Skhum Are Turning Against Skhum

[Farset 141]

Interesting, it seems Phil Mac Gobblemadick is making enemies in low places:

The scum are turning against the scum.

Was tipped off about the Blog.

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Phil MacGiollaBhain – The Bhoy Who Cried Wolf?

by Stiofán Mac Giolla Tál Fhear

It is with increasing curiosity and incredulity that I have observed Phil McGiollabhain’s attempts to control and shape the dialogue and debate around matters relating to Celtic Football Club. In my next blog for TAL, I will address the points, posts and blogs of MacGiollaBhain and others who have guided the debate according to the prejudices of a section of white collar bigots among our own support. For now, I think it is appropriate to expand a little on my knowledge of Phil MacWhateverHisNameIs and the fantasy world that he occupies.

I didn’t meet the man now known as Phil MacGiollabhain until 1990. He was introduced to me by a committee member of the Republican Bands Alliance (Scotland) as ‘Phil MacGiollabhain’. However, when I mentioned him to other republicans I worked with on prisoner campaigns they didn’t recognise the name or seem to know who he was. It was only on actually seeing him that they realised that this was the guy that they had previously known as ‘Phil White’. Most people put down the name change to Phil having gone through some kind of ‘cultural epiphany’ (immersing himself in Irish culture and language). However, no-one in political circles seems to have ever known him by his real name (which is not MacGiollabhain or White, incidentally) and that is why we all assumed that his birth name was White.

I have spoken to activists who were involved in the republican movement in Scotland throughout the 1980’s and they have confirmed that Phil introduced himself, and was known to all, only as ‘Phil White’. It now appears that ‘Phil White’ was an assumed name that he used within political circles. There may be very good reasons why Phil wanted to be known by an alias, many of us write under pseudonyms for fanzines and on at least two occasions when dealing with the press, I have used a corruption of my own surname for reasons of personal safety. However, fanzines and press aside, it does seem strange that a person would introduce himself to like-minded political activists under a false name and for years lead them to believe that he was known by that name.

There are questions that need to be answered by White-MacGiollabhain as to why he lied for years to political activists about his real name?

His input with TAL always seemed to be very much oriented towards proving his thesis that rangers was a ‘fascist club’ from top to bottom, from the boardroom to the fans, without exception. TAL is a fanzine and I didn’t take a lot of it too seriously to start with. As editor I saw stuff like that as a bit of a wind-up (as all fanzines do with regard to their team’s biggest rivals) but there were some articles of his that were, in my opinion, borderline sectarian. He penned the Editorial Comment page (always on page 3) in the first few issues of TAL, which probably led to his delusion and false claims that he was the ‘editor of TAL’. In addition to the Editorial Comment he usually contributed a 2-page feature article. The layout, editing and the majority of the articles that went into TAL were contributed by others.

It appears that he used the fanzine as a stepping stone to An Phoblacht/Republican News, which in turn was his stepping stone to the NUJ Card… And the NUJ card is his stepping stone to his self-styled ‘rebel journalism’ and his cultivation of mainstream journalists, as well as contacts in the Celtic PLC boardroom.

My first contact with him in 14 years was in July, 2008 when he turned up unannounced and uninvited to a TAL Benefit gig in Dublin. He came in saying that he’d arranged to meet guys from the Celtic Minded forum at the gig, but there was no-one from Celtic Minded there and we weren’t expecting any members of that forum to support the gig. He greeted me like a long lost friend.

During the event he asked me to come outside for a chat. Standing on Westmoreland Street he requested that I remove the battery from my phone… He obviously thought that time had stood still for 18 years and that this was the same naive person from the early 1990’s that he was meeting again. He immediately launched into ‘Walter Mitty mode’ with all sorts of fantastical claims about the republican movement and his own place within it. He also made allusions that he was part of an unspecified ‘new movement’ that was opposed to the Good Friday Agreement and which was in the course of recruiting new members. I wasn’t impressed. In fact, based on past experience of Phil’s fantastical claims, which resulted in serious feuding between left republican groups in Scotland, I was more than a little skeptical of an apparent recruitment drive headed by him and, if his claims of ‘involvement’ were true, how any republican organisation worthy of the name could let this man anywhere near it?!?

This constructed fantasy world seems all the more peculiar, but no less sinister, when you take into account that following public criticism and questioning of his motives on this blog, Phil has been making serious attempts to re-ingratiate himself with the republican newspaper AP/RN and Sinn Fein, a movement that he continues to privately claim is run by British military intelligence assets. This is a suggestion that I believe to be preposterous and poisonous, with the obvious intention of sowing confusion, mistrust and suspicion.

Meanwhile, back to July 2008. Phil approached me again later that evening in Dublin and asked if I wanted him to say anything as one of the co-founders of TAL. It wasn’t really a night for speeches – my only appearances on stage that night were to introduce the acts and draw the raffle – but I said that he could speak if he wanted to. He got up on stage and made a speech, the gist of which was about why a fanzine like TAL was necessary to keep the republican tradition alive at Celtic Park, to defend the songs that we sing and, where necessary, to support THE ARMED STRUGGLE!

It was his overt reference to armed struggle that surprised me on the night, not withstanding his silly posturing during the ‘private conversation’ earlier in the evening. I thought that it was an inappropriate speech and unnecessary showboating to a crowd that he had politically misjudged. TAL’s position at that time (and now) is that armed struggle is not a viable tactic in the current political climate and that peaceful means should be employed to achieve republican ends, whether pro-GFA or anti-GFA. Maybe the Guinness went to his head, maybe he was playing to the gallery, but it was a strange and eccentric intervention.

Republicans will see the contradictions in his private claims to be this, that and t’other as regards their movement and his public pronouncements via his blog with regard to the depoliticisation and social cleansing of the club’s fanbase. It’s time to ask just exactly where the self-proclaimed ‘rebel’ is trying to lead the Celtic support, because it certainly isn’t towards the republic.

Will the real Phil MacGiollabhain please stand up?

[Helicopter Sundae 5,967]

Phil "Mac" is probably an on-the-run murderer, but has been sent a letter to say the Polis are no longer after him.

[Farset 141]

Phil "Mac" is probably an on-the-run murderer, but has been sent a letter to say the Polis are no longer after him.

The piece of shite is hiding something.

It'll come out.

[Helicopter Sundae 5,967]

What truly sickens me is that this guy is like a lone wolf, pops up from absolutely nowhere, does everything he can to damage and try to destroy Rangers, while at the same time seeks to have a rebirth of the IRA terror, which never actually touched the country of his birth, Scotland, and which if it had, would have caused an eruption worse than the Ulster war.

He is actually a lucky man...in days gone by, his head would have been on a pike somewhere long ago.

[RFC55 108,733]

Ooooft what a fucking piece that is. When guys like vb, dart, Frankie etc do it many outsiders would see it as rivals attacking another rival but when "one of your own" comes out with something like that it IMO will be more damaging than anything any loyalist group/bears could ever do

[bluedylan 11,555]

Ooooft what a fucking piece that is. When guys like vb, dart, Frankie etc do it many outsiders would see it as rivals attacking another rival but when "one of your own" comes out with something like that it IMO will be more damaging than anything any loyalist group/bears could ever do

to be fair vb printed this ages ago,but always good to be remind others who were unaware of it

[RFC55 108,733]

to be fair vb printed this ages ago,but always good to be remind others who were unaware of it

I never meant that against vb mate or any on our side.

I just meant their own turning on them would damage him more than any of ours ever could

[bluedylan 11,555]

I never meant that against vb mate or any on our side.

I just meant their own turning on them would damage him more than any of ours ever could

I know you didnt mate

[K.A.I 36,183]

That's an old article tbh. I remember reading that for the first time 3/4 years ago.

[Helicopter Sundae 5,967]

That's an old article tbh. I remember reading that for the first time 3/4 years ago.

Sometimes the old ones are the best.

[K.A.I 36,183]

Sometimes the old ones are the best.

That's why BigBadRosch has an order preventing him from going within 200 yards of the nursing home

[Tontospal 1,116]

That's an old article tbh. I remember reading that for the first time 3/4 years ago.

Which makes it even more incredible that so called credible journalists and organisations have given him a platform in the last few years.

[K.A.I 36,183]

Which makes it even more incredible that so called credible journalists and organisations have given him a platform in the last few years.

Very true.

Our journo's and editors are of a shocking standard - they have no idea what's going on under their nose or even worse, don't care/ignore it

[AlCapone 7,678]

Sometimes the old ones are the best.

Yip, my mates grans a good ride