Such disgraceful acts of bigotry shame Scotland

The events at Tynecastle stadium on Wednesday night were horrific.

What is it about Hearts fans and Hibernian manager Neil Lennon (pictured below)?

The attack on him – when a potentially blinding coin was fired at his face by a so-called Hearts ‘fan’ – was worse than shameful.

This latest incident brings hate and bigotry to a new, even lower level in Scotland.

And with a ‘Hang Neil Lennon’ sign on a wall near the stadium, this is bigotry that would match anything in Glasgow.

On Sunday last, before the semifinal against Celtic, a Hearts fan launched a bottle at a bus of Celtic supporters outside a supermarket in the west of the city.

He missed and struck a 70-yearold grandmother, who ended up in A&E. Insanity, surely.

The game on Wednesday was televised live across the UK and the behaviour shames our beautiful capital city.

We need some very strong action by police and the club. Shutting Tynecastle stadium – where there has been a long history of similar incidents, including, once, a physical attack by a fan on Lennon – for a period must be considered.

Platitudes and weasel words will not put this right. Alexander McKay, Edinburgh

What happened to Hibs boss Neil Lennon at Tynecastle on Wednesday night was disgraceful, dangerous and discreditable for Scottish football.

Lennon underlined and highlighted the dark underbelly of bigotry which still blights a nation that prides itself on being the best wee country in the world.

He euphemistically called it anti-Irish sentiment but we all know it for what it is, if we call a spade a spade – anti-Catholic bigotry.

There still lurks in the psyche of some people a beast ready to erupt in moments of tension and passion.

It generally remains dormant and buried, cloaked in genteel terms until it is brought in the raw to the surface – with some casually referring to it as ‘90-minute bigotry’, as though that disqualifies it from being a problem which demands total eradication. If Neil Lennon, who has so much to offer football, is driven out of Scotland because of a venomously directed coin, born of bigotry, then our country will be the poorer for that in the eyes of all. Then our country may well have to put up with being termed the best wee bigoted country in the world. Name and address supplied