MisterC 12,455 Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 Shock, and indeed, horror. We have here a high profile celtc supporting member of the Scottish media actually putting some perspective on the famine song and seeing it for what it is, a piss take of the plastic-paddyness of the jhungles. I think McKenna is a twat and why I read his Observer column each week I dont know but then maybe I just like the anger, but then he is also the editor of the Daily Mail in Scotland so its not all bad news. Anyoo here is the quote and a link so make of it what you will.Like a good citizen, I dutifully filled out my Scottish census form the other week and eventually came to question 15. Some people have called it: "The Phil Lynott question". The poet and lead singer of Thin Lizzy liked to ask this of his live audiences before his epochal musing on battle and war in Warriors: "Is there anybody out there with any Irish in them?" Question 15 on the census invites those of us with Irish ancestry to claim our heritage by ticking a box. With a name like Kevin Joseph Patrick Aloysius McKenna, it would have seemed a little dishonest to have marked the box next to Scottish, English, Asian or Polish.I had no hesitation in doing so because on the previous question I had confidently claimed my Scottishness. Like 500,000 or so other citizens of this country, I am a Scot with Irish forbears. This all seems straightforward, but, this being the west of Scotland, it isn't really.In the weeks leading up to the census, a loose alliance of special interest groups had mounted a campaign encouraging us to claim our Irishness at the Phil Lynott question. It was important, they said, because the Irish are Scotland's biggest ethnic minority but are crucially under-represented and unrecognised as such by civic Scotland. Proportionately, more people of Irish ethnicity live in poverty or in jail and official acknowledgment that the Irish are our biggest minority may lead to funding for groups seeking to identify the causes of deprivation in my community. This is important as the existence of such community groups among the country's myriad Asian and Chinese communities has led to greater understanding of some of their special needs.Scotland's Irish question has become a contentious issue in recent years. At Old Firm matches these days, the Rangers supporters have taken to singing a charming couplet from their rich cultural oeuvre. It is called The Famine Song and its chorus, to the tune of the Beach Boys' Sloop John B, goes like this: "The famine's over, why don't you go home?" These sentiments have variously been described as "racist", "hate-filled" and "discriminatory". I really have to be honest here, though. As a Catholic Irish Celtic supporter, I have listened to this song on several occasions and have really, really tried to feel a sense of outrage about it. I have even attempted to become bereft and undermined at it. But I can't: it's simply not that abusive; a little off-colour, perhaps, and a tad wounding, yes. Abusive and racist? Behave yourself.Indeed, it probably seeks to satirise those Irish Catholic Scots among us who try to convince themselves and others that they are more Irish than Norah, the pride of Kildare. On certain occasions, I have even been guilty of such ethnic posturing myself.Not a few years ago, I was surprised to be admonished by a respected academic and chronicler of all things to do with the Irish diaspora. He seemed exercised by the fact that I chose to define myself as Scottish rather than Irish despite the fact that my name sounds like a Tipperary potato merchant's. "So just when did the McKennas stop being Irish?" he asked. The implication was not lost on me. Five generations of us might have lived in Scotland but the previous 30 generations toiled on some piece of Monaghan sod.Nevertheless, I clung to my Scottishness because, well… I just don't feel very Irish. I have a thick and unkempt Glasgow accent that means I will never be mistaken for Barney O'Hea. My parents and grandparents were all born in the west of Scotland. My children were born and baptised here. I have visited the Irish Republic on fewer than five occasions. I much prefer Belfast to Dublin, which has always struck me as a wee city eternally in love with itself and which thinks it is the cultural capital of the known universe. Everyone knows that's Glasgow. Indeed, Belfast, even during the Troubles, was a far more vibrant and warm-hearted city than its vainglorious cousin over the border.Scotland has schooled me, employed me, given me a home and looked after generations of my family when times were tough. It pays for my children's education at a Catholic school and has provided opportunities for Irish Catholic Scots to rise to the very top and dominate Scottish professional and political life. I may not go as far as that charming old Ulster holy man, the Rev Ian Paisley, when he once referred to the Free State as that "priest-ridden banana republic". But I am proud of the way that church and state are separated in an enlightened Scottish democracy and that the rights of my fellow Christians to practise their faith is respected and honoured, despite the tawdry efforts of some secular humanists who are the real bigots in UK society.I am reassuringly sanguine and fatalistic about life in a curiously Presbyterian kind of way and have recently begun visiting graveyards again. When an acquaintance hails me in the street I do not say: "Grand" in answer to his inquiry about my state of being, but instead mutter: "No' bad." I prefer my bars to be dark and the conversation to be low and desultory. Community singing should be kept to an absolute minimum and only after occasions of great footballing moment. It helps if the bartenders do not believe themselves to be undiscovered successors to O'Casey or Joyce. I believe musical instruments of any kind should be barred on licensed premises. I do not care if the road rises up to meet me or if the wind is always at my back. I just want to reach the end of the fuckin' road without upsetting too many people along the fuckin' way.I am fond of the Irish in the way that one may retain fond memories of a teenage romance. But I am Scottish and fairly content at that. So if it's all the same to my separated Rangers brethren in the Lord, I will pass up their invitation to return to post-famine Erin and continue to live and work and be miserable here among them.http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/10/kevin-mckenna-scotland-ireland-census Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRITNEY IS NOT FEELING IT 8,293 Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 It'll be lost on the jhungles as somehow I don't think they read the Observer /Guardian /Daily Mail Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwhiteandblue 3,330 Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 Well said Mr McKenna Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AljayBoy 2,326 Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 Other than the 'secular bigots' bit, have to agree with the guy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JM1872 3,776 Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 Even though he is one of them, the funny and absurdly crazy bit is - he's correct. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevieWonder88 10 Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 We should ask him to do a story on TBB Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark_ni 12 Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 the mhedia frenzy over the famine song is ridiculous, good to see someone with a bit of sense. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevieWonder88 10 Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 Did anyone notice all the comments that are amounted on that article i think the guy needs some positive feedback on this and show him honesty is appreciated. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimBaxter6 1 Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 Well Said. we will sing what we want and absoulute no1 will stop us Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
caseyjones 3,009 Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 The big difference is that he regards himself as Scottish, not Irish, so he's not one of the plastics that TFS is really aimed at. When he concedes that the chant is not abusive or racist, he's showing a good deal of commonsense.........and then we have many of our own calling for an end to this 'sectarian' ditty! You couldn't make it up. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimBaxter6 1 Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 The big difference is that he regards himself as Scottish, not Irish, so he's not one of the plastics that TFS is really aimed at. When he concedes that the chant is not abusive or racist, he's showing a good deal of commonsense.........and then we have many of our own calling for an end to this 'sectarian' ditty! You couldn't make it up. Exactly, we have song these songs for years, why the fuck should we stop now Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamieD 19,326 Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 Great article. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
radlord 24 Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 That's a really cool article. I like McKenna from the Football Weekly podcast and this is spot on. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
StuW 7 Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 He's obviously someone who isn't easily offended. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
WadeWilson 4,670 Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 Fuck the census. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carsons Dog 9,878 Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 Another blow for the hand wringers Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeautifulSeas 10 Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 The big difference is that he regards himself as Scottish, not Irish, so he's not one of the plastics that TFS is really aimed at. When he concedes that the chant is not abusive or racist, he's showing a good deal of commonsense.........and then we have many of our own calling for an end to this 'sectarian' ditty! You couldn't make it up. Absolutely spot on. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozblue 4,332 Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 Absolutely spot on.How are you going,Simon ? Have you been away on holidays or something Reading that post from casey, reminded me of the stupidity of some of these fuckwits who are so fucked in the head about who they really are,they wouldn't know whether they were Arthur or Martha.I go back to our game against Blackburn Rovers in Sydney,when that fucker who seemed to be the "main man" of the Sydney FC fans started waving that filth shirt and scarf,and then started the chants of ..."Fuck off back to Glasgow you Scottish cunts"...and "Scottish fuckin arseholes" which almost started a riot,before he and a few of his offsiders got chucked out and arrested...remember him?Well he and his mate apparently come from Hamilton...And they can't see the irony of it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
WVB 2,560 Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 That'll be McKenna sacked and black-balled. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kplfishtank 4,669 Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 fuck him hes a scottish catholic celtic fan. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
spangles 7 Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 Some fairminded (?) taig has posted the article on kiddyfiddler street, don't give much for its or his/her survival. :uk: ETA....several minutes later kiddyfiddler street in meltdown over article, the mhanky taig bigoted sectarian fukwits took the article of the main board, true colours and all that. :chopometer: Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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