Hugh Reilly: Will this blight on our nation ever go away?

Published on Sunday 15 May 2011 15:40

In March 1836, at the Alamo Mission, a brave band of Texan brothers held off a superior force of Mexican soldiers for 13 days before succumbing to inevitable defeat. Their heroic effort is not forgotten, thanks to a song celebrating the exploits of their leader, Captain William B Travis. The chorus of this rousing air is:

Hello, hello, we are the Billy boys.

Hello, hello,

You'll know us by our noise,

We're up to our knees in Wetback blood,

Surrender or you'll die

For we are the Texas Billy boys.

Of course, I made this up but can you imagine the outcry in the US if supporters of the Dallas Cowboys sang such a "folk tune" at an NFL game? Why, then, have the Scottish football authorities signally failed to take any action when a sectarian song glorifying the killing of Catholics resonates around a stadium?

In Scotland, instead of being an exciting culmination to the football season, Helicopter Sunday conjures up images reminiscent of the American Embassy in Saigon, as Neil Lennon, Paddy McCourt, Niall McGinn, Paul McBride and Trish Godman desperately cling to the landing skid of the chopper to escape the bullets and bombs.

For decades, immigrant Irish Catholics living in Scotland regarded bigotry as a fact of life. Children were encouraged to keep their heads down and accept a "standing at the back of the bus" mentality. This Uncle Tim culture helped soothe the feelings of those who resented papists in their midst.

First, second and even third generation Irish Catholics tolerated this second-class status, but in the Sixties, a new generation refused to bend the knee and, in large part due to comprehensive education and the subsequent increased access to university education, decided to challenge deep-seated discrimination. These days, only a bigoted Catholic would argue that Scottish society has not made great strides in ridding the nation of sectarianism.

My mother, born a Protestant, converted to Catholicism to marry my father. For this act of love, she was ostracised by her sister, Mary. Today, ostensibly mixed marriages are commonplace. I say ostensibly because - if we exclude weddings and funerals - most people who call themselves Protestant or Catholic rarely view the interior decoration of a church. While the rise of "aggressive secularism" ( Cardinal O'Brien) has not been entirely positive, organisations such as the Orange Order and its sectarian counterpart, the Hibernians, have witnessed a decline in membership.

As a Catholic lad, I did my bit for ecumenism by attending a Band of Hope event at the local Proddie primary school. My Baptist mate told me that every child who turned up received a bottle of Coke and a chocolate biscuit (a modern take on the loaves and fishy story). I should have said "Stand thee behind me, Satan", but the lure of a Tunnocks caramel wafer proved to be an irresistible temptation. Soon, I was hallelujahing with all my heart.The problem was I didn't know the words, so was compelled to lip-sync but with a tell-tale, satellite-link delay.

My first experience of raw sectarianism occurred when I dated a local Protestant girl. Her father did not allow me to cross the threshold lest my papishness polluted his Battle of the Boyne abode. Whenever I phoned the house, he'd growl: "It's him!" On one level, it was romantic comedy, but his sectarianism doomed the relationship. A more unsettling experience occurred when I became a police officer in 1976. At Easterhouse police station, the shift sergeant would read the pairings. As soon as he departed, changes were made to avoid, as far as possible, a Protestant cop having to walk the beat with a Roman Catholic. Senior officers must have been aware but chose not to confront those responsible.

In terms of being victims of sectarianism, Catholics don't enjoy a monopoly. I've seen bigotry in denominational schools. Some years ago, a headteacher of a Catholic secondary school stated his dislike of having non-Catholic teachers in his establishment as they "diluted the ethos".

God only knows if we can rid our country of sectarian shame.