Keevins in Sunday Mail

[craig 5,198]

What does the UVF have to do with supporting Rangers ? Genuine question.....

[Bluedell 5,329]

Thanks for that up and for making the case for the Green Brigade who, following your logic, are clearly *not* singing about the modern IRA.

 

Oh father, why are you so sad,

on this bright Easter morn?

When Irishmen are proud and glad

Of the land where they were born."

"Oh, son, I see in memories view

Of far off distant days,

When, being just a lad like you,

I joined the IRA

 

Up until you cleared it up for me I was under the impression that they were singing to the glorification of a bunch of murdering scum; clearly not.

 

Perhaps I'm missing something but these lyrics could be about joining the modern day IRA, could they not and therefore are comparible to the ones Ryan quoted?

 

These lyrics would be more akin to A Fathers Advice, I'd have thought?

[RyanGers193 0]

Let me see if I can summarise your position: Your song about the UVF can't possibly be about the modern day terror group because the lyrics are set in the early 20th C whereas their song about the IRA is definitely about the modern day terror group despite the lyrics being set in the early 20th C.

 

You've really not thought this one through, have you?

 

I wouldn't know if that was set in the early 20th century, the history of he IRA isn't my strong point unlike yourself. Doesn't seem to imply it is though.

 

Anyway, I said their recent actions(H Block/Boaby Sands banners) prove they sing about the modern day IRA, not that vile song.

[RyanGers193 0]

What does the UVF have to do with supporting Rangers ? Genuine question.....

 

We have a large loyalist/protestant element to our support who it matters to. Unless the fans don't matter?

[The Real PapaBear 0]

Perhaps I'm missing something but these lyrics could be about joining the modern day IRA, could they not and therefore are comparible to the ones Ryan quoted?

 

These lyrics would be more akin to A Fathers Advice, I'd have thought?

 

Well, Bluedell, let me tell you, as someone who has just been cleverly outed as a closet terrorist-sympathiser,whose strong point is the history of the IRA, the song was written in the 1970s and so, being about an old man reflecting on his youth, it is, one the face of it, a song about the original IRA and not the Provos.

 

On the face of it.

 

But then, we all know that's bullshit. We all know that people who pretend to be singing about the original organisations, rather than their modern day terrorist manifestations,, and who point to song lyrics to prove it are pretty much two-faced bullshitt merchants.

[the gunslinger 3,366]

you literally never hear every other saturday sung at ibrox anymore.

 

depressing

[Bluedell 5,329]

On the face of it.

 

But then, we all know that's bullshit. We all know that people who pretend to be singing about the original organisations, rather than their modern day terrorist manifestations,, and who point to song lyrics to prove it are pretty much two-faced bullshitt merchants.

 

Yeah, that's a problem with many of the UVF songs as well...and possibly TBB and the use of the F word. I know what I meant when I sang TBB and never once did I equate the F word with RC. However I'm sure that there are some that did and that's where the problem lies. It's probably even more prevalent with the other songs.

[BlueMazza 0]

We have a large loyalist/protestant element to our support who it matters to. Unless the fans don't matter?

 

We also have a large section who aren't affiliated to those so it's actually a fair question. Plus, the question is, what does it have to do with Rangers and supporting Rangers?

[The Real PapaBear 0]

wouldn't know if that was set in the early 20th century, the history of he IRA isn't my strong point unlike yourself. Doesn't seem to imply it is though.

 

Again, if I may attempt to summarise your position, it is this: You are, by your own admission, entirely ignorant of the history of the IRA, (and by implication ignorant of the origins and causes of the conflict in Northern Ireland and by extrapolation, ignorant of the events which seem to play such an important part in your own Weltanschauung) and yet, despite this self-acknowledged ignorance, you feel competent enough to proclaim what this song does and does not refer to.

 

 

Anyway, I said their recent actions(H Block/Boaby Sands banners) prove they sing about the modern day IRA, not that vile song.

 

There is, of course, no question and never has been, that the object of their affection is the Provisional IRA, and no doubt, among the younger neds, the Continuity IRA and the Real IRA and the I-Cant-Believe-Its-Not-IRA IRA.

 

Neither is there any doubt that anyone who goes to a football match in Glasgow and sings about 3 lettered Irish terrorist groups and pretends to be singing about what these used to be a hundred years ago is.... now how can I put this without incurring the wrath of the admins... indulging in veracious inexactitude.

 

But that's not really the issue, is it? The question before us is not about the drivel they sing, it's about the drivel that our so-called supporters sing. And we really don't, by the way, have a "large loyalist/protestant" element to our support. 90% of Rangers fans don't give a damn about loyalism and probably only slightly less don't give a second thought to religion of any kind.

[der Berliner 3,247]

What leaves a bad taste though is that I was under the impression that - some hardliners aside - we had started to shed this sectarian "baggage" during the late-90s. For the sake of the Old Firm spirit, it was invoked time and again especially by the media (home and abroad), but generally it was not a dominating issue. Ever since 2005 though, the Yahoos campaigned against anything that went against them, re-invented the victim card, blew anything we sung and chanted out of context and were ... successful. Their biggest success was the ban of FTP and TBB, which essentially revived our loyalist behaviour again. What was essentially cynical and bad banter before, turned "sectarian" again, even though by that time "sectarian" had been redefined as well, as hardly anything the Yahoos sung and did was tarred with that brush any longer.

Right now, I'm still not sure whether those airing the couple of songs pro-UVF/YCF are actually diehard loyalists, but rather belt them out in defiance to what the Yahoos achieved and do; and in defiance to the football authorities' PC campaigning. That we shoot ourselves in the foot with somesuch becomes irrelevant at times. Alas, the authorities do see sense occasionally, else the singers would have been cleaned from the stands by now.

 

Still, the club does not need this attention, at least not within football grounds. People can belt out their opinion nigh 24/7, but it would be in the interest of the club they love if they stop doing it at Ibrox et al. At least for the time being. As has been said, there are a great number of Rangers songs that are not related to politics or the like. You'd hope the "DJ" at Ibrox would use them every now and then too ...