CELTIC BAN PROMISE

NO doubt Hugh Dallas will be watching with interest to see just how Celtic get on with their pledge to ban the supporters who shamed Scotland with their Bloodstained Poppy banner.

After all, Dallas was once sent sprawling at Parkhead  in the Celtic Shame Game , won by Rangers, when hammered by a missile which smacked into his head, narrowly missing an eye and causing a wound from which blood poured.

Later on that same day Dallas had his house attacked when he was inside with his wife and family. A brick was hurled and smashed a window on its way into the Dallas living room.

The Herald later reported - on September 5, 2000 - how the culprit, Kevin Dunn, appeared in court before Edith Ryan JP and was ordered to be of good behaviour, and had his sentence deferred for a year.

Dunn, in open court revealed, a fact also reported in the Herald, that he was a Celtic season ticket holder. Amazingly - due to sloppy journalism - there was no quote from anyone at Celtic back then about what their position would be regarding Dunn's season ticket.

Does he still hold one? Or does he attend Parkhead with a matchday ticket? Is he banned? Does anyone know?

There was also the incident involving Fernando Ricksen, who was hit on the head with a missile during, and wounded, another visit to Parkhead by Rangers.

Five years down the line there is no record of any Celtic investigation uncovering the culprit and banning them.

In the spring of 2008 an even worse offence happened when Rangers were at Parkhead. Keeper Allan McGregor went down injured in front of the Jock Stein Stand and the Ibrox club's doctor, Paul Jackson sprinted on to give him urgent medical treatment.

Dr Jackson was targeted by Celtic supporters in the Jock Stein Stand, and one missile smashed into his hand, the sort of injury which could easily have been permanent.

As yet, there exists no record of Celtic having successfully investigated this incident and handed out a ban from Parkhead.

No wonder there are many people out there who look at these historical facts and wonder what the chances are of Celtic uncovering the guilty men and women this time, naming and shaming them, and handing out public life long bans?

It is also perhaps significant  the official Celtic response came from an unnamed spokesman, and not from  the chairman, former Her Majesty's Secretary of State for Defence, The Baron Reid of Cardowan.

According to reporter Paul Drury in the Sun - his Parkhead credentials are impeccable - The Baron Reid of Cardowan is said to be furious about what happened. If that is the case then let him unleash his fury in public.

There have been few more stirring sights and sounds over the last decade or so, than that old political bruiser in full flow, as his language belongs to a more golden age of rhetoric. Even if you do not agree with him you have to admire his oratory.

So far the most powerful words spoken about this affair which has damned Celtic, came from Billy Monkhouse, interviewed on BBC Reporting Scotland.

His son, Stephen, was just 28, when he was killed while on duty with the 1st Battalion, The Scots Guards in the dangerous Helmand province in Afghanistan. Stephen, his dad revealed, was a keen Celtic fan, who, when on leave, made a beeline to watch his team at Parkhead...if he could get a ticket.

There was also a poignant appearance from an old soldier on Reporting Scotland. A man in late middle age, resplendent in his Scottish British Legion attire.

He looked sad, and spoke of his disgust at how those who were his fellow Celtic supporters could behave in such a way.

Both of those interviews served to underline the point I made in my last blog about the number of servicemen and woman, past and present, and their relations and friends, who support Celtic, and who would have been appalled at Green Brigade's crass banner display.

As far as that banner is concerned I was interested by the phrase - Your Deeds Would Shame the Devils in Hell - as it seemed extremey erudite, and indeed poetic. The brainchild, perhaps, of a university professor?

But no, for research revealed  it is not original, but in fact is a line in from an IRA song well known by Celtic supporters.

Of course there has been a fightback to all the criticism the Green Brigade have had, and the popular Celtic supporters website, the HuddleBoard has even attempted to smear the world renown Erskine Hospital for Service People.

According to these delusional zealots, for the first few years after it was opened in 1916, Erskine refused to admit Roman Catholics. What utter nonsense. Poppycock!

For Celtic, the problem is wide spread and deep rooted, and has already led to an allegation - as reported in one newspaper - that their travel partners, Thomas Cook  have been in touch expressing displeasure about their sign being shown in the vicinity of the shamed banner, in pictures flashed around the world.

In England there has been much horror and disgust, best expressed on the Newcastle-Mad fans' website, where English feelings ran high, with one of the Toon Army saying  there is no chance of Celtic ever being welcome in the English Premiership with this sort of attitude in the stands.

St Mirren, who Celtic visit on Rembrance Sunday, are also aware of the potential for problems. Their general manager, Brian Caldwell has stated clearly in the Sun there will be no repeat of Saints forgetting what day it is... as they did when Celtic visited four years ago.

He has also made it clear there will be no kow-towing go any suggestion  the solemn minute's silence should be replaced by the so-called Celtic way of a minute's applause, as there was at Parkhead two years ago.

Last year at Falkirk, where Celtic played on Remembrance Sunday, booing and singing could be clearly heard during the minute's silence. Or at least it could on BBC Radio Scotland and on foreign television stations.

In an act of almost journalistic suicide, someone at Sky chose to censor the news and mute the sound. Something nobody else in any Sky control room did at any of the other matches they broadcast live throughout Britain that weekend.

On Sunday the game will be broadcast by ESPN, and it will be interesting to see what sort of journalistic standards they apply, and if they are in favour of censorship.

For, with the shameful Bloodstained Poppy banner row now extending to news outlets outside of Scotland, and even beyond Britain's shores, the world will be watching. And listening.