He might have been 'too English' and too Thatcherite for an average Gers man, but Graeme Souness did something no-one else had done here at Ibrox: our distaste for Scottish Catholics (not Catholics from other parts of the world) was a widespread feeling in the WHOLE of Scotland (do not hide, ye lot from the east coast...) ever since the Irish had come to Scotland to flee from the famine and thus becoming a high risk for the poor Scottish working class: it was A WAR BETWEEN THE POOR. This is what sectarianism is all about: on our Protestant side. It 's part not only of Rangers' inheritage, it's part of SCOTLAND'S INHERITAGE. Given the fact that the Irish here were granted state funded Catholic schools, there was little we could share with them. Up until 1989, all this typically Scottish distrust for 'anything Irish and Catholic' was pretty normal, though other clubs had broken this unwritten rule and hired Scottish Catholics in their ranks: they'd realised winning is more important than centuries of tradition. Souness (probably because he was indeed 'not that much a Scot') decided it was time for Rangers to come out of moving sands (we'd only won one League title in 9 years...) and break away from tradition and local culture, hiring the best striker in the country, Mo Johnston, a Catholic and a Celtic man. We were gutted and angry at him. As soon as Mo wore our colours, we immediately realised our history had changed. And it was now time for Celtic men to throw up their anger at Johnston, seeing how he celebrated his goals and even wear Rangers scarves... two titles came immediately, then came Hateley and all the others who've made us march onto 9 in a row for a decade. Naw, sectarianism hasn't disappeared in Scotland, I suppose it's part of our culture, we're still two halves of poor men fighting each other, but at least we've learnt we can still improve. Maybe one day we'll all share much more in common with 'the other lot' and end up supporting Rangers or Celtic for the sake of Scotland (not only Britain or Ireland), as we already do when it comes down to voting (the whole of Scotland is a left-wing working class happy island), maybe all this rivalry will become a wee bit easier to handle.
Worth a watch if only for the 80s adverts at half time
ahh magic
He might have been 'too English' and too Thatcherite for an average Gers man, but Graeme Souness did something no-one else had done here at Ibrox: our distaste for Scottish Catholics (not Catholics from other parts of the world) was a widespread feeling in the WHOLE of Scotland (do not hide, ye lot from the east coast...) ever since the Irish had come to Scotland to flee from the famine and thus becoming a high risk for the poor Scottish working class: it was A WAR BETWEEN THE POOR. This is what sectarianism is all about: on our Protestant side. It 's part not only of Rangers' inheritage, it's part of SCOTLAND'S INHERITAGE. Given the fact that the Irish here were granted state funded Catholic schools, there was little we could share with them.
Up until 1989, all this typically Scottish distrust for 'anything Irish and Catholic' was pretty normal, though other clubs had broken this unwritten rule and hired Scottish Catholics in their ranks: they'd realised winning is more important than centuries of tradition.
Souness (probably because he was indeed 'not that much a Scot') decided it was time for Rangers to come out of moving sands (we'd only won one League title in 9 years...) and break away from tradition and local culture, hiring the best striker in the country, Mo Johnston, a Catholic and a Celtic man.
We were gutted and angry at him. As soon as Mo wore our colours, we immediately realised our history had changed. And it was now time for Celtic men to throw up their anger at Johnston, seeing how he celebrated his goals and even wear Rangers scarves... two titles came immediately, then came Hateley and all the others who've made us march onto 9 in a row for a decade.
Naw, sectarianism hasn't disappeared in Scotland, I suppose it's part of our culture, we're still two halves of poor men fighting each other, but at least we've learnt we can still improve.
Maybe one day we'll all share much more in common with 'the other lot' and end up supporting Rangers or Celtic for the sake of Scotland (not only Britain or Ireland), as we already do when it comes down to voting (the whole of Scotland is a left-wing working class happy island), maybe all this rivalry will become a wee bit easier to handle.