Another shameful attack on Celtic from 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?
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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