THIS club has played its football in Scotland since its formation in the 19th century. It competes in the Scottish Premier League, its greatest achievement featured a team of 11 Scots and its greatest manager was Scottish. So why is it the Irish tricolore that dominates at Celtic Park?
Unlike some, I don't go apoplectic at the merest sight of green, white and orange among the home fans at Parkhead. Celtic have Irish roots: the club's formation was designed to benefit immigrants who made Glasgow their home. I don't see why this shouldn't be recognised, even celebrated. But I do have a problem when this warps into something else altogether. Like when the Willie Maley song - an exultant anthem that lists some of Celtic's greatest heroes - is given the unofficial coda of "and the IRA". Or, as I witnessed on the Queen Street-Bellgrove train on the way to a Celtic-Aberdeen game last May, when a well dressed group of 30-somethings in green-and-white leads the carriage in a song that mocks a woman's legs being blown off in the Brighton bombing.
These sort of ditties are, of course, routinely blamed on the fabled "mindless minority" that seems responsible for all of football's ills. So let's award the benefit of doubt and assume that most Celtic fans are innocent bystanders.
Even then, something still rankles. Occasionally you'll see a lonely saltire among the home fans at Celtic Park, but for the most part the ground is awash with tricolores. You'll see plenty of Ireland strips mixed in with with hooped Celtic tops and the Parkhead songbook is packed with Irish songs. Fields of Athenry is an evocative lament for the victims of the Irish potato famine that doesn't deserve to be inextricably linked to extremist republicanism. But if we're to believe that Celtic fans are singing to celebrate their heritage and not to provoke, where are the Scottish folk songs? It's not the celebration of Irishness that's the problem - it's the utter rejection of Scottishness.
Let me finish with a challenge. Along the M8, in Edinburgh, there's a football team with similar beginnings to Celtic. The clue's in the name: Hibernian. Next time you see Hibs on TV, see how many tricolores you can count. You shouldn't need a calculator.
madalchemist
Well, it's a sad fact that football and sectarianism often overlap and the Celtic/IRA thing is something that i throughly reject as an Irishman and a Celtic fan. Unfortunately, a lot of Irish people have a confused sense of their heritage and an unsure identity and the fact that so many follow English teams is an example of this point. Celtic is of, course, unique in this regard but you have to also remember that we don't yet have a professional football league here in Ireland.
I certainly wouldn't consider Celtic to be an Irish team, they obviously are not although the Irish background will always be important.I don't think that the "rebel" songs and tricolours are necessarily a rejection of Scottishness, more an attempt to show pride in the Irish side of things. The sectarian lyrics should be stamped out, of course, but 800 plus years of colonial history has had a deep and painful effect on the hearts and minds of the Irish people.
One could write a thesis on this topic alone but i certainly wouldn't claim to be up to the job.
It would be an interesting subject matter though!