Silence speaks volumes, often
saying something unintended to the wrong people, encouraging them to think that
silence is tacit approval.
The near silence of the traditional Scottish MSM on bigotry seems to empower many (on all sides) who seem slow to tackle it. This undermines the
argument that silence helps defuse the issue. In fact, events intermittently
remind us that the issue stays on a slow burner, exploding every now and again,
such as last month, when the casualties included two journalists, Graham Spiers
(who wrote an article condemning bigotry in songs sung at Ibrox) and Angela
Haggerty (who tweeted solidarity for Spiers), whose services The Herald dispensed with after
complaints from The Rangers. The Herald's legal advice was that a contention made by Spiers could not be defended with any guarantee of success in court.
Graham Spiers alleged that someone
at the club had suggested The Billy Boys was a great song (the words to the version sung by Rangers fans being originally sung in the 1930s in praise
of Glaswegian razor-gangster Billy Fullerton, a member of Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists and indeed the
founding member of the Ku Klux Klan in
Scotland).
The melody of this song was originally the
tune to Marching Through Georgia, a
marching song celebrating the 1860s American Union Army’s marching through and
liberating Confederate Georgia, freeing slaves.
The catchy tune was popularised and adopted by others
all around the globe as far as Japan, India and the UK. It was adopted then its lyrics adapted by followers of Billy Fullerton’s razor gang in Glasgow in the 1930s. It
was they who introduced the song at the football ground they attended, Ibrox,
home of Glasgow Rangers. The song subsequently spread through the crowds there
over time until it became one of the main Rangers anthems, despite it
containing the line, “up to our knees in Fenian blood”.
Because many in the Rangers
tradition have an affinity with Protestant King William of Orange who, in their
view, saved Ireland (and indeed Britain) from Catholic King James 11 in 1690, the song The Billy Boys is presumed by many to be
a celebration not of a 1930s sectarian, fascist-supporting razor gang, but rather the monarch of 1690s Britain and Ireland. So, it is argued by many Rangers fans,
that The Billy Boys is not about
fascists or the Ku Klux Klan member at all, but about King Billy.
(NB. The Ku Klux Klan past of
Billy Fullerton is where The Klan
references on social media come from. The term Klan is arguably fairly used when it is describing anyone with an
expressed sympathy of Ku Klux Klan member Billy Fullerton through song. That
he was a member of the KKK is a matter of historical record. Klan is never a term that should apply
to all Rangers fans by any stretch. Indeed, journalist Angela Haggerty has made
this good point many, many times, as has Phil Mac Giolla Bhain. It’s ironic too
that many complaining about the use of the term Klan are disturbingly comfortable using the term Bheast, often using it to describe
all Celtic fans, somewhat diluting the validity of their moral outrage felt at the use of Klan).
Many Rangers fans among my family
and closest friends genuinely had no idea about the Billy Fullerton connection of The Billy Boys anthem.
But that wasn’t their trouble with the song. Regardless of which Billy it is
about, it still contains lines of sectarian hatred. Hence, it is deemed legally
offensive. Hence, it is not sung
approvingly by anyone with genuine disgust of sectarian hatred.
The tune to this song is undeniably
rousing and almost tailor made for being sung by a crowd. If anyone had been
praising this element of the song then that would simply be a matter of musical
taste and uncontroversial. Indeed, a Rangers friend wondered perhaps if someone
originally praising it might subsequently deny doing so for fear their
appreciation of the tune being mistakenly taken as sympathy with the lyrical
content in the adaptation sung by a subsection of (i.e. not all) Rangers fans.
The Rangers is not the only club
with a problem with a subsection of its fans. All clubs have to employ the most
effective deterrent with offensive or sectarian songs – and that’s self-policing.
This subsection however is vocal, as anyone who’s heard The Billy Boys being sung at Ibrox can attest. One can imagine the
looks a fan next to a large crowd of other offensively-singing fans might get if
he/she suggested politely that they desist from the singing when it is in full flow. Yet it is people willing to make that suggestion
to their fellow fans that need the support of the club, and fans groups. That
same principle (of clubs & fans groups supporting those willing to
self-police) applies throughout football to all clubs.
Unhelpfully, a number of Rangers fans
who one might imagine would be keen to take a lead in confronting anything that
reflects badly on their club, including sectarian singing, appear to be in denial
that The Billy Boys is being sung after years of it being more or less absent
from Ibrox (due to some good under-the-radar
work by the old Rangers). Some disingenuously even contended that the words Fenian Blood were replaced by the term EBTs (a reference to the side deals the
old Rangers paid some players with), that last denial embarrassing even some
Rangers fans who were there. If the term
EBTs was being used, it appeared to have been drowned out those not sticking
to that script.
Some fans have put a lot of
energy and activity recently into chasing down folks considered to have spoken
out unfairly in their view about the issue of sectarian singing, and thereby
damaging their club. One can only hope then that an equal amount of energy and
activity is going into calling out the actual singing of sectarian songs and the
attitudes behind it which are as damaging as anything.
