12/03/24
May 25, 2009
Soccer Mob Kills Man in Northern Ireland: A group of around 20 Protestant supporters of Glasgow Rangers, many of them wearing the team's blue-and-white jerseys and scarves, celebrated the team's Scottish Premier League championship Sunday by beating to death the first Catholic they saw afterwards, a 49-year-old father of four. Rangers draws support from British Protestants in Northern Ireland, archrival Glasgow Celtic from Irish Catholics.
Seconded.
posted by boredom_08 at 10:32 PM on May 25, 2009
Thirded.
posted by Drood at 12:05 AM on May 26, 2009
Let's not forget the "drinking heavily" part.
posted by cjets at 12:47 AM on May 26, 2009
Or the part where theses fucking assholes took away a father of four over a fucking soccer match.
posted by BornIcon at 08:15 AM on May 26, 2009
How this gets fixed:
The Protestant police do their investigation, round up the guilty parties -- then shoot the six of them themselves in front of their friends and families. Oh, and rough up the wives, too, since that was part of the fun.
The only way it's going to stop is if someone in power holds his own side accountable.
So in other words ... it's not going to stop.
posted by wfrazerjr at 08:39 AM on May 26, 2009
I was sadly surprised this past fall when a co-worker from Edinburgh via Newcastle explained to me that the Catholic/Protestant supporter split was not just for Celtic/Rangers but throughout the island. In the city of Liverpool, he said, Protestants are for Everton and Catholics for LFC. As a (nominal) Jew I just feel left out, maybe I just need to switch to supporting Ajax ;)
In this instance I think this is another case of drunks using religion/sport as an excuse for nasty behavior. [* other situation with religious excuse edited out on second thought *] If it wasn't the league result most of these yobbos most likely would have found some other rationale to be despicable.
I agree with Fraze, if the clubs do not put out more than lip service this will go on and if they do sick individuals will find other reasons.
posted by billsaysthis at 12:27 PM on May 26, 2009
Protestants are for Everton and Catholics for LFC
then shoot the six of them themselves in front of their friends and families
Exactly the kind of nuanced solution that's worked well up until now. It'd be nice if the culture of silence and protecting "our boys" went away, but more violence won't ever help.
posted by yerfatma at 01:27 PM on May 26, 2009
I love soccer but stuff like this and the problem of "ultras" are the ruination of the sport. It's a crime to take a shared passion that unites most of the world and turn it into an excuse for violence and discord. I know my soccer team is better than your team, but I'd really prefer that you not be killed over it. The look on your face when you lose gives me more than enough satisfaction.
posted by rcade at 02:45 PM on May 26, 2009
As a (nominal) Jew I just feel left out, maybe I just need to switch to supporting Ajax ;)
Aston Villa, maybe?
posted by rodgerd at 07:07 PM on May 26, 2009
As a (nominal) Jew I just feel left out,
Spurs?.
posted by The_Special_Juan at 08:22 PM on May 26, 2009
The book referenced in that article (How Soccer Explains the World) is excellent, by the way.
posted by The_Special_Juan at 08:26 PM on May 26, 2009
billsaysthis said:
I was sadly surprised this past fall when a co-worker from Edinburgh via Newcastle explained to me that the Catholic/Protestant supporter split was not just for Celtic/Rangers but throughout the island. In the city of Liverpool, he said, Protestants are for Everton and Catholics for LFC.
I replied:
I think your colleague may be stretching it with the city of Liverpool, or indeed anywhere south of the Tweed. My late uncle held season tickets at Anfield for over 30 years, and was a United Reform Church minister. I've heard also the same religious divide about Manchester - United for Catholics and City for Protestants. This doesn't explain either the Gallagher brothers, or George Best (a nominal Ulster Proddy).
It could be that your colleague is from Scotland, and will therefore apply a sectarian lens on just about anything. Scotland remains a deeply divided society (almost as much as Ulster) on many levels. My nephew (raised as a Catholic) went to meet his Scots girlfriend's family, but her father (an Orange bigot) refuses to have anything to do with him.
Hard to believe this is the 21st century.
posted by owlhouse at 08:29 PM on May 26, 2009
Exactly the kind of nuanced solution that's worked well up until now. It'd be nice if the culture of silence and protecting "our boys" went away, but more violence won't ever help.
Would you care to explain exactly what nuanced solution has worked up to this point? It's an answer they'll understand -- kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out.
People who are willing to kill others over soccer have no redemption or rehabilitation in their futures. Make their lives useful in the only fashion possible -- as an example to others who would follow them.
posted by wfrazerjr at 09:34 PM on May 26, 2009
As far as I know Liverpool has the Protestant support and Everton has the Vatican.
posted by trueblueroo at 09:35 PM on May 27, 2009
Make their lives useful in the only fashion possible -- as an example to others who would follow them.
Or, make their deaths/incarceration mythical, turning their behaviour into an example that others will follow. Death begets only more death - violence only more violence - and not just in Northern Ireland. It's a striking example of how a misguided, but determined, minority can ruin a society for the vast majority of people.
I'd love to suggest a solution for Northern Ireland, but if I knew of one - or believed in anything anyone else was proposing - I'd still live there. I fear that ultimately true peace there may require one side to vanquish the other entirely.
On topic - no matter how much the perpetrators or victims may think it does, this violence has nothing to do with football or religion. It's only about hatred.
posted by JJ at 04:03 AM on May 28, 2009
Everton was traditionally the Catholic team, though Kenny Dalglish and subsequently Mo Johnston shook that up a bit, and there was equally a tradition of mixed support within families. Rangers-Celtic, though, is vicious and awful and has no redeeming elements whatsoever. It is a rivalry that I don't touch with a shitty stick.
In the worst days of NI's sectarianism, there were three shibboleths that people used to determine whether you were Catholic or Protestant, because they'd never ask outright: your name, the school you went to, and the team you supported. Saying "Man Utd" was less likely to leave people with broken legs or dead in a ditch.
posted by etagloh at 02:15 AM on June 10, 2009
Fucking sectarians. Fucking religion. Get over it, dickheads.