I WAS BORN and raised in mining villages in East Ayrshire – or God's Orange County as some call it. Our family was always a wee bit different, since my old man was one of the handful of openly Tory voters locally, he wan't in the Masons or the Orange Lodge. I think it has something to do with the way neuro-divergence appears to run in our family.
We might be “different”, but, it's hard to avoid being to some degree tainted by what goes on locally. For instance, I still maintain, if my old school – Cumnock Academy – did have a school song, it would be: 'The Sash My Father Wore', and when I used to cover the local Community Council for the local paper, I was well-aware of how influential the High Heid Yins of the local LOL were in its running.
Nothing against these gentlemen, who put a lot of time and effort into making things better for the local community and one particular Stout Orange Blade was, for instance, particularly active in the fight to keep a threatened local Roman Catholic school open, but, I lang syne came to the conclusion, the LOL is one of the greatest con tricks ever pulled off by England/Britain's “Deep Establishment”.
When not c elebrating King Billy's campaign in Ireland in 1690, the stout Orange Blades bellow God Save the King loudly at every opportunity. They delight in taking-over our public thoroughfares during each annual “Marching Season”. Ok, they've got a catchy play list, the Walks are the closest some of them come to taking exercise, they're doing their bit in keeping our Roman Catholic population in what they see as their place, but, really, they are still fighting a battle which, even if it has been won, has little or no relevance in 21st cdentury Scotland.
The thing is – if they looked-up, at say the Egnlish middle and upper classes, as often as they look down on their Roman Catholic neighbours, they would maybe realise, who are the ones being conned. For instance, for all their declarations of support for the Royal Family and their loyalty to the Crown and the Proterstant religion – has HM the King, or indeed any member of his extended family, ever been seen on the platform at the conclusion of one of their many Walks during the marching season? And, how often do we see many Orange Order members inside our increasingly empty churches?
Turning up at Ibrox of a Saturday to go through the Party Songs isn't the same as attending the Kirk on a Sunday, not by a long chalk.
The Hidden Establishment does rather well out of this unequal and dis-United Kingdom, and organisations such as the LOL help them keep it that way.
Of course, if the LOL is Ying, there has to be a balancing Yang and perhaps the most-visible body on the opposite side of the divide is The Celtic Family, and in particular that body's “Shock Troops” - The Green Brigade.
We all know Brother Walfrid started Celtic as a means of aleviating the many disadvantages being undergone by the community in the East End of Glasgow, many of them first and second generation Irish immigrants. Their descendants remain at the heart of The Celtic Family.
It is true that the people who run Celtic have always done their bit for charity, in keeping with the aims of the founding fathers. However, it is also true that over the years, between the derided Four Families and the current Dublin-based High Heid Yins, the early charitable aims of the club have been to a degree by-passed.
OK, they do some things which are not universally popular, but, for all their faults and follies, I believe the Green Brigade is – in its over-riding ethos – closer to Brother Walfrid and the pioneers of the club than the blazers in the board room.
Celtic was formed partly to give a voice to those whose own voice was not being heard, in their support for the likes of the beleagured Pastelinians, the Green Brigade are maintaining that early tradition. Rather than denigrating them, we ought to be praising them.
It goes without saying, tilting at windmills and fighting entrenched interests does not go down well with the powers-that-be in any sport; particularly with such a centrally-corrupt organisation as UEFA. For that reason, that entirely-reasonable banner the lads came up with on Wednesday night will certainly not be well-received by the suits at UEFA HQ in Switzerland.
Indeed, I coula almost hear Dermott Desmond. Pre-match, asking two of his apparatchiks, let's call them Sean and Liam: “OK lads, what sort of bother have the Green Brigade got us into tonight”? - and not being too-happy with the reply.
You might not like some of the stunts the GB pull. For instance, it is suggested that some of them have a liking for pyrotechnics at matches. Others are big on promoting the Celtic versions of some of the songs which fell foul of the flawed and discredited Offensive Behaviour At Football legislation; while chanting about him, his father and his dead grandmother in front of the Prince of Wales, at Villa Park, although I suspect some of the Celtic Family, not in the GB may have helped there – well, that kind of misbehaviour does not win you friends and influence people.
But, they're mainly young and impressionable. Of course, at times they go too far, but, when they support causes such as Palestine – and tell the truth about two-faced Scottish tory leaders – I have a sneaking respect for the Green Brigade.
I love the notion of sticking-up two fingers to th Hidden Establishment and the Unco Guid.
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