We all know and buy in to the genesis of the Latter day IRA in 60s Ireland
Paisley and his crew were bombing in the mid 60s to try to stop civil rights happening ..someone had to protect the RC communities .that aspect was laudAble and what was sung about That said from what I observed it morphed over time into an outrageous and indefensible organisation . I abhor the fans glorifying that behaviour !
And as I posted it allows the Ibrox RACISTS to act with impunity!
Credible points.
However is that a credible argument for not singing songs that are considered by some if not many 'general' Irish in nature such as Sean South or The Broad Black Brimmer or even the simplistic chants modern music adaptations?
Does not any and every military force whether official or renegade have
many historical and some with current aspects of it that are outrageous and indefensible?
If so! then that argument is only credible if all anthems and most especially former colonial ones everywhere are no longer sung and banned.
Ideal world it would then be, maybe!
Until then, why should some Celtic fans feel they have to behave to fit in, fit into what?
British double standard morals?
Morphed into! now that's a whole different subject for conversation.
Seriously have no interest in re-telling history stories, but its necessary to enable thought and reply about this in context.
I would suggest that anyone who has ever read much Irish history especially from 1798 onwards and Ireland's forced incorporation into a so called united kingdom, would have concluded that the British crowns state presence in Ireland was enabled only by virtue of their far more powerful and all imposing military force. An armed police force from inception and working out of 'barracks'! might just suggest this even to the remotely curious non reader!
So it is reasonable to state that british crown laws were made to work at the end of a gun or rope.
Military forces can win battles but not minds, and having lost colonies, the british crown system managers knew well that they needed more than the obvious physical threat, hence the discouraging of native language and habits most know of, but it was much more than that, it was systemic every aspect of native life was examined and countered.
Scotland Yard Special Branch first became a household name in Britain and Ireland when it set out to counter the Fenian movement. Countered by the hiring and placing of many double agents and did so purposely to discredit the movement from within and purposely to lead it into a movement that they hoped the public would view as extremists.
A central aim for british crown state agencies was to control as much as possible any movements that it could not stop by military force alone. In Ireland and the Irish abroad, there is no credible doubts that aspects of control was sourced through every means from overt to subtle media propaganda or by the official nineteenth century compulsory crown oath sworn Roman Catholic Priests and Bishops and their regular condemnations and excommunications from the pulpits.
The six counties of the twentieth century was a far more controlled place again, agreed?
So a question could be did
peoples movements of any kind that potentially threatened status quo assets and profits, really just morph? or was there a little more to the story! History suggests the latter as do Government reports and enquiries carried out a little more independently thirty or so years later!
So while I personally do not consider the singing of such songs either needed or even the best to sing to either promote the Irish connection or even if sung just to simply wind up 'them'
One of the very reasons why I thought to start
https://celticnoise.com/threads/irish-and-scottish-trad-musicians.245/
I don't care much for those who demand and make claims of being more right and of the supposed majority or anyone happy to twist words or change the line of discussion as and when to suit their argument or agenda. If only because such ways have historically been shown to either not work for or worse by default at best actively work against the Irish.
Not the quoted btw, I considered your points worth and in need of replying to, I am just giving another possible side and that sides context to the points.