Thursday, 29 May 2014

Written by a former police officer, who wishes to remain anonymous

I am a retired police officer, I left the police some time ago, but in many ways I still think, act and talk like a police officer! When you do something for thirty two years, some things will stick and there is no doubt (for better or worse!) it has made me the person I am.

What does stick with absolute certainty is the range of experiences that come with the job, good, bad and indifferent. I policed many football matches during my time, at various ranks and in different locations

I grew up towards the west side of the country, so orange walks, flute bands, historical attitudes towards religion and intolerance were pretty much part of the culture, often expressed with humour but none the less endemic. Nothing summed that up more than denominational and non-denominational schools sitting side by side and yet divided by a ten foot high wall running straight down the middle! Sectarianism isn’t taught in schools but creating division perhaps starts there, albeit unintentionally. What is a wall for if not throwing things over?

Before I talk about football and religion in the same paragraph, I should clarify my position. First, I am a Hearts fanI don’t have the time or inclination to attend games these days, but they are my team and are tied up in my life, youth, family and friends. Secondly, I am pretty much an atheist these days. If I am being critical of any team, or supporters who seem to affiliate themselves with a particular religion, it isn’t through personal favouritism or bias. I suppose I have always been sceptical about religion as such, but on a very personal level. For such a force for good, it seems to be at the root of so much trouble in the world, both historically and presently. Furthermore, some of the experiences I spoke of at the start demand answers that I find religion can’t provide, so I just stay away. However, I respect others right to faith of whatever kind, and would never seek to change their views; it’s a very personal thing. So, in being asked to write something on this topic, I thought that I might just jot down some examples of my experiences, perhaps showing a side of things members of the public don’t always get to see, some of the ways attitudes have changed over my time and some of the absurdity that surrounds some of the behaviour too.

When I started policing football matches in the early 1980’s, sadly I and many of my colleagues just accepted the singing of sectarian songs, sectarian abuse and indeed violence as part of the game and life. There, perhaps is the first trigger point – why do ‘we’ accept any of that as normal? It may be part of Scottish culture to follow tradition and family patterns in religion, politics and football particularly. A lot of the casual sectarianism I witnessed as a child was woven into the culture and accepted as normal, so much so that fairly offensive songs, chants and insults were sort of shrugged off at football matches. Certainly there was no rush to arrest anyone for that, it was generally more to do with violence.  In comparison, from my experiences of policing rugby matches I have since noted that supporters there could mix, share a drink, indulge in banter, display passionate support for their team but never resort to violence or abuse. How deeply is it ingrained into football that violence with regard to religion is “normal” but would be out of place at the rugby? And then how difficult will it be to change as a result?

I heard sectarian singing from both sides of the religious divide, even from teams who don’t hold a perceived religious affinity in either club or support.  Do some of the younger people reading this realise or know that for many years, Glasgow Rangers had a perceived tradition of not signing Catholics? That only changed in the mid 80’s and came to light in the press with a high profile signing of an ex Celtic player. I was at a Heart v Hibs match just after that, when I got speaking to a man asking for directions. He had a strong Northern Irish accent, but no colours on. Out of curiosity, I asked him which team he supported; ‘There’s only one team son…’ he said. He rolled up his sleeve to show an immaculately inked Hearts badge tattooed on his upper arm. Very striking, but very fresh... Then I saw the even more striking Rangers crest tattooed above that, which had been crossed out – in tattoo – after they had signed their first Catholic player! Not only was it enough to make him change allegiance, but also to mark his body permanently. Was he there for the football, to watch the game? Personally, I didn’t think so…

Another character I came across was a man in his mid twenties hurling abuse at Celtic supporters. Stripped to the waist, he too had some impressive tattoo work in the form of ‘King Billy’ mounted on his charger, sword in hand etc. When he was eventually arrested, he did express remorse. For the abuse, or guilt about his actions? No, ‘My wife’s a Catholic. She’ll batter me for this…’ Such is the contradictory nature of this issue. I often found that the people who shouted loudest or most bitterly, didn’t actually have much of a clue about the historical context of all of this, and in some cases this led to comically flawed perceptions and behaviour. Perhaps comically sounds too flippant – certainly absurd though. The police force that was Strathclyde once said that they could connect at least one murder in some way to every ‘Old Firm’ match.

So it goes on. Through that period and up into the 90’s and early 2000’s I continued to police football, and saw some behaviour changing for the better but a hard core still there. I have seen people attending Hearts games wearing Rangers tops to bait the opposing Celtic fans. I have heard songs sung that don’t really seem to have any relevance to football. On one occasion I was showing a high ranking Irish civil servant around Tynecastle on a match day against Celtic. As we left the police post she stopped dead in her tracks; ‘Why on earth are they singing that?’ she asked. It was an Irish ‘folk song’ about the 1916 uprising against British rule, where several men had been hanged, shot or otherwise killed by the British forces. What she couldn’t understand was why Scots were singing this in the first place, and then particularly at a football match. She was Irish, it was part of her heritage, and it didn’t really mean that much to her. In fact it had been years since she had heard it ‘at home’. It was part of her culture and history and certainly not used to taunt rival supporters. I explained some of the subtleties behind this and she actually left feeling quite aggrieved that her heritage was being used and abused in this way by people who, she felt had no right to.

I am proud to be Scottish, but sectarianism is one of the facets of Scottish life and culture that both dismays and embarrasses me. How do we change it? I think it needs a long term solution, but a combination of enforcement, education and perhaps even highlighting the stupidity and wastefulness of it all is all we can do.  I still watch and listen to football matches, and I still hear the same songs being sung by primarily the same supporters. I do detect changes from clubs and some supporters groups, but I think this is something that will die out rather than be stopped quickly.  Someone once said ‘All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing’. Therefore, if we all do something, however small, attitudes can be changed for the better.