The FF fanzine has been at the forefront of the sensible discussion about all aspects of the club since our first issue. Indeed, as in so many things, fans who may be regarded as “The Old Guard” are in fact amongst the most progressive in many aspects. In fact it was The Gub who coined the phrase “FTP Brigade” subsequently taken up by Mr Murray and popularised in the press.
There's a point a lot of people are missing in this affair.
The term "FTP Brigade" was first used in FF fanzine by a number of writers who were unionist activists during the Troubles. It was used to brand those halfwits who despite bastardising every loyalist song they could get their hands on contributed nothing to the struggle against terrorism in Ulster.
Those of us who have actually bothered to give practical aid to Ulster - lecturing in halls, getting involved in election campaigns, writing to MPs, campaigning for extradition from the Republic, organising parades, campaigning for extended police powers, etc, etc, have nothing but contempt for these loudmouthed armchair loyalists as their behaviour damages the cause.
FF represents a reasonable number of decent Rangers fans who have a wonderful array of talents and knowledge. There simply isn't that same pool of talent and historical memory within the walls of Ibrox.
This is where I genuinely think FF is different from other fans projects around the country - we have a laugh and a joke and enjoy the game but we are also deadly serious about making changes. Some people are content to be fans - to be passive recipients of whatever the Board says and does - they don't want to publicly ‘cause trouble.'
Fine, that doesn't mean they aren't good Bluenoses. What I'm saying is this (and I have to admit it took me years to realise what I wanted!) I want RFC to begin again to represent what the fans want and the magic of the story of the Rangers, of a club founded by a handful of Presbyterian kids for the joy of the sport.
BEING A PROTESTANT CLUB IN A SECULAR AGE
One of the problems we face is exactly what do we want our culture to be when the nominally Protestant population of Scotland has undergone a dramatic secularisation since World War II.
With 23.76% of Scottish households containing people not of the same religious persuasion I think it's obvious hundreds of thousands of Rangers fans are in mixed families, married to non-Prods, live with, live next door to, work with, socialise with, etc, those not of a Presbyterian bent without Scotland being the sectarian battlefield Nil By Mouth would like it to be.
Those facts may not suit those anti-Protestant bigots and self-loathers but facts they are and facts they will remain.
Some interesting details from the Census can be obtained on this website. - http://www.scrol.gov.uk/scrol/browser/profile.jsp
“The problem” the club has it that it has never tried to harness this latent affinity for our Protestant heritage in a positive way - in the past it was taken for granted and nowadays the directors are simply too terrified to look at a long-term and healthy accomodation.
To claim that Rangers are not a club with a Protestant heritage and ethos is simply laughable. It simply isn't intellectually sustainable to claim otherwise. What form that ethos takes is now up for debate.
MORE THAN A CLUB - OKAY FOR BARCELONA BUT NOT FOR US?
Barcelona's motto proclaims that they consider themselves to be a cultural and political icon for the Catalans. So to do Athletic Bilbao and Real Sociedad for the Basques. You never hear the press criticise the extreme-left politics of Germanys St Pauli. Instead all these clubs are lauded for their political and cultural aspects. Lord, you even find praise for Celtic's Catholic origins from Graham Spiers. But Spiers recently mocked Rangers Protestant identity on Radio Scotland when asked - what “sort of theolgian was Bill Struth?” (Presumably Billy McNeill and Willie Maley could explain the mysteries of transubstaniation and papal infalibility to Graham's satisfaction)
In rugby Biarritz have taken over Bayonne's mantle as the symbol of Basque nationalism in France - indeed their recent European Cup game was played across the border in San Sebastian with the stadium bedecked with the Basque flag. USAP perform a similar role in Perpignan for the French Catalans; again in Perpignan the famous XIII Catalan rugby league clubs supporters are famous for their nationalist zeal.
In all continents and all sports there are numerous examples of sports clubs with political, religious or cultural overtones and/or origins. Its perfectly natural and normally a source of pride and interest. All except when it's a Protestant team playing in Scotland it would appear.
IT'S NOT ABOUT BEING A MIRROR IMAGE OF THE GREY AND GREEN
Too many of our punters get annoyed because the grey and green get away with murder. I'm not advocating we allow ourselves to become a mirror image and pretend to be Irish or Ulster, nor to be as obsessed with paramilitary violence. Indeed, the Protestant population in Northern Ireland have never given more than derisory votes to political parties associated with paramilitary organisations.
We have links with Ulster going back to our formation - over a quarter of Irish migration to Scotland in the last 200 years has been Ulster Protestant. I myself have plenty of Irish/Ulster blood in me but I've never felt the need to act like a plastic Paddy. It's important we keep a perspective on our roots and pay fair tribute to our Ulster-Scots founders but it's equally important we recognise we are a Scottish Protestant club and not an Ulster one - otherwise we'll look as daft as Timothy does.
The simplest example I can think of here is to point out that Celtic are very much a Scottish Catholic club but they are not an Irish one. They get their religion and politics all mixed up - less than 1% of Scotland's population is Irish born - in the 1870s it was 7%. For their Scottish-born supporters to call themselves Irish is frankly bonkers.
Oh, and there's been a ceasefire for ten years on and off which will have a massive effect on the generations to come who simply will not have the daily diet of terrorism as a backdrop to their lives.
WE NEED A DEBATE AND WE NEED IT NOW
This article is being written before the UEFA decision is handed down. Whatever happens we need a healthy debate on what being “more than a club” means to us. We've never had a proper one before - too often we've been talked about, down over and talked down to by people who are not Rangers fans who have decided for us what we are and what we believe and presented to the world a portrait of lies motivated by their prejudices and their not so hidden agendas.
After this verdict here will be calls for this and that to be done - we need to ensure that we have our say and not just accept what others would hand down to us. We've warned for long enough in the fanzine that the indifference and ignorance from directors and the stupidity of the neds would one day come back to haunt us.
If you're serious about Rangers being different, about being special, then you've got to play your part in the weeks and months to come - in the coming period we will have to get our act together and sort out what we really believe in and how we wish to see it expressed.
If we don't then the enemies of the club will be doing it for us.
GRANDMASTER SUCK
A few lines from Edwin Morgan's poem about the funeral of Billy Fullerton are worth reflecting on:-
“Go from the grave. The shrill flutes are silent, the march dispersed.
Deplore what is to be deplored, and then find out the rest.”