An evening of entertainment with Paul Gascoigne at the Magnum Centre in Irvine turned into an anti-catholic hatefest with the former Rangers (IL) delighting his audience by singing ‘F*** the Pope and the IRA’ on stage.
The Friday night event cost £30 a time and was arranged as a Q and A with the former England star but appeared to act as a rallying call for the people who use football as their outlet to express hatred.
Video footage from the event has appeared across social media with even the online edition of the Daily Record deciding to cover the story.
A video clip shown on the Record website appears to be from the end of the show with Gazza delighting the audience as he sings the ‘F*** the Pope and the IRA’ add on to Simply The Best by Tina Turner.
In 2001 Rangers (IL) decided to drop the song from their pre-match entertainment but like most Ibrox bans it proved to be window dressing and was reintroduced due to demand from supporters.
As he is ushered off the stage Gascoigne shouts No Surrender before mimicking playing the flute, a reminder of his debut back in 1995 and the suggestion made by Ally McCoist for the former Lazio midfielder to celebrate scoring his first goal at Ibrox.
Literature used to promote the show claimed: “Gazza will sit down for a full interview in front of what’s sure to be a packed crowd to tell stories about his tumultuous but remarkable life.
“The troubled star’s lengthy battle with alcoholism, which has blighted his life off the field, has been well documented.
“But over the past year the 48-year-old has participated in a number of similar events to great acclaim. The event is being organised by former Irvine boxing star Ryan Brawley and his wife Claire.”
Had the target of Gazza’s hatred between Jews or Muslims there would almost certainly have been a national outcry over the video clips from his show at The Magnum.
Since it was Catholics that he expressed his hatred for there is unlikely to be any action taken with the Scottish football authorities failing to impose any punishment on Sevco after several thousand season ticket holders sung the banned Billy Boys song during their match against Hibs on December 28. That match was shown live on BT Sport with no comment made about the song by the broadcaster.
