted of a breach of the peace for wearing a top which displayed slogans of an “insulting and abusive nature” to an Old Firm match has failed in an appeal against conviction and sentence.
Kevin Maguire was given a two-year football banning order after attending a Celtic v Rangers match at Ibrox Stadium in September 2011 wearing a top with the letters ‘INLA’ and the slogan ‘F... YOUR POPPY REMEMBER DERRY’, which referred to the Irish National Liberation Army – a proscribed organisation in terms of schedule 2 to the Terrorism Act 2000 – and to the events of “Bloody Sunday” in Derry on January 30, 1972.
The appellant claimed that he had simply been engaging in “legitimate protest”, but the Criminal Appeal Court had “no difficulty” in concluding that his conduct amounted to a breach of the peace.
The Lord Justice Clerk, Lord Carloway, sitting with Lord Drummond Young and Lord Marnoch, said the appellant actions amounted to a “deliberately provocative gesture”.
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