One Scotland, Many Cultures & 2 Tier "Justice"

[RANGERRAB 3,266]

Does everyone realise fenia!n is neither a race or religion?

Indeed many of them were protestant. They were irish rebels seeking home rule in the nineteenth century.

It is only the Rangers-hating media in this country who have made it sectarian for their own purposes.

[Bearman 9]

Does everyone realise fenia!n is neither a race or religion?

Indeed many of them were protestant. They were irish rebels seeking home rule in the nineteenth century.

It is only the Rangers-hating media in this country who have made it sectarian for their own purposes.

 

Stop spending your time on Google mate...Rangers are involved in a big match on Saturday in case you forgot

[D'Artagnan 173]

Does everyone realise fenia!n is neither a race or religion?

Indeed many of them were protestant. They were irish rebels seeking home rule in the nineteenth century.

It is only the Rangers-hating media in this country who have made it sectarian for their own purposes.

 

Rab

 

Have a read of this - the author regretfully does not wish his identity revealed.

 

When the furore broke over the issue of the Rangers support singing its anthem The Billy Boys, there were plenty of well-founded suspicions among those of a Royal Blue persuasion that UEFA, in imposing a ban on the song, had been duped by those in Scotland peddling a revisionist take on history and presenting a false representation of reality, choosing to twist expressions of belief by others into anti-Catholic bigotry such as Graham Spiers on BBC telling the audience quite specifically that "******" meant "Catholic" in the minds of those who sang the song. The ****** movement, which was born in Ireland in the mid 19th Century sought to achieve Irish independence from Britain and the name was and is used regularly by those who desire to see a united Ireland by fair means or foul. This is an aspect which will be referred to at a later point in this essay.

 

Protestant institutions in Scotland have been severely criticised in recent years; some, like the Church of Scotland, have chosen to respond to this by apologising almost regularly for events of the past; the Orange Order has tried to be accommodating but still ends up the victim of smears and ridicule; while Rangers FC, with their history of being a focal point of the country's Protestants, have floundered, not knowing how to contextualise their identity and preferring to just not mention the issue at all. All of this means that the history and identity of Protestant Scotland is denied a voice. What this chapter aims to do, therefore, is to examine what is nowadays claimed to have been anti-Catholicism that was prevalent in Scottish society in years gone past; and to specifically look at the relationship between the Scottish people and the strain of Irish republicanism that grew in Scotland in the late 19th / early 20th Century.

 

Protestants and Catholics in Ireland alike were affected by the Potato Famine in the middle of the 19th Century and many of either persuasion sought refuge in other countries, Scotland being one of them. Scotland, apart from a few pockets of Catholics in the north-east and Western Isles was an almost entirely Protestant country. However, the number of Catholics and Irish Nationalists grew markedly in number in Glasgow especially after the influx from Ireland. However, despite claims to the contrary, the Catholics moving into Scotland were not as persecuted as some would have us believe. Chapels were built and attended regularly and priests were often seen in Glasgow walking the streets in their full regalia with little or no account of harassment; indeed, the strongest form of protest appears to have been a few letters sent to Glasgow newspapers bemoaning the fact that a visitor to Scotland might form the impression that such a sight meant Catholics were in the majority in the country. Of course, it would be inaccurate to claim that relations between the indigenous Protestants and incoming Catholics were perfect but there is plenty of evidence to suggest that the newcomers were not subject to instant hostility and harassment from a people who at the time were still almost entirely Protestant.

 

The rivalry between Rangers and Celtic in the early days was not as bitter or pronounced as it was to become. Indeed, after Rangers won the Scottish Cup for the first time in 1894 the Celtic hierarchy expressed satisfaction that Rangers had triumphed at last. Scottish society, however, was dividing sharply with numerous instances of violence surrounding the religious and political parades that were taking place. In one particular instance, an Irish Home Rule parade that took place in Glasgow in the 1890s culminated in a 16 year old Scottish Protestant being shot by one of the participants in the demonstration. An event such as this could only widen the hostility that the indigenous Protestant population would feel towards a militant, hostile element that was gaining strength in their own country. As will be seen further on in this essay, this was far from the last time violent acts were committed on the streets of Scotland in the name of Irish republicanism and the argument here is that hostility to such activity was natural given the seriousness and potential for damage to the country that could be inflicted by malcontents. Therefore, rather than accept the view that the Scots of the time were anti-Catholic to any great degree, the crux of this argument is that the divide in Scottish society was caused by violent Irish Republicanism being visited upon the indigenous population by those who sought to further the political aims of Ireland.

 

The issue of World War One and doing one's duty was an evidently emotional one in Scotland in the immediate period after the war broke out. By January 1916, over 400,000 Scots had directly enlisted in the British Army. This represented a massive part of the Scottish population, perhaps 10% in all. It can therefore be argued that such a sacrifice by such a small country in the cause of duty permeated its way into everyday life, with everybody expected to do their bit for King and Country. What it also meant – completely understandably – was that those perceived not to be doing their duty were regarded with suspicion which evolved into hostility. This can be shown to be more than supposition when one considers the narrative of John Buchan's Mr Standfast where a Glasgow man is depicted at showing hostility to immigrant Irish taking the jobs vacated by those who had gone to fight in the trenches.

 

"Aye, the Irish", cried the old Border radical. "Glasgow' stinking with two things nowadays, money and the Irish. I mind the day when I followed Mr Gladstone's Home Rule policy, and used to threep about the noble, generous warm-hearted sister nation held in bondage. My God, I'm not speaking about Ulster which is a dour, ill-natured den but our own folk all the same. But the men that will not do a hand's turn to help the war and take the chance of our necessities to set up a bawbee rebellion are hateful to God and man. We treated them like pet lambs and that's the thanks we get. They're coming over here in their thousands to take the jobs of lads that are doing their duty. I was speaking last week to a widow woman that keeps a wee dairy down the Dalmarnock Road. She has two sons and both in the army, one in the Cameronians and one a prisoner in Germany. She was telling me that she could not keep going any more, lacking the help of her boys though she had worked her fingers to the bone. "Surely it's a cruel job, Mr Amos", she says, that the Government should take both my ladies and I'll maybe never see them again and let the Irish run free and take the bread from our mouth. At the gasworks across the road they took on a hundred Irish last week and every one of them as young and as well set as you would like to see…."

 

Scottish attitudes of the time can be further expanded upon with the deployment of another Scottish Protestant character in the same book who referred to the Ulster-Scots as 'our ain people'. While Buchan's book was published after the war, it is contended here that it is not unreasonable to associate the views therein with the thoughts of 1916 Scottish society. This theory is given further strength when one considers the case of a conscientious objector of the period that was held on March 22nd 1916. One of the defendants was one who described himself as an Irishman and who claimed to believe in militarism but failed to recognise the war's validity to him, given the country he pledged allegiance to. The response of one of the judges at the hearing, Baillie Irwin, is very revealing with regard to the reason anti-Irish republicanism began to develop in Scotland. Irwin, on the panel's rejection of the plea to be excused military service, was to tell the defendant that he was 'a man prepared to fight for Ireland but live off Scotland'. This can be linked to the feeling that was reported on in Glasgow that were Ireland to achieve Home Rule then the country would become a haven for hostile foreign armies and would be therefore a threat to Britain's national security.

 

This, therefore, represents how a sense of injustice began to rise in Protestant Scottish society. While large numbers of Scots were fighting and dying at the front, the Irish element were perceived as shirking in their duty and were a subversive element and a danger to the war effort. While thousands of Scots had volunteered for military service for King and Country, the Irish politicians and people were doing their level best to undermine the war effort. At the time there were major discussions in Parliament with regard to the war effort being put in in Ireland. Irish nationalists in Parliament in fact went as far as to vote against the Conscription Bill in 1916, claiming they were opposed to the principle of compulsion. While this objection was later withdrawn, it is not difficult to see why they would be regarded as a danger to the war effort, especially with regard to later events which will be related further on in this article. With regard to the Irish contribution to the war, it is apposite to relate the numbers of soldiers that had enlisted from Ireland. By 1916 approximately 92,000 had enlisted: 47,760 from Ulster; 27,000 from Leinster; 14,000 from Munster; and 3,500 from Connaught. The figures are revealing in a number of ways. It does perhaps show that the Irish War effort was more than was generally perceived in Scotland of the time. However, with almost 50% coming from Ulster where Protestants predominated it is not difficult to see why the bond between Scotland and Ulster - referred to by Buchan – was as strong as it was. Indeed, one of the most prominent historians of the time, James MacKinnon, noted in his magisterial study of the 1707 Act of Union that the thousands of Scots who migrated to Ulster in the 17th Century 'by their thrift and energy, contributed to the prosperity of modern Ulster' further strengthening the argument that the bond between the two countries was a predominant factor in Scottish life at that particular period and not, as it is nowadays, either written off or dismissed as bigotry.

 

Collectively, it cannot be legitimately argued that little, if any, contribution to the war effort was coming from Ireland. Instead, it is contended that anti-Irishness was not a major factor of Scottish society; but that anti-republicanism was, and rightly so given the methods used by those of that nature to further their aims. In essence, it is argued here that what is written off today as nothing other than tribal anti-Catholicism is anything but; instead, it is merely a continuation of a legitimate reaction in Scotland to migrants in the early part of the last century showing nothing but hostility to the country that provided them with a living and who, moreover, were prepared to visit violence on that country for the benefit of another. Submitted, therefore, is the argument that anti-******ism was a natural political thought for Scots to adopt given the circumstances in which violent Irish republicanism was brought to the streets of Scotland.

 

The instances of Irish republicanism manifesting themselves in Scotland after World War One are many and varied and serves to underline the argument of this chapter that a hostile indigenous reaction to it was not only understandable but natural given the sacrifice the country had to make. It is further more argued that the evidence of the time is adequate to claim that given what the country had suffered during 1914 – 1918, the population of the time were far from being anti-Catholic bigots in deploring what was taking place in the streets of their town; but were simply exhibiting a very natural reaction to an organisation that was simultaneously showing hostility to Scotland while at the same time showing links with the power that so many Scottish lives were lost fighting against.

 

There were suspicions in Britain that Germany was involved to an extent in the 1916 putsch in Ireland. Indeed, it was reported 3 years after the war had ended that an IRA man by the name of John Devoy had sent a telegram to Germany stating German help was expected as soon as the putsch was enacted. These were strengthened by reports in Glasgow's Evening Times of the period noting that posters entitled 'Why Germany Wants Ireland' had appeared in Dublin stating why exactly Ireland would benefit from Britain's enemy. With instances such as this taking place during the carnage of WW1, it is not surprising nor inconceivable that memories of them would outlast the war and would play a part in forming attitudes once the fighting in Europe had ended. That, therefore, can explain to a great extent why anti-Home Rule activity was evident in Scottish politics during that period, with many opposing it including John Ure Primrose, a leading figure in the Liberal Unionist party and the Chairman of Rangers.

 

With the country still coming to terms with the effects of the Great War, and with memories fresh in the minds of the people of an enemy closer to home, it is far from improbable that the hostility to a malignant influence that had served to undermine the effort and sacrifice was revitalised with the instances of Irish republicanism that were reported on frequently in the Scottish media. These reports appeared – particularly in the early part of the 1920s – almost on a daily basis and a number are presented here as evidence that the presence of armed, violent subversives were an ever-present in the lives of the Scot of the time and have much to do with the forming of the contemporary attitudes.

 

In 1919 the Irish War of Independence broke out and was followed by the Irish Civil War following partition in the early 1920s. The detail of affairs in Ireland is not important to this essay but rather how it affected Scotland. What became quickly evident was that Scotland as a country was in danger of within its towns and cities having atrocities being committed in the name of an organisation / ideology that had shown itself to be willing to work subserviently to the country many blamed for the outbreak of the 1914 – 1918 conflagration. It became evident there was a substantial and malignant influence trying to subvert the Scottish way of life within the Scottish community and, again, a hostile reaction to that is not only understandable but completely supportable, even from a perspective nearly a century on. The media were routinely reporting on Irish nationalist subversion, details of which are noted below, and therefore this is used to substantiate our argument that there was a marked difference between the attitude of the Scottish people to the big influx of Irish Catholics to that of the emergence of militant, violent Irish Nationalism and therefore, social phenomena of the time has been twisted in this day and age by revisionists with a definite agenda to subvert the truth.

 

While it is not possible to note each and every instance of Irish Nationalist terrorism reported on in 1920s Scotland, it is apposite to note a few examples to show what the people of Scotland had to contend with.

 

In February 1921, 9 detonators along with Sinn Fein propaganda and membership details were found in a house in Cambuslang. (Sinn Fein, incidentally, had over 80 active branches in Scotland during this period and reports had surfaced in the Scottish media of a note from Sinn Fein in Dublin being sent to the Kaiser requesting that 'after he had freed the suppressed nations in the east, would turn his attention to Ireland.)

 

Shortly after, 16 people went on trial in the High Court in Edinburgh accused of being part of a Sinn Fein conspiracy. 9 were subsequently given jail sentences.

 

In March 1921, two men who were subsequently found to be members of Sinn Fein were arrested over suspicion of a conspiracy to blow up a railway bridge at Eastfield near Rutherglen.

 

Banba Hall in Maryhill was raided by police in 1923 and 20 men were arrested in relation to guns and ammunition found there which were later found to be shipped to Ireland.

 

Further on in the decade, it was reported that an armed battalion of Irish Nationalists were undergoing military training in the Campsie Fells and, furthermore, had attended Mass at a local chapel in full military regalia.

 

In the middle of all this, in January 1922, the Irish Race Congress was held in Paris and was addressed by a Mr Sheehan from Scotland. His delivery to the congress included the statement that the 250,000 Irish [Catholics] in Scotland do not accept British nationality but are only temporarily resident in a country that was waging war against them.

 

The above examples, while not by any stretch of the imagination being exhaustive, serve to underline what was facing the Scottish people at the time. It can therefore be legitimately argued that the anti-******ism that was to manifest itself on the terraces of Ibrox Park was not, as some would have us believe in this day and age, anti-Catholic bigotry; but was in fact a legitimate resistance by a people who saw an alien presence doing their utmost to destroy the indigenous way of life.

 

Having outlined the emergence of a violent, foreign menace on Scotland's streets, it is time to place all this in the context of the Rangers – Celtic rivalry and to counter some modern day myths and propaganda. Rangers, contrary to a ludicrous claim in the Evening Times of 1990, were not formed by brothers who wanted to make money out of selling replica football strips, but were formed by four teenagers who had taken an interest in the new game of football they had seen. Despite having no ball, pitch, or facilities of their own, they trained on Glasgow Green – where their first games were played – and gradually developed into one of the primary clubs in the land. Through time, in the words of Moses McNeil in an interview he gave in 1935, their fame became known worldwide. There is a contention to be made that the history of Rangers Football Club is the greatest rags to riches story in the world of sport. The Club's links with Protestantism throw up a number of debating points, primarily the topic of why Rangers emerged as the team identified with the dominant religion of the country. This is something that will be explored at a later stage although it is fair to say that Rangers were not founded to be a representative team of the Protestant church but were adopted by those of the country's religion as their standard bearers in the world of sport. Celtic, on the other hand, had religious links from day one, founded by a priest and with definite links to the Catholic church.

 

As has been noted, a rivalry of sorts existed between the two teams in the early days but not of the nature that is known today. Instead, that element of the rivalry can be suggested to have deepened as events involving Ireland began to impact more and more on Scottish society. There is a school of thought that Rangers 'became' a Protestant club after a perceived influx of Ulster Orangemen into the Govan shipyards in the 1920s. However, it cannot be stressed too strongly that this is mere speculation and that there is little or no evidence to back this up. The contention of this article is that Rangers had been adopted by the Protestants of Glasgow in particular long before World War One broke out and that it was not as a reaction to Celtic's Catholicism.

 

When Rangers were founded in 1872 the country was run on strictly Protestant lines. Of that there can be little argument. Church attendance and membership was of a far higher level than it is in modern times. Reverence of the Covenanters was a feature of Scottish life with many people, as a tribute to their ancestors who were persecuted and killed for their religion, taking worship in the open up on the hills. With that sort of backdrop it is perhaps not surprising that a Club that was formed within the new sport of football became adopted by the followers of the main religion in the country.

 

Rangers' initial early years can be used as an argument that they were the natural team to develop into the standard bearers of the country's Protestants. They were young men who worked hard, respected the Sabbath and were quite prepared to stand up for what they believed in, such as having the courage of their convictions to the extent they refused to participate in the 1879 Scottish Cup Final replay on a point of principle. It is contended here that these examples would have appealed to the Protestants of the country because of the Protestant work ethic and the inherent instinct in Protestants to take authority on if they believe it is the proper thing to do rather than indulge in blind subservience. Therefore, it is contended – but not stated as fact – that the entire scenario surrounding Rangers' foundation would have made them the natural choice to be representatives of the country's Protestants.

 

Rangers' popularity was spreading away from their immediate catchment area within years of them being founded and especially after their move to the Ibrox / Kinning Park area in 1876. Football specials were run to Rangers games in Edinburgh, for example, in the 1890s and in the early years of the last Century, football specials were run to Rangers home games from other areas of Glasgow and Lanarkshire. It is this development that we would contend shows that Rangers had become the favourites of a sizeable number of Protestants who had a number of other Clubs to choose from. In 1908, for example, football specials to Rangers games were advertised to leave from Bridgeton and Rutherglen stations. Both of these areas have strong links to Protestant history – Rutherglen with its strong Covenanting heritage and Bridgeton a place with stong links to Ulster and a place where large numbers of Protestant textile workers from Scotland's south west settled - and while it is impossible to know the religion of those who travelled on the trains to Rangers the fact that there was enough interest in Rangers in areas where the population was overwhelmingly Protestant to make special trains viable means it is not out of the realms of reality to suggest that Rangers were seen as the team for the Protestants at the turn of the century.

 

With that being our argument, it is appropriate to look at the rivalry with Celtic in that context. Celtic had links with Irish Republicanism from inception with Michael Davitt, a prominent republican, planting the kick-off spot at Parkhead. As has been documented, Irish Republicanism and support for Home Rule had produced violence in Scotland as far back as the 1890s and with Celtic seen as the Irish Club it was natural that they would invoke hostility among their Protestant opponents. It is contended here that Rangers and Celtic, while being seen as the Clubs of Protestants and Catholics respectively in the early days, did not have the enmity we know today until after World War One and, furthermore, is because of Celtic's links with Irish militancy.

 

As has been argued, Rangers' identity as the Protestant Club goes back further than the 1920s; however it is no coincidence that the violence and deep divide between the supporters two Clubs has its roots in this era given Celtic's identity and the hostility to the Irish involvement – perceived or otherwise – in World War One. Therefore, it is far from surprising that the song that had the chattering classes in Scotland up in arms recently has its roots in this period and at Ibrox, home of the team adopted by Scottish Protestants who had pride in King and Country. The song, it is argued here, was not about anti-Catholicism but about anti-******ism, a concept that developed due to a deep resentment of the violent activities carried out by followers of that philosophy and bringing terror to the streets, towns and cities of Scotland.

 

That, therefore, is an argument that covers the background to the song of the Rangers supporters which was banned recently. As has been contended in this essay, its roots are not in anti-Catholicism but are in opposition to an alien menace that was attempting to subvert Scottish society. Celtic through the years have maintained their links with this philosophy, with Celtic fans openly engaging in support for the murderous actions of the IRA from the 1920s down through the remaining decades of the twentieth Century and right through the Troubles from the 1970s to the 1990s. It should be no surprise to anybody that the song The Billy Boys was the anthem of the Rangers support as it expressed opposition to the groups carrying out these deeds. In the past 20 years, Rangers have had more Catholics playing for them than at any other time in their history, some of them like Jorg Albertz and Neil McCann proving themselves to be favourites among large sections of the Rangers support. The argument that the Rangers fans were expressing a wish to see everybody of that religion dead by means of a song is as ludicrous as it is false. However, given we live in an age of immaturity in Scotland in 2008 then reasoned debate on what the song actually meant and how it came to exist is stifled as it does not sit well with those who feel comfortable among those who know and celebrate what the song opposes. This article seeks to redress the balance and give a fairer hearing to the founders of Rangers, the early Rangers supporters and their modern-day counterparts and their identity, culture and beliefs than has been afforded them in recent times.

 

[der Berliner 3,257]

The above should get a Headline and then being published on the main site.

 

For it is time to tell the people out there what our point of view is and how we see things! Then people can make up their minds for themselves from the facts and figures given above - or what they are being told elsewhere.

[der Berliner 3,257]

As I have said before, over on the German board we have a thread specifically telling people what Rangers FC is all about, the words we use, the traditions, the songs. I started this in 2009 and have yet to see something alike on any of the Anglo-Scottish fanboards.

 

In there I put a bit about F'enian too, plus this neat little video about our neighbours from the East ...

 

F'enian

Let’s start off with the definition of the word in one of the world’s leading publications on the matter: James MacKillop’s - Oxford Dictionary of Celtic Mythology.

 

Neologism (DB, i.e., a new meaning for an older word) coined in 1804 by charlatan scholar Col. Charles Vallancey. Although apparently derived from Féni, a name for early, landed freeholders, Vallancey used it as an anglicization for fianna (DB, i.e., "warrior band"). In many 19th century writers, e.g. Sir Walter Scott, F'enian pertains to stories of Fionn mac Cumhaill. The ambiguous reference to both fianna and Fionn persists in the naming of the F'enian Cycle. In 1858 "F'enian" was adopted as an alternate name for the Irish Republican Brotherhood, a secret revolutionary society dedicated to the overthrow of English authority in Ireland. Never fully quashed, F'enian activity in the British Isles and North Amercia peaked in 1866-7. In the 20th century "F'enian" popularly denotes Republican anti-British activity, especially in the six counties of Ulster, still part of the United Kingdom.

(ODoCM, p.210)

 

 

NB: James MacKillop is one of the authorities on Celtic (that is the version with a "k" at the beginning) mythology, history and culture.

Dr James MacKillop is an eminent scholar of Celtic history and culture, having been Visiting Fellow in Celtic Languages at Harvard University, Professor of English at the State University of New York, Visiting Professor at the Université de Rennes and President of the American Conference for Irish Studies. His many publications include the Dictionary of Celtic Mythology (1998), Fionn mac Cumhaill (1986) and Irish Literature: A Reader (1987, 2005). He is based in Syracuse, New York.

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Myths-Legends-Celts-Penguin-Reference/dp/0141017945/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1431160977&sr=8-3&keywords=James+MacKillop

Edited May 9, 2015 by der Berliner