jintybear

I like that!

That made me laugh! My grandpa hated them, wouldn't even let them in his house! Made us all stand for the queen when the telly finished at night (young ones won't get that)

But they're the best fans in the world don't you know?!!! Lmfao

We wouldn't be skipping a division! We deserve promotion. We haven't asked them to reconstruct the leagues into three instead of four so why should we stay in the bottom tier.

Were there too many police present? Probably. That is the only reasonable criticism I can see that could be levelled at the police from that video. In a world of mobile phone videos the 'worst' that has yet been produced is someone being arrested for breaking a police cordon and then resisting arrest. We are used to seeing police outnumbered at such events but, when you have hundreds of people intent on disorder, is there a rule which says the police have to be outnumbered? I think if I was a police officer then I would feel more able to do my job if I and my colleagues were not seriously outnumbered by those attempting to break the law. My hope is that the criticism levelled at the police by journalists, bloggers, lawyers and local politicians, many of whom are far too willing to go into bat for Celtic and their fans no matter what the circumstances, will prompt them to detail exactly what ǝpɐbıɹq uǝǝɹb ǝɥʇ are about and why they took the action they did. Perhaps then we can get rid of a poison in Scottish football and get back to the game. Here’s a novel idea, maybe Celtic could even finally do something about them? Of course, given what we have seen in the past couple of years, it is equally possible that the police will be politically pressured into a public climb-down for, on this occasion, simply doing their job. Let’s hope not. I had to miss the videos out but I think that's it all

First of all my apologies for speaking about an Irish Republican political group on a Rangers site but the continuing attempts to shoehorn ǝpɐbıɹq uǝǝɹb ǝɥʇ and the Union Bears into the same pigeonhole has prompted this response. When journalists and politicians start treating the situation with ǝpɐbıɹq uǝǝɹb ǝɥʇ honestly then I won’t have to write about them ever again. Something I look forward to. You would be forgiven for thinking that Saturday’s police clash with ǝpɐbıɹq uǝǝɹb ǝɥʇ was the first time football fans have come a cropper due to the draconian new laws targeting them in Scotland. Of course you would be wrong. Police have on occasion been heavy handed with fans from many different teams in Scotland. However, those attempting to use this latest example as an excuse to berate the police would be well advised to take a step back, because on Saturday they were not policing mere football fans but a political group which Celtic have, until recently, allowed to operate unencumbered within Celtic Park. Normally I wouldn’t care, but I’m noticing journalists, social commentators, bloggers pretending to be journalists and even politicians trying to liken ǝpɐbıɹq uǝǝɹb ǝɥʇ to the Union Bears in an attempt to disguise their support for fellow Celtic fans as some sort of crusade on behalf of all football fans. The Union Bears and ǝpɐbıɹq uǝǝɹb ǝɥʇ both bring something unique to their respective stadiums and to the away grounds visited by their respective clubs. The similarity ends there. The Union Bears are a genuine fan group who, along with The Blue Order, have brought colour and noise to Ibrox whilst simultaneously being instrumental in cleaning up a songbook which continued to get the club into trouble. ǝpɐbıɹq uǝǝɹb ǝɥʇ, in comparison, have brought colour and noise to Celtic Park with a repertoire of songs in support of IRA terrorists and banners which depict various acts of violence towards those of a Rangers’ persuasion including burning down Ibrox and shooting Rangers’ fans that they depict as apes. ǝpɐbıɹq uǝǝɹb ǝɥʇ online forum is littered with political threads, many of which have the sole purpose of showing support not simply for a united Ireland but for convicted IRA terrorists. Something which appears to have been missed, judging by some of the newspaper reports on the subject, is that ǝpɐbıɹq uǝǝɹb ǝɥʇ members who turned up to the march on Saturday were breaking the law. The police are perfectly within their rights to veto requests for marches which they believe to be contentious. Clearly a group of IRA supporting neds marching through the city centre of Glasgow on a busy Saturday afternoon falls within that definition. When the Union Bears came up with a plan of marching from Battlefield on the south side of Glasgow to Hampden, prior to the Queen Park game, it was also vetoed by police and made clear to them that the organisers would be arrested. Unlike ǝpɐbıɹq uǝǝɹb ǝɥʇ, who clearly believe themselves to be above the law, the Union Bears grudgingly accepted this decision and the march was cancelled. Were they happy about it? No. Did they comply with the law? Yes. There have been a number of outraged reactions to the police action on Saturday. Angela Haggerty, blogger, led the way with a little help from another blogger, Phil MacGiollabhain. Angela attended the march in what we are apparently to believe was a personal capacity. She then predictably decided to write an outraged blog about the terrible treatment ǝpɐbıɹq uǝǝɹb ǝɥʇ had suffered. She included several reports from people who did not, conveniently, wish to be named. Presumably we are just meant to take her word for it. She and MacGiollabhain carried on some sort of pantomime sketch on Twitter where he described her as a journalist and a colleague and she returned the favour. They amusingly made it sound like a TV anchor on the line to an intrepid reporter in a warzone. Apparently, only her press card protected her from a savage beating at the hands of the police. Thank goodness she had Phil on speed dial. Now, frankly, if this nonsense had just been confined to them I’d have ignored it. We know the agenda there and increasingly few people, even amongst the Celtic support, pay attention to them. However, now we have mainstream journalists following suit, ably backed up by minor politicians, lawyers and Celtic minded ‘celebrities’. The Scottish press, so quick to highlight any bad behaviour by Rangers fans, has been virtually comment-free. No outrage at the illegal march attempt, no comment on refusing a police escort to Celtic Park and no criticism of the fact that many Green Brigade members attempted several times to break a police cordon and were therefore arrested. If you are a law abiding citizen and the police tell you that you can’t march down a road with, what Angela Haggerty estimated, was 200 of your pals then you might ask them why - what you wouldn’t then do is ignore them and decide to do it anyway. Even if you are not a law abiding citizen, if you acted this way you would have a reasonable expectation that the police would stop you and possibly arrest you. What we have here is a pathetic combination of people who want to break the law but then cry foul when the police take action. Gerry Braiden, of the Herald newspaper, took to Twitter to play down ǝpɐbıɹq uǝǝɹb ǝɥʇ as “a bunch of studenty lefties”. That is nonsense. Unless University has had a radical transformation for the worse since I was there, (admittedly a while ago) then what I saw in the videos, posted by Celtic fans, was a gang of neds. Neds attempting to conceal their identity and intent on causing trouble and disorder. To be fair to both Gerry and the Herald they have been at the forefront of those questioning the draconian laws which are now being applied to football fans. They are correct to take this approach because the Bill brought in by the SNP is a shambles and there is no question football fans are being unfairly targeted and treated as lesser beings because of it. However, that does not mean that people who attach themselves to football for political reasons should be given carte blanche to act however they like. Not every instance of police taking action against football fans is wrong, especially when that group of so-called fans have the record that ǝpɐbıɹq uǝǝɹb ǝɥʇ do. The paper is correct that criminalising fans for singing songs is ridiculous, however that is not what happened on Saturday and it is lazy journalism to try to equate the two. If the Herald wishes to make an important and timely stand against this appalling bill then they could not have picked a worse group to hold up as their champions. They have a track record of violence within stadiums. At a game against Hearts at Tynecastle in May 2011 they fought with stewards and police for having the temerity to try and arrest some of them. It was clearly captured in this video: along with chants of “P.I.R.A.” which followed. More recently, in Dundee this season, there was an outpouring of violence from rioting Celtic fans that the Dundee Operations Manager, Jim Thomson, described thus: “I have never seen anything like the behaviour of the Celtic fans in the 20 years I have been running games at Dens Park. “The situation was almost unmanageable and I have never seen so many people drunk. “Our fans were abused, our stewards were abused and no doubt the police were abused. The turnstile operators were visibly shaken. “The away fans had no respect for their surroundings — they were doing the toilet where they stood. I say that the Herald has picked the wrong group to attach their campaign to but actually that might not be accurate judging by the bizarre response in some quarters to Saturday. Far from accepting that Green Brigade members were breaking the law, attempting to breach a police line and clearly resisting arrest, there has been an outpouring of anguish from many commentators and politicians. The Herald has Brian McConnachie QC demanding action. I wonder where he was when the Union Bears were denied permission to march and actually did the correct thing and declined to do so. Would that not have been a better time to make a point about restrictions on law abiding fans – when they actually were law abiding? According to McConnachie “if the police believed there was going to be an issue they had days to resolve it”. How were they supposed to do that? ǝpɐbıɹq uǝǝɹb ǝɥʇ knew they were not allowed to march but went ahead anyway in contrast to the decision taken by the Union Bears on a similar issue. They have also managed to get what they describe as a “senior Glasgow SNP figure”, another Glasgow councillor, Graeme Hendry, calling for an inquiry. Aside from the Herald’s response, we have seen a Daily Record report which went with a headline that appeared extremely sympathetic to ǝpɐbıɹq uǝǝɹb ǝɥʇ ‘cause’ - “Celtic fans' fury as Green Brigade accuse Strathclyde Police of 'heavy-handed' tactics”. It seems police all over the world are ‘heavy handed’ with Celtic fans. The Sun reported the same, the day after the Juventus game, with regard to Italian police. George Ryan, the Labour councillor for Shettleston, also supported the illegal activities of ǝpɐbıɹq uǝǝɹb ǝɥʇ. “Let’s not criminalize our young people” cried George on Twitter. An admirable idea, let’s also ask our ‘young people’ not to break the law then shall we George? He retweeted several Celtic fans outraged that police had stopped this illegal march and branded the police “stormtroopers”. George is also an expert on policing, declaring that the action was “totally disproportionate”. The Union Bears have had their troubles with the police this season too. Their treatment has been very poor at times and I’m sure this is mirrored by other genuine football fans across the country. This is an inevitable consequence of these new laws which are without doubt a shambles. It is also true that many young men who attend football don’t exactly have a natural affinity with the police. This is the same the world over and groups like UB, and other groups in other stadia all over Scotland, will continue to have trouble with a law which specifically targets football fans. What the Union Bears have not done is take part in the type of scenes that were seen in Dundee. What they have not done is go ahead with a march they knew was banned because they think the law doesn’t apply to them. What they have not done is attempt to convey a militant political message with the help of the club they support. By all means let’s challenge this ridiculous bill but let’s do it on behalf of genuine football fans and not some Irish Republican political group. Celtic created ǝpɐbıɹq uǝǝɹb ǝɥʇ. They moved other fans to accommodate them and plenty of decent Celtic fans are sick of the Irish Republican political message they bring to Celtic Park and away games. However those decent fans have a problem. Their supporter groups are littered with people for whom support of the IRA appears to be the norm. Joe O’Rourke, the head of the Celtic Supporters Association, happily describes the IRA terrorists from the song ‘Roll of Honour’ as “ten young men who gave their lives in the fight for freedom for their country”. Jeanette Findlay of the Celtic Supporters Trust caused a storm in 2007 when she supported the singing of IRA songs by Celtic fans, leading to Celtic distancing itself from her but not actually doing anything to address the problem - a problem which has subsequently got much worse due to their accommodation of ǝpɐbıɹq uǝǝɹb ǝɥʇ. The Celtic Trust attempted the most bizarre justification of ǝpɐbıɹq uǝǝɹb ǝɥʇ on Twitter by saying, “pity a huge section of the Irish Community has just been attacked by Strathclyde police”. Of course this nonsense is just part of a well-established campaign to stop those who openly show support for the IRA from being policed. Cries of racism are always sensitive no matter how ridiculously inaccurate. They justify this scandalous statement with what they call “the worst video yet” of the police action against ǝpɐbıɹq uǝǝɹb ǝɥʇ:

From what I hear hearts can't afford to pay their players at all! Surely silly wages are better than no wages

Just let me know wen you want the cash and I will pay ( did I read that you have a PayPal account) cos I'll be buying one no matter which one wins

God I wish I could vote for more than one!!! Spectres had always been my favourite but now I like nachos! Decisions, decisions

Im sorry but I can't agree! The money footballers earn is ridiculous and they justify it by saying that they have short careers so they insist on big bucks to save for when they can't play! When ally was playing along with other rangers greats, ie Davie Cooper, they would have been earning no where near as much as players get these days, AND these greats would have played for free for the love of the jersey and not for pure greed

They must have some bills lol! Even at £6k per week that's more in a month than I earn in a year! I just meant maybe they could have cut down on some extravagances for a while until sold, I mean super Ally worked for free and he got by, if you can't cope on £6,000 per week then my heart bleeds!!!

I'm sure almost all of the players who fckd off "claimed" to be rangers men so in the interests of their " boyhood heroes" could they not have taken a reduced wage until sold. I know getting by on £5-6k a week would be difficult(!) but they never even tried. To me they're scum and that's all there is to it!

I think I must have been watching a different game! There was no need for him to storm into, not the ball, the man this afternoon. As usual he was a liability and IMO he should have been subbed before being sent off, a blind man could have seen that red card coming

So Hutton weren't home to watch TV after a hard day at the office, yawn! But wait! Was it a hard day? Was it fuck! I think that's why everyone's so upset. After the frankly shit performances over the last few weeks I think they should have been kept longer to not only physically train but also mentally train. For someone who earns more in a month than I do in a year I don't think that's a lot to ask. If I was underperforming too that level then I would be sacked.

Option 3 is the only way. Even now after being found innocent twice by two separate independent investigations proving that our club did not cheat or have any sporting advantage over any other clubs, they still wanted to see us heavily punished and even then threatened to boycott their own clubs. It makes by blood boil to think these same arseholes are talking about "fast tracking" us to the SPL to benefit them! Well all I can think of is "F*** Right Off"!

Did most of the SPL clubs last year not ask their fans for guidance about whether the almighty rangers should stay in the top tier? If my memory serves me correctly all clubs bar Kilmarnock told us we weren't welcome! In my eyes it was the fans of all these clubs who helped seal our fate so for that reason all I can think of is fuck off Dunfermline maybe you should have thought of the love of your own club before the hate of mine

Im glad the club are showing their respect by wearing black armbands ! It's the way it should be

That's really below the belt having a cheap dig, show some respect. RIP Irene my thoughts are with your family at this sad time

He is a disgrace! I doubt there will ever be an apology!

Hope your right because I wouldn't pur it past them to try n keep us in the lowest tier possible

I know it's a joke

Just saw on sky sports that the vote for league reconstruction will not take place till April 15th

Me too! I don't mind paying in advance just tell us how much and when! I actually love spectres design

I say 54, we don't want to look desperate and clutching at straws! We'll get our 55 whenever we get back to the top tier ( doubt it'll be called the SPL then). But wot do I know am just a woman!

Just signed it! Showing as 39620 before I signed it and 39620 after I signed it! That can't be right!!!