Coronation time was here

 

Coronation time was here

Scotland was a very different country back in 1953 when the last coronation of a UK monarch took place. It was a stuffy, conservative and staunchly unionist land where everybody was expected to know their place. For those of the Irish diaspora in Scotland, their ‘place’ was often the poorer parts of our towns and cities. They endured lives of poor housing, bad health, lack of aspiration and long hard hours of unrelenting work. Their greatest pride was in the football club they had created and in knowing that every success it had, got up the noses of those in society who despised them. The coronation of the late Queen came only a couple years after a bigoted faction in Scottish football had ordered Celtic to remove the Irish flag from their stadium or face expulsion from the league. Celtic had faced them down and had been vindicated.

For Celtic football club, the team founded and sustained by Glasgow’s Irish community and their progeny, the coronation was another opportunity to let them know that their place was on the outside looking in. Not that the majority of supporters of Celtic cared much for royalty, there has always been a hard core of Republicanism among their fanbase, but after finishing eighth in the league in 1952-53, with just 29 points from 30 games, it looked as if Celtic might not be invited to join in the festival of football being planned to mark the coronation.

Rangers had bizarrely won the league using a mathematical equation called ‘goal ratio’ after they and Hibs had both finished on 43 points. The Ibrox club scored 80 goals and conceded 39, whilst Hibs had scored 93 and conceded 51. Had goal difference been used, Hibs would have had a goal difference of  42 to Rangers 41 and been crowned champions. Hibs were a fine side then and they, Rangers and oddly, Aberdeen, who finished 11^th in the league, were invited to play in the Coronation cup against the 4 best sides in England. Celtic, it was argued, as holders of the Empire Exhibition cup from 15 years earlier, should be allowed to compete, much to the annoyance of sides like Hearts, St Mirren and even East Fife, who all finished above the hoops in the league. However, with the tournament matches pencilled in for Glasgow, it was felt that Celtic’s presence would enhance crowds at the matches.

It is of course a matter of Celtic folklore that the least royalist club in the tournament carried off the trophy after defeating Arsenal, Manchester United and Hibernian. The crowds for Celtic’s three matches seemed to justify their inclusion in the tournament with 59,500 watching them defeat Arsenal, 73,000 watching them despatch Manchester United and a whopping 117,000 attending the final with Hibs. It was a supreme irony that the final of a competition celebrating the coronation of a British queen was contested by two sides born in the squalor of Irish ghettos. Almost a quarter of a million fans watching Celtic’s three matches,  gives an indication of the support the club could draw on then.

The victory, unexpected but certainly deserved, demonstrated that the Celtic of 1953 was a sleeping giant. Their fans were hungry for success and were rewarded when the side completed a league and cup double the following season. It was their first title since 1938 and they wouldn’t be champions again till 1966. That is to say, Celtic won just one championship in 24 years. The coronation cup victory  was celebrated in song with the opening line of the ‘Coronation cup song’ known to most Celts of a certain vintage… ‘Said Lizzie to Phil as they sat down to dine, I’ve just had a letter from an old friend of mine…’ The song goes on to chart how Celtic stepped in and denied Rangers the trophy their fans may have though was bound for Ibrox.

70 years have passed since Celtic FC’s unlikely victory in the coronation cup and the trophy still resides in the trophy room at a much-changed Celtic Park. A few metres away from it, a much bigger trophy testifies that Celtic did eventually emerge from their post-war slump to become the best side in Europe. The fervour of their supporters remains undiminished and they continue to back their team with noise and passion.

As a new monarch ascends the throne, it will be largely ignored by many in Scotland who no longer feel they owe deference to an unelected head of state who was born into the job and into fabulous wealth and privilege. As many struggle to put food on the table or pay their bills, the idea of hundreds of millions being spent to ‘anoint’ a man as our sovereign and lord, seems absurd to the point of perversity. We are invited to swear an oath of allegiance using the words; “I swear that I will pay true allegiance to your majesty, and to your heirs and successors, according to law, so help me God.” The word ‘allegiance’ is described in the dictionary as ‘loyalty or commitment to a superior or to a group or cause.’ The people of Scotland know that they need only read a recent history of the ‘royal’ family to know that they in no way our superiors. That is the mythology they create to fool the gullible. My allegiance will always be to the people of Scotland.

I wish no harm on the Windsors nor any other human beings, but when I was growing up in slum tenement buildings which were cold, damp and unhealthy, I had no connection to them or that world of privilege they inhabited and I doubt they could even imagine how some of their ‘subjects’ lived. My family’s story would see us agree in principle with Seamus Heaney who wrote…

Be advised my passport’s green

No glass of ours was ever raised

To toast the queen  

So tomorrow we will be swamped by this event in our media and castigated by some for choosing to ignore it. To my mind we are on the right side of history, 70 years ago deference was almost total, today more and more people see the absurdity of royalty for what it is.

In 1953 the team of the Irish immigrants won a cup few expected them to. In 2023 that same club will soon be celebrating another championship. That makes me happy and reminds me of that old song from long ago, which said at the end… ‘To beat Glasgow Celtic, you’ll have to deport the whole Fenian army that gives them support.’