Why has our pathetic, supine FA seen fit to apologise after the magnificent 5,000 England supporters in Sinn Fein Park sang "anti IRA songs". FFS I wasn't that bothered about the game itself until the National Anthems, when 44,000 foaming-at-the-mouth Jocks vented their spleens, and drowned out our National Anthem. No respect. Don't take my word for it, the BBC's Football corrrespondent said: "I have never heard a noise like it". The IRA is a terrorist organisation. Far, far too many Scots define themselves and get their rocks off by attacking the English. Whatsmore, how comes the English are seemingly the only race that is left in the world that you can be openly, overtly racist about? The FA can stick their apology up their arses. Not in my name.
Yeah its an absolute joke... the English are becoming an endangered species now that has to bend over backwards apologising to everyone now for the smallest of things. Anyone seen that Songs of Praise (Not a programme I watch to be honest) is being changed as well now to include all faiths now because England isnt solely a Christian Country!!
Anti-IRA songs, "No Surrender" and the like have been sung by Rangers fans since time immemorial. The SFA turned a blind eye for years and years until UEFA started fining the Old Firm (or The Ugly Sisters) for sectarian singing, and now they are tackling the problem. And it is a huge problem for fans like me who believe sectarianism has no place in sport. Being in front of a crowd of Rangers fans singing No Surrender is bloody scary, I can tell you, especially when your team scores. So there is good reason for apologising for this, while the insulting songs about Gordon Strachan and Scotland were accepted as normal football stuff.
It's the type of song UEFA were trying to stamp out in the Ugly Sisters matches, and it's invariably the home side which gets fined, so the FA's apology was a decent bit of diplomacy in my book. I don't believe there's a match anywhere in the world with an atmosphere as toxic as Rangers Vs Celtic, 2 hours of sheer hatred, even though the next day they'll be workmates and the best of friends. It's just a shame the SFA never tackled sectarianism, I suppose too many of them had Rangers or Celtic sympathies. My question is why would anyone suddenly want to start singing these songs at a Scotland/England game?
I guess because it was played at Celtic Park. If it had been played at Hampden (why wasn't it, by the way - does anyone know?) I doubt there would have been the chants.
Has everyone seen Stewart Lee's anti-Al Quadea routine? I'm sure Typical and Vol would enjoy it and miss the irony but it's great. Harps on about how the IRA in comparison were decent British terrorists who didn't want to be British. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwkEEqXT3uQ
I've seen and heard worse at football matches. So the Scots booed the National Anthem. So what's new..? From what I watched last night, I reckon it gee'd the England players up, just like it used to do to every foreign team that came to Wembley and heard us booing and whistling their national anthem in years gone by, before we woke up to the fact that such boorish behaviour was working against us. I like it when the Jocks sing Flower of Scotland. I was at Twickenham for the Calcutta Cup match just before England won the Rugby World Cup and I could see how it wound the England lads up no end. Lines like "Sent them homeward to think again" did Martin Johnson's job for him. The Scots took a fearful hammering on the scoreboard that day. They took a fearful thumping on the pitch as well. Dallaglio, Johnson, Leonard et al dished out the sort of retribution that left split heads and bruises visibly ripening on every Scottish player on the pitch. As for anti-IRA songs, well, in my opinion, when we do that all we're achieving is to acknowledge that the very existence of those low-lifes means something to us. It gives them a level of importance and credibility they don't merit. We'd do better to give them the ignoring-to that they richly deserve. The FA have cravenly pandered to political correctness with their squinnying apology. We shouldn't be surprised. But as Royston said in his OP..... Not in my name.
God Save the Queen and Flower of Scotland are both ghastly dirges which deserve to be drowned out. Flower of Scotland is anti-English and God save the Queen is anti-Scottish, with a verse about crushing the rebellious Scots if you read the full version. Compare them to the likes of the Marseillaise which is a truly stirring anthem and you see what I mean. Jerusalem would be a better English Anthem, and A Man's a Man for A' That would be right for Scotland, although nowadays it would probably have to be changed to A Person's a Person for a' That. I like watching Princess Anne singing Flower of Scotland though, almost as much as I used to like watching Gary Neville not singing God Save the Queen.
Nope not for me. Whilst I do appreciate the irony, the routine is flawed factually - no the IRA did not always give warnings and many were coded to be deliberately misleading and followed by a secondary device aimed at killing rescuers. I don't think I could sit there and be asked to clap the IRA. You can get away with it when your audience is a bunch of pissed up toffs but I wonder how that would have gone down at the liberal. I always looked at Stewart Lee as someone not to touch as he would be sticky. The routine is typically Oxbridge Mafia. I recall the critic who described him as a smug odious unfunny Cnut who holds about as much amusement as an encounter with Ian Huntley.
