Lennon Calls For An End To Offensive Chanting

An absolute joke of a statement!

Are you really going to tell the older generation who support Celtic AND sing Rebs...the one's who have supported the team well before you and I were probably even born that they are 'obviously not much of a fan'?

 

We should never remove the Irish flag, we were threatened with expulsion over that flag but we didn't give in and nor should we. We should never forget our Irish history that helped build our club, the flag is in an integral part of that history.

A proud Irish history does not have to mean supporting the IRA, getting rid of IRA chants will not destroy our Irish history, getting rid of the tri-colour would.

 

However, there is some truth in this as long as despite catholics being 15% (?) of the population they are up to 80% of our fans. That is clearly evidence that we are still very much mainly attracting people from one section of society. That is the sort of thing that doesnt tend to sort itself, might get worse, and needs encouragement to change. People slag off Hibs but are they really wrong? Is it really right for a football club to trade mainly on one ethnic/religious/political identity. That almost feels like dirty money playing this card. We could still be very much the good guys club with a liking for the underdog, left leaning etc even if we move on from this obsession with the past and Irish politics. Hibs changed but they are still a very different club and supporters compared to Hearts.

 

Hardly. History is there and cant be changed. A piece of cloth up a poll doesnt changed that. I dont mind either way. Mankind has wasted far too much of its energy over symbols, flags etc. You cant eat flags. HUman race needs to grow up IMO. Some day I think the human race will shake its head at how we were, like oversized tribes.

 

Can you tell me where you got that statistic please?

So because you say '80% of the fansbase are Catholic'.....do you suggest we get rid of 30% of them so we can even the other 50% of the support with non-Catholics?

The second part is just absolute nonsense!

If we were a Catholic-clique club as you so openly suggest....would we not have had a similar signing policy as das Huns?

 

Thats poor mate.

Would you have us stop singing The Fields Of Athenry, Let The People Sing etc?

 

How far do we go before we reach your level?

 

No. I see no problem with those songs. I dont see national anthems and flags are such a problem thay they are something to be banned etc but I just dont think club football is their place. Besides I think its flaky to have to constantly every week loudly exclaim your identity. Identity is a personal thing. I personally dont think it needs waved and sung at opposition fans every week. That seems more than a little insecure to me and its only a couple of steps up from tribalism IMO. I dont mind it at international games because to be honest nationalistic behavour is the point of them.

 

Gunt. Do you think there are too much Catholics supporting Celtic or not enough Protestants?

 

Gibberish. All I said is our fans are still today overwhelmingly catholic in an overwhelmingly non-catholic country and therefore we are clearly not attracting a lot of the population to our club. I suspect the more in your face aspects of Irish republicanism are the main reason, not to mention a lack of similar balancing stuff that non-Irish descended Scots can naturally identify with. What everyone can identify with is most of the other good aspects of us as a club and a support. I honestly believe that the one black mark of songs about violent republican groups fighting Britain is undoing all the other great stuff about our fans and support.

 

IMO it appears as though you have some underlying thought that you think the current fans are not good enough?

And, can you please answer the question of where you pulled that 80% statistic from?

 

lol Of course I dont think there are too many catholics. In fact I dont really care about religion. Its only of interest as a proxy for telling us how much the club is still basically seen as a club for Irish heritage in Scotland and how it has in no way tapped into the Scottish market beyond this to the degree it could. I know there are people who would never consider us in 100 years but I do believe there is a large middle ground who would. We would need a bigger stadium though and yes I agree it would be bad for the SPL as a whole.

 

As for stats I have seen a few polls on Celtic web sites and they tend to come in 75-80% catholic. Its way better than Rangers but I think we are not as attractive to everyone as we think. The main other relevant group is non-catholic Scots and I dont think we have attracted as many of them as we should.

 

No its not.

 

Which Celtic websites?

 

agree with most of what you have been saying. the only thing I doubt a bit is whether 80% of the support are actually Catholic in their beliefs. For example, in discussions on this forum when asked about religious beliefs many, if not most say they are atheist or agnostic. I've no doubt that there are many, many more catholics amongst the support than Protestants. But I think it is wrong that the club is so quickly dubbed Catholic - there seem to be as many nonreligious people around as religious in the support

 

anyway I am all posted out on this subject.

 

Anychance of some links to these 'websites' before you dash off?

 

Why dont you set up a poll on here? That should offer a fair (ish) reflection.

 

It is. We were set up for the Catholics in the East of Glasgow. Catholic club doesn't mean exclusive to Catholics, it means it was set up by Catholics for Catholics (at the time). We are supported by people of many religions, nationalities etc. But the Club is Catholic