Scotland’s Anti-Irish and Anti-Catholic Problem Must Be Taken Seriously

Celtic have called for action after the Celtic team were subjected to sectarian abuse when they arrived at Ibrox at the weekend. The Scottish Champions arrived at the stadium for the game that was to be played behind closed doors and were subject to obscene abuse outside Ibrox.

A contingent of the Rangers fans had flouted coronavirus measures to gather at the stadium and welcome the team buses. When the Celtic players disembarked and walked towards the main entrance, a number of people approached them and launched into a tirade of anti-Catholic and anti-Irish abuse.

Celtic were of course founded by Irish Catholic immigrants, primarily for the suffering Irish community in Glasgow. Such behaviour has no place in the 21st century and must be eradicated. The club have asked for Police Scotland to investigate the matter following the shameful scenes outside Ibrox.

Cleaning up the problem will be no easy task, indeed such attitudes have been prevalent amongst a contingent of supporters at Ibrox for decades.

The authorities need to start taking the issue seriously and stop looking to label everything as sectarian to play into a two sides of the same coin agenda. Last season, Rangers supporters taunted Scott Brown about his dead sister as well as hurling sectarian abuse and the clubs condemned this with the Police and Ibrox club acting to identify the individual.

About Author

Hailing from an Irish background, I grew up on the English south coast with the good fortune to begin watching Celtic during the Martin O'Neill era. I have written four Celtic books since the age of 19: Our Stories & Our Songs: The Celtic Support, Take Me To Your Paradise: A History Of Celtic-Related Incidents & Events, Walfrid & The Bould Bhoys: Celtic's Founding Fathers, First Season & Early Stars, and The Holy Grounds of Glasgow Celtic: A Guide To Celtic Landmarks & Sites Of Interest. These were previously sold in Waterstones and official Celtic FC stores, and are now available on Amazon.

2 Comments

  1. For the most part, this is a Glasgow problem, I grew up on the east coast, bar the media talking about it, I’dnever heard of any of this chat till I moved to Glasgow

  2. Don’t hold your breath, police Scotland suddenly go deaf when it’s abuse against CELTIC or our support. But why have the club waited till days later to mention it, is to try and deflect from the bad press about the dubai trip.