The fallout from the Celtic supporters convention in Las Vegas – and a stage presence of a former Celtic player alongside some well kent faces from stage and screen – has been somewhat predictable.
The mainstream media sensed the opportunity for hits, then politicians and the likes of pathetic Nil by Mouth have all stepped up with their own opinions, and whether you think them opportunistic or not they as we all are entitled to air their opinions.
Now whether the IRA add-ons to any song sung by Celtic supporters is to yours or my taste is down to the individual, but one thing it is not is sectarian – and that’s where I have a problem with it.
And Beautiful Sunday is a Celtic song, started in the build up to that 3-2 win at Ibrox in 2018 when Odsonne Edouard scored that memorable winner after Celtic were down to ten men. Celtic even played the song at the Paradise on the day the league was won with a 5-0 hammering of theRangers and later that year after Olivier Ntcham scored the winner in the first Glasgow Derby of the new season The Celtic View’s headline proclaimed another Beautiful Sunday.
And The Celtic Star even had these Beautiful Sunday t-shirts, which completely sold out…Zero to do with the IRA.
When the song was played at Celtic Park the majority were happy to sing along to the original lyrics while others used the alternative version that some of the supporters were singing in Vegas this week, presumably the chap holding the mobile phone. That’s up to him but to many Celtic fans the original lyrics bring back happy memories of skelpings in the Brendan Rodgers era.
There’s nothing wrong with singing Beautiful Sunday, End of, as Alan Thompson would say.
Back to the main point and one that Nil By Mouth should be well aware of given their hands are frequently dipping the public purse. Sectarianism occurs when members of different denominations within a faith display bigotry and prejudice toward each other. Be that the Sunni and Shia within Islam, Orthodox and Reform within Judaism or Protestants and Catholics within Christianity and more besides. Unless that definition has altered to include freedom fighters or terrorists, depending on your point of view, it may not represent everyone’s political position, but sectarian it is not.
Songs of Irish freedom have always been connected with the Celtic support, and indeed the club itself in the early years, yet these days with the IRA being labelled a proscribed terrorist organisation by the country of the government who gave rise to the need of them in the first place, means those who sing certain songs or supply add-ons to others are in danger of being criminalised – in the UK, but they are not engaging in sectarianism.
From an Irish perspective they may well consider that after both discrimination and indeed persecution by a British Government who sponsored and indeed built a ‘state’ on their island with a principal underpinning it of one particular section of the population remaining in power in perpetuity, then when those discriminated against used peaceful means to demonstrate against the injustice, only to be met with violence from the police and subsequently the British Army, it is far from surprising – and a situation not exclusive to Ireland – that those who felt hopeless, despised and without the same freedoms as others around them, should turn to violence to meet violence. And when you are up against the might of a colonial power and army, then guerrilla tactics are bound to emerge as a way to fight back. For many in Ireland that involved the IRA.
theRangers fans at Celtic Park last month.
Has singing about that anything to do with football? Possibly not, and by all means open up that debate. But Celtic isn’t simply a football club to many, and I won’t spend paragraphs explaining why in detail, because we all know that is the case. Borne of an Irish immigrant population what goes on in Ireland matters to a great deal of Celtic fans, part of that is the passing down of songs and traditions and over the years of a struggle for civil rights and ultimately a unified Ireland some of those songs of course have included the IRA.
With the process now slowly moving towards a political solution to the wishes of many in Ireland, it seems an ultimately failed military struggle will be more successful via the ballot box and political debate, rather than violence. As such the need for an IRA in any form may no longer be relevant, yet the songs remain – and possibly will do so until a unified Ireland emerges from the political process.
After that and as the years pass, such songs may well become passe, but for now to many they still remain relevant, and although not necessarily to everyone’s taste when it comes to content or relevancy in this day and age, remain they do. Whilst to some politically they may be unpalatable, that too is fine, argue that point, but don’t make it about sectarianism – because we all know that’s a case of false equivalency.
Those involved in Las Vegas can defend themselves and appear to be doing so, but if we’re going to see them targeted for anything make it a political debate and do not label them as religious bigots as some in the mainstream press and other organisations and politicians have tried to do, because singing about the IRA or any other freedom fighting organisation, or indeed terrorist group, depending on your viewpoint, is a debate worth having in its own right. There is no need to try and make it about two cheeks of the same backside, about religious intolerance on both sides of a divide, because none of that is relevant in this instance.
What may have been sung, added or encouraged in Las Vegas is a debate Celtic fans may wish to have, and others are entitle to argue that too, but such a debate is never going to happen if it’s included in a discussion surrounding sectarianism, because what happened there does not fall under that category, no matter how the mainstream press, politicians or anti-sectarianism charities may wish to dress it.
Shaun Riley
David Potter’s new book, Willie Fernie – Putting on the Style is featured in the new edition of the Celtic View which is out now and available from the Celtic Stores. You can also pick up the Willie Fernie book there too or order direct from Celtic Star Books, link below…
