Campaign of hatred against Neil Lennon

[ian1964 10,720]

Published Date: 13 March 2011

By ANDREW SMITH

 

BEYOND the issue of how long Neil Lennon can possibly put up with a daily existence in which his freedom and safety, and those of his family, are being challenged lie deeply uncomfortable questions. How have we tolerated the fomenting of such hatred for so long to have brought us to this point? And what does it say about our society?

The bullets in the post in January that were followed by a fake nail bomb this month have taken the death threats and intimidation against Lennon to unprecedented levels for any public figure in this country.

 

Safe-houses and 24-hour surveillance have become necessities for the security of the Celtic manager, his partner and their five-year-old son. But such grotesque developments are in keeping with the disfiguring of ordinary life Lennon has had to contend with during his 11 years in Scotland. It has escalated now because his position has been elevated. It has always been there, though, and manifested itself in street assaults that have brought convictions for the culprits, sectarian slogans being daubed on roads, his retirement from playing for Northern Ireland after a paramilitary death threat received by the BBC and constant vile, viral hate crimes.

 

The internet, indeed, as pinpointed by both his lawyer Paul McBride and First Minister Alex Salmond this week, is now recognised as the cesspit in which too much verbal savagery has been allowed to stew for too long. Yet, what truly disturbs is not the evidence of Facebook groups such as Hunt Down Neil Lennon And Shoot Him, Let's Hang Neil Lennon but what masquerades as acceptable comment on the 39-year-old in various forums.

 

An "ah, but" element creeps in to justify the treatment of Lennon: "Ah, but, even though no-one should have to deal with death threats, he brings it on himself". Expanded, the haters would venture that it is his snarling, his loss of control on the touchline and, having been reared in Lurgan, his embrace of what Celtic stands for and rejection of all things Rangers that make him an accomplice in any wrong-doing perpetrated against him or his family.

 

This is baloney that deliberately fuses and confuses two separate issues. Anyone is entitled to have no time whatsoever for Lennon. This, though, offers no legitimacy to those who believe that it extends to creating a climate wherein, it is believed, some serious criminals in Northern Ireland have felt sufficiently emboldened by a public mood in Scotland to embark on a campaign of horrific harassment.

 

A campaign in which Lennon has been sent bullets and suspect packages, had distress caused to his parents in his homeland and been forced to have a panic button installed in his family home - a home which he and his partner and child have had to be moved from three times in the past month as a result of police receiving what they deemed "credible" threats.

 

Ultimately, the targeting of Lennon doesn't come down to his personality. His bolshiness and bad-mouthing in the heat of battle are, away from games, underpinned - and so undercut - by an impressive intelligence and articulacy. It is a consequence, pure and simple, of his being an unapologetic, successful Northern Irish Catholic in a country where there is a virulent anti-Catholic strain among a section of the Rangers support.

 

The apparent unwillingness to confront this issue head-on is one of the reasons the pressures on Lennon have continued to grow, and proved a primary motivation in McBride and Lennon's agent Martin Reilly putting firmly into the public domain the intolerable nature of what he is living under in a supposedly-civilised society.

 

The same week Lennon received bullets, so to did fellow Northern Irish Catholics Niall McGinn and Paddy McCourt. Two more unassuming and affable blokes you could not meet. All three were then fresh from Celtic's first league success in a derby in two years. The hatred of Lennon has been hiked up in the ten weeks since, as Celtic have attained a hitherto long-surrendered supremacy in encounters with their bitterest rivals.

 

Just as fans of the Ibrox club, for the first season in many years - appearing to take their lead from the Papal visit - have started giving lusty renditions of their No Pope of Rome ditty. It has barely been the subject of media comment, far less opprobrium, even if it patently comes under the charge of "incitement to religious hatred". There is hardly another football club in the world that could find themselves in the dock over that but still people are unable or unwilling to join the dots between the acceptance of such illegality and hate crimes directed at Lennon online, which must now be tackled as would internet fraud, terrorist threats and paedophilia.

 

Lennon's ability, and willingness, to stay in his post, may come down to the seriousness with which attempts are made to take the heat out of a situation that is impacting on both his personal and professional life. He has not appeared before the media since the fake nail bomb addressed to him was intercepted in Saltcoats ten days ago. Assistant Johan Mjallby performed such duties ahead of Celtic's trip to Inverness today for their sixth-round Scottish Cup tie, which the host club have had to make special security arrangements for in order to accommodate the banned Lennon in the stand of the Caledonian Stadium.

 

"He's been in the limelight for reasons that are not to do with football and that's why he has decided to sit this one out," the Swede said at Lennoxtown on Friday. "At the end of the day it's about Celtic Football Club and the players. That's what we want to discuss."

 

Mjallby, who last weekend rejected the suggestion floated by first-team coach Alan Thompson that Lennon could step away in the summer, insisted the Celtic manager's demeanour had not been affected by the invidious circumstances forced on him. "He's going great," he said. "He's a strong character. You've even more admiration for the way the guy works so well with the team, supports the players and thinks about tactics (in the face of what's happening off-field]."

 

Those in Lennon's circle and who have encountered him professionally have rejected the notion that he will quit, East Fife manager John Robertson describing him eloquently as "a warrior who would not walk". Yet despite offering similar sentiments, his agent also conceded that Glasgow was closing in on his client. "If we go out on a Saturday night then we go to places where people won't give him any hassle - but we're running out of places," Reilly said. "It seems to be wherever we go there's always problems for him."

 

For a man who, it must be remembered, has been open about his battles with depression, it has to be questioned how sustainable it is to live in a city where, in recent months, walking down the street with partner and child has at times become a trial and a gauntlet for the three; quite apart from all the other desperate difficulties he has been forced to endure. Yet Lennon is doing a job he covets - perhaps feels as if he was born for - and, as the most decorated Celtic player to belong entirely to the post-Jock Stein era, has a keen sense of the club's history and his potential place within it.

 

There is only so much it is worth going through to make a managerial mark anywhere, however beloved. That has long been passed with Lennon. Now he needs the will of government and football authorities to reset the boundaries of acceptable public behaviour. He deserves that; we must demand it.

 

http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/sport/Andrew-Smith-Scotland-must-ask.6733176.jp?articlepage=3

[ian1964 10,720]

You can just see the headlines now.

 

Lennon forced to quit by bigoted threats as Rangers FC retain the title for 3 in a row:grin:

[Danny 0]

Even the most reasonable fans from the dark half of Glasgow fully believe Lennon hasn't caused the barrage of crap he gets. You point out all his own crimes from the past and they say 'source'.

 

Best you get is 'he's no angel' as if that covers the scumbag he actually is.

 

Lennon's conduct of the past has ignited the morons on our side and that of other clubs to drive appalling campaigns against him. The campaigns I don't condone, but Lennon is guilty of inciting them.