campaign to stop Rangers fans from singing an offensive song about Scotland's Irish Catholic community reached Parliament on Tuesday.

Respect MP George Galloway tabled a question asking Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy if he would hold discussions with Holyrood ministers on "instances of anti-Irish racism at football matches involving Scottish clubs".

Galloway was referring specifically to a chant known as 'The Famine Song' which has gained increasing popularity among Rangers fans this season and even prompted the club to warn its supporters they could be arrested for singing it.

It refers to the Irish famine of the 1840s which killed an estimated one million people and sparked mass migration to Scotland, and contains the line: "The famine is over, why don't you go home?"

Junior Scotland minister Ann McKechin said she and Murphy had not discussed anti-Irish racism at football matches involving Scottish clubs with the Scottish Government.

She added: "Tackling such issues falls to the Scottish Football Association and Scottish football clubs, in conjunction with the police. Sport and policing are devolved matters."

Rangers received a number of complaints about the song following the Old Firm derby with Celtic in August, prompting them to warn their fans against singing it. But the chant has provoked a wider campaign against it, with Irish diplomats contacting the Scottish government following complaints about the behaviour of Rangers supporters.

Outside the Commons, Galloway - a Celtic fan - said the song was the latest instalment in a long-standing anti-Irish campaign among Rangers fans.

"To be fair to the club, they have tried to clamp down on their fans for behaviour like this, but the fans use a lot of allusion and symbolism," he said.

"As a former Glasgow MP, I have had a lot of complaints from former constituents about it since the start of the season, and bringing it to Parliament is an attempt to get the Scottish Football Association and Rangers football club to come out to have the song banned."

Maybe we can look at Galloway's anti Scottish comments as well.

You know who would love to read about this? Those who view the Rangers/Celtic forum.

In fact I reckon they'll love a post like this so much, I think I'll move it there.


Clever me...

Whatever your views on sectarianism, it is hard to argue against the assertion that George Galloway is a complete and utter fucking plank. Especially if you've seen photographs that would finish him as a politician.

THE AMERICAN SENATE COULD STOP HIM. WHAT CHANCE DO YOU HAVE.

We'll stop singing it, if the government deports Galloway, deal or no deal?

What an arse Galloway is.

Respected?




The guy who loved along with your bigot of a Chairman singing/learning IRA songs in Parliament. A guy who is so bitter it oozes out of him.

A guy who got hit in London and blamed it on Rangers fans

He is not respected in my eyes.

His party is called Respect.

And Galloway is the biggest blowhard in politics. Preaching socialist views while raping himself of dignity for the sake of a few quid.



Woof Woof George!

No. Respect: The name of his party.

respeck ma bredda

aight

You fucking dummy

Good to see GG representing his constituents so well. Looking forward to his inevitable defeat in 2011 and his descent into C List-dom.

He should bomralotaitheim

How boring does that plank Jim Murphy seem ?He even has a train set.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=TYGoJYjFivk

Despite his ill-advised feline frolics, George remains something of a hero to disaffected British Asians.

And in my view we should be looking at Mohammedians as potential allies in the war on bigotry. The current vogue for "islamophobia" down south echoes Scottish sectarianism in many respects - so by making this explicit we might draw many of their talented and powerful leaders to our own cause.

Do you really believe that? He fought an obscene campaign of religious libel and innuendo in Bethnal Green, and perhaps proved his effectiveness as as dirty a fighter as Labour has ever produced.

As for your pathetic attempt to equate Scottish sectarianism with Islamophobia - you are really beyond shame. What suffering do you think you suffer in comparison to Palestinians for example? Or indeed with genuine victims of racism in London or Birmingham, with shit and worse being put through your door?

What a hopeless fantasist you are. And what a professional victim.

allusion and symbolism? Galloway's saying that? fuxake!

and when did galloway out himself as sellik follower? I thought he claimed to follow dundee utd when he was in glasgow.

Respect is the name of his party.

You are thick as mince.

When was he singing rebel songs with John Reid in parliament. Have not seen that footage but would really like too. Suppose you won't be too slow in posting the link?

Celtic fans: The Eternally Offended.

You waivered the right to claim prejudice and racism the day your hate mob rained bananas down on a black player.

Galloway always asks Scottish people on his show whether they are Rangers fans or not and always returns his usual "I thought so" pish. The irony and hypocrisy which flow from the "man" are unreal given his clearly bigoted and prejudicial view on the world.

Maybe he should do us all a favour and go in live in a tent in the sub sahara.

Nice hook but I think I'll pass on it

He has admitted singing these songs before.

Wither you like it or not, its true. As I said in another post, might you stop following me ya f*cking freak.

Plastic Paddy, why don't you go home?

Well if he is on the record admitting singing these a quick google search will bring up the article and you can post it on here for us all to see.

I hope you can get this article though I doubt it exists, I suspect you have been caught out making things up again. You do have previous for it with your Dean Shiels song, McGeady playing up front against Man Utd last week and now this.

I am in my home town right now, the beautiful County Donegal, thanks for the concern though, your a very thoughtful young man.

He clearly said 'Islamaphobia down south'. And whilst he himself is not likely to have been a victim of racism on a par with that which you describe, he never said that he was (a victim of it). Scottish sectarianism has led to this, and worse. Try reading his post again.


I feel dirty now.

The muslims ought to look at us and how our fortunes have waxed and waned in our battle against institutionalised racism. For our part we need to look at how they put the police down south firmly in their place.

Pink Freud should note that BNP types in England inevitably have a sob story for why they hate ethnic minorities: Eg. "coloured children threw me in a hedge when I was five".

And I wonder if the muslim council of Britain (for example) would countenance a supposedly independent internet forum gagging them from using the proper term for the culprits?

You mean in a Finsbury Park/Old Kent Road stylee? I'd love to see you actually practising the civil disobedience that you preach, instead of the vicarious masturbation at the actions of genuinely persecuted minorities.



Good one. The difference being I have absolutely no issue with Celtic fans per se, just deluded bigots wrapping themselves in their non existent heritage and claiming cultural and therefore racial superiority.



They would probably refuse to have anything further to do with it. You could try that, I suppose.

But that was even funnier.

I mean in the style of bringing them to book, hauling them over the coals and forcing their hand re. their racism, "unwitting" or otherwise.

It was a long road but the Scarman and Macpherson reports vouchsafed a degree of accountability. Sadly up here we still have many sturdy bonced masons shaming the nation and acting as Rangers FC supporters instead of doing their job. The way they went after Boruc was pathetic enough, now we have them trying to make it illegal to describe their sort by their proper name, long established as non-sectarian and entrenched in popular convention.



So it was actually five year old "deluded bigots wrapping themselves in their non existent heritage and claiming cultural and therefore racial superiority" who once reposed you into that fateful hedge?



Personally I doubt that.

It is hard to imagine men of such conviction standing idly by while such a Pandora's box of apologism, cowardice and stupidity is loosed upon the world in what looks like a calculated attack on the boards' progressive elements.

I find myself in agreement with you to some extent. However, could it be, just possibly, that institutionalised racism and sectarianism in the policeforce in Scotland is being exaggerated by you? Just a smidgeon? For example, do you feel, and this is a genuine question, not a wind up, that RCs or Irish Scots are somehow profiled and disproportionately stopped and searched? Or does this racism/sectarianism take another form? Do you honestly believe that Irish Scots are persecuted because of their race, and that that persecution stands comparison with that of Black British and Asians?




I don't recall mentioning any particular issues with the Newlands Road Hedge Three. As I think you know fine well, that little episode was related to illustrate a point about divisions occurring as a direct result of segregated schooling, and the Old Firm culture.
Likewise, my mate's little brother coming home from his first day in Primary school and asking his mum what a Fen--n b*****d was tends to stick in the mind. It's why I have little truck with the whataboutery of either camp.


No, my issues are with the warped Scottish and Irish Republicans and anti British bigots - those who will not accept that the troubles are over, and I suspect don't want them to be. It's like some kind of bizarre "war and struggle" envy. As though the culture of resistance up to and since 1916 must go on in order for them to prove their manhood. And also that anyone on this side of the water must continue to wring their hands in apology for war crimes and discrimination that they were never part of, simply because of their nationality or religion.
It's also with the "Rule Britannia/Famine Song" fuckwits who perpetuate this vile struggle for the hearts and minds of Scottish youth. The neo Fascist salutes masquerading as Ulster Loyalist gestures. And, believe it or not, the anti Irish bollocks that they come out with.




Whereas you bravely type on such varied subjects as the alcoholism of an ex Rangers player recently diagnosed with cancer in order to make a point about his constant humiliation? What a pillar of righteousness you are. Really, if you see yourself as equal to these people, I think you may have someway to go.

yeah thats rich coming from a man who denies that he praised saddam when he met him in iraq

Well we are possibly further down the path than the muslims, that's why they might look to see what we did right/wrong and learn from us.

The English police have been officially damned as "institutionally" and often "unwittingly" racist. But I find any suggestion that this applies only to forces south of Carlisle etc. unconvincing - in fact I find it laughable. Albeit the target of any racism would naturally be different.



It was a blubbering mess of a post which wouldn't have been out of place on the Trisha Goddard show!

Perhaps the most remarkable part of it was the admission that you became a lifelong supporter of St. Mirren as a riposte to some five year olds acting (in your mind) as proxy agents for Celtic FC!



Moore has had tough times in his career to date. So I fervently hope he can draw on this resilience to quickly overcome his illness.

Feel free to answer the question any time you like. Do you have evidence of police persecution/rascism in relation to Irish Scots?




Blubbering mess? You clearly loved it.





Nicely put.

I think this is a contender for post of the year especially the reasons why BNP hate ethnic minorities

Could you please tell me about the sectarianiam you have personally experienced in your life?

You poor oppressed wee man. Infact Catholics are so oppressed they run Glasgow City Council and therefore control Glasgow.

Do protestants mump and moan about being marginalised in the Council?

Scottish Catholics and in particular Celtic supporters have a complex fuelled by their own desire to be seen as a "rebel" and a poor wee victim.

What every one of them?

New immigrants to countries often experience discrimination and it is wrong.

Catholic Irish immigrants to Glasgow in the late 1800s and early 1900s did experience discrimination. Nobody disputes that.

However the notion that Catholics in Scotland today are still being discriminated against is absolute nonsense.

I would ask Beyemystic to name a single Scottish institution that discriminates against Catholics.

I am also again asking him to describe the sectarianism he has personally experienced in his life.

The problem with Beyemystic and his ilk is that they are living in the past and fighting yesterdays battles.

Scotland has moved on. Beyemystic hasn't. He still has a big chip on his shoulder and it is never going to come off. Mind you that is not surprising. He doesn't even consider himself Scottish.

The Orange Order and the House of Parliament which ultimatley presides over Scotland..

The Orange Order is not a Scottish Institution. In what way would you say Westminster discriminates against Catholics?

I am reminded of the sketch from 'Only An Excuse' where an employee of Glasgow City Council is on his way to work wearing a Celtic topic. Someone asks him "Why are you wearing that to work?'' The employee replies "This is our uniform''

I can remember Glasgow's Labour controlled city council used to be sometimes nicknamed the Murphia back in the 70s and 80s. It didn't stop me from voting Labour and I'm still voting Labour.

Has there ever been a catholic prime minister or Lord Chancellor?

ISN'T IT ILLEGAL FOR THE HEAD OF STATE TO BE A CATHOLIC?
i.e Queen/King

He shoots, He SCORES!

Neither of these institutions is uniquely Scottish. In fact, one was founded in Northern Ireland and the other in England. Beyemystic was claiming that Catholics in Scotland (not Catholics in Britain in general) are being treated badly like Muslims in England.

Beyemystic said ''Islamophobia down south echoes SCOTTISH sectarianism''

Haw Haw could you please tell me about the sectarianism you have experienced in your life?

i think it would be fair to say that the current Parliament was founded by the merger of two previously existing ones - neither had religious tolerance high on the agenda at the time.

I witnessed Scottish Catholics not get jobs because they were Catholic, it was widespread in west central Scotland up to the early 70's you might not believe it, cos Gordon Smith disnae, BUT the team you support operated the same policy. I also witnessed, in Glasgow, anti Catholic marchers stopping outside Catholic churches to play anti Catholics tunes. I've experienced downright sectarian bigotry from relatives within Orange and masonic organisations.

You know it happened

Are you one of the Scottish Catholics who didn't get a job or are you talking about Scottish Catholics in a hypothetical sense. Is it still happening?

I have also witnessed Irish Republican marches in Glasgow and north Lanarkshire stopping outside Protestant churches ( eg Church of Scotland) and urinating on the walls and hurling all kinds of anti-Protestant abuse.

I witnessed it on more than one occasion myself and I knew of it in quite a few organisations (Multi national organisations at that)




That's not what you asked. If you are asking now about employment then no I have not witnessed it in years. However I have experienced sectarianism on non minor scale when I got caught in an orange walk a few years ago, and from Rangers and Hearts fans



I don't believe you

So sectarianism and hatred of the other side is a family trait.

Tell Beyemystic