Edinburgh Scotland Survival Guide - Part 1 Football

I am sitting here thinking about all of the things I've learnt about Edinburgh, that I would never have known had I not spent the last six months of my life here. It goes without saying that, unless you emerse yourself in local activities, you're never going to do or see anything more than what is on the local tourist strip. When people arrive in Edinburgh, do they know what the local people do on the weekends? Do they know what they talk about in the pub? Do they know what bus is most popular? Where people drink? What football team many support? Nope. Well I do.

Edinburgh's Favourite Sport
One word. Football. If I could choose a second word, it would be Football. And we aint talkin the English Premier League. People here in Scotland dont give two tosses about football below the border. The Scottish Premier League is, in the Scot's opinion, the best league in Europe, possibly the world. You've got, say, five most popular teams, and its all about where you are from - I am also sure that all young children go through a christening-like process, where you are required to pledge your alleigence to the one and only local football team. In Edinburgh, there's two prominent teams, you've then got Aberdeen and of course, the infamous two - Celtic and the Rangers:

1. The Heart of Midlothian FC - aka Hearts, Jam Tarts, Jambos (short for jam tarts). Recent champions of the Scottish League who continually play poorly against any team outside the league (ie. UEFA cup, champions league). One of their team chants: "The "Green Machine", fae sunny leith (ie. the Hibs, see below), just cannae win the nation's trophy, Titanic's drowned, ten monarch's crowned but if you like, the Hearts could show ye, You're goin' down you Hibbee clowns, to visit dumps like Clyde and Brechin, Oh can't you see, you'll always be, Auld Reekie's wee team!" If you need that translated from Scottish to English, dont ask me! My friend Lindsey is the most passionate Hearts player I know. She hasnt missed a home game since she was born, i think.

2. Hibernian FC - aka the Hibs, the Hibees (said Hye-beez), often used in the context of "ya dir'y hibee". Primarily from the Leith area, they are seen as the "lower class and rough" end of town boys, and whenever they play at Easter Road(their stadium is near my home), there's more police presence than a swedish jewellery store heist. I think their team chant sums it up - "We are Hibernian FC, We hate Jam Tarts and we hate Dundee, We will fight wherever we may be, 'Cause we are the mental H F C." Needless to say, when there's a game on, there'll usually be drunken fight at the local pubs nearby.

3. Aberdeen FC - I have to be a little reserved here because this is the Boy's team and he is ever faithful. The Boy continually informs me of all sorts of statistics about how "they are the only scottish league football team to have finished in the top whatever in over so and so number of years.".. blah blah blah. Seeing there's no particularly good looking team member on side, my interest in their games tends to dwindle - oh how i will pay for pay, should the Boy hear me say such things.

And there is of course, the "infamous two", Celtic FC and Rangers FC, who have been dubbed "The Old Firm".

There is so much history between these two football clubs that I dont know where to start. Basically, these football clubs are renouned for their hatred of each other, which has been described, plain and simply, as dangerous sectarianism. Firstly, its about two parts of Glasgow that hate each other. Secondly, its about religious sectors and history.

See, Celtic was started by a bunch of Irish Catholics who came to Glasgow. The Rangers were already established sixteen years prior, and were Scottish Protestants. Here developed such strong racial tension that there have been countless incidents of violence because it was the most obvious social division for years and years, that identified the irish based catholics versus the scottish based protestants. From what I know (which is very little, particularly because it is a very very very sensitive subject around here,) a lot of the violence by Celtic is linked to the IRA (not sure how founded this accusation is though), and it is connected to the well documented trouble in Northern Ireland (and its religious sectarianism). Notwithstanding this, there's been the majority of the blame placed on the Rangers. In 1989 that the Rangers scrapped its "protestant only" policy when signing players, yet sectarianism of this kind is still present even in this day. I am not sure if people realise just how engrained this sectarianism is, and its only when you come in as a foreigner, listen to conversations in pubs, and you hear young male Scots talk with such hatred and anger.

These football clubs are now actively participating in various ways to stop sectarianism within the club (well, publicaly, anyway because they've been told they'll be kicked out of the league if it doesnt stop) and you can get jailed and/or fined if you're found singing the "Old Firm" sectarian songs, whether it be at a game, or in public. Its that serious. As an example, the song "Billy Bhoys" cant be sung by Rangers supporters, which says "We're up to our knees in Fernian (Irish nationalist) blood, surrender or you'll die". Rangers are also forbidden to sing various other songs, including one which refers to the Pope as "a Nazi".

If you want to read more on this, check out the essay: http://www.fas.nus.edu.sg/ugsoc/his/Journal/Microsoft%20Word%20-%20
Glasgow_and_Celtic_Sports.pdf#search=%22words%20to%20billy%20bhoys%20song%20
sectarianism%20celtic%22

The essay is quite good, because it states that the bottom line is that not its not about football - its about wider social issues - with football as the obvious outlet.