Celtic fan caught mocking the Ibrox disaster rightly charged by police. But its fine for the Ibrox support to be up to their knees in Fenian blood?
Eric Knott 
(Photo by Craig Foy/SNS Group via Getty Images)
The Sun is always right on cue with stories about Celtic fans getting into trouble.
They love a bit of Celtic scandal, and they’re generally at the front of the queue when it comes to printing negative Celtic stories.
They were very quick out of the blocks when it came to running the story about the Celtic fan caught mocking the Ibrox disaster last Sunday during the League game between the two sides.
Before I go any further, I do not in any way condone mocking such a horrendous event as that.
Anybody who thinks that mocking the deaths of fellow football supporters is in any way acceptable, regardless of who they support, needs their head checked.
Big time.
The 28 year old Celtic fan who did that was charged with a breach of the peace.
And rightly so.
He got off lightly, if you ask me.
However, I can understand why Celtic fans feel they have to get back at Ibrox fans with taunts such as that.
I just feel that it can be done in much better ways than mocking a disaster where even our manager at the time did his best to help the victims.
We’re better than that.
So much better.
Its much better to drive them demented with our humourous piss takes.
Rather than mocking the deaths of people who were just attending a football game.
But, as I alluded to previously, I can understand why some people feel the need to do it.
And I can see what drives them to it.
When you’re standing in Ibrox and 48,000 fans are singing about being up to their knees in your blood?
Well, I can imagine that does things to you.
Makes you feel things that you normally wouldn’t.
Because lets not beat around the bush here, the Billy Boys celebrates the leader of a gang who beat, maimed, and killed Catholics in Glasgow in the 1920’s.
Billy Fullerton was a self confessed member of the Ku Klux Klan.
So when a stadium full of football fans sings a song commemorating him and his gang’s actions?
They are celebrating the deaths and beatings of Catholic Irish people in Glasgow in the 1920’s.
Now, just because it happened over a century ago doesn’t make it any more palatable.
Most of the people who sing it might not even get the context of it.
But they sing it nonetheless, and it commemorates an ignorant, racist thug, who’s gang preyed on the weak in Glasgow society during that era.
Added to that, the Billy Boys is outlawed.
Singing it is considered a hate crime.
Just as mocking the deaths of the fans that died in the Ibrox tragedy is a exactly that too, a hate crime.
The problem here, is that one thing is allowed to go on unchecked – while the other – when it is highlighted, is rightly punished.
It should be.
And please don’t get me wrong here, I am not in any way saying that people who mock the Ibrox tragedy should go unpunished because the purveyors of the bile that is the Billy Boys never get punished.
I am just saying that both things equate to the same thing.
They mock the deaths of innocent people.
So, therefore, both should be punished in equal measure.
I wrote an article earlier in the week on this subject, and in it, I highlighted the fact that Police Scotland won’t deal with this because seemingly, their attitude is that they cannot collectively punish 48,000 people.
Well then, if they cannot collectively punish 48,000 people, should they then not punish the people and the institution that facilitates this illegal behaviour?
This heinous hate crime?
Why can’t they pull the owners of the Ibrox club aside and tell them that if they do not get this in check, there will be severe sanctions?
Like stadium closures, where games have to be played behind closed doors?
If their fans can’t enter Ibrox to transform themselves into “90 minute bigots”, then they can’t sing the Billy boys, can they?
Now I know that most of you reading this think that’s bonkers, and that it’ll never happen.
But look at it this way.
If the Ibrox fans were celebrating being up to their knees in Muslim blood, or Jewish blood, or Hindu, or Buddhist blood, do you think that would be accepted?
The fuck it would!
But its fine to be up to your knees in the blood of Catholics?
You can’t pick and choose what hate crimes are punishable, and those which are not.
A hate crime is a hate crime, is a hate crime.
It is what it is.
Just because the Billy Boys commemorates the deaths of people a century ago, does not make it any less of a hate crime.
Time does not heal all wounds.
Especially wounds that are opened again, and again, and again at Ibrox.
Every time we play there.
For Christ’s sake, they even sing it at our ground, and its accepted by our gutless board.
The Billy Boys is a stain on Scottish football, and its high time it was stamped out of our game.
As we know, the Ibrox fans have previous for celebrating the deaths of Irish people.
The Famine song is another outlawed song.
That particular tune has died away somewhat because the singing of it is also considered a hate crime.
You do hear it rearing its ugly head every so often, but nowhere near the extent that you hear the Billy boys.
Both songs celebrate the deaths of ethnic Irish and Catholic people.
Both are despicable.
Just as celebrating the deaths of people at the Ibrox disaster is despicable.
The problem in Scotland is that the Ibrox fans continue to get away with these hate crimes.
This emboldens them, and its why they sing the Billy Boys loud and proud every time Celtic play at Ibrox.
If a Celtic fan can be charged with a breach of the peace for mocking the Ibrox disaster, then so too can an Ibrox fan for singing the Billy Boys.
Its that simple.
There is no difference between the two.
Both mock the deaths of innocent people.
The sad reality is that while mocking the Ibrox disaster is rightly unacceptable, Scottish society – outside of Celtic fans and Irish Catholics – seems to accept the Billy Boys being sung at Ibrox.
Or rather, a blind eye is turned to it.
Or the sound is switched off by Sky at Ibrox when its sung.
And nobody talks about it.
The elephant in the room.
See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.
The sad, but true reality of Scottish football.
Key Takeaways
- The Sun quickly reported on a Celtic fan mocking the Ibrox disaster, which is unacceptable behaviour.
- Both mocking the Ibrox tragedy and singing the Billy Boys are both hate crimes and should be punished equally.
- Celtic fans may feel provoked by Ibrox fans, but mocking a tragedy is not the right response.
- Scottish society seems to overlook the Billy Boys while punishing mocking of the Ibrox disaster.
- There is no difference between mocking innocent deaths; both actions should receive equal scrutiny.
Aodhán Ó Conchobhair 
BBC sport, sky sports, premier sports you hear on their channels and not any of them comment about that evil singing .
The reason the police dont arrest anyone or take any action against the ibrox toilet is that the majority of the police force condone it.
We live in one of the most bigoted country in the world and they do nothing! Do we really want independence.
These hacks in the papers , pundits at the BBC etc are either too scared to say anything about the vile songs in case it gets them bombed out of their cushy numbers
Or they’re humming along to them
If an official complaint is made to Police Scotland they must investigate it . No doubt Hargreaves will be on the case.
Jock Stein helped in the rescue that day and how do many of them repay him? We all know the answer. A vile mob.
I get sick fed-up reading about the same old thing all the time, i.e., about the famine song, the billy boys, being up to the knees in fenian blood but doing absolutely nothing positive about it.
I, personally have written to my MPs about it. I have even pointed out that
members of the armed forces are considered improperly dressed when
wearing scarves or having someone else
wearing their berets, tam-o-shanters, glengarrys, you name it, and asked why
the impression is given that catholics didn`t partake in their wars.
I seem to be the lone voice in all of this.
So why don`t you bloggers like yourself,
Forrest and McGillivan write open letters about it instead of preaching to the converted, if that is the right word.
They say the pen is mightier than the sword: if that is the case, then get writing. Write closed letters even to the
49ers, to the SFA or SPFL, to the various
members of parliaments, to Sky, the BBC
and, mainly, repeat MAINLY, to the Irish
Government. They are close enough, as close as Aberdeen, to know what is happening in Scotland and has been since the nineteenth century. They are the ones I blame. They would rather cow-tow to the football organisations in Scotland in helping to host football tournaments.
The Israelis didn`t waste too much time
accusing the Celtic fans of persecuting Abada and they certainly wouldn`t have
allowed Israelis in this country to have been persecuted for over almost 140 years as the Irish governments have done.
So get writing and stop forever lamenting about it. Best to start before the 1st class stamps get any dearer.
And while you are at it, contact the Portuguese FA and ask them to reprimand one of their own (Chermiti) for turning the red top on their stockings up over their knees symbolising being up to their knees in Fenian (catholic) blood. The fukci4g ratbag that he is.
Don`t forget to write to Irish American political reps in USA, British politicians pay attention ie Good Friday Agreement would not have been possible without the Irish in USA.
Excellent post Frankier.
‘ Weebarra
says:
7th March 2026 at 3:43 pm
Excellent post Frankier.’
That’s right, Weebarra, a strongly worded letter to the Irish government blaming them for how Irish Catholics have been treated in Scotland since the minute they arrived is exactly what’s needed here.
Strongly worded letters all round, that’ll fix them!