Odious Creep - Green Brigade

[ian1964 10,720]

Iâ??m going to stick my brass neck out here and do something that appears to be highly unfashionable these days. Iâ??m going to stick up for that loud, colourful, at times controversial band of Celtic supporters known as the Green Brigade.

 

And this is from someone, before my cyberspace friends start foaming at the mouth, who utterly deplores all IRA chanting inside football grounds.

 

If you believe some contemporary accounts of the Green Brigade â?? in the main supplied by those who scarcely know them or see them â?? they congregate on that north stand at Celtic Park and boom out pro-IRA chants from start to finish.

 

There is presently a fad among Rangers supporters, at times whipped up into a frenzied outrage on Twitter and elsewhere, to have the Green Brigade endlessly and continuously bawling â??Up the Raâ? at matches. The fact that these observers are rarely there to see or witness such allegations deters them not in the slightest.

 

The latest example weâ??ve had of this fiction was at Inverness on Saturday. By general consent â?? and we were all ears â?? in the early minutes of the match a rendition of â??Up the RAâ? whimpered then petered out over a duration of ten seconds among a small section of the visiting Celtic support. But how was this being portrayed later by those who now spend their lives with agonised ears pinned to their radios?

 

Why, it was a festival of pro-IRA chanting in Inverness. It boomed out continuously. I mean, they ask incredulously, how can anyone deny it? This whole â??offensive chanting at footballâ? debate has become a wearying charade of fiction, name-calling and points-scoring. And, right now, the group of supporters who are being most traduced by it all are the so-called Green Brigade.

 

For what it is worth, last week I wrote that this group have certain members among them who can be crass in their chanting. I first wrote about the Celtic supportâ??s â??pro-IRA issueâ? six years ago, and I donâ??t believe Iâ??ve been alone in so doing. Moreover, I lose little sleep over whether anyone wants to call this type of chanting â??politicalâ? or â??sectarianâ?.

Who cares for the hermeneutics, if most of us deem it to be offensive? Yet the Green Brigade, far from booming out the sort of chants I would detest, in my experience have done anything but. In at least four or five games I have attended at Celtic Park this season, their contribution to the atmosphere has been terrific: their loud, tribal chants being flung back and forth across the stadium. It is an utter fiction, perpetrated by some who lie awake at night obsessing over such matters, that the Green Brigade is stocked to the gunnels with pro-IRA choristers.

 

It was fascinating, and at times comical, listening to Neil Lennon on this very subject the other day. Lennon, in the main, evidently thinks that the Green Brigade are fantastic. â??The colour, the atmosphere and the joy they bring to our games is brilliant,â? the Celtic manager told us on Friday.

 

Hang on, Neil. You were supposed to be condemning them. Oh, right. In a fit of counter-balance Lennon also sought to condemn â??offensive chantingâ? that the Celtic supporters might produce, arguing that such chants â??dragged the club through the mudâ?, which they do.

 

Lennonâ??s position in regard to the Green Brigade is not uncomplicated. Many of them, like him, espouse the world view of Irish Republicanism. Lennon claims that his politics are â??privateâ? but they havenâ??t always been so.

 

He comes from a social, cultural and political strand of the Irish saga that chimes with many Celtic supporters. It was due to this and much more that, while speaking impressively on Friday on the subject of chanting and the Green Brigade, the Celtic manager could scarcely help himself in expressing his admiration for these supporters.

The Green Brigade, for my part, hardly have a thing in common with me. But what I do know is that their repertoire, while not being impeccable, is not in the slightest way a catalogue of offensive songs inside Celtic Park. To believe this, you really have to have a pre-ordained and fixed view of them, which is one of contempt.

 

On the odd occasion at Celtic Park, as in Inverness on Saturday, when this group does chime up offensively, it only serves to insult its wider expression and humour. It also allows the Green Brigade to be so grossly misrepresented, as we are presently finding.

[GovanAllan 0]

Don't even know where to start with all that crap.

[chilledbear 16]

Traynor tells the truth.

 

http://blogs.dailyrecord.co.uk/jimtraynor/2011/11/we-time-its-up-stood-all-gamen.html#more

 

It's time we all stood up for our game

By jim Traynor on Nov 21, 11 06:24 AM in

THE time has come for the silent majority to make some noise. In fact, they need to bring back the thunder.

On the day he was appointed manager of Celtic that's exactly what Neil Lennon said he wanted to hear again at Parkhead.

 

And it's precisely what this club are in need of right now.

 

Lennon, Peter Lawwell, Scottish football - all of us - would like to hear this thunder more often. Preferably every time that tedious little mob who call themselves the Green Brigade pipe up in support of the IRA.

 

They are a disgrace to proper protesters and could be described as one of the downsides to freedom of speech.

 

But it would be rich irony if real Celtic fans drowned out their nauseating attempts to laud atrocity.

 

Of course they claim they are merely celebrating their Irish heritage but their argument is fatuous. They were given a platform and they have abused it.

 

Let's be absolutely clear on this. This lot have done nothing to promote or protect Celtic's Irish heritage. They have, however, blackened it. And this notion that they enliven a match, that they somehow add atmosphere, is preposterous.

 

They are a bunch of silly little boys who are being easily led by one or two who fancy themselves as Parkhead politicos.

 

These people would be hilarious if they weren't tarnishing the image of a good and great club and, by extension, the country. Despite what some of them may believe, the Green Brigade are not some kind of political movement. They aren't railing against injustice and they most certainly do not speak for anyone other than their own twisted little circle.

 

They are an obnoxious, stubborn, bunch. But because they have been tolerated by people who should have known better they believe themselves to have some kind of importance, when in reality you wouldn't give them house room.

 

And now we have them dismissing Strathclyde Police, who would rather chat than charge, by saying they don't want to meet. Unbelievable.

 

But what's worse is the cops will probably keep trying for a quiet word when they should simply take the offenders out and lock them up.

 

Apparently they and other groups of Celtic fans believe they have been singled out ahead of the government's offensive behaviour bill. Bilge.

 

Somehow, I just can't see Alex Salmond cutting short an emergency meeting on the growing financial crisis to ask what was being done about the Green Brigade.

 

Besides, if that had been the case then those members of this gaggle would have been in the jail by now instead of receiving invites to come round for tea and biscuits.

 

But then again, maybe none of us outside of this tiny group - so, that's just about everybody in the country then - know who we're dealing with.

 

Speaking after Assistant Chief Constable Campbell Corrigan had asked for the meeting a bloke called Joe O'Rourke, of the Celtic Supporters Association, told the Glasgow Evening Times: "We, as part of the FAC (Fans Against Criminalisation) group were asked to attend a meeting with ACC Campbell Corrigan, but following his comments, the groups representing the Celtic supporters felt it was inappropriate for us to attend.

 

"Mr Corrigan was reported to be summoning us for a slap on the wrist, well he obviously doesn't know who he is dealing with."

 

Excuse me? Joe, who are ya? The same question should be asked of the Green Brigade. Why is it in this country we're always bending over backwards to accommodate the most troublesome minority groups, while decent citizens can be hounded for even the most minor offence, such as failing to say thank you to the druggie who has just mugged you for your wallet? If he breaks into your house and you lay him out, you'll end up in the dock while he's being looked after by doctors while seriously ill patients who have worked all their days and paid their dues are lying on beds in corridors waiting for help.

 

Then he'll be mollycoddled by a team of social workers who ought to be out there protecting innocent children from abusive parents.

 

The wrong people are always put first and it's happening with this lot at Parkhead.

 

They are openly defiant and clearly determined to continue their celebrations of atrocities even when their own club are pleading with them to stop.

 

Even so, Celtic were appalled to discover their fans had been reported to a UEFA delegate for offensive chants and instead of raging at those who had sounded off, the club were annoyed by the police action.

 

It was as though the match commander had done something awful when, in fact, Eddie Smith did his job.

 

But what does he get for that? Slated by halfwits. Half-baked activists in hoodies who have been told they aren't wanted but who are too thick to get the message.

 

They are repeat offenders and Celtic should be banning more of them instead of asking why the police have decided to start reporting their behaviour.

 

The police are not to blame and the main instigators should have been singled out long ago leaving Celtic's people free to work with teenage troubadours who don't really know much about what or why they are singing.

 

They could yet become the kind of supporters Lawwell and Lennon want.

 

Actually the entire game could do more to encourage the right kind of fan because at a time when the national sport is under siege, supporters are being kicked out of grounds for standing up.

 

A number of Motherwell fans were thrown out of Pittodrie on Saturday because they were on their feet having a good time.

 

Some others complained and the stewards and police hauled a bunch of fans out of their places and marched them to the exits.

 

These fans had travelled from Lanarkshire to Aberdeen in support of their team only to be pushed out onto the street after having paid to get in.

 

Neil Doncaster of the SPL will have to explain how that helps bring people back to football.

 

Anyone who goes to a match and gets annoyed when someone else leaps up to celebrate a goal or a piece of skill shouldn't really be there. It's the cinema you want.

 

But what happened to Motherwell's fans on Saturday is just further proof the game is heading in the wrong direction.