Exactly one year ago today, just after lunchtime, one of the pivotal moments in Celtic history occurred. Neil Lennon took his Celtic team to Kilmarnock, who had lost their three previous league games, and for 73 minutes looked like surrendering their league title chances just as Tony Mowbray’s team collapsed at St Mirren Park seven months earlier.
The manager later admitted to thoughts of resignation. 3-0 down at half time while already in heavy deficit to Rangers, who were riding a wave of positivity under the reinvigorating ownership of Craig Whyte, events looked to have escaped Neil’s grasp.
It is tempting to write the narrative that a half time talk or tactical change turned things around but turnaround was more difficult to explain. Celtic were awful for the opening 28 minutes of the second half; like condemned men waiting for the inevitable.
Anthony Stokes started the recovery by exploiting Kilmarnock’s weaknesses. A free kick drifted over a wall which didn’t jump and into the net. Had the wall jumped, would history have been different? Three minutes later Stokes fired into the corner of the net from distance, Jaakkola in the Killie goal was not equal to the challenge. Suddenly, we were back in the game, back in the title race.
Charlie Mulgrew, who erred to gift Kilmarnock their third, equalised with 11 minutes remaining, surely there was only one winner now? Not so, images of Heffernan’s last minute header from inside the Celtic six yard box gliding over remain vivid.
We escaped with a draw but it felt like a stay of execution, not a pivotal moment. Neil didn’t resign, he stayed, beat Stade Rennes in the Europa League and never looked back. The imperious positivity which surrounded Craig Whyte was ultimately proven to be a charade, those of us who told you Rangers were in peril were proven correct.
It is impossible to calculate just how much football has changed since Anthony hit that free kick, although imperious positivity still surrounds a charade which is doomed to fail, leaving a lot of football fans out of pocket. If only the football authorities had a warning from recent history that light-touch regulation is dangerous, or had the mechanism to order a financial audit. They do, of course, but despite the traumas of 2012 I doubt they have the appetite to head-off potential problems. It’s easier (in the short term) to hope everything will turn out well.
Not that you need worry about any of this, you can chill and enjoy the season.
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Alasdair MacLean
18:22 on 15 October, 2012
So when did the SNP alter their stance on Irish Catholic immigrants to Scotland.
Was it before or after William Wolfe’s leadership?
Alastair Maclean
Whats more troubling to me is that any Scottish Catholic would consider voting for the SNP.
At the risk of stating the bleeding obvious, Scotland and Ireland are different. Scottish nationalism and Irish nationalism are different. To argue that anyone who supports one must support the other is as false as arguing that anyone who backs a united Ireland should also back a United Kingdom.
The Orcs are fiercely opposed to Nationalism and an independent Scotland……………..
Maybe there lies the answer to everyone’s dilemma!
when the UK enters yet another war, no doubt in Iran, I will wait to see the reaction from the usual unionist suspects on here. I am sick fed up of certain posters posting daily anti independence snipes and swipes under the guise of celtic related chat. You are no better than the MSM we love to hate with your propaganda and fear mongering
No to UK and its war mongering, Yes to an independent nuclear free 21st century democracy
LuxCelt
18:37 on 15 October, 2012
‘ It is a contradiction that leaves their argument in favour of staying with the UK totally redundant.’
Explain why it’s a contradiction.
Burghbhoy
“Home rule is Rome rule”
BIGbones8867
18:38 on 15 October, 2012
Why are you equating Ireland’s place within the Union with Scotland’s place within the Union?
They are totally different.
Are you against political unions in general?
Or just political unions involving the English?
Alasdair MacLean – 18:02
” apart from one small exception in the Outer Hebrides, no-one know or cares who is Roman Catholic, Protestant, or whatever else.”
What’s the small exception in the Outer Hebrides, is it one particular island, or group of islands?
I’ve not been swayed one way or the other by the Independence argument,
And its patently another very emotive CQN debate! Can I ask those who are so opposed to the thought if they think the status quo is acceptable, if not then what can we do to change it and remain within the United Kingdom?
Conversely to those pro independence are you confident change can be undertaken and how?
ernie lynch
-> You know why. Their support of the irish republican cause is overwhelmingly centred around the concept of the big, bad, Brits, maggie thatcher’s hardline policies, and the concept of oppression at living under the ‘butcher’s apron’. They then say they want their country (Scotland) to remain under the same Union flag, and be ruled from Wetminster, in exactly the same fashion that they screech on about being foisted on the ‘occupied Six Counties’.
The Scots – the least nationalistic people in the world. And I say that as a Scotsman. i work every day with people from about 11 different countries, and they regularly ask me why Scotland is not a “proper country”, and why it is part of the UK.
Che
size doesn’t matter…. o))
Bournesouprecipe
Exactly mate and statements like that from the orange order/orcs in general are bringing a bit of clarity to me on the subject.
If the Hun don’t want it, it must be good !!!!!!
Hail Hail
LuxCelt
18:54 on 15 October, 2012
That’s just stupid.
Apart from anything else you obviously know hee haw about Irish Republicanism.
Are you in the mood for Kilmarnock?
BSR
Love the wee guy at the end who has got completely out of time :-)))
ernie lynch
– > I know plenty about it.
“Proud” (ahem…) Scots thinking Northern ireland should be free from Westminster rule (and under the Tricolour) while their country, Scotland, should be under a union flag, and ruled by a tory government from westminster.
Staggeringly illogical.
PF
Ha ha – agree he totally lost it
Ernie,
I think that there are many similarities
Ireland and Scotland are both where we are now because england invaded us
After they crushed the people
they then killed the language Tír gan teanga tír gan anam
Suppressed religion and enforced their ways and laws on us
I,m against all forced political unions,Iraq,Afghanistan come into that category
But the forced political union of Ireland and Scotland by england are obviously of more interest to me
BB
Alex Salmond won’t be getting my vote.
The Scottish Crown Office has admitted that it has destroyed crucial data which legal insiders claim would show that the vast majority of sectarian crimes in Scotland have been committed against Roman Catholics.
The publication of these key statistics, promised by First Minister Alex Salmond, would have provided invaluable pointers for legislators in tackling the problem of sectarianism north of the border. However, many here are suspicious that the SNP administration, the Police and fiscal services are embarrassed and annoyed that the evidence points to Scotland’s sectarian problems being specifically anti-Catholicism. This does not fit with the Nationalists’ rosy propaganda about a fine wee country being totally at ease with itself and lacking the kind of community tensions in which those nasty racist Sassenachs indulge. The Police, on the other hand, dominated by Glaswegians annoyed at uppity Catholics complaining all the time, are felt to have their own agendas on ‘anti-sectarian’ initiatives.
The Scottish press are also ‘coy’ about reporting this as it goes against their idea that there is no significant anti-Catholicism in Scotland etc, etc.
Meanwhile the attacks on Scottish Catholic churches continue, relatively under-reported in the media north and south of the border. Are Catholic churches in England vandalised and burnt? No. Not even during the whipped-up anti-Pope hysteria last year. Are Catholic churches in Northern Ireland attacked and burnt? Yes. Quite regularly. But they have endured decades of near-civil war over the religious and political divides. Are Catholic churches in Scotland attacked and burnt? Yes. But we are supposed to be a modern, tolerant country – “the best wee country in the world” according to one of the Scottish government’s relentless, self-congratulatory, Pravda-style publicity campaigns. This was brought to my attention this morning.
In this report on the vandalisation of St Leonard’s RC Church in East Kilbride certain details have been withheld. According to parish sources the vandals removed the statue of Our Lady and placed it on the altar where they covered it in paper and cloth and set it alight. Also, the Tabernacle – one of the most sacred objects in any Catholic Church was covered in graffiti. This was clearly a sectarian attack, motivated by the intense anti-Catholic attitudes which have so disfigured Scotland and continues to do so. The fact that a police spokesman, in full knowledge of the specific details of this assault, then claimed it bore no hallmarks of a sectarian incident, speaks volumes. This is what happens every time.
sorry if already posted
Oscar Knox @Wee_Oscar
AMAZING generosity being shown to us by Irish community in Philly! Food parcels, presents for Oscar+Izzie, offers of money+help flooding in!
Till later
Che, Scotland as a nation has had the confidence battered out of it ever since the failed Dorien project. This lack of confidence can be seen by the usual posters on here bleating on about doom and gloom. Thank god 16 and 17 year olds will play a part in this, the auld fart blue rinse generation have done nothing to move Scotland forward, just happy to take the UK coin through the ‘good’ (for them) times.
for starters:
1. sort the oil tax out, encourage exploration of new fields and use of new technologies to retrieve oil from so called finished fields.
2. Corporate Tax, encourage inward investment (preferably from London!)
3. Apprenticeships, enforce/encourage this across all industries – give young people a chance!!!!
4. Entrepreneurship, allow benefits to company directors who have viable business models, most new businesses fail due to entrepreneurs being unable to continue as no benefits help. Completely re-design the grants system, it aint working!
5. Establish through the new Scottish embassy network Scottish chambers of commerce in every country in the world, get that spiders web out there!
6. Encourage the world class brains in scotland to get involved at government level, get rid of the political class/parasites.
7. ditch the all powerful local councils and drain on finance!!!! regional government to replace.
8. establish or expand world centres of excellence, currently oil and life sciences, expand to other industries through the university network.
9. Energy – replace the use of gas for cooking and heating with electricity, invest heavily in tidal power and accelerate this development (300% of scotlands energy has been estimated from tidal power from the pentland firth alone), invest now to get pay back from exporting green electricty. become net exporters of energy as per Norway.
10. roll out 4g broadband everywhere in scotland, providers must commit to this in order to receive new license in independent scotland.
11. defence, have sufficient DEFENCE force to defend our resources including fishing and oil.
12. education, model this on the norwegian schools system. this was more advanced than ours even back in the 50s!
I think the hardest problems to deal with are the social problems, that will take specific expertise and time. It will also take financial commitment.
that will do for starters!
The Legend Johnny Doyle
I’m a Scottish Roman Catholic and voting SNP to get independence isn’t a vote for a one party state.
Why is this a bad move for us if the Hun is so fiercely opposed ?
SNP ….Covenanters
celtic_cross
17:23 on 15 October, 2012
As Celtic supporters looking for a fairer deal we want to be looking to be part of a bigger state(Europe) than a smaller one (Scotland). The more we dilute the power of the bigots the better deal we are likely to get.
Just my opinion like.
—-
Bang on good man.
Scottish Law Reporter
Reporting on news & issues of Justice, Law & Politics, from Scotland.
MONDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2011
‘Hate Data’ destroyed as Salmond’s SNP fear Independent Scotland viewed as ‘Too Sectarian’ to join predominantly Catholic European Union
Scottish Government fear Sectarian attacks against Catholics and other religious minorities may endanger EU view of independent Scotland. ON Wednesday of this week, whether Church burning anti-catholic Scots and the rest of us want it or not, the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Bill better known as the Scottish Government’s anti-sectarian legislation aimed at targeting insulting songs at Football matches, will be waved through into law by the SNP’s majority vote in the Scottish Parliament (no doubt after a tumultuous debate) on the pretext of strengthening the powers of the Crown Office & Police to prosecute rising numbers of sectarian attacks against Roman Catholics and other religious minorities in Scotland.
However, it appears the motives for the bill’s violently quick passage are anything but clear, and nothing much to do with tackling crime with some now claiming the badly planned anti-bigot legislation, brought about at the instigation of Police Forces & Prosecutors (who themselves appear to be institutionally sectarian as well as corrupt), and seized on by the SNP as an appropriate pro-independence headliner targeting Unionism is more to do with cleaning up the historically high anti-catholic & anti-religious minority crime statistics to allow First Minister Alex Salmond to advance a particular part of his independence policy, that of joining the predominantly catholic European Union.
Speaking to Scottish Law Reporter over the weekend, a Crown Office insider claimed the real reason the ‘potentially dangerous’ historical statistics on anti-catholic crimes were shredded by Crown Office officials before they could be produced at the Scottish Parliament’s Justice Committee is more to do with the fact the current SNP Scottish Government feared any revelations of the now destroyed statistics could damage Scotland’s chances of being accepted by the EU as a stand alone member if it breaks away from the United Kingdom.
Within the now destroyed data, such was the level of reported anti-catholic crimes, the severity of the crimes, the lack of prosecutions, especially in sectarian complaints made against in some cases, still serving Police Officers & even COPFS staff, and the many questions the historical statistics on sectarian offences may have raised in debates at Holyrood, Scottish Ministers felt revealing the truth could lead to questions being raised in the EU over whether Scots authorities could handle sectarianism and prevent Scots based individuals & groups from spreading their hate message & criminal activity against Catholics & other religious minorities throughout the European Union.
The insider, who claims to have seen the now destroyed data which SLR reported on in an earlier article HERE, commented “If the information on sectarian crimes had been published rather than being destroyed on political orders, there would be no doubt in anyone’s mind the statistics would show Scotland is a dangerous place for Roman Catholics. The fear was if the figures got out, this would affect the SNP’s independence agenda and how the predominantly Catholic EU might view an independent Scotland asking for EU membership.”
The credible claims by insiders come on top of ample evidence to suggest that Police & Prosecutors have their own agenda to bring in the new anti-bigot legislation which will allow them to even-up the sectarian crime statistics by arresting more Catholics to blur the statistics, rather than tackling the root of the historically huge ant-catholic bigotry problem which has been endemic in Scotland for years. Scottish Law Reporter has covered the new bill in previous articles HERE, noting there are even allegations of sectarian jibes among the SNP’s own ranks, some of whom have proclaimed their own support for the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Bill and for the idea that more Catholics should be arrested to ‘even-up’ the figures.
While debate continues to rage on the anti-bigot legislation and the SNP’s true motives for waving it through the Parliament, some media organisations have privately acknowledged they are being pressurised more than ever NOT TO MENTION or report on crimes where sectarianism is thought to have played a role in what took place.
At least seven murders in the West of Scotland this year, some of young men, others involving family members, all widely reported in the press and on television are thought to have been motivated in some way by anti-catholic hate however as yet not one news report or newspaper article has mentioned the fact Police officers investigating the crimes viewed the possibility each incident had an element of sectarianism to it.
In other shocking incidents, the desecration of Roman Catholic churches in Scotland has continued to rise, with a recent report on STV news regarding an incident of vandalism of St Leonard’s RC Church in East Kilbride which was so heavily sanitised, the incident as reported by the media took on a completely different view to the actual details of what is very much a sectarian crime, more accurately reported by Scots composer James MacMillan in the Telegraph, HERE.
Commenting on the sanitised STV report, Mr MacMillan said : In this report on the vandalisation of St Leonard’s RC Church in East Kilbride certain details have been withheld. According to parish sources the vandals removed the statue of Our Lady and placed it on the altar where they covered it in paper and cloth and set it alight. Also, the Tabernacle – one of the most sacred objects in any Catholic Church was covered in graffiti. This was clearly a sectarian attack, motivated by the intense anti-Catholic attitudes which have so disfigured Scotland and continues to do so. The fact that a police spokesman, in full knowledge of the specific details of this assault, then claimed it bore no hallmarks of a sectarian incident, speaks volumes.
The details of the burning of the statue of Mary have since been confirmed through local sources.
Mr MacMillan went onto point out while Catholic Churches are being burned in Scotland and in Northern Ireland, none have been targeted in England, even during the Pope’s visit last year.
Other incidents such as the burning down of an empty priest’s house in High Valleyfield, Fife appear to have suffered from misinformation put out by the Police, who claimed at the time the fire was caused by an electrical fault. Yet the fire which burned down the parish house of St Serf’s Church in High Valleyfield near Dunfermline came immediately after death threats had been sent to priests in the archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh.
Another incident where the Police appear to have misled the public occurred in Leslie Fife, where the local Roman Catholic Church St Mary Mother of God was burned to the ground. The Police immediately briefed the press about ‘music’ lyrics spray-painted on a wall nearby yet suspicions over the true nature of the crime pointed to connections to a major Orange walk taking place that same day in the area.
And in a twist to electronic data gathered by Police Forces across Scotland on many forums & websites which appear to spread online sectarian hate messages & racist abuse, it appears there will now be few if any prosecutions of “threatening communications”, due to the fact IP addresses, emails and other identifying traces left by those spreading sectarian abuse online have been traced back to computer networks used by Police, Prosecutors and even offices of the Scottish Government.
The electronic data gathered from internet providers by the authorities is also rumoured to implicate local Government offices across Scotland, several high profile public bodies, surprisingly, several well known law firms and even some Hospital computer networks.
Burghbhoy
Why is this a bad move for us if the Hun is so fiercely opposed ?
– > Absolutely agree.
No way would I ever vote for a party led by a guy who holds this view…
“Salmond told Sir David Frost, in an interview to be broadcast on Frost over the World on Al Jazeera English: “Obviously HMRC have got to pursue, in the public interest, taxation. Equally, they’ve got to have cognisance of the fact that we’re talking about a huge institution, part of the fabric of the Scottish nation, as well as Scottish football, and everybody realises that.
“The most diehard Celtic supporter understands that Celtic can’t prosper unless Rangers are there. The rest of the clubs understand that as well. Therefore you have to have cognisance of these things when you’re pursuing public policy.
“We’ve certainly been arguing to HMRC on one hand, and indeed to Rangers, to for goodness sake get a settlement, get a settlement and a structure over time whereby Rangers can continue because Rangers must continue for the future of Scottish football and for the fabric of the country.”
Miki 67.
Did you post on on Phil macs blog last night?
It was just after I posted it came up unsupported,was wondering what it said.hh
Totally depressed at this upcoming referendum. Nationalism- wherever it is tried- never, ever ends well.
Particularly for those in a perceived minority…
the SNP are just the mechanism for getting Independence! get them tae f when we have it!! man alive folk are so blinkered on the wee picture!
quite remarkeable that folk actually prefer to be ruled by folk they dont actually vote in, than by folk they can actually vote in! utterly mind boggling..
Mountain_Bhoy is Neil Lennon
19:27 on
15 October, 2012
Thank you. Am also amazed that people think that “”Salmond”” is the sole reason Scotland should remain in the UK. It is as you say, mind boggling.
LuxCelt
19:09 on 15 October, 2012
How did Scotland become part of the UK?
How did Ireland become part of the UK?
Did the Irish people want to remain as part of the UK? How did they express that wish? What was the response?
Did/do the Scottish people want to remain as part of the UK? How did they express that view?
How was Ireland treated as part of the UK? How for instance was the national religion treated?
How was Scotland treated as part of the UK? How for instance was the national religion treated?
If Scotland becomes independent what do we do if Shetland decides it would like to independent? It’s culturally barely Scottish, is closer to Norway than Edinburgh, and would take all the oil and gas with it!
While scotland are losing to Belgium tomorrow night, I will be watching the best team on the planet.
Free vino during the game, 2 hours of sheer bliss :>)
Italiabhoy, and the attempts at one nation states work brilliantly eh? China? USA? EU?
If I understand this properly and the Scottish people vote for Independance that would be the end of the SNP.Why do I say that well you would have Scottish Labour, Scottish Consevitive, Scottish Liberal and of course SNP there would then have to be an election to see who governed Independent Scotland, now past history has shown strong links between the Scottish electorate and the Labour party and it is likely we would get a Labour government and the SNP would wither away having gained Independence.Now if im deluded feel free to give me your version. H.H.
Mountainbhoy you are in for a hell of a shock if you think scots would be able to vote for our masters post independence. We would be at the mercy of Merkal, the ECB and whichever bunch of medievalist maniacs control the world price of oil.