In tribute to those that perished in the Ibrox disaster 1971

[pete 2,499]

I was 14 years of age

 

I have contributed to such threads before, I continue to feel fortunate that my old man was a stickler for leaving every game five minutes early. We descended stairway 13 a couple of minutes before the Disaster. We heard the roars of both goals in both Harrison Drive and Ibroxholm Oval. What happened had nothing to do with suggestions of Bears attempting to ascend the stairway after Colin Stein's equaliser, truthfully it a disaster waiting to happen. The Stairway had a dogleg at the bottom to get through the red sliding door exit. Further, the sides of the stairway were supported by hundreds of stacked blackened railway sleepers.

 

We walked to the border between Kinning Park/Tradeston, got in the car and drove back to Lanarkshire. It was a foggy evening and the car was reduced to a crawl on the Clydeside road. We stopped at the chippy in the next village to pick up grub for myself and elder cousin. My parents were attending a local party and were intent on a quick departure. Thus, it was surprising to see my mother was waiting with the family dog at the end of our short street. Nearly 2 hours after the game, we were ushered into the dining room to eat and my parents spoke in whispers in the kitchen.

 

A Motherwell supporting mate arrived an hour later as my parents were leaving. He asked my mum to telephone his mum. A few minutes later, I was asked if I had seen a school pal on leaving the game. She returned to hall and answered, "no, but he did see Colin". A news bulletin on the TV stated there had been an incident at Ibrox and police had reported two dead, more injured, some seriously. My cousin, my friend, and I watched the numerous bulletins that evening, the last one interrupted the late night film, 'Masque of the Red Death'. The death toll had been rising on each interruption, it reported the death toll would exceed 80. It was a couple of days later that the toll settled at 66.

 

My school pal perished, swept from his shoes and crushed. He had been on a local RSC bus and had not returned. The phone-calls were attempts to locate him. I remember a photograph in the Herald, it was large and depicted a lower section of the stairway with hundreds of shoes littering the steps. Haunting!

One of my school mates survived the disaster with his only loss being a shoe but I will never forget him telling me how he could feel the bodies under his feet. At one point his foot got stuck but the pressure kept pushing him forward. It was his luck that his shoe did come off otherwise he would have been pushed under.

[Steve1872 4]

[Steve1872 4]

[Steve1872 4]

[Hildy 0]

http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/latest/40-years-on-ibrox-disaster-still-haunts-referee-1-3252973

[Steve1872 4]

The words of ambulanceman Jack Kirkland, one of many who did what they could to save lives at the Ibrox Disaster http://wp.me/pkV3P-5M

[The Real PapaBear 0]

The words of ambulanceman Jack Kirkland, one of many who did what they could to save lives at the Ibrox Disaster http://wp.me/pkV3P-5M

 

very, very moving.

 

I often think the Ibrox Disaster is the "forgotten" disaster because of the fact that it a) wasn't televised and b) happened at the tail end of the post WW2 era where you "just got on with things". so we didn't have the public outpouring of grief and emotion that we got with Hillsborough, Bradford or Heysel. Forgotten, I hasten to add, not by us but by the wider public.

 

A cynical part of me also can't help wondering if the diaster had happened in the East End, whether the city of Glasgow wouldn't have spent more time and resources on a memorial for it.

[bossy 0]

While it is important to remember those who died and were injured on that day, we should also remember the essential culpability of Rangers Football Club. That stairway was a death trap and the club knew it. Two years previously there had also been an 'incident' on the same stairway with several people injured. The club did nothing to render the stairway safe.

[pete 2,499]

While it is important to remember those who died and were injured on that day, we should also remember the essential culpability of Rangers Football Club. That stairway was a death trap and the club knew it. Two years previously there had also been an 'incident' on the same stairway with several people injured. The club did nothing to render the stairway safe.

 

As is written in my preview 10 years earlier there were also 2 people killed and 44 injured amongst other incidents.

[pete 2,499]

Ibrox disaster still has power to unite Celtic and Rangers fans, 43 years on

Friday 3 Jan 2014 8:51 am

21

Ibrox disaster still unites Celtic and Rangers fansFloral tributes laid at a service to commemorate the anniversary of the Ibrox disaster (Picture: Getty)

 

Yesterday, 43 years ago to the day, 66 Rangers fans attended a Glasgow derby and never returned home to their families.

 

Fresh from the celebrations of Christmas and Hogmanay of 1970, 80,000 supporters packed into Ibrox for the traditional new year grudge match between the city’s two juggernauts.

 

With Celtic grabbing a 1-0 lead late in the game, home fans began to head for the exits as Colin Stein equalised in injury time.

 

What happened next rendered the power and passion of football rivalry utterly insignificant.

 

Of those who happened to be making their way down Stairway 13 at that fateful moment, 66 were crushed to death.

 

The disaster today remains the worst footballing tragedy in Scottish history.

 

Both sides have shown that when the spectre of mortality casts a shadow over Glasgow’s football divide, bridges of human kindness are willingly built

 

In the gloom of the aftermath, both Rangers and Celtic coaching staff assisted in giving first aid to the injured, even respectfully carrying the dead away from the ill-fated walkway.

 

Three weeks later, a benefit match was held at Hampden for victims of the disaster, with a Scotland XI playing against a Rangers and Celtic combined XI.

 

Although it may currently be on an extended hiatus, the Celtic vs Rangers rivalry may be the fiercest and most notorious in football.

 

However, throughout history, both sides have shown that when the spectre of mortality casts a shadow over Glasgow’s football divide, bridges of human kindness are willingly built.

 

At times, an unhealthy blood-lust can boil over from both sides, but ultimately when life is threatened or lost, common decency prevails.

 

Jock Stein, the legendary Celtic manager who was in the dugout on that fateful January day in 1971, perhaps summed it up best when he said: ’This terrible tragedy must help to curb the bigotry and bitterness of Old Firm matches.

 

‘When human life is at stake this kind of hatred seems sordid and little. Fans of both sides will never forget this disaster.’

 

Unfortunately, his words have never become a mantra for either set of fans, as pockets of sectarianism and hatred will continue to exist when Celtic and Rangers meet.

 

However, every true Celtic fan will have spared a thought for 66 human beings – some as young as nine years old – who left their families 43 years ago, never to return home.