The following witness statements are taken from the Celtic Views of 8/5/1985 and 15/5/1985.
Statement from the Club:
"Celtic Football Club have always cooperated with the police in every way and it is recognised that sometimes the constabulary have a difficult job to perform to keep law and order."
"Regrettably however it would appear that some policemen put many innocent people at risk as the crowds streamed out of Celtic Park last Wednesday night."
"An overwhelming consensus of opinion among people who witnessed the scene clearly indicates that the action of the mounted police in Janefield Street after the game must be called into question."
"When scattering, panic-ridden fans caused the collapse of 100 yards of an iron fence topped wall without as much as a broken window in any of the closely adjacent houses it can only be assumed that the debris was caused by a stampede."
"Our many callers, letter writers and even the residents of Janefeld Street all indicate that, whatever the precipitated the charge of the mounted policemen, it was nothing to do with fighting fans as reported in the press the next day."
"Reports indicate that the police are instituting a full enquiry. It is to be hoped that the Chairman and Directors of Celtic Football Club will be given full access to their findings."
"One thing is certain – this must never be allowed to happen again."
Witness Letters to Celtic View
I write to to express my disgust and utter disbelief at the way the mounted police behaved in Janefield Street after the Celtic v Rangers game of May 1st.
As a large crowd of Celtic supporters moved along the street singing and chanting at least four mounted police lined up and charged down the street into the crowd. As people ran to the side to avoid the onslaught they had to climb onto railings by the side of the road, and these promptly collapsed under the weight of all the people. However the police, undeterred, charged down the street again.
The police, although possibly provoked, must have known that there were far more innocent adults and small children in the crowd than troublemakers, they must also have known that the presence of the horses can inflame an already dangerous situation as was learned during the miners strike.
I believe that the police on the whole do a very commendable job under the most difficult of circumstances but this time I think they went too far. This behaviour only helped to incite the troublemakers to greater acts of violence. I can only hope that the police learn from this experience and correct their tactics.
MM, Sighthill, Glasgow
I am writing to give Mr. White my full support in calling for a full police inquiry into why police horses charged down Janefield Street.
As I left the ground in a party of five, I felt myself getting crushed more as we made our way along the street.
To our horror we turned around to see about eight policemen on horses charging towards us, then stop and turn back. This is what started all the trouble. Rival fans never clashed.
The police went back the way smiling and missiles followed them.
The next morning the Daily Record had the cheek to say that the police charged down the narrow road to stop trouble.
I also recall on the 22nd December, 1984 after a Celtic v Rangers game, walking down the same street, the police tried to get two police cars and a van through the crowd.
It's time something was done to protect Celtic fans
FD, Cumbernauld.
This is a copy of a letter sent to the Chief Constable of Strathclyde Police.
In the company of my son I attended the Celtic v Rangers match on the evening of Wednesday 1st May, at the end of which I left the ground via the north-west exit into Janefield Street. I was and am both astonished and disgusted at what I saw and experienced in the next 45 or so minutes walk to Central Station.
A summary of events as I saw them is as follows:-
Janefield Street, which is fairly narrow, was heavily congested with Celtic supporters who made progress westwards both slow and uncomfortable. There was neither panic nor danger. Conversation was all concerned with the unsatisfactory nature of the game and the dissappointing result.
Without warning six mounted policemen at the gallop approached us from behind with no consideration at all for the safety of those men, women and children already tightly packed together and moving steadily if slowly.
The crowd was obliged to move as quickly as possible to right or left as appropriate in order to avoid trampling. That no pedestrian was apparently seriously injured in the charge is surprising.
The six mounted men stopped some 70 or 80 yards beyond me, turned and repeated the charge in the opposite direction, again scattering us right and left.
On this run I saw some small objects and coins thrown at the policemen who ducked to protect their faces. On both charges I was within two feet of the animals.
I managed then to move right into Holywell Street and thence to the Gallowgate which was fairly heavily congested with traffic.
By this time the astonishment of the crowd had developed into anger and I heard but did not see objects that had been thrown strike police vehicles which were arriving in substantial numbers. From these vehicles constables emerged and arrested young men indiscriminately.
From Camlachie almost as far as Barrowlands two police vehicles were driven at walking pace whilst the occupants watched the walking Celtic supporters. This was intimidatory in my opinion.
In Gallowgate I saw one man arrested by two constables who roughly handled him into one of those vehicles. He had been singing a 30-year-old Celtic Song badly. He was under the influence of drink but not remotely offensive to any reasonable individual.
One of these vehicles then crossed to the wrong side of the streetand continued int's intimidating cruise there, going through a red stop light in the process for ehich offense any other driver would have been stopped and charged.
Several police cars were driven fast in and through the pedestrian precinct of Buchanan Street and Gordon Street and in the latter a police motor cyclist drove in a dangerous manner into a group of young Celtic followers scattering them in all directions.
The above are facts. I saw no trouble inside Celtic Park other than on the field of play. I saw no Rangers supporters until 10.10pm and these were four harmless youths in Mitchell Street en route to Central Station as I was. The Celtic support was vociferous in and immediately outside the ground and in some instances foul-mouthed in the modern idiom, but there was no violence of any kind until the police charges which I have described (I am told that these were repeated but I did not see them).
Any violence – the throwing of stones and coins – resulted from the behaviour of the police and not the other way round.
The police were cruel, loutish and downright dangerous. The use of those expressions of derision and contempt directed at these men I find now perfectly understandable. Courtesy, safety and public service are conceptions completely foreign to the individuals whom I saw wearing uniforms that evening and who are being paid by the very people whom they were treating worse than animals.
I should like to think that the enquiry into these matters will be fairly carried out and that evidence will be taken not only from members of the force as recent newspaper reports have been.
Name and address supplied