When it comes to criticising Celtic’s catholic links no-one does it better than The Scotsman.
The Edinburgh based newspaper is never slow to come forward with sneering contempt for anything linking Celtic and the Catholic Church.
While history and heritage is celebrated throughout the sporting world it seems like The Scotsman would be much happier if Celtic airbrushed their history in much the same way as Hibernian did in the fifties.
In recent times The Scotsman felt that a picture of Artur Boruc blessing himself at Ibrox was worth dominating their front page for alongside a tut-tut editorial.
Willie Collum’s appointment to referee the Celtic-Rangers match in October was preceded by a feature on the referee highlighting his job as a Religious Education teacher and giving the address of his school.
After the recent ‘Old Firm’ fury/horror/shame/outrage the chin-strokers and egg- chasers from Morningside have returned to a favoured hobby horse giving Stephen McGinty the platform to pour out his dislike of Celtic.
The most telling line in the piece is contained in the final paragraph when McGinty admits ‘in the interests of full disclosure, I don’t give two hoots about football.’
And with that viewpoint the rest of the article begins to make some sense.
McGinty basically has a problem that Celtic haven’t cut themselves off from their catholic origins and gets into a bit of a strop that until recently the Archdiocese of Glasgow had some shares in the club.
Wow!
Anyone is now able to buy shares in Celtic, there are possibly Celtic shareholders that read The Scotsman or enjoy watching rugby.
Putting on his sleuth’s cap McGinty is clearly proud of uncovering this shock horror revelation.
Apparently a Trust was set up in the early seventies to generate funds for retired priests within Glasgow. Amongst those investments were some Celtic shares that had been passed down the generations as shares were at that time.
McGinty discovered this incredible detail in 2006 when the Celtic shares were worth £8,000 on the market and gave the Trust a dividend of £427- hardly likely to trouble Dermot Desmond with fears of a hostile takeover.
In true Scotsman style McGinty likes to dance around the edges of the subject, dropping in some information here and there without having the guts to cut to the chase.
The Catholic Church is first up for his ire as he asks: “I wonder if I was alone in finding the silence from the Catholic Church about the recent violence during the Old Firm game and the subsequent political summit, to be rather deafening?”
What violence was that?
Did you watch the match Stephen?
Or have you just stumbled upon the ‘story’ and decided to waste a tree or two with your disgust and horror?
Since almost every attention seeker in the country has ariculated their mock outrage about the Scottish Cup tie what is McGinty missing out on from the Catholic Church?
From the morning after the night before it’s been Old Firm this and Old Firm that regardless of the facts.
There was very little in the way of violence during the match but three red cards for Rangers players and a touchline exchange between Ally McCoist and Neil Lennon has given nonentities like McGinty an opportunity to sound off despite admitting ‘I don’t give two hoots about football.’
With his opening criticism of the Catholic Church out of the way he then goes to town using popular myths to conveniently bundle together Celtic, catholics and sectarianism.
He admits: “I’d always thought it inappropriate for the Archdiocese of Glasgow to control shares in Celtic Football Club, however small the number. It perpetuated the iron link between the Catholic Church and Celtic which, over time, had begun to rust away and I think, given the sectarian tensions, that this break up can only be for the benefit of the city and its population.
“The days when priests gained free admittance have long since passed and Bishop Devine is, perhaps, the only senior cleric who attends Celtic games with any regularity.”
Firstly ministers of ALL faiths were given free admission to Celtic Park up until the early nineties when safety regulations meant that everyone had to be counted and accounted for.
A shareholding of 1% is hardly an iron link, was the offer of Celtic shares to be rejected by the Archdiocese of Glasgow in order for McGinty and his like to feel better about themselves and the game that he doesn’t give a hoot for?
Now into his stride McGinty gets his high horse into a real gallop as he goes for the jugular.
“I believe it would be beneficial if the hierarchy made a point of not attending games,” he adds. “And should consider passing on such advice to their priests, not that they have done anything wrong in their support, and I appreciate what a sacrifice this would be for many Celtic fans with collars but it would be a blessing for a Catholic kid to grow up in Glasgow without being expected to support the team in the green and white hoops.”
No catholic kid in Glasgow in Glasgow is expected to support a team in green and white hoops, just as no child in Edinburgh is expected to waste time and money reading pretentious nonsense from The Scotsman which was bought by an average of 42,694 people during February.
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This paper’s existence does not merit any more
attention than being torn into squares and stuck
on nail heads on walls in outside toilets.
I can’t belive this pseudo-intellectual sixth-former article is for real! Is it the 12th of March or April the 1st? Who is this clown masquerading as a journalist?
What pressure is there on any Roman Catholic kid to support Celtic? About half the kids I went to schools with don’t support Celtic and, like he claims for himself, couldn’t give a stuff about football. What is he harping on about? I’m baffled.
Will we patiently await the article on the orange order’s shares in Rangers?
Andrew …what have our bums done to deserve this rag in their vicinty ??? be fair……
Also the sale figures were in a mis-print…..
the total sold was in fact……1690.
Hail hail
Is Stephen McGinty 6 years old? I laughed out loud several times reading this. I can’t believe this was published by a serious newspaper- it’s like a spoof you would expect to read in Not The View!
so why we all surprised… there is a long history of the scots establishment hating irish/ catholic/ celtic… roughly in that order…
we’r tims, they hate us… end of.
Is McGinty acting the goat? Is the Scotsman serious about this article: what violence at old firm game? Gather your petticoats and hide your eyes mcginty.
The ‘establishment’ team you guys (especially the ones who allegedly “don’t give 2 hoots about football”) got another pasting, lost their discipline and made a fool of themselves in the company.
That’s all wee Stephen. It wasn’t Bishop Devine’s fault nor a papal plot. Honestly. Shocking, lazy, schoolboy journalism. No credence, poorly thought out, cue the link back to catholic schools attack! You’re a joke McGinty
Who cares what this idiot say’s. He is just trying to peddle the same old boring anti-catholic rhetoric. As my old dad once said (and I don’t have an Irish background) remember son, we live in a Protestant country, don’t expect anything else!
The reason idiots like McGinty get away with it is because Johnston Press (owners of Scotsman) have to fork out over £3m per month on interest on it’s borrowings.
It means they can only afford 4th rate journalists.
there is no place for religion in sports.
the church should not be shareholders in a sports franchise. if they have money to invest it should be in the poor.
The Scotsman actively supported the Highland clearances so it’s always been a scumbag paper.
Re: the Catholic kids supporting Celtic, that’s because the rest of the teams in this country take great delight in singing about wading up the their knees in your blood week in and out!! Would you want to be standing/sitting next to them every Sat?
Another idiot who thinks writing controversially makes you a good journo……..yawn.
There is no such a phrase in the financial dictionary as ” to control shares”. A controlling shareholder is one who owns more than half the shares or majority of the outstanding shares in the company. Is this journalist trying to put spin in his article that the Catholic Church had controlling finance in CFC in order to cast both organisations in a bad light.
The Scotsman.
Obviously the home of the HUN.
I don’t know why it’s taken so long for someone to speak out against this bigoted rag.
Maybe they will be investigated by police along with the rest of the idiots who share their bigoted views online. Don’t hold your breath though!
Good article in Scotsman by Andrew Smith regarding Neil L today, forget that tit McGuph
Well they have a great article today on why Scotland tolerates the hateful abuse of Neil Lennon only because he is a Northern Irish catholic who dared to play for celtic and be succsefull
I tried to repost it on facebook and its been blocked and flagged as hateful and abusive seems the low life animals at ibrox are trying to surpress the truth about the scum that follow Scotland’s shame I’ve requested that they unblock the content and would be happy if you guys could do the same
http://sport.scotsman.com/football/Andrew-Smith-Scotland-must-ask.6733176.jp
thats the url of the scotsman article thats been flagged as hateful and abusive on facebook please repost on your facebook pages and inform the moderaters of facebook this is in no way hateful or abusive of anyone
Cheers Sasha, had the same problem myself earlier and got all annoyed etc. Have copy/pasted the URL on FB and everythings tickety-boo! Also complained furiously to FB,cannae believe those sleekit huns!
Hail Hail.
Thanks Sasha, couldn’t understand why it was blocked, the most reasoned informed article I have read on Neil Lennon in recent weeks. Have managed to get it on to my FB page now, just waiting for usual bile to come from one or two of my bluenose pals
Another third rate hack trying to be controversial on the back of a well worn path. He writes daily on dirty toilet walls and will do anything for attention. Same old!