We continue on with our historical series covering the Glasgow Derby. In this section we take a look at how the rivalry expanded beyond Scotland and its impact.
We are now going to take a closer look at how these two clubs were able to proliferate their support across the United Kingdom and Ireland, while also touching on the impact the Glasgow Derby had on politics, life, and religion.
Ireland
Speaking in historical terms, supporters were drawn to the two teams in a cultural, religious, and political sense, further uniting themselves with their friends under the respective banners of Celtic and Rangers. This was incredibly present in Ireland.
If you were a supporter of Celtic FC, for instance, you were a Catholic, politically leaning to Republicanism (not the American kind) and you were a Socialist due to the oppression that the Catholics were subjugated to in the North of Ireland and Scotland. At times, other national football clubs in the North of Ireland were completely overlooked in favour of the clashes between Celtic and Rangers due to the social, political, and religious tensions at hand.
On the Rangers FC side, you would have Protestants who were loyal to the Queen of England (a Loyalist) and were therefore more considered a conservative. As such, it was rare to see a Scottish flag fly when the Glasgow Derby was in progress, rather, it was more likely that one would see a the Union Jack of Britain or the Tricolor of Ireland.
Scotland
Now, we go to the west of Scotland where the Ulster-Scots and Irish-Scots resided. It was a city divided by identity politics, in part due to the industry in Harland and Wolff, and it was very much a matter of violence across the Irish Sea.
Between the 1920s and 1989 there was an unwritten rule in the signing policy of Rangers F.C. where they would not sign a Catholic player, at least on purpose, as they wanted to be seen as a “Protestant Club.” This was due to the influence of the Orange order over high-ranking members in the Rangers’ ranks.
The freeze of not including Catholics ended in 1989 with the signing of Mo Johnston by Rangers manager Graeme Souness.
There was less of this type of religious exclusion from the Celtic side. However they would, and still sometimes do carry the Irish tri-color more than the Scottish flag, and they’ll often sing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” to unite themselves with another popular team among the Irish-Catholics, Liverpool FC. Furthermore, there is an Irish Republican element in the iconography of Celtic FC, in the form of the Irish flag often with the words “They hung out the flag of war” written on it in reference to an Irish song called the Foggy Dew. The song is about the Irish freedom fighters who sought to defeat the British army in a military coup in Dublin on Easter Week in 1916.
The Celtic Bhoys will be reeling in the years over the coming weeks and will look back on the history of a rivalry that has taken the world by storm. We will revisit these moments in greater depth and add detail to a history spanning decades.