I didn’t hear anyone condemn Rangers fans’ songs about the famine
JORDAN AND KYLE NEED A HISTORY LESSON
I’LL BE cancelling my Sky account this week.
To hear them apologise yesterday for the behaviour of Celtic supporters really pissed me off.
Eight-hundred years of oppression and there is a certain cohort that wants us to just suck it up and go away.
I thought I’d heard it all when Simon Jordan, a former Crystal Palace chairman, threw his toys out of the pram last week.
He wants UEFA to punish Celtic fans for chanting ‘F*** the crown’ during their Champions League match last week.
Himself and Jeremy Kyle have been tripping over themselves to prove their royalist credentials.
Now, I’m not
FEELINGS CLEAR: Celtic fans with their banner yesterday and (below) in Warsaw condoning anything that has been chanted at various grounds over the past week-and-a-half.
But what happened in Tallaght Stadium, Warsaw and in Ibrox with some Dundee United fans isn’t something that clubs can control.
Bunch
You are talking about a bunch of kids, with most of them having little or no understanding of the Troubles or our past. Jordan was once chairman of a club that boasts some very boisterous fans. I’ve been in their ground and their chants aren’t always good natured.
As for Ibrox at the weekend, I didn’t hear
I
HAVE said before that Waterford will be a big contender to Shamrock Rovers in the next three or four years.
And if they get to the FAI Cup final, it could even fast-track that process. It would certainly be the best thing for Waterford football over the last 30 or 40 years. This club is an absolute sleeping giant. I love the place.
No disrespect to Treaty, who pulled off a fantastic result in their FAI Cup quarterfinal, but I would love to see the Blues at the Aviva in November. anyone condemn the Rangers fans’ songs about the famine.
Jordan might be a royalist but he needs to keep his head down here and respect the fact that the whole world doesn’t share his point of view.
To say Celtic and their fans should be reprimanded shows a lack of education on his part.
He should research all the facts about the foundation of Celtic. He should look into why a population of immigrants headed for Scotland from Donegal.
The banner that hung from the away section in Warsaw last week wouldn’t be how I’d word my views on the English crown, opposed as I am to monarchy.
But there are a large number of Celtic fans who would feel strongly against the royals.
There was a huge backlash last week at the postponement of matches last week.
But I spoke to a chairman of a non-league club who said to me that it had to be done, because he feared Celtic and Liverpool fans would tarnish the name of British football.
If I was talking to him faceto-face and not over the phone I’d have strangled him.
There continues to be an antiIrish sentiment in England, albeit more under the surface.
A lot of lip service has been paid over recent years to improved relations, such as royal visits.
Remains
But there remains an undercurrent of the old ‘No dogs, no blacks, no Irish’ atmosphere that was far more out in the open decades ago.
And as soon as something such as the recent banners and chants occurs, it surfaces again.
Celtic is an Irish club and Liverpool is a city populated by Irish, even though their gripe with the British establishment is to do with other issues.
I saw the video of the Rovers fans singing ahead of their Djurgardens game and I didn’t like it, but it was just a bunch of kids.
I have travelled the length and breadth of Europe with Celtic fans and I can tell you that I never once saw an instance of violence.
They behave just like Irish fans when they go abroad.
And it was great to hear the Gent boss praise Shamrock Rovers fans for their behaviour in Belgium.
All the likes of Jordan and Kyle are doing is amplifying the behaviour of a minority and showing off their own arrogance and ignorance.
It was counterproductive too. When I heard the Rovers fans sing their song, I forgot about it 30 seconds later. When I saw the banner, I thought, Jaysus! But that was it.
Thanks to Jordan, I’ll remember it for a long time now.
But he’s probably happy enough now that he has gained plenty of attention.