I’m not going to laugh at results against Luxembourgers or Lithuanians – it’s not so long since Gibraltarians bloodied the nose of a team who went on to become invincible treble winners. Scottish clubs have a long history of pitching up in June and July wholly unprepared for European football.
These results only retain the ability to concern if they are not resolved by remarkably improved performances. Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic grew in stature last summer until they became a competitive Champions League team in the autumn. Others may do the same this season.
What will be clear long before the lottery of the European play-off rounds, is where the gaping chasm exists in Scottish football: are Celtic our only team competitive in Europe, or is there at least one other?
Neither you nor I care who competes in the Europa League, but failure there if Celtic progress to the Champions League will compound an already acute challenge for the Scottish also-rans.
——————————–
Episode 2 of ‘A Celtic State of Mind’ finds Paul John Dykes and Kevin Graham discussing a variety of topical subjects concerning Celtic Football Club, including:
* Callum McGregor: The Youth of Today;
* Death of the Cult Hero;
* Norwegian Wood – Ronnie Deila’s Exit Interview;
* Farewell to The Stone Roses;
* Hillsborough: The Truth.
Paul John Dykes also chats to SFA President, Alan McRae, to challenge him over recent comments made about Celtic’s domination of Scottish football.
Connect with A Celtic State of Mind @PaulDykes and @CQNMagazine or just listen using the link below…
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James and bobby purify
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TrQJacdqFxE
Morning Glory
Sorry. Didn’t mean to take the p*ss…okay, maybe just a drop.
Genuinely one of my favourite Irishmen since seeing him live almost 40 years ago now.
https://youtu.be/bawZgzhSKtc
JOBO BALDIE on 30TH JUNE 2017 8:53 PM
No fair! Gilbert could easily have forced extra time with ‘we will-))
Glendalystonsils –
For some reason I really detest ‘We Will’ although he coud have equalised instead with ‘Ooh Wakka….’, ‘Matrimony’, or ‘Get down’…
Aff oot….!
https://youtu.be/8aaWgpmvx8g
Sweet Sacrement Divine by Gerry Rafferty for his mother.
Clair by Gilbert for his niece
https://youtu.be/sU9fClvdo5s
I am not going to compare Gilbert and Gerry. Enough to say that they were both favourites of mine.
Glad to see more and more references on here to beautiful Croatia. The word is spreading.
Jobo
Always loved Gilbert listened to a documentary about him and how he was hamstrung by record labels for years…seemed a genuinely great fella…Clare and Alone Again Naturally my favs.
Favourite Irish musician of all time…Rory Gallagher Phil Lynott Christy Moore…
Under 21s final great watch
Paddy?
Kikinthenakas
And just for balance…..
https://youtu.be/N8WVu6MJsS0
Folks .
I’d just like to say thanks to all for the kind and thoughtful words this afternoon and this evening .
A blog like no other .
“ah no a racist ah wis just pished”
A man who filmed himself chanting racist abuse about Celtic player Scott Sinclair has been given a community sentence.
Mobile phone footage of Robert Anderson’s outburst as he walked through a Glasgow pub went viral after being uploaded to the internet.
He admitted repeatedly uttering a racial remark in McChuill’s pub on Glasgow’s High Street on 21 May.
The 27-year-old was ordered to carry out 250 hours of unpaid work.
Anderson, of Tolcross, was sentenced after appearing from custody at Glasgow Sheriff Court.
Procurator fiscal depute Ruth Ross-Davie said that Anderson had gone to the pub at about 20:00.
He began singing the racist chant and recorded himself on his own mobile doing this.
The police were contacted and Anderson handed himself in after the footage went viral.
Miss Ross-Davie added: “During interview he accepted his actions had been idiotic, that he did not have these types of views and he felt he would not have behaved in the manner he did, had he been sober.”
Defence lawyer David Tod told a previous court hearing: “Somebody other than him put this on social media.
“He made full and frank admissions and gave a number of details about his attitude, how he expected people to feel.”
Aye we believe ye Rab ya sticky excuse furra man
And the colours they are rainbow
Gay Pride march in Glasgow tomorrow?
Daly
Who would win in a fight between Drew and Kelly?
BSR
You mean a drink off surely :)
Kikinthenakas
NAKAS
Mon the Guinness
Mon the Hippies
Oh Dear
First ever game in europe and they get a citation from uefa
http://club1872.co.uk/news/club-1872-statement-on-uefa-citation/
There’s only wan Torino…………….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZmbO6BQhWU
Hi Bhoys
Granweans in bed at last here’s a few tunes
The Charlatans – One To Another
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXs8zmfqXvg
Mc Almont and Butler – Yes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POIIGYt5RlE
The Raveonettes – That Great Love Sound
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Akl3k1kcPvY
Enjoy
KEEP THE FAITH
JOBO
Good call on the Gerry v Gilbert “song off”.
For me ” Whatever’s written in your heart” is a level above anything mentioned before. However, WTF do I know. I listened to “Gilbert ” on Danny Baker ( the Saturday morning show )a few months ago and he talked at length and he was fantastic to listen to.
Anyway, back to my posting exile, quite liberating.
Flo Jo
The Fearless GB
Was talking to one of the Sevvies down at the golf tonight, so what happened last night i asked quizzically?? I said that Progres lot haven’t even managed a draw and scored only one goal in 13 european ties. Aye but they were fast he replied!
Rebel, Rebel, TAL
Where has the Radiohead clique gone ?
Gilbert.
A sentiment which springs to mind with frequency these days……..
Permissive twit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANtjvrpQM3E
JMcCormick , in case you have not seen it, Etims has a report of the West London CSC title winning matcch. It was put up a fewdays ago.
In Brown Lane in Paisley, a mural of the cover of Gerry Refferty’s City to City LP has been painted on a gable end. It is very smart.
Fred Colon, lovely story about your Celtic friend.
May he rest in peace.
RIP Doc
HH
POG, have you booked for Mulu yet?
Mind what I said in Lisbon, you will regret it if you don’t do it.
Also go to the caves a Niah
HH ya mental dental……:_)
STARRY PLOUGH on 30TH JUNE 2017 9:34 PM
He’s genuinely a lucky boy that my two cousins who are normally on the door weren’t on that day.
I’ll give you some background when I’m in Switzerland next :-)
Tomorrow is the big day out for the Orange fraternity in Glasgow. Here’s how James Connolly saw things regarding the Battle of the Boyne in his essay ‘July 12th’… written in 1913.
I always smile when I read the line by Connolly…’The Irish Protestant toiler was despoiled by fraud.’
James Connolly,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYH5h-5Dz40
Maybe James was telling us something in 1913?
Nite All.
As this Saturday is the 12th of July, and as I am supposed to be writing about the North of Ireland in particular, it becomes imperative that I say something about this great and glorious festival.
The Anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne is celebrated in Belfast by what is locally known as an Orange Walk. The brethren turn out and take possession of the principal streets of the city, and for the space of some hours they pass in processional order before the eyes of the citizens, bearing their banners, wearing their regalia, carrying symbols emblematic of the gates of Derry, and to the accompaniment of a great many bands.
Viewing the procession as a mere ‘Teague’ (to use the name the brethren bestow on all of Catholic origin), I must confess that some parts of it are beautiful, some of it ludicrous, and some of it exceedingly disheartening.
The regalia is often beautiful; I have seen representations of the Gates of Derry that were really a pleasure to view as pieces of workmanship; and similar representations erected as Orange arches across dingy side streets that, if we could forget their symbolism, we would admire as real works of art.
The music (?) is a fearful and wonderful production, seemingly being based upon a desire to produce the maximum of sound in the minimum of space. Every Orange Lodge in the North of Ireland, and many from the South make it a point to walk, and as each Lodge desires to have a band without any regard to its numbers, the bands are often so near that even the most skilful manipulator cannot prevent a blending of sounds that can scarcely be called harmonious.
I have stood on the sidewalk listening to a band, whose instruments were rendering:
Jesus, lover of my soul,
Let me to thy bosom fly.
Whilst another one about twenty yards off was splitting the air with:
Dolly’s Brae, O Dolly’s Brae,
O, Dolly’s Brae no more;
The song we sang was kick the Pope
Right over Dolly’s Brae.
But the discord of sound allied to the discord of sentiment implied in a longing to fly to the bosom of Jesus, and at the same time to kick the Pope, did not appear to strike anyone but myself.
For that matter a sense of humour is not one of the strong points in an Orangeman’s nature. The dead walls of Belfast are decorated with a mixture of imprecations upon Fenians , and, the Pope, and invocations of the power and goodness of the Most High, interlarded with quotations from the New Testament. This produces some of the most incongruous results. What would the readers of Forward say to seeing written up on the side of a wall off one of the main streets, the attractive legend:
God is Love,
Hell Roast the Pope.
Of course, the juxtaposition of such inscriptions on the walls appears absurd, and yet, the juxtaposition of sentiments as dissimilar is common enough in the minds of all of us, I suppose.
To anyone really conversant with the facts bearing upon the relations of the religious in Ireland, and the part played by them in advancing or retarding the principles of civil and religious liberty, the whole celebration appears to be foolish enough.
The belief sedulously cultivated by all the orators, lay and clerical, as well as by all the newspapers is, that the Defence of Derry and the Battle of the Boyne were great vindications of the principles of civil and religious liberty, which were menaced by the Catholics, and defended by the Protestants of all sects.
The belief we acquire from a more clear study of history in Ireland is somewhat different. Let me tell it briefly. In the reign of James I, the English Government essayed to solve the Irish problem, which then, as now, was their chief trouble, by settling Ireland with planters from Scotland and England. To do this, two million acres were confiscated, i.e., stolen from the Irish owners. Froude, the historian, says:
“Of these, a million and a half, bog-forest and mountain were restored to the Irish. The half a million of fertile acres were settled with families of Scottish and English Protestants.”
A friendly speaker, recently describing these planters before a meeting of the Belfast Liberal Association, spoke of them as:
“Hardy pioneers, born of a sturdy race, trained to adversity, when brought face to face with dangers of a new life in a hostile country, soon developed that steady, energetic, and powerful character which has made the name of Ulster respected all over the world.”
And a writer in the seventeenth century, the son of one of the ministers who came over with the first plantation, Mr. Stewart, is quoted by Lecky in his History of England in the Eighteenth Century, as saying:
“From Scotland came many, and from England not a few, yet all of them generally the scum of both nations, who from debt, or breaking the law or fleeing from justice, or seeking shelter, come hither, hoping to be without fear of man’s justice in a land where there was nothing, or but little as yet, of the fear of God … On all hands Atheism increased, and disregard of God, iniquity abounded, with contentious fighting, murder, adultery.”
The reader can take his choice of these descriptions. Probably the truth is that each is a fairly accurate description of a section of the planters, and that neither is accurate as a picture of the whole.
But while the Plantation succeeded from the point of view of the Government in placing in the heart of Ulster a body of people who, whatever their disaffection to that Government, were still bound by fears of their own safety to defend it against the natives, it did not bring either civil or religious liberty to the Presbyterian planters.
The Episcopalians were in power, and all the forces of government were used by them against their fellow-Protestants. The planters were continually harassed to make them adjure their religion, fines were multiplied upon fines, and imprisonment upon imprisonment. In 1640, the Presbyterians of Antrim, Down, and Tyrone, in a petition to the English House of Commons, declared that:
“Principally through the sway of the prelacy with their factions our souls are starved, our estates are undone, our families impoverished, and many lives among us cut off and destroyed … Our cruel taskmasters have made us who were once a people to become as it were no people, an astonishment to ourselves, the object of pittie and amazement to others.”
What might have been the result of this cruel, systematic persecution of Protestants by Protestants we can only conjecture, since, in the following year, 1641, the great Irish rebellion compelled the persecuting and persecuted Protestants to join hands in defence of their common plunder against the common enemy – the original Irish owners.
In all the demonstrations and meetings which take place in Ulster under Unionist Party auspices, all these persecutions are alluded to as if they had been the work of “Papists,” and even in the Presbyterian churches and conventions, the same distortion of the truth is continually practised.
But they are told
“all this persecution was ended when William of Orange, and our immortal forefathers overthrew the Pope and Popery at the Boyne. Then began the era of civil and religious liberty.”
So runs the legend implicitly believed in in Ulster. Yet it is far, very far, from the truth. In 1686 certain continental powers joined together in a league, known in history as the league of Augsburg, for the purpose of curbing the arrogant power of France. These powers were impartially Protestant and Catholic, including the Emperor of Germany, the King of Spain, William, Prince of Orange, and the Pope. The latter had but a small army, but possessed a good treasury and great influence. A few years before a French army had marched upon Rome to avenge a slight insult offered to France, and His Holiness was more than anxious to curb the Catholic power that had dared to violate the centre of Catholicity. Hence his alliance with William, Prince of Orange.
King James II, of England, being insecure upon his throne, sought alliance with the French monarch.
When, therefore, the war took place in Ireland, King William fought, aided by the arms, men, and treasures of his allies in the League of Augsburg, and part of his expenses at the Battle of the Boyne was paid for by His Holiness, the Pope. Moreover, when news of King William’s victory reached Rome, a Te Deum was sung in celebration of his victory over the Irish adherents of King James and King Louis.
Therefore, on Saturday the Orangemen of Ulster, led by King Carson, will be celebrating the same victory as the Pope celebrated 223 years ago.
Nor did the victory at the Boyne mean Civil and Religious Liberty. The Catholic Parliament of King James, meeting in Dublin in 1689, had passed a law that all religions were equal, and that each clergyman should be supported by his own congregation only, and that no tithes should be levied upon any man for the support of a church to which he did not belong. But this sublime conception was far from being entertained by the Williamites who overthrew King James and superseded his Parliament. The Episcopalian Church was immediately re-established, and all other religions put under the ban of the law. I need not refer to the Penal Laws against Catholics, they are well enough known. But sufficient to point out that England and Wales have not yet attained to that degree of religious equality established by Acts XIII and XV of the Catholic Parliament of 1689, and that that date was the last in which Catholics and Protestants sat together in Parliament until the former compelled an Emancipation Act in 1829.
For the Presbyterians the victory at the Boyne simply gave a freer hand to their Episcopalian persecutors. In 1704 Derry was rewarded for its heroic defence by being compelled to submit to a Test Act, which shut out of all offices in the Law, the Army, the Navy, the Customs and Excise, and Municipal employment, all who would not conform to the Episcopalian Church. The alderman and fourteen burgesses are said to have been disfranchised in the Maiden City by this iniquitous Act, which was also enforced all over Ireland. Thus, at one stroke, Presbyterians, Quakers, and all other dissenters were deprived of that which they had imagined they were fighting for at “Derry, Aughrim, and the Boyne.” Presbyterians were forbidden to be married by their own clergymen, the Ecclesiastical Courts had power to fine and imprison offenders, and to compel them to appear in the Parish Church, and make public confession of fornication, if so married. At Lisburn and Tullylish, Presbyterians were actually punished for being married by their own ministers. Some years later, in 1712, a number of Presbyterians were arrestcd for attempting to establish a Presbyterian meeting house in Belturbet.
The marriage of a Presbyterian and an Episcopalian was declared illegal, and in fact, the ministers and congregations of the former church were treated as outlaws and rebels, to be fined, imprisoned, and harassed in every possible way. They had to pay tithes for the upkeep of the Episcopalian ministers, were fined for not going to the Episcopalian Church, and had to pay Church cess for buying sacramental bread, ringing the bell, and washing the surplices of the Episcopalian clergymen. All this, remember, in the generation immediately following the Battle of the Boyne.
The reader should remember what is generally slurred over in narrating this part of Irish history, that when we are told that Ulster was planted by Scottish Presbyterians, it does not mean that the land was given to them. On the contrary, the vital fact was, and is, that the land was given to the English noblemen and to certain London companies of merchants who had lent money to the Crown, and that the Scottish planters were only introduced as tenants of these landlords. The condition of their tenancy virtually was that they should keep Ireland for the English Crown, and till the land of Ireland for the benefit of the English landlord.
That is in essence the demand of the Unionist Party leaders upon their followers today. In the past, as the landlords were generally English and Episcopalian, they all, during the eighteenth century, continually inserted clauses in all their leases, forbidding the erection of Presbyterian meeting houses. As the uprise of democracy has contributed to make this impossible today in Ireland, the landlord and capitalist class now seek an alliance with these Protestants they persecuted for so long in order to prevent a union of the democracy of all religious faiths against their lords and masters.
To accomplish this they seek insidiously to pervert history, and to inflame the spirit of religious fanaticism. The best cure I know of for that evil is a correct understanding of the events they so distort in their speeches and sermons. To this end I have ever striven to contribute my mite, and while I know that the sight of the thousands who, on July 12, will march to proclaim their allegiance to principles of which their order is a negation, will be somewhat disheartening. I also know that even amongst the Orange hosts, the light of truth is penetrating.
In conclusion, the fundamental, historical facts to remember are that:
The Irish Catholic was despoiled by force,
The Irish Protestant toiler was despoiled by fraud,
The spoliation of both continues today
under more insidious but more effective forms,
and the only hope lies in the latter combining with the former in overthrowing their common spoilers, and consenting to live in amity together in the common ownership of their common country – the country which the spirit of their ancestors or the devices of their rulers have made – the place of their origin, or the scene of their travail.
I have always held, despite the fanatics on both sides, that the movements of Ireland for freedom could not and cannot be divorced from the world-wide upward movements of the world’s democracy. The Irish question is a part of the social question, the desire of the Irish people to control their own destinies is a part of the desire of the workers to forge political weapons for their own enfranchisement as a class.
The Orange fanatic and the Capitalist-minded Home Ruler are alike in denying this truth; ere long, both of them will be but memories, while the army of those who believe in that truth will be marching and battling on its conquering way.
HT
Couldnae understand how that wee hun fud wisnae nailed by Nick or his bhoys. Caught off guard. Wish you and I had been there that day. Words would have been exchanged. ;)
CC
Great education thanks. Glasgow will be avoided tomorrow. Staying in orange walk free Clydebank for the day. Hope it belts it down wi rain and hail in Glasgow.
HAMILTONTIM
I can imagine:))
I hate that tho’ when they go up in court and say well I’m not like that and a big boy done it and somebody else put it up on the internet.
Spent the day in Switzerland with STFB the other day, good craic:))
ACGR, I will definitely be going to Mulu on my return. The wife keeps going on about it and the bat caves. I’m going to be in Newcastle area until September 1st but will definitely be back in Glasgow the first weekend in August to see my consultant and attend a certain football match :-))
SP
He is only a racist when pissed seemingly.
DELANEYS DUNKY
Astonishing that the court accepts that kind of defence, any time I got nicked being drunk and Scottish didnae fly as an alibi:))
Pog
Hope the crazy Geordies and Mackems are treating you well. Strange mobs. Nice but strange. :)
SP
I got nicked for taking a kicking off a mob of dobs in Partick. In retrospect, the Polis saved my life. :)