Enough is Enough

In an episode of Line of Duty, the BBC’s excellent police drama, Superintendent Ted Hastings played by Adrian Dunbar is asked if he could be letting race play a part in his motivation as he pursues corrupt black cop Tony Gates. As a Catholic former RUC officer, the experienced cop is having none of it and snarls, “Nobody’s blacker than me, son,” By that of course he means that as an Irish-Catholic he has had to endure his share of prejudice in his life.

I thought of that scene as I watched Neil Lennon speak so frankly on what he has endured in Scotland since joining Celtic in the year 2000. The former Celtic player and Manager has been verbally abused, assaulted in the street on more than one occasion and also in a football stadium, he has received bombs and bullets in the post and has to live with low level hostility on a permanent basis. Why does he receive such treatment? He is no more combative than Scott Brown or Graham Souness. He enjoys the banter with fans and does get on their nerves at times but nothing which would warrant the naked hatred and aggression he endures in his life. He spoke earlier about never receiving any abuse for club or country until the day he signed for Celtic. He gave up playing for Northern Ireland after sustained abuse from his team’s own supporters and credible threats to his safety from more sinister forces.

Lennon is clear why he has faced such hostility and calls it by the name our media seems determined to avoid; racism. He said…

"Everyone tries to skirt around it but that’s the basis of it, has been since 2000. The first day I stepped onto Windsor Park (Belfast) as a Celtic player I was booed every time I touched the ball having previously played 36 times and had nothing. But with my association with Celtic being high profile, there’s no in my mind that that was behind it and it’s what you want to call it; you call it sectarianism here in Scotland, I call it racism. If a black man is abused, you are not just abusing the colour of his skin, you are abusing his culture, his heritage, his background. It’s the exact same when I get called a Fenian, a pauper, a beggar, a tarrier by these people with their sense of entitlement and superiority complex. And all I do is stand up for myself.”

The latest ugly scenes come as Scottish football has been on the up; crowds are increasing, stadiums are looking transformed from the dark days of the past when fans were herded in and out like cattle and some of the games on show are genuinely exciting. Underneath the layer of modernity though, age old fissures and hatreds remain. Celtic has since its very inception had to deal with the contempt of those with no love for the Irish living in Scotland, nor the faith the majority of them professed. That overt hostility may be less obvious than it once was but it still lingers in the dark corners of our society.

Most of us from an Irish Catholic background could relay countless anecdotes of insults blatant and subtle and the stories of our parents and grandparents convinced us that this behaviour has some history to it. The older generation spoke of ‘keeping your head down’ and not making too much of a fuss about the petty discrimination they faced although some, weary of the effect it could have on the life chances of the new generation. One man of courage was Head Teacher John Breen of St Patrick’s High School, who marched into various banks in and around Coatbridge in the 1950s and asked why they never recruited young people from the Catholic school he was in charge off. He shamed them into changing their ways and enhanced the chances of some of his youngsters having a better life.

According to the 2011 census, Scottish Catholics are still almost twice as likely as any other group in Scottish society to live in areas of deprivation. They are also over-represented in our prisons and on our unemployment lists. These are the fruits of poverty and disadvantage.

2011 Scottish Census

Neil Lennon is symptomatic of that younger generation no longer accepting a seat at the back of the bus. No longer ‘keeping their heads down’ but increasingly calling out the bigotry they experience. He has been accused of bringing the troubles he deals with to his own door and one ill-informed guest on a debate show said of this latest assault on Lennon…

“Something that comes to mind with me is that Neil Lennon needs to take responsibility for Neil Lennon. I thought his conduct, before this incident, was shocking and, quite frankly, I will be amazed if the football authorities and even Police Scotland don’t decide that they need to have a word in his ear to say ‘Look, you can’t do that in these circumstances.’

Thus are victims blamed for the treatment they receive. Lennon was boisterous and even a bit silly gesturing to the Hearts fans behind him after a late goal was called offside but it was in no way ‘shocking.’ He did nothing which excuses a physical assault. Some people really need to start controlling themselves at football matches. I’ve written in the past about the throwing of missiles at football and the fact that sooner or later someone is going to suffer a serious injury.  Every club, including Celtic, has its share of less bright individuals tagging along and the decent supporters need to persuade them to wisen up.

There has also been more talk of introducing limited liability whereby clubs take more responsibility for the behaviour of their fans. Sanctions aimed at clubs for any poor behaviour of their fans would follow in domestic games as they currently do in European matches. Scottish clubs will no doubt resist this as fines, the closure of stands or even the deduction of points could jeopardise their season. If that isn’t a road clubs want to go down then the avenues left to combat sectarian behaviour at football remain self-policing by supporters, more robust law enforcement; which treats symptoms but not cause, or education which at the end of the day is the best way to get it through to the upcoming generation what is acceptable and what is not.

Neil Lennon has been the lightning rod for a Scotland which is slowly changing from the stuffy, conservative country it once was; a place where everyone was expected to know their place. The courage and determination he shows in standing up to the moronic minority is remarkable. This wealthy young man could shrug his shoulders and say, ‘you know what, stuff this’ and move himself and his family to a more sedate life elsewhere. He takes comfort in the fact that it’s a minority who engage in racist and sectarian behaviour in Scotland as most Scots abhor such nonsense. He said back in 2011, in the midst of receiving bombs and bullets in the post…

"Yet I know that the Celtic support is very protective of me," Lennon continues, "and I am very humbled by that. I've had hundreds of letters too from Rangers fans, from Hearts fans, from Aberdeen fans, all saying that they have been outraged by some of the abuse directed at me and that it doesn't truly reflect their views. That's also been very humbling

Scottish society needs to exorcise these ghosts of the past and it will only do so by looking the problem squarely in the face and recognising it for what it is. The Irish-Catholic community in Scotland has long faced prejudice from a vociferous minority which if directed at Jewish people, Muslims or any other group would be met with outrage. The fact our mealy mouthed media passed it off as ‘sectarianism’ and a symptom of the ‘Old Firm’ rivalry, stopped people seeing it for the racism it is.

It is now 14 years since Martin O’Neil stood in the dugout at Ibrox and listened to a tirade of sectarian and racist abuse aimed at Neil Lennon. He spoke openly about it in the aftermath of that game and a few honest journalists printed his words without the obfuscation of that unwritten rule of sports journalism in Scotland: when writing about sectarianism, it’s always both sides of the same coin, both as bad as each other. As I watched from the Broomloan Stand that day, O’Neil put his arm around Lennon and led him to the Celtic support, clenching his fist in a gesture of defiance and solidarity. It was a powerful moment. One which said, we won’t be bowed by this anymore.

The fight against hatred is a constant one but the tide is starting to turn and one day we might look back and thank the likes of Neil Lennon for calling it out.