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Summary
In January 1996 Celtic chief executive Fergus McCann announced a new campaign entitled ‘Bhoys Against Bigotry’.
McCann stated that Bhoys Against Bigotry would be a concerted attempt to disassociate the club from bigotry and prejudice of all kinds.
He stated that the scheme would highlight Celtic’s charitable and inclusive origins and pro-actively seek to eradicate Irish political chanting from the club’s support.
It was to be controversial but in retrospect a clear break needed, something that no one else would do. It was as much a public drawing of the line as much as anything else.
Incredibly, the Hun owners tried to claim in later years that they were some kind of standard bearers in Glasgow for anti-sectarianism. Complete nonsense.
Below is the Celtic View article outlining the launch of Bhoys Against Bigotry.
Fans Reaction
While the support are naturally proud of the club’s inclusive nature some saw Bhoys Against Bigotry as a slur against the club’s Irish origins. Many fans had no issue with BATB but some believed the coupling of Irish politics with bigotry was simply wrong and that the issue was cumsily handled by McCann. The campaign would be imortalised in song by Celtic-supporters band Charlie and the Bhoys and their song ‘Bhoys Against Bigotry’.
However, defenders argue that McCann was a pragmatic leader of the club and recognised that in the modern world the club needed to maximise revenue streams to thrieve on and off the pitch. As such he knew big business would be reluctant to invest in sponsorship and hospitality in an environment where IRA chants and songs were deemed acceptable.
From The Sunday Times
Tommy Burns’s rail at Fergus McCann
Tommy Burns, the late former Celtic manager, felt that the club’s high-profile antisectarianism campaign was unnecessary and contrived, according to a previously unpublished article written shortly before his death.
Burns, who died from skin cancer last year, felt obliged to back the Bhoys Against Bigotry campaign despite his efforts to persuade Fergus McCann, the club’s then owner, that there was no evidence of sectarianism at Parkhead.
In the essay, to be published in a new book about the club later this week, Burns accuses the Canadian tycoon of alienating some of Celtic’s traditional supporters by trying to play down its Catholic Irish roots.
He also reflects on his own mortality and tells how he “talked to God often” and drew strength from his faith.
The Bhoys Against Bigotry initiative, launched in 1996, aimed to discourage IRA chants and other sectarian behaviour among Celtic fans. The scheme, which won a European Union award for promoting equality, involved stripping season tickets from fans who engaged in sectarian chanting, and funding anti-discrimination workshops in Glasgow schools.
However, in an essay for Celtic Minded 3, the latest in a series of books about the politics and culture of Celtic, Burns says it was unnecessary.
“The Catholic faith was something people here [at Celtic] were comfortable with and no one felt a need to hide or disguise it,” writes Burns, who managed the club from 1994-7.
“This is one of the reasons why I had a lot of difficulty with Fergus McCann’s Bhoys Against Bigotry campaign.
“As far as I was concerned, our club had no problem. I never sensed anything untoward against people at our club or elsewhere who were not from the Catholic faith.”
Nevertheless, Burns became a figurehead for the campaign, endorsing it publicly. At a joint press conference with Rangers manager Walter Smith in 1996, he said: “Bhoys Against Bigotry has helped and I have noticed a huge reduction in sectarian singing at Parkhead.”
However, privately, he had grave doubts about the initiative as well as other attempts to improve the image of the SPL club, which was founded by Irish immigrants in 1888.
“Something happened at the club around Fergus’s time, they seemed to want to embark on a sort of crusade to change aspects of the club. I told Fergus that we don’t have bigotry here,” he wrote.
While Burns said there was a small but vociferous minority of bigoted “idiots” among the club’s supporters, he added: “I always felt that Bhoys Against Bigotry campaign was not really addressing these people and a whole lot of other things were being thrown in or invented.”
Burns, who was then in the later stages of his battle with skin cancer, used the article to reflect on mortality, his faith and the meaning of life. “We’re only passing through this life,” he wrote. “I think we are put here for a reason: to develop our souls.”
He added: “I talk to God often, tell him how much I love Him, thank Him or whatever.”
McCann, who left the club in 1999, was hailed as a saviour by some Celtic fans for preventing the club from going bust, but others felt that he was uninterested in the club’s traditions.
The tycoon tried to widen the team’s appeal by proposing including a thistle in the team badge, but traditionalists revolted, claiming it would dilute their Irish heritage.
Burns, who played and managed at Celtic and helped the team win the double in 1988, is widely viewed as one of club’s most loyal servants. There was dismay when he was sacked by McCann in 1997 for failing to depose Rangers as champions.
Despite being founded by Irish-born Catholics, Celtic hs always fielded players from other denominations and backgrounds.
The publication of Burns’s posthumous essay comes the day after Celtic presented his children with £26,000 for their skin cancer charity.
Peter Lawwell, Celtic’s chief executive, said yesterday: “Tommy will always be held in such high esteem by all who knew him and he will always be a part of Celtic Football Club.”
A spokesman for McCann, who runs a luxury coach firm in America, said he did not wish to comment.
Celtic Minded 3, edited by Dr Joseph Bradley of Stirling University, is published by Argyll Publishing on Friday
Letter to The Economist Magazine
13 Nov 1997
Non-sectarian Celtic
SIR—Your points about sectarianism in Glasgow are interesting (October 18th) but, along with the picture caption, give a view of a minority, resulting in a serious distortion. This reflects badly on the majority of people who support Celtic Football Club, who are from a broad-based background and who want no part of sectarianism or bigotry of any kind, and who actually work against such bigotry.
Our “Bhoys Against Bigotry” campaign—the most high-profile campaign against sectarianism ever staged in Scotland—will be two years old in January. During this time more than 100 schools have adopted the campaign, teaching children what bigotry is, why it is wrong and how we can work against it.
Celtic, through its charity fund, has helped to support the Northern Ireland Children’s Holiday Scheme, based in Belfast, which involves children from deprived homes in segregated Protestant and Catholic areas. They learn respect for each other’s cultures while on holiday and on trips to Celtic Park. We also support the Northern Ireland Children’s Events “big day out” in Portrush, which brings together more than 1,200 children from segregated areas.
Celtic Football Club deplores terrorism, sectarianism, racism and bigotry in any form.
FERGUS McCANN
Managing director, Celtic Football Club
Glasgow