Thanks everyone for taking the time out to read and comment. Not exactly and easy subject.
Credit to David and The Celtic Star. They have been front and centre since Alex Thomson's initial 'watch this space' tweet two weeks ago. I've only written a few articles to back that hard work up.
What I'd hoped rather naively as it turned out was Alex Thomson would be fair and balanced. Instead he used Celtic's name to sensationalise a subject that deserved better.
It's also disappointing how little support for the club-clearly being singled out- has come from other quarters of Celtic media.
SMSM is no surprise and I appreciate its not a subject that will get websites 'hits' but when the club is being poorly represented by a broadcaster of such repute and with such reach I expected more.
This is a Scottish issue re the boys clubs however the abuse permeates through every part of society. Celtic may indeed be part of that but the solution will come from recognising mistakes were made everywhere, acknowledging it and learning from it together.
Again, and at the risk of sounding patronising, it is the Celtic community who owe you both a debt of gratitude for having the courage to write about a subject which for far too long has been the T-Rex in the room.
The vast vast majority of Celtic-minded folk want this sordid matter addressed publicly and the appropriate action taken that is deserving to all parties. The perpetrators should be punished and the survivors provided with recompense for what they had to endure.
Not one of us believes that the club should NOT be held accountable if it were in any way complicit; however - in spite of this so-called new revelatory evidence, there is still absolutely nothing that suggests that the actual football club were in any way aware of the damage that these men did to those poor boys.
Once more, the wickedest crime known to humanity has been weaponised in an attempt to condemn and vilify a very broad community and hundreds (if not thousands) of the other rats who have perpetrated such vile acts avoid the spotlight being directed upon them and are allowed to scurry back under their rocks and take pause before they abuse again.
We need powerful voices like your own, Niall, to continue the questioning of what it actually is that the media is trying to achieve here.
Are they sincere in their attempt to uncover systematic and institutional child abuse? Or, are they only invested in pandering to the significant white, protestant majority throughout this island?
Tenuous links and lazy investigation is not evidence of complicity. The words 'clutching' and 'at', along with 'straws' spring to mind. The Channel 4 News editorial team might be proud of their long history of tackling tough topics, but they dropped the ball here. This was an opportunity to highlight historical abuse upon a grand scale across the length and breadth of Scotland. This was an opportunity to scrutinise the establishment and institutions themselves to see how deep the wound lies. This was an opportunity to eventually enforce change by shaming the officers of these institutions for their own inertia in dealing with this matter historically (particularly the SFA), but yet again - they took the guided tour of easy hitsville, just to garner a bit of interest.
Thank you Niall. Thank you David. If these poor lads throughout Scotland eventually do get properly recognised, it will only be through the committment of true men like yourself digging deep to find the truth.
thecelticstar.com
