THE next settlement to the one wherein I reside, here in the badlands of East Ayrshire, is run be the Orange Order - the coonsillors refer to each other as "Brother", a flute band leads the Armistice Day parade and you never see a Celtic strip in daylight. Why the proddies even run the local branch of the Labour Party.
The Royal Black Perceptory (the bigots' bigots) is big down there and some years ago, on the eve of "the Black Walk" through this wee toon, I was invited to attend a reception in the Toon Hall - not through any membership of a fraternal order, but wearing my local press hat. I found myself being introduced to some of the biggest names on the proddie side of the then on-going "Troubles" in Northern Ireland.
Another time, I had to cover a conventicle on a local moor, addressed by "The Big Man" himself. The good Dr Paisley spoke at length, with fervour on the defence of the reformed faith.
I was at school with one of the local coonsillors, who is, as they say: "well up" in the RBP and I know him to be a fine man, committed to the betterment of his constituents. He is no bigot and on at least a couple of occasions to my certain knowledge, he has gone in to bat successfully to thwart closure of Catholic schools in his constituency.
But sadly, for every paragon such as my pal, there are any number of wannabes, small men, with small minds, who prove repeatedly that a little learning is a dangerous thing. These are the guys who join "the ludge" for the nice wee orange collarette, so they can march down the main road at regular dates during "the marching season", parading their intolerance and bigotry to the world. Very often they don't actually march, but saunter alongside the marchers, drunk on the admittedly intoxicating rythms of the party songs - not to mention cheap drink.
A wee aside here, I hope the Catholic Church has properly rewarded the monks of Buckfast Abbey for their continuing work in keeping the protestant underclass of west-central Scotland under.
The real members of the RBP and the LOL fight their organisations' corner doggedly, but there are among them some intelligent men, who, while they are very-much pro-protestantism and the continuance of protestant rule in this United Kingdom, are not anti-Catholic and tolerant of the practising of Roman Catholicism.
It's the hangers-on who are the trouble. And I would wager it is some of those hangers-on who man that rump of scum currently causing so much bother to the UEFA apparatchicks in Nyon and to Rangers FC.
They see it as their "right" to parade their bigotry at every opportunity; I don't believe the men at the top inside Ibrox want them; I don't believe the genuine believers within the RBP and the LOL want them. The rest of us involved in Scottish football don't want them.
But when we ask them to go away, they will say what they've always said: "NO SURRENDER".
At the end of the day, while some might argue their continuance is a particular problem within Scottish society. Their continuing ability to embarrass Rangers FC is that club's problem. The club HAS to bite the bullet, go on the offensive and kick out the offenders.
The fight will be long, it will be bitter but, if Rangers don't win it, they could well find themselves out in the European cold for a long time. By not acting, they are defending the indefensible.
Short term, it means empty seats at Ibrox, but, in the longer term, maybe it is time for the Scottish government to step in and abolish separate Catholic schools. For so long as wee Liam doon the road goes to a different school, then wee Billy's bigoted faither can drum his bigotry into his son - "Thae fenians is different son; they dae nasty things at that school and at their chapel - keep awa frae them...etc, etc."
Likewise wee Pat can tell wee Liam to stay away from wee Billy, cos all proddies are bad. Let the kids mingle at school, let them see for themselves how daft their fathers and grand-fathers are in perpetuating the old divisions.
It will not happen overnight, but, just maybe, 50 or 100 years down the line 1690 is just another year in history. And two Glasgow football teams can meet in friendly rivalry without the cancellation of all police leave, a red alert at the city's hospital A&E departments and calls for calm from the United Nations.
But, before the big guns get involved, it befalls the directors of one big football team to say - enough is enough, we're coming for you. Not because we find you an embarrassment - but because your time is past, bigotry has no place in 21st century Scotland.
The scum will not surrender, they will have to be purged. Rangers must carry out that purge. UEFA will demand it of them.
It’s not as if the SFA can plead a lack of precedent for any action they may, however reluctantly, eventually settle upon. No, it need look no further than the example repeatedly shown by the higher legislative powers at UEFA (the latest case against Ra**ers will be the FOURTH of its kind against them). Yet, far from taking a lead from such clear guidance, the Scottish blazer brigade continues to display a degree of reticence that borders perilously on complicity. The unavoidable conclusion is that they are either afraid, reluctant, or (most likely) both, to crack down on the institution that is the most flagrant offender.
ReplyDeleteNo surrender? No idea more like.