These are the kind of pieces I find mildly amusing by the Scottish journalistic hacks.
In a week where the press up here practically celebrated the return of Kyle Lafferty from his 10 game ban for using a sectarian term, we now have the very same profession shouting down Celtic supporters for using the term ‘Orange b*****d’ when refereeing to the Kilmarnock striker during yesterdays 2-0 win at Hampden.
Writing in The Scotsman, Andrew Smith said, “There would appear to be a section of the Celtic support who don’t do irony.
“From the twitterati among this band, a storm was whipped this week over Kilmarnock welcoming back – without much comment – Kyle Lafferty following his 10-game ban for a sectarian slur, in which he used the Fenian epithet.
“At Hampden on Saturday night, the striker was decried from sections among the 40,000 Celtic supporters with a sectarian slur in which the Orange epithet was used.
“Kilmarnock manager Derek McInnes also suffered in such fashion. It is the settled view of the courts that Orange and Fenian are proxy words for Protestant and Catholic.
“Judicially reviewed, decrying anyone using either risks a charge for religiously aggravated breach of the peace.
“So how did Celtic’s keyboard enthusiasts react to some of their supporters trangressing in Lafferty-style fashion to abuse the 35-year-old?
“They appeared only to delight in it.”
He hit the nail on the head in his second paragraph. ‘Welcoming back’. Without a single hint of self-awareness.
Look, sectarianism has no place in society, never mind football and it should be called out at every turn but I will take no lessons in morality from a Scottish media that has turned a blind ear and eye to it for as long as my lifetime.
And it still goes on to this day.
From Derek McInnes sharing an ‘amusing’ star jump anecdote to the Kilmarnock captain telling us all that his team will ‘help Kyle through it’, the coverage of his return was a disgrace.
Would the same welcome be made if the word Fenian that Lafferty had used was replaced with black?
Of course not. He would have had his contract ripped up and, rightly, cast out of the game.
I wish our fans would just stick to singing football songs. We have a great songbook.
We don’t need to give the media up here ammunition for their faux outrage over sectarianism when all they really do is pay lip service to it.
I totally agree with your penultimate paragraph. Most of our songs now are of a political nature mentioning a seemingly redundant organisation which has nothing to to with our club. Keep it Celtic