football in scotland: a history of political and ethnic identity

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Football in Scotland: ahistory of political andethnic identityJoseph M. BradleyPublished online: 07 Mar 2007.

To cite this article: Joseph M. Bradley (1995) Football in Scotland: a history ofpolitical and ethnic identity, The International Journal of the History of Sport,12:1, 81-98, DOI: 10.1080/09523369508713884

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Football in Scotland: A History of Politicaland Ethnic Identity

JOSEPH M. BRADLEY

I believe that an examination of the ethno-religious milieu is necessary fora fuller understanding of past and present social and political life inScotland. Scottish football provides a link between historical developmentsand more contemporary religious and political phenomena in Scottishsociety. In particular the role of the two great Scottish institutions,Glasgow Rangers and Celtic football clubs,1 can be seen as central to thisunderstanding of much socio-political culture and participation; at leastin reference to the mass of the population in the west central belt.

This article will look at the distinctive histories of Rangers and Celticin relation to each other. However, the history of the Celtic club will alsobe used as a means to pry open the immigrant Irish identity in Scotland.Although the Irish immigrant presence is an enormous one in the westcentral belt of Scotland, little attention has been paid to it over the yearsby media and academics alike. Previous analysis of religious and ethnicidentity in Scotland has often been inadequate and partial. One of the keyproblems with much of the literature is that it operates with a very narrowunderstanding of religious identity using sectarianism as its key concept.As such, most authors ignore, or avoid, the multifaceted nature of religiousidentity in Scotland. Gallagher adopts such language in his book, Glasgow:The Uneasy Peace: 'If sectarianism is still capable of a last hurrah inScotland, the evidence presented in these pages suggests that it will not beon the same scale witnessed in Northern Ireland.'2 Murray's popular lookat religious cleavage in Scottish society, The Old Firm: Sectarianism,Sport and Society, uses similar terminology: 'Scotland's segregatededucation system is still the biggest hurdle to overcome in the eliminationof sectarianism ...'3 In its Scottish context, sectarianism has been utilizedas a concept to 'explain away' areas of Scottish life which have remainedunaddressed or obscured. Of course, the use of the term sectarianism isappropriate in a number of instances; certainly when applied to narrowmindedness, bigotry and intolerance. However, the term has evolved tobecome a catch-all and evasive phrase to describe many aspects of religious,national, political and cultural identities in Scottish society. It also servesto hide the identity of the Irish in Scotland, a significant community sinceimmigration to Scotland from the time of the Great Famine of the mid

The International Journal of the History of Sport, Vol.12, No. 1 (April 1995), pp. 81-98PUBLISHED BY FRANK CASS, LONDON

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82 THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF SPORT

nineteenth century. Football is a way to begin to understand the historyof the Irish in Scotland.

As in other countries, there exists in Scotland symbolic connectionsbetween sport, wider social phenomena and politics. In Scotland, at theend of November 1988, the country's newspapers (quality and tabloids)were dominated by the news that Glasgow Rangers Football Club hadbeen bought by David Murray, an enterprising Scottish businessman.In media terms, that event was overtaken in June 1989 with the news thatGlasgow Rangers (which for over a century had essentially practised a'Protestant only' policy) had signed a Catholic player in Maurice Johnston.Not only did the signing take up many pages of the Scottish newspapers,but it also made national and international news. Quality Sunday news-papers all over Britain, as well as Ireland and elsewhere, discussed thetransfer and its more significant and wider applications. This was a rareexample of the wider national and international community discoveringa feature of Scottish life, long recognized by people in Scotland.

Celtic, Glasgow Rangers and the Scottish Game

Football, whether playing or spectating, has been the most popular sportin Scotland for some 100 years.4 It is also the case that the Scottish gameis dominated by Glasgow Rangers and Celtic football clubs. Both clubsgenerally contain the best and most expensive players, have the largestnumber of employees, and have the biggest stadia and the correspondingcrowds to fill them. In terms of the winning of trophies, they havemonopolized the Scottish game since the late nineteenth century.5

Although other countries also have a few clubs which have dominatedtheir respective games (sometimes only periodically), this is generally dueto the clubs' success, which generates huge support from the normallylarge population centre from which they originate. In contrast, it is thespecific origins, subsequent developments, and the very nature of the twobig Scottish clubs (and of the Scottish game more generally), which makesGlasgow Rangers and Celtic unusual in terms of cultural, ethno-religious,social and political interpretation.

By the end of the 1880s, football was a popular game throughoutBritain. In Glasgow, Brother Walfrid, a member of the Catholic MaristOrder and some of his Irish-Catholic immigrant compatriots, saw in thedevelopment of the game an opportunity to raise money and feed the poor(largely immigrant Irish) of the east end of the city. Brother Walfrid'sintention was to keep those of a Catholic persuasion within the reachesof the faith (and therefore out of the reaches of proselytism), while alsoraising the confidence and morale of that self-same community. Volunteersfrom this community also helped build a ground which could accommodate

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FOOTBALL IN SCOTLAND: POLITICAL AND ETHNIC IDENTITY 83

possible fixtures (for an account of this period, see Murray, 1984 andMcNee).6

At the time of Celtic's founding the vast majority of Catholics in thecountry derived from Ireland and the words Catholic and Irish wereinterchangeable in the west of Scotland. All the club's founders wereexpatriate Irishmen or of Irish stock and the new club's support was drawnlargely from the swelling Irish community in Glasgow. The donations tocharity frequently included some to exclusively Irish causes, such as theEvicted Tenant's Fund, then an important aspect of Irish nationalistpolitics.

If, as Catholics, the members were concerned about the plight oflocal charities, as Irishmen they were obsessed with that perennialquestion of Irish politics, Home Rule.7

John Glass for example, president and director of the club in its foremostyears, was an outstanding figure in nationalist circles; he was prominentin the Catholic Union and was a founder of the O'Connell branch of theIrish National Forresters, as well as being the treasurer of the HomeGovernment Branch of the United Irish League. Another member, WilliamMcKillop, became MP for North Sligo in Ireland (holding this constituencyfor eight years before winning in South Armagh in 1908), whilst MichaelDavitt (a former revolutionary/Fenian and founder of the Irish LandLeague), the celebrated Irish patriot, was one of the club's originalpatrons. Club officials, players and supporters alike were often heavilyinvolved in politics; supporting Irish Home Rule, campaigning for therelease of Irish political prisoners, opposing what they viewed as Britishimperialism in the Boar War and South Africa and supporting the con-tentious Catholic goal of state funded Catholic schools.

Apart from the Sligo-born Brother Walfrid, the club's first patron wasthe Catholic Archbishop Charles Eyre of Glasgow. Many cartoons of thetime, in both the Catholic and the secular press, 'included sympatheticcaricatures of priests among the crowds at Celtic games', whilst Woodsstates that the Glasgow Observer, a Catholic newspaper catering for theIrish Catholic community, took a keen interest in Celtic's progress. OtherIrish clubs also existed at the same time, in Coatbridge, Glasgow andEdinburgh, which with the same national and religious make-up as Celticmade efforts to establish themselves. However, it was the remarkablecompetition successes of the Celtic club, as well as good organization andan apt location, which enabled them to make concrete their existence.8

Celtic's charitable contributions no doubt helped link the Catholiccommunity with their sporting representatives. Many of the original sup-porters clubs were (as some still are) affiliated to or had some connection

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with the local Catholic parish, while today they have often been seen tomaintain the charitable foundations of the club by continuing to donateto charity. In fact, in many cases the tradition has actually been seen tobe kept going more by the supporters than the club itself.9 Thus Celticwas founded by and for Irish Catholics, though never exclusively so (forexample, they have always included non-Catholics/Protestants in theirteam). The club's ethno-religious make-up, along with its early successeson the football field, attracted crowds to football that had never previouslybeen experienced in Scotland.10 The club came into existence as the focusfor much Catholic and Irish community activity, a setting for that com-munity's broad social and political aspirations.

In contrast, Glasgow Rangers were to begin in terms more normallyassociated with football, that is, as a purely sporting and athletic institu-tion. Formed in 1872-73, most of the impetus to found the club stemmedfrom the McNeil family of Gareloch and other budding football enthusiastsfrom the same area; 'young crusaders who had come to the big city to earntheir livelihood, the spirit of adventure was strong within them'.11 Theteam name was proposed by one Moses McNeil, and unanimously adoptedby the young men trying to begin their own club. The colours of royal blueand white were assumed, and four grounds were then occupied by the newclub until the end of 1899 when they finally settled at Ibrox on the southside of Glasgow.12 Unlike the beginnings of their great rivals Celtic,around fifteen years later, none of these writers on Rangers' history refersto any political, religious or ethnic stimulus. Indeed, the club was a fairlyunexceptional side in its earliest years, a period when the game itself wasamateur, and when another Glasgow club (Queen's Park) often dominated.

On the other hand, Celtic's early years were marked by remarkablesuccesses; the Scottish Cup, the Glasgow Cup, the Scottish LeagueChampionship, the Charity Cup, all won by 1893. Glasgow Rangersmounted a successful challenge to 'the Irishmen' in the 1893-94 season,winning the Scottish and Glasgow Cups, while Celtic won the Leagueand the Charity Cup. The domination of Scottish football by both clubswas underway. Rangers, after some initial problems, began to achievenoted successes by the 1890s. With large crowds following both teams,and professionalism being adopted within the game before the end of thecentury, a competitive and financially lucrative environment was emergingbetween the clubs. By 1895, crowds of 25,000 were watching fixturesinvolving them. In 1896, Celtic and Hibernian (an Edinburgh side whichhad also emerged from the Irish community there) were top of the Scottishleague, prompting a newspaper, Scottish Sport, to note the dominance inScotland of two Irish teams and more or less asking whether any Scottishteam could challenge them.13

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Already on the field of play the competition between both clubs wasvibrant, whilst Celtic were also becoming convinced that they were thevictims of some unfavourable decision-making by referees and the Scottishfootball authorities.14 Within a similar context, in the 1950s Celtic wereordered by the Scottish football authorities to take down the flag of theRepublic of Ireland which they flew above their ground in acknowledge-ment of the club's origins. After a heated period of disquiet, Celticeventually retained the 'right' to fly the flag.15 Campbell and Woods note:

The Celtic support revelled in the triumphs of the team, compensatingas they did for the daily troubles in a harsh life amid uncongenialsurroundings; the neutral Scottish enthusiast [distinctive of thealready established Glasgow Rangers supporter] understandablyresented the nationalist undertones of Celtic's achievements andlooked around for a more representative team to cheer for againstthe Irishmen.16

Celtic already had their support. Nevertheless, as Rangers became moresuccessful and were viewed as the main challengers to Celtic, the developingtransport system enabled football supporters of other teams, like Queen'sPark and Third Lanark, to change their allegiance and support the mostable challenge to 'the immigrants'.

Rangers were a Protestant team, like all other clubs in Scotland wereProtestant. However, a combination of factors enabled Rangers to en-capsulate, or become the main focus of, a Protestant sporting identity.Clearly Celtic's early successes were resented by society at large. Rangers,through their ability to halt this 'Irish' dominance of Scottish football,assumed a pre-eminent role in defending native prestige. They attractedthe strongest attention in the sporting battle with Celtic. Footballenthusiasts naturally liked success and this attracted many people tosupport Rangers. Invariably the nationalist or ethnic dimension to thisparticular rivalry proved potent to many Rangers' fans. The very existenceof the Celtic club in Scotland therefore spawned a reaction from the restof Scottish football.

The most significant reaction was witnessed in the growing success andrelated power of Rangers, and a strong Protestant nationalist-like identitywas thus forged within the club. This identity would not have been possiblewithout the presence of the Celtic club. As a response to the presenceand success of Celtic, it was a Protestant identity which imbued some ofthe strongest anti-Catholic and anti-Irish elements in Scottish society.Rangers Football Club forthwith became one of the most overtly anti-Catholic institutions in society, because of the overriding anti or negativeelement in the club and its support, and as a reflection of much of the

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larger society's attitude towards the Catholic Irish in general. It was notsimply a competitive response to the success of an unusual football team.

The rivalry was threefold: on the field the players fought it out forsupremacy; in the boardrooms the directors squabbled for profits; andon the terracings there were divisions under the banners of religion andnationalism. Both clubs could rely on revenue from loyal supporters;Celtic's from a captive audience within the Irish community and Rangersfrom a populace eager to fix on a side capable of beating the upstartsfrom Glasgow's east end. No other club in Scotland could attract suchf ollowings, and it was support that grew with success and the tension ofthe rivalry.17

Without a doubt the nature of the rivalry added significantly to thepotential attractiveness of the game as a football fixture, thus engenderinga substantial degree of income for the clubs. Murray also argues that,'Rangers at the turn of the century were a Protestant team, but only inthe sense that all teams in Scotland were Protestant. As the one teamwhich could be called upon to keep the Catholics in their place it attractedthe more anti-Catholic elements in the Scottish population.'18 Thus themantle of responsibility for defending the indigenous population againstthese foreign incursions and successes gradually seemed to focus onGlasgow Rangers, which had the finance, the stadia, the team and thegrowing support to defend not only the sporting prowess of Scotland butalso, in a more subcultural way, its national pride and Protestant heritage,at least on the field of sport. They seemed the most able at the time and,although other clubs had similar ideas, Rangers became the greatestmanifestation of this course. In contrast, Irish Catholics in a general senselooked to Celtic as their community's foremost representatives on thefield of play, and also as a vehicle for many of their national aspirations(becoming a focus for pro-Irish nationalist aspirations).

Although never embarking on a 'Catholic only' policy, it was almostinevitable that young Catholics would on the whole see Celtic as the teamto play for, and historically in competition with many of the forces theybelieved to be against them. Protestants have always played for Celtic.Indeed, their most successful manager Jock Stein was a Protestant, whohelped gain for the club its greatest successes, including winning the topEuropean club competition. However, a widespread desire to play for theclub among Catholics has always meant that it has been easier to choosethe best from the community they represent.19 Catholic Celtic playershave almost invariably been brought up to support the team. Nevertheless,many of the club's greatest players have been Protestants: John Thompson(late 1920s and early 1930s) for example, and more recently (in the 1970sand 1980s) Kenny Dalglish and Danny McGrain.

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Rangers on the other hand have always had an officially undeclared'Protestant only' policy (or one which might be more accurately describedas a 'no Catholic' policy) in terms of players, management and staff. Thismay have been inevitable when one considers that most young Catholicswished to play for Celtic, but it is almost certainly the case that this 'policy'simply reflected similar practices of other institutions and workplaces inScotland throughout the club's history. It has become known throughrecent Celtic history books as well as by way of the player's autobiographythat Danny McGrain was observed as a youth by a Rangers scout.20 Thescout rejected any moves towards the player, wrongly believing him aCatholic on account of his Irish name. Other Rangers players whoserelations were found to be Catholic, or who, like Bobby Russell, GrahamFyfe and Gordon Dalziel in the 1970s and 1980s, married Catholicgirls, were subsequently to find themselves operating under a cloud orexperiencing a less-than-permanent place in the first team.

The Rangers Football Club defends itself against accusations of'sectarianism', however, by stating that these players were not able tocommand a regular first team spot on merit. Although a handful ofplayers are reported to have slipped through this religious net,21 it tookuntil mid-1989 before this policy was changed by signing ex-Celticplayer Maurice Johnston (from French league club Nantes), a reputedlynon-practising Catholic who came from a mixed Protestant-Catholic back-ground. It has been suggested that this move reflected the good businessacumen and driving ambition of the new Rangers directors and manage-ment. It was widely commented on at the time in newspaper articles thatclubs in Spain and Italy, Catholic countries, would not be prepared toaccept such an anti-Catholic institution in a possible future Europeanleague. Shortly after the signing, the then secretary of the Scottish Foot-ball Association stated that this move by Rangers removed any inhibitionsthat he or the Association harboured with regard to the Associationfavouring Ibrox Stadium (the Rangers ground) as a possible venue forScottish international football games (this in the event of Hampden Park,the national ground, being disqualified for World Cup matches after 1992because it was not an all-seater stadium).

At all levels of football in Scotland, whether junior or amateur, manyteams even in mixed areas are perceived as being Protestant. One journalistnoted that one of Scotland's most famous junior football clubs, KilwinningRangers of Ayrshire, has pursued a policy (denied by the club) barringCatholic players from its ranks.22 The Lanarkshire amateur football club,Bonkle, has recently followed a similar policy. There are a smaller numberof Catholic or Irish oriented clubs in Scottish football at these levels.Despite a secular Catholic/Irish affinity however, like their more senior

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relations they also have Protestant members within their membership.In general terms thus football can be viewed as not only to an extentmirroring the Rangers-Celtic arena, but more importantly, being anextension of this feature of Scottish life.

Celtic and Rangers therefore emerged from a setting which they wouldalmost inevitably reflect, as indeed did other clubs at the time. Scotlandwas a country which was fiercely proud of its national and religioustraditions, but it was in a state of continual apprehension over real orimagined submergence of its national characteristics within the largerBritish state, in the form of Anglicization. In addition, Irish Catholicimmigration was perceived as another threat. Catholicism and Poperywere anathema to Scottish society at large. Along with their politicalaspirations for an Ireland 'free from British rule', these were theprominent characteristics of Irish immigrants in the eyes of many ScottishProtestants.

It was perhaps inevitable that the early successes of the Irish footballclub in Glasgow, which enhanced the self-image of this community, addedanother dimension to, and stimulated further, the antagonism visiblydisplayed by almost all who did not relate, via religion or national origin,to the Celtic club. The intolerance displayed towards Irish Catholics inScotland was partly reflected in the development of football. Overall,various religious related identities emerged in the Scottish football environ-ment. A complex mix of sport, culture, tradition, nationalism, religionand politics was thus closely linked to the establishment and evolution ofthe Rangers and Celtic football clubs.

The Fans: Attitudes and Perceptions

The following 'football letter' appeared in Scotland's most popularSunday newspaper, The Sunday Mail.23

On holiday in Scotland, I watched football in Aberdeen, Dundee,Edinburgh and Glasgow — and it was first class. Certainly betterthan anything I've seen down here. The only thing that puzzled mewas when Celtic played Dundee at Parkhead the home fans [Celtic's]were all waving the Republic of Ireland flag. How confusing!

If the writer was as confused as he made himself out to be, he wouldprobably have been more confounded had he also picked up the words ofmany of the football songs being chanted by the followers of the clubshe saw playing. Regardless of the ignorance of the visitor, these confusingaudio and visual displays are in fact intrinsic to the game itself. In referenceto the SAS Gibraltar killings of three IRA personnel in early 1988, a large

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section of the Motherwell Football Clubs fans chant regularly to thefollowers of the Celtic Football Club, 'SAS, 1, 2, 3 ... SAS, 1, 2, 3' (oralternatively, 'bang, bang, bang').24 Celtic football fans, whether at amatch or social occasion, will habitually be heard to sing not only sup-portive chants for their own club, but also a collection of songs andanthems which reflect a strong desire for an independent and unitedIreland. In the aftermath of the 1988 Scottish Cup Final in which Celticplayed Dundee United, and which was attended by the Prime MinisterMargaret Thatcher, a national newspaper reported that, 'Celtic supporterswaved tricolour flags and sang choruses of Irish rebel songs, and therewere chants of anti-British slogans from sections of the crowd.'25 One ofthe most popular football songs in Scotland is the anti-Catholic tune,'The Billy Boys'. Celtic fans note that this anti-Catholic song can be heardsung by the followers of Hearts, Dundee, Ayr United, Kilmarnock, St.Mirren, St. Johnstone, Airdrie, Motherwell, Falkirk, Queen of the Southand Morton, that is, clubs from all over Scotland.26

Rangers fans are generally seen in Scotland as the most vociferous atthis style of singing. As well as the 'Billy Boys' and other songs (whichare seen as promoting the cause of retaining the union of Great Britainand Northern Ireland and condemning the Pope and the Catholic faith),songs are sung which state support for the loyalist paramilitary traditionin Northern Ireland.27 Considering such manifestations, clearly footballin Scotland is raised to a level above that of a mere sport.

Writing in the Glasgow Herald,2* Dr B. C. Campbell, replying to aCeltic supporter's attack on Ranger's supposed sectarian playing staffpolicy, wrote:

I suggest that, when the flag of a foreign and frequently hostile state,whose constitution impudently claims sovereignty over part of theUnited Kingdom, and whose land and people the present pope hasdeclared to be 'Mary's Dowry', no longer flies from the mast-headof 'Paradise', there may be, I say only may be, less 'bigoting' in thestands of Ibrox.

The foreign state is the Republic of Ireland, Mary is the Virgin Mary andParadise is the colloquial Celtic language for Celtic Park. In such views,religion, politics and football are compounded.

After a Scotland versus Poland international match in May 1990, thefollowing letter appeared in the Daily Record:29

I stood on the East Terracing [the traditional Celtic end of thenational stadium], puzzled by the sound of silence when Flower of

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Scotland [the unofficial Scottish national anthem] was played.I didn't realise there were so many Polish immigrants in Scotland forthe only spark round me was when Celtic double-act Dziekanowskiand Wdowczyk were on the ball.

Such letters can be viewed as typical of a widespread perception of Celticfans' negative affinity with the Scottish national team (as well as otherthings Scottish).30 For this writer, Celtic fans amongst the onlookers atthe match were not supporting Scotland's national team (this, despite thepresence of a Celtic player and a few ex-Celtic players in the side).

Also referred to in many of the following Sunday newspaper matchreports was the constant booing and antagonism towards the Celtic playerDziekanowski from large sections of the crowd. Around the same timethe Scottish team played a pre-World Cup friendly against the reigningWorld Champions Argentina. After the game the following letter appearedin the Daily Record's sister newspaper, the Sunday Mail. 'Wasn't it movingto hear Brian McClair and Roy Aitken [both ex-Celtic players] booed ontothe park against Argentina? This must have lifted the team.'31 Such amanifestation of antagonism towards Catholic and Celtic players on thepart of the Scottish crowd has been commonplace throughout the historyof Scottish international football.

The survey question for the larger study,32 which asked the Celtic fanswhich international side (if any, other than Scotland) they supported orliked, showed that none of them in fact indicated a preference for Poland.Evidently, those Celtic fans who did attend the Scotland versus Polandmatch, who were noticeable to the letter writer by their silence duringa major Scottish anthem, and who apparently cheered Poland's Celticplayers as opposed to Scotland's players, did not identify with the Scotlandteam.

Although identifying with the Scottish national team is seen by thewider football community (including the media) as being 'natural'; reflec-ting a oneness of culture and national identity, this is not the view ofCeltic fans. Indeed, this author's survey evidence confirms this, with mostCeltic fans being antagonistic towards or ambivalent about, the fortunesof the Scottish national side; almost 55 per cent say they 'never' attendthe Scottish sides matches. This is in contrast to the 85-90 per cent ofother Scottish clubs fans who either always or sometimes attend the gamesof the national team. In fact, a majority of Celtic fans (52 per cent) statethat they support the Republic of Ireland. Again, this factor remains amanifestation of the diverse character of the game in Scottish society,and a more subtle indicator of an identity which is not recognized inScotland, except in sectarian terms.

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The historical development of football in Scotland reflects the parallelevolution of aspects of relations between indigenous Protestant andimmigrant Irish Catholics. The anti-Catholicism often displayed by Scotsin the post-Reformation period was increased by large-scale Catholicimmigration in the nineteenth century and early twentieth centuries.Ethno-religious tensions thus became a part of the way of life for bothProtestants and Catholics in areas of Catholic settlement.

The Irish Identity

With reference to the repertoire of songs and the symbols they use, Celticfans clearly identify with Irish nationalism, thus maintaining the historicallink with their founding years. The most significant and outstandingfeature of the survey was the distinctiveness of their attitudes and theirstance on a wide range of issues: attitudes to Northern Ireland (in favourof a united Ireland), party preference (mostly Labour supporters) anddiscrimination (viewing anti-Catholic discrimination as a Scottish socialreality). Most Celtic fans also chose Irish symbols over Scottish ones, interms of ascriptive identity. In addition, they are not on the whole sup-portive of the Scottish international football team. Indeed their identityis partly defined by their support for the Republic of Ireland soccer team.These attitudes were replicated throughout with regards to Catholics sur-veyed, though the Celtic fans (94 per cent Catholic and essentially aChurch-going group) were noticibly more conscious of their Irishness thanother Catholics in isolation from football.

However, such manifestations of Irishness are rarely displayed in otherScottish settings, and academics and the media have either ignored thisaspect of Scottish society or, as already stated, they have spurned relatedissues by the evasive use of the term 'sectarianism'. The reactions of thepress (from an historical shunning of reporting on Irish community matters,to confining issues of Catholic schooling and Irish political demonstrationsto questions of sectarianism), and the evidence of various letter writersto newspapers and the songs sung by a vast number of other clubs inScotland, display not only anti-Catholic attitudes but a refusal toacknowledge the validity of Irish identity in Scotland. The anti-Catholicismoriginating with various sections of Scottish society is certainly evidentin the perceptions of the Catholics surveyed.33 The main questions arisingfrom this must focus on Irish identity itself; why is it so little in evidencein modern Scotland, and why, when it does show itself, does it take alargely football form?

The answer partly lies in the reaction of the native Catholic communityto the influx of Irish immigrants to Scotland from the mid-nineteenthcentury onwards.34 A small pre-immigration Catholic Church containing

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around one per cent of the Scottish population found itself faced withoverwhelming change; resenting the loss of its identity, though one thathad been largely cryptic in a perceptibly anti-Catholic Scotland. Indeed,it was a native Catholic complaint that the new Catholics in Scotlandwere 'too Irish'.

None the less, the greatest influence upon the present condition of Irishidentity in Scotland has been the consequence of the colonial legacy ofthe relationship between Ireland and Britain; a process profoundly in-fluenced by the Scots. In this context, Davey states:

For centuries Britain had a master-servant relationship with theircolonial subjects in different parts of the world. Not only was therelationship economically and politically exploitative but Britonsconvinced themselves that the subjugation of other cultures was amoral necessity.35

Britain's long colonial relationship with Ireland therefore has persistentlyundermined Irish identity (religion, culture, language, etc.). Similarly,subjugation and assimilation was/is linked to the conquest of Irelandand the Irish people themselves. The legacy of this is seen not only insectarianism but also in the uncertainty which the Irish in Scotland feelabout their relationship to their heritage and origins.

Curtis argues that negating the Irish identity has long been a vitalaspect of Britain's relationship with Ireland: 'Anti-Irish prejudice, fromwhich anti-Irish humour springs, is a very old theme in English culture.'36

She stresses that this denigration is tied up with British colonialism andits corollary of British superiority and native inferiority and cites examplesof this 'anti-Irish racism' as far back as the twelfth century, peaking intimes of Irish rebellion and British oppression.

Such prejudice has often been explicit in Scotland. One example isparticularly apposite. A cartoon published in a Scottish football newspaperearly this century depicted two Old Firm players in a bar playing pool.The cartoon portrayed the Celtic player as 'typically' Irish, dumb withgrotesque and brutish facial features. The Rangers player was handsomeand with intelligent-looking eyes. The cartoon was captioned 'Apes andAryans'.37

One observer believes that such prejudice and stereotypical attitudeshave

to do mainly with racism and conquest - a politically motivatedform of denigration brought into being by the British imperialiststo deride the national identity and aspirations of the Irish people.History has shown that it has always been the way of empires not

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only to divide and to exploit but also to attack and pour scorn uponthe self-respect of those they sought to subdue by ridiculing theirrace, colour, religious beliefs and mannerisms. And the harder theyfound it to conquer a people the more sustained and vicious thedenigration imposed.38

Ex-British Cabinet minister Norman Tebbit demonstrated such reasoningas recently as 1989, when he suggested a novel type of cricket test. Asianimmigrants' integration could be tested by asking which cricket team theysupported: England or Pakistan/India. He went on to suggest 'that thosewho continue to cheer for India and Pakistan, are wanting in Britishness...that the only satisfactory way to be an Asian in Britain was to cease beingAsian'.39 The logic which underpins such an argument was exposed by arespected British journalist: 'the assertion that we are one people, hasalways been a lie used to justify the unjust dominance of one group(whites, Protestants or Anglo-Saxons, for example) over the society as awhole'.40 Such an example has a particular relevance when we considersupport for the Irish national football team and how that expression ofIrish identity finds both antagonism and misunderstanding in Scotland.

In British-Irish terms, cultural subjugation must be seen as a processof colonizing not only Ireland but also its people and their offspring.41

Significantly, involvement by Scots in the colonization of Ireland gaveScottish anti-Catholicism a new cultural and political focus, as didnineteenth-century Irish immigration. This long historical process, tiedup with British colonialism and the Irish identity is well reflected in aquote from Sir William Parsons about the Irish in 1625. For Parsons,only the depreciation and destruction of Ireland's cultural traits andidentity could result in the Irish being absorbed into the then Englishrealm: 'We must change their course of government, apparel, mannerof holding land, their language and habit of life.'42

This relationship between colonist and colonized is inadvertentlyreferred to in its Scottish setting as 'sectarianism'. However, this relation-ship reflects a cleavage arising primarily from the identities of colonizedand colonizer in a fundamentally different setting, namely Scotland. Therelationships between Britain and Ireland and Protestants and Catholicshave always involved the domination of one group by another. Conflicthas been present from the very first manifestations of this assertion ofpower, which aimed at eventually subordinating the Irish/Catholics andtaking away their means of expression. Conflict is a result of domination.The British/Protestants sought to establish, through the course of theconflict, the foundations of their domination and tried to impose thelegitimacy and universality of their norms and cultures on the subordinated

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group. In the Scottish context, the relationship of domination/sub-ordination was reinforced because the subordinate Catholic group was aminority immigrant group considered deviants by the majority Protestantcommunity.

In Scotland, the Irish and Catholic identities have been underminedby the dominance of the Protestant group. Certainly, the conclusionsof Hickman and Curtis suggest that large numbers of Irish people haveunderplayed their Irish, and in some circumstances Catholic, identity.43

While the writer was carrying out the empirical part of this study, forexample, some people expressed their inhibitions in calling their childrenby Irish/Catholic forenames. In some instances the Irish part of theiridentity was too difficult for them to recognize. In other cases however,the reason that 'my child would never get a job' or 'I don't want to bebigoted' were forwarded as the rationale for such decisions.

For many Catholics in Scotland, the Irish identity is submerged. Apartfrom factors such as the length of time the Irish have been in Scotland andsecularization, it is determined by a colonial, British-Scottish psychologywhich denigrates Irishness and, at times, Catholicism (while some authorsargue that it also attempts to de-politicize the community in terms relevantto Northern Ireland).44

This denigration has produced a complex, confusing and multi-layeredIrish-Catholic-Scottish identity for the offspring of Irish immigrantsin Scotland. Despite the strength of Irish identity in Scotland, this identitybecomes less clear if we explore the cultural nuances involved. They arenot Scottish in the same way as the host community, but they are alsounsure of what their Irishness involves. This uncertainty is one of thereasons why it is only in the context of Celtic and football that manypeople feel confident enough to display this aspect of their identity andreject the cultural and national orthodoxies. Ironically, this also createda mould which has been reproduced by the indigenous population, withthe result that a great deal of the disdain and antagonism towards theimmigrant community has been channelled into the football environment.

The Celtic environment has become one in which it is 'safe' to be seen'practising' the Irish identity. Moreover, the intensity of feelings whichsurrounds football in Scotland means that to associate oneself with Celtic,whilst being a member of the Catholic and Irish community, can be viewedas a sufficient expression of one's cultural identity. Related to this point,Elliott and Hickie state that often 'the continued use of symbols satisfiesthe interests of those who desire what they think these symbolsrepresent'.45

Irish identity has been reduced in Scotland to highly specific culturalfacets (the enduring elements of Irish identity). Such a diminution of the

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Irish identity results, in part, from the dominance of the Protestant culture.It is important to emphasize that the concept and identity of Irishnesshave been created mainly for the Irish community.46 This Irish identityresults from the pressures and attitudes associated with British colonialismin Ireland, but, more importantly, from the psychological colonizationof the people, as well as the subsequent social and cultural imperialisminvolved. Hickman stresses that 'ideologies of superiority and inferiorityalways accompany colonisation'.47 In essence, this is a 'post-colonial'cleavage. Despite its variations, the Protestant-Catholic relationship inScotland today can be viewed as an extension of the British/Scots - Irishcolonial relationship.

ConclusionThe establishment of Celtic Football Club provided an environment wheremany of the Irish and their offspring congregated, and where there wasa sense of security and expectation that was difficult to find in other areasof life. Scottish attachment to football was of a more diffused kind.

Historically, for many Catholics football provides an appropriate oreven a safe environment in which to make known otherwise repressed orunarticulated political attitudes, cultural affinities, national allegiancesand prejudices. The prestige afforded by victories in the football arenacannot be underestimated in terms of its value for many in that community.It is plausible that the improvement in the social and political positionof the Catholic community in Scotland from the 1960s was partly assistedby a new self-confidence emanating from the phenomenal Scottish andEuropean success of the Celtic club during this period, a time when theclub was the dominant force in football.48

Celtic is a substantial cultural institution which represents a symbolof a community otherwise indefinite and differentiated in its own Irishidentity. For the Catholic/Irish community, Celtic is the greatest single'ethno-cultural focus' because it provides the social setting and processthrough which the community's sense of its own identity and difference(reinforced by the supporters of many other clubs) from the indigenouscommunity is sustained in and through a set of symbolic processes andrepresentations. Rokkan and Urwin's idea of identity as 'myth, symbol,history and the institutional' has clear resonance in the Celtic-affectedaspects of the Scottish football scene.49

Celtic Football Club has obviously only become a focus for the displayof Irishness since the club was founded; drawing towards itself many ofthe emotions, sentiments and passions which might otherwise have beendisplayed elsewhere. Certain dimensions of anti-Catholicism developedwithin Scottish football in response to this social, cultural and political

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development. A Celtic match against a number of other clubs involvedthe 'ceremonial reaffirmation of memories of past [and present] hostilitiesand unfinished business [and] is a powerful strategy of identity building'.50

Celtic Football Club helps sustain a 'counter culture', which is Irishnationalist and Catholic in nature, and which is opposed to the perceiveddominance of Scottish/British Protestant culture. The psychological satis-faction that people gain from 'football' victories, related media coverage,social events, wearing the respective team colours and identifying withthe emblems and symbols, which represent hundreds of years of historyas well as everyday realities, is immense. The history of Irish-Britishrelations has meant that for the Irish in Scotland, Celtic Football Clubhas emerged as a definition of Irishness itself.

NOTES

1. Glasgow Herald, 23 April 1988 and 5 August 1989.2. T. Gallagher, Glasgow The Uneasy Peace (Manchester University Press, 1987), p. 354.3. B. Murray, The Old Firm: Sectarianism, Sport and Society in Scotland (Edinburgh:

John Donald, 1984), p. 275.4. The following reflects the popularity of the game in Scotland. European club match

record attendance. Scottish Cup Final at Hampden Park, Glasgow, 24 April 1937.Celtic v Aberdeen, 146,433. It was also judged that there remained 30,000 locked outof the stadium. European Cup record attendance. Semi-Final tie between Celtic andLeeds United (England), at Hampden Park, Glasgow, 15 April 1970. 138,000.European League match record. Glasgow Rangers V Celtic, Ibrox Park, Glasgow,2 January 1939. 118,567. (Incidentally, the architect's measurements for the stadiumindicated a potential capacity of 136,940, yet the gates were closed 15 minutes beforethe kick-off because the ground was considered full). International match record forEurope. At Hampden Park, Glasgow, played only days after the above Celtic v Aber-deen game, 149,547, Scotland v England.

5. Since the first League Championship in 1890/91 when Dumbarton and Rangers sharedit, the following has been the situation up until season 1993-94. Celtic 35 times (22runners up). Rangers 44 times (23 runners up). Scottish Cup: Celtic 29 times (runnersup 15 times). Glasgow Rangers 25 times (runners up 15 times). As well as contesting anumber of finals and semi-finals Celtic and Rangers have also won the premier com-petitions in Europe; Celtic won the European Cup in 1967 and Rangers won theEuropean Cup Winners Cup in 1972.

6. G. McNee, The Story of Celtic: An Official History, 1888-1978 (London: Stanley Paul,1978).

7. T. Campbell and P. Woods, The Glory and the Dream: The History of Celtic FC,1887-1986 (Mainstream Publishing, 1986), p. 18.

8. Ibid., pp. 11 -26. W. Maley, The Story of Celtic (printed for author at Villafield Press,Bishopbriggs, 1939). J.E. Handley, The Celtic Story (London: Stanley Paul, 1960).

9. Some examples of this stream of charity which has its origins in the founding of the clubcomes from the following editions of 'The Celtic View', the club newspaper. 17 Aug.1988; the paper reported on some of the activities of the David Hay CSC. This clubwas the prime mover in establishing the Paul Rafferty (a young Celtic fan who had afew years earlier died of cancer) Appeal Fund, to help raise funds for Glasgow's YorkhillHospital to buy special brain scanning equipment. In a period of a few years the clubhad raised £350,000 via the fund. 31 Aug. 1988; Starry Plough CSC Glasgow, announced

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efforts to raise funds for the Gateside School for Deaf Children in Paisley.10. B. Murray, Glasgow's Giants: 100 Years of the Old Firm (Mainstream Publishing,

1988), p. 19.11. W.Allison, Rangers: The New Era, 1873-1966 (Glasgow: Rangers FC, 1966),p.l86.12. J. Allan, The Story of Rangers: Fifty Years of Football, 1873-1923 (Glasgow: Rangers

FC, 1923).13. B. Murray, The Old Firm, p. 31.14. T. Campbell and P. Woods, The Glory and the Dream, Ch.8.15. Ibid. B. Wilson, Celtic: A Century with Honour (Willow Books, 1988).16. Campbell and Woods, p. 65.17. Woods notes that rivalry and profit to be derived from it was the cause of the clubs

being linked in the ambiguous sobriquet the 'Old Firm', a description half distastefuland half admiring, as many unsympathetic cartoons in the papers showed the clubs'treasurers bearing bulging money bags to the bank.

18. Murray, Glasgow's Giants, p. 27.19. Catholic footballers who have made the grade with other clubs in Scotland regularly

make known through the media a yearning to play for the club they have supportedsince childhood (this can be attributed to Rangers players also). Kevin Gallacher, theScottish international who plays in England, and Michael O'Neil, the Northern Irishinternational who plays in Scotland, are both contemporary examples of this perceptiblyhomogenous attitude.

20. Danny McGrain and Hugh Keevans, In Sunshine or in Shadow (Edinburgh: JohnDonald, 1987).

21. See relevant features in the Sunday Observer and Sunday Times, 16 July 1989, DailyExpress, 22 Aug. 1988, Observer Scotland Sunday, 3 June 1990 and Evening Times,11 July 1989.

22. Glasgow Herald, 16 Oct. 1989.23. Sunday Mail, 1 May 1988.24. As witnessed, 25 Aug. 1990 and 6 Nov. 1990.25. Sunday Mirror, 15 May 1988.26. Interview with Celtic director Tom Grant. Also see Glasgow Herald, 23 Feb. 1990.27. The Ulster Defence Association is the main (legitimate until August 1992) Loyalist-Unionist

paramilitary organization in Northern Ireland. It has a monthly publication called Ulster,one section of which is called 'Tartan Talk', and which often pertains to Glasgow RangersFC. See February and March 1988 for examples.

28. Glasgow Herald, 6 May 1990.29. Daily Record, 26 May 1990.30. See Herald, 12 Dec. 1992, for an article by sports journalist James Traynor in which he

argues for a 'united' support for the Scottish team. The appeal is essentially aimedtowards Rangers fans' Ulster-Loyalist culture and to Celtic fans' Irish identity. It is anappeal which exemplifies the lack of understanding of religious identity in Scotland.It also seeks to marginalize a large proportion of the Irish community by invalidatingtheir identity.

31. Sunday Mail, 1 April 1990. In addition, in 1993 some evidence for this scenario emergedwith the release of a Glasgow Rangers audio tape. Part of the tape related a story con-cerning a referee (who also belonged to the Free Masons) who boasted that duringeighteen years of refereeing, he had always officiated over an unbeaten Rangers side.See Irish Post, 24 July 1993 for reference.

32. See Appendix and J. M. Bradley, Ethnic and Religious Identity in Modern Scotland(Aldershot: Avebury, 1995).

33. Ibid.34. Ibid.35. A. Davey, Learning to be Prejudiced: Growing up in Multi-Ethnic Britain (Edward

Arnold, 1983), p. 8.36. L. Curtis, Ireland the Propaganda War (London: Pluto Press, 1984).37. The Scottish Referee, 3 Feb. 1905. Similar more recent comment denigrating the Irish

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has originated from some writers in Glasgow and west of Scotland newspapers. See theIrish Post, 27 Feb. 1993, for two such reports.

38. Sean O. Ciarain, Irish Post, 3 May 1990.39. Quoted by Michael Ignatieff, Sunday Observer, 16 Sept. 1990.40. Adam Lively, Sunday Observer, 22 July 1990.41. M. Hickman, 'A study of the incorporation of the Irish in Britain with special reference

to Catholic state education: involving a comparison of the attitudes of pupils and teachersin selected Catholic schools in London and Liverpool (unpublished Ph.D. thesis,University of London, 1990). Hickman shows this throughout her thesis, though withparticular reference to the city of Liverpool. For the Scottish identity and role in Empirebuilding, see B. Aspinwall, 'The Scottish Religious Identity in the Atlantic World', inStudies in Church History 18 (1982). Also R. Miles and L. Muirhead, in ScottishGovernment Yearbook, 1986, pp. 108-35, 'Racism in Scotland: A Matter for FurtherInvestigation'. Connecting to the drive for Empire also is the fact that it was thedescendants of Scottish settlers who instigated the birth of the Ku Klux Klan (see SundayMail, 23 Aug. 1992) in the United States.

42. Irish Post, 8 Dec. 1990.43. M. Hickman, 'A study of the incorporation of the Irish in Britain'. L. Curtis, Ireland

the Propaganda War. L. Curtis, Nothing But the Same Old Story: The Roots of Anti-Irish Racism (Information on Ireland, 5th edn., 1988).

44. See G. Bell, 'On the Streets of Belfast and London', in M. Farrell (ed.), Twenty YearsOn, p. 99. Also Dolan, Irish Post, 23 June 1990.

45. R.S.P. Elliott and J. Hickie, Ulster: A Care Study in Conflict Theory (London, 1971),p. 22.

46. Ibid, and notes 10 and 11. See The Irish Reporter 1 (First Quarter, 1991). See alsoHickman (p. 9) for the higher profile of the Irish in Britain in the 1980s.

47. Hickman, p. 18.48. Gallagher, Glasgow: The Uneasy Peace.49. S. Rokkan and D. Urwin, Economy, Territory and Identity: Politics of West European

Peripheries (London: Sage, 1983).50. Ibid., p. 89.

APPENDIX

Questionnaire for the Larger StudyThe data reported here are derived from an attitudinal survey carried out as part of a largerstudy which looked at religious identity in Scottish society (Bradley, 1993). The questionnairewas designed to elicit the background and attitudes of a sample of various groups in Scottishsociety. In order to substantiate and elaborate on some of the popular perceptions of Scottishfootball, various relevant religious and political questions were asked. A sample of the fansof all the largest clubs in Scotland were surveyed: Rangers, Celtic, Aberdeen, Dundee United,Kilmarnock, Hibernian, Hearts, MotherwellandSt. Johnstone. In addition, Catholic Churchattenders, Church of Scotland attenders, members of the Orange Institution of Scotlandand members of various Irish political and cultural groups were questioned. Overall,approximately 2,000 people were questioned. The questions asked were determined by thetheoretical and substantive concerns of the larger work. Hence they dealt with the respondents'demographic background, i.e. age, sex, class, religion, geographic area, occupation,education, and ethnic identity. The questions also tapped attitudes to: well-known symbolsof Scottish and Irish national identity; religious observance; discrimination, the monarchy,attitudes to constitutional arrangements in Scotland: Northern Ireland; ethnicity and supportfor football teams. It was of course impossible to construct a representative sample of anyof the groups surveyed. In addition, limited resources meant that the samples, while sizeable,were not large. However, every attempt was made to assure a broad sample. All previouswork has been based upon anecdotes. In contrast, this survey provides conclusions, whichcould of course be explored by other surveys of larger samples.

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football in scotland: a history of political and ethnic identity

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