The Dublin Loyal Must Be Defended

Last updated : 28 March 2008 By Grandmaster Suck



You can say you can't be bothered - it's their problem. No, it's OUR problem. If the club/police get away with this one then it's curtains for fun and innovation inside Ibrox. At the Falkirk game the the match commander deemed it offensive!

The banner has nothing to do with "The Troubles" - and in fact refers jokingly to a newspaper article with that headline in an Irish newspaper which had interviewed the Dublin Loyal members.

We should be standing shoulder to shoulder with the Dublin Loyal - they have stood up to intimidation and face to face threats to establish their club - not stabbing them in the back.

Since the first flag day all those years ago FF has given simple guidelines to people making banners. Don't celebrate violence; no gang slogans; no paramilitarism,; no sweary words. Simple enough. Dublin Loyal breach none of those.

The club have gotten themselves into an awful fankle over this issue. At the moment they are saying it saying it might not be offensive but it could be deemed to to be by someone somewhere sometime in the future; the police commander wouldn't let it back in anyway.

The club's position - and Kenny Scott claims backing from "the club" on this - is that it could be construed as offensive to some and so therefore it was offensive. This is just the latest example of the club running so scared of our enemies that they put what they might say or think before common sense or what OUR FANS want.

The facts are that the DLRSC is a very well-run club that is a credit to Rangers and if they are to be persecuted then there's simply no point in decent Bears helping the club any fan behaviour issue. No Dublin journalist who contacted the club to talk about the issue or poster on an Irish website this is being discussed was offended - that didn't matter to Rangers.

The club doesn't know it's arse from elbow on this issue. People have been told the club had a zero tolerance policy on anything that could be considered offensive anytime anywhere by anyone - then senior club officials deny saying anything of the sort. The club are also now saying that the emails coming out of Govan police office stating that Rangers Head of Security was consulted BEFORE the banner was taken down were inaccurate. I can't help pointing out that it appears anything Rangers say - even when they have changed what they are saying three or four times - we are to consider 100% Gospel but anything which does not suit is to be considered false or inaccurate.

With regard to the banner's potential offensiveness - we can point out the composition of the DLRSC - it's Dublin-born members, the marriage of Scottish members to native Irish Catholics, etc - hardly a collection of Johnny Adair wannabes. The club don't care.

The club has a chance to modify their position with good grace. They can say in all sincerity that having consulted with the Dubliners that they now understand the background of the slogan; that no-one in Dublin found it offensive and that as the DLRSC was a credit to Rangers the club accepted their assurances that the banner was made in good faith and on that basis of understanding the club has removed the ban.



Keep an eye open for forthcoming initiatives to support the Dublin Loyal and reverse the ban should common sense not prevail.

In the meantime write courteous factual letters - letters work better than emails - to the Chairman asking him to use his influence to make the club see sense.



Sir David E Murray
The Chairman
Rangers Football Club
9 Charlotte Square,
Edinburgh
EH2 4DR