MOVING ON

Predictably, there was the usual outrage today over the Celtic match on Sunday. How dare they not wear poppies on their shirts! And, of course, we get the story of the minute's silence being disrupted. Looking at the video helpfully provided by the DR, it's fairly obvious that the shouting is coming from outside the ground. It's not a protest or anything; it sounds like somebody shouting for their mates or such like. It also sounds like one person inside the ground started shouting at the start, but you can hear everyone around him going 'Shhhhhh!' and he soon shuts up. Hardly the big show of disrespect that the media is trying to paint it!

I'm maybe being paranoid here but remember that time they started the minute's silence before Neil Lennon got a chance to come out the tunnel? That was obviously deliberate so that fingers could be pointed. I've got a feeling that the same thing has happened at Pittodrie; starting the minute's silence before everyone is in the ground. Stranger things have happened.

The DR hotline, of course, has all the indignation we've come to expect, as does McMurdo's blog. One of the disciples has this to say:

"I just knew that going on to the Daily Record web site today i would find a story that somehow brings down Rangers or Protestants and sure enough there it was….
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Of course there was nothing regarding the disgraceful events at Pittodrie. There may eventually be but first they will have a few stories to remind the world how evil us Proddies are."

Where does it say that the guy supports Rangers (sic)? Obviously this guy writing assumes that if he's a bigot, then he must support the team at Ibrox. As Jesus put it, "Thou hast said it!" In fact, the only way the guy can be called a Protestant is if you take a very wide view of what a Protestant actually is. He's probably never seen the inside of a church, couldn't tell Justification by Faith from a slap in the teeth and thinks the Bible is, as one so-called Protestant lad once told me, "fulla kafflicks!" Only if you identify Protestantism as hating Catholics can this guy be called a Protestant. Most decent, church-going Protestants would be horrified to be linked with this individual. His band is even barred by the Orange Order, for God's sake!

Further to what I was saying yesterday about being told to 'move on' and forget the past only when it suits a particular agenda, it's hard to forget when it's thrust in your face constantly. What am I going on about? Well, one of McMurdo's disciples provides a link to show the Irish Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, attending a Remembrance ceremony at Enniskillen, while the Irish Ambassador laid a wreath at the cenotaph in Trafalgar Square. All well and good and a sign that the UK Government and the Irish Dail have put past hatreds behind them. But what of those of us that live here that are descended from the Irish?

Let me say straight off that I don't consider myself Irish, don't feel Irish, have never been to Ireland and don't pretend to be Irish either. That, however, hasn't stopped certain people telling me to 'Go home' and that I'm not wanted here; they don't want any of us here. That suddenly changes when a footballer decides to play for the ROI national team. He's a traitor. Confusing, isn't it? Not only that but the Scotland manager wants the fans to boo him when the two teams meet at Parkhead. I wonder what the reaction would be if Scotland were playing England and the English fans started to boo all the English players that opt to play for Scotland. There would be outrage and accusations of racism. Strangely, though, there have been no accusations of racism levelled at Gordon Strachan!

So let's see if I've got this straight. We're not wanted here and, in fact, on McMurdo's site and others of that ilk, we're accused of trying to take over the country. We're a huge threat, apparently, and one that needs to be countered fast. If one of us dares to play football for the country that they all want us to go back to, however, he's a traitor! No; I still don't get it. I probably never will. On top of that, we've to wear a poppy to thank all those that died for our freedom, while those that go to the most extreme lengths in this respect don't want us to have the freedom to live here unmolested. And they're calling for teams that don't wear a poppy on their shirts to be punished in some way. The argument is that we should commemorate those that apparently died for our freedom by not having the freedom to say that we don't want to wear a poppy! Where's my paracetamol?