> i'll agree you have re-written history...much like the catholic church.
Tell me where in that post I've re-written history. Come on, you're going to have to do better than that.
> some point on celtic:
> set up by catholics, for catholics (religious apartheid started there
> first, rangers merely , with the influx of ulster protestants into the
> govan shipyards in the early 1900's reflected the protestant working
> class.
Religious apartheid was already rife, particularly in Glasgow, before celtic were founded. In fact, if it hadn't been, Celtic might never have been founded.
The staunchly-protestant, heavily-industrialised towns and cities of Scotland weren't welcoming places for irish-catholic immigrants.
Celtic were founded to help with donations towards soup kitchens etc and to aid a charity called The Poor Children's Dinner Fund.
No giros or welfare state in those days. And as for trendy human rights and civil liberties, well, they didn't exist.
> celtic threatened to stop playing football and switch to gaelic football
> in protest about the flying the tricolour from their stadium. (1950's)
Around 1950, the SFA decided to pressure Celtic into removing the irish tricolour flag which flew at the their stadium. Celtic rightly refused and dug in their heels.
The SFA eventually performed a humiliating climbdown, and quietly let it go.
> celtic refused to give jock stein a directorship and shabbily treated the
> man merely becuase he was a protestant. (1970's)
Jock Stein couldn't unequivocally commit himself to sitting on his arse in a boardroom. His great run as team manager had lost its lustre (as they all do eventually) but he still felt he had something to offer in team management.
Sure enough, off he went to Leeds United for a very short spell, before returning to take charge of the Scotland national team.
Jock Stein was a celtic player and team captain way back in the 1950's. He returned as team coach from 1965 - 1978.
Hardly a sign that he was discriminated against, eh?
> danny mcgrain was refused a coaching role because he was a protestant.
> (1980's)
Ah, Danny McGrain. Daniel Fergus McGrain. What a player.
He was watched as a schoolboy by Rangers. When they found out his full name, they dropped their interest because it sounded irish. They thought he was a catholic.
Unknown to them, not only was the young Danny a protestant, but he was also a rangers fan!!
But that didn't stop celtic signing him.
He went on to give fifteen-plus years of great playing service, and played sixty-odd times for a good Scotland national team alongside fine players like Hansen, Dalglish, Souness, McLeish, and Joe Jordan.
Early in his career it was discovered he had acute diabetes, but he played on for a long time despite this.
Football history consistently proves that great players hardly ever make great managers. Danny didn't have it when it came to management. That has since been proved. There were also uncertainties that his health could withstand the pressures of management.
But off he eventually went anyway, to cut his coaching teeth at Arbroath. He lasted little more than a year. Before resigning. Because it was affecting his health.
Looks like Celtic got that one right.
Anyway, what about not pursuing him because of his name?? How shameful is that?
> celtic allowed parkhead to be used for a pro-ira video by the
> wolfetones.(1980's)
> celtic taking a republican flute band on a preseaon fixture to
> manchester.(70's)
Rangers allowed the bitterly anti-catholic Orange Order of Scotland to use Ibrox for their Annual Divine Service. Annually (obviously).
Throughout the 50's. And throughout the 60's. And throughout the 70's, until late in that decade when they ended the arrangement. Times were changing and pressure was growing. They reluctantly advised the Orange Order of Scotland to
find another location.
> i could go on.
I hope you do. I could do this all day. Every day. As long as nobody messes around with my username.
> there is no doubt rangers continually are represented as the more fervent
> practitioner of religious discrimination in scottish football, but if you
> look you'll see celtic played there part as well.
Rangers are represented as more fervent because they had a 'no-catholics' employment policy, as opposed to celtic's open-door one. They're both guilty of wee niggly, provocative, dubious deeds in the past. But that employment policy sets Rangers apart.
> personally i loved it when we signed mo johnstone, sadly the celtic
> supporters who put his old man in hospital didn't.
Ah, Mo Johnston. MoJo. 1989, right? I was touching thirty at the time and had spent the best part of ten years in Spain. Despite my upbringing in that Clydeside environment, I was shocked at the reaction to rangers signing a catholic. Maybe Spain had softened me up.
I'm delighted to hear you approved of him signing for rangers. You weren't among the rangers fans who descended upon Ibrox to burn their scarves in protest.
You weren't among the rangers fans who ripped up their season tickets. You weren't among the rangers fans who laid a wreath outside Ibrox with the words "R.I.P. 116 years of tradition. 1873-1989."
What they call 'tradition', the decent among us call 'shame'.
> didn't find it too funny when celtic fans throw bananas at mark walters
> either (the first scottish club to do this, well done celtic, greatest
> fans in the world!!!!!!, when you're not disrupting minutes silences,
> attacking referees homes etc etc)
Disrupting minute's silences??
In 1963, Rangers fans jeered and spoiled a minute's silence that was being held in the memory of assassinated USA president, John F. Kennedy. He was, of course, a catholic.
Attacking referee's homes?
That wouldn't be the same guys who planted a Union Flag in Martin O'Neill's garden.
That wouldn't be the same guys who spray-painted death threats to Neil Lennon
this year on walls near his hoose.
And that wouldn't be the same guys who hounded him out (using death threats)of playing for the Northern Ireland national team. They tolerated him playing for his country while he was at Leicester. But as soon as he moved to Celtic, the death threats began.
The first scottish club to indulge in racial abuse?
I vividly remember Celtic's Paul Wilson being abused as a ....wait for it.......Fenian Paki Bastard!! Maybe you can work that one out. It's beyond me.
And as for the current horrendous abuse directed towards Bobo Balde in these more enlightened, multi-cultural times, well........
> if you knew your history..................
I've been regularly reading about both clubs since about 1965. Trust me,I know BOTH histories. All too well.
Anyway, write soon and take it easy.
