Big Yin eager to put bigotry in shade at Celtic

Published on Friday 3 August 2007 00:47

IT THREATENED to be as much of a mis-match as is likely to be witnessed at Celtic Park this season.

Billy Connolly facing the Scottish press, a breed he holds in about as much esteem as competitive race walkers, NCP car park attendants, and those people who are simply dismissed for being "beige."

"God, this is awkward," he muttered, peering over his Harry Potter-style spectacles, as he entered the room, locks bouncing in the backdraft, orange-red beads hanging from his neck, and the rest of his outfit, his entire persona, dazzling in the austere Celtic boardroom. Beige he was not. The snakeskin shoes were a particularly nice touch.

Not that he looked comfortable, or not at first. As he admitted, only one thing could have enticed him into this throng. Bigotry. "That's my favourite bit," said Connolly excitedly. "Not that I favour bigotry. I really strongly favour doing something about it."

The comedian's presence at a Celtic press conference was to announce his appointment as patron of the Celtic Foundation, which is dedicated to a range of community and charity activities in Scotland and internationally.

Connolly explained that on one of his visits to Celtic Park - he gets to four or five games a year - he was diverted into the office of the chief executive, Peter Lawwell. "I was sidelined into the office one day here by Peter Lawwell. I was with the chairman at the time, and I was squashed into a couch and lectured. I wouldn't say I was bullied into it but I kind of had no, eh ...

"I've always liked what the club stood for," he added, regaining track, and settling into that familiar Connolly song-like rhythm of stretched-out vowels and - if his speech were being written exactly as it was spoken - a smattering of randomly placed exclamation marks. "I liked its charitable beginnings, and I like what it has stood for over the years. I like what Fergus McCann did. And I like that he brought back the whole charitable thing [the Celtic Charity Fund established in 1995]."

"McCann," added Connolly, "is one of my heroes." But it is the progress made in the fight against bigotry that encouraged him to say yes at the conclusion to that lecture in Lawwell's office. "I must say the appeal in my heart was the bigotry bit. The rest of [the Foundation's work] is incredibly impressive I find, especially the numbers. The number of kids involved is breathtaking.

"But for me the whole drive is the recent drive of the anti- bigotry movement. I'm very fond of that movement.

"It's a long, long battle, but the answer is in the young people. I don't think you can teach an old bigot all that much. I don't think I'm going to impress an old bigot that much ... I agreed with Gordon Strachan, when he said, 'If your parents didn't tell you, what am I going to tell you?'

"It should start with kids - that's where all the energy should go. Wee boys and girls. With them, there's a place to go. And I just fancied being part of it."

Connolly believes there is evidence of progress in his home city. Controversially, he suggested that the wearing of replica kits - by fully-grown adults - could be construed as progress. Though, to be fair, he did question that even as he said it.

"I see an extraordinary difference," he enthused. "Some would disagree with me, but I'm not sure it would have been okay to walk around Glasgow with the full Rangers or Celtic strip on in the middle of day or night when I was growing up. I'm not sure, maybe I'm wrong, maybe my picture of how it used to be is wrong, but I don't think that would have been cool. It was weird enough with a scarf in some places.

"But when I see adults and kids, some adults even with the full strip, though I'm not sure if I think that's a cool idea or not... but when I see people walking around like that, I think things must have improved over the years."

Although he admitted to being an optimist, "a glass half full guy", Connolly did get worked up when he discussed the treatment in Scottish grounds of the departed captain, Neil Lennon. "People have blethered on about the answer to bigotry," he said. "No Catholic schools, no Orange marches ... but that's not the answer. Education is the answer. Talking is the answer, getting these things out into the open, giving them air, giving them oxygen. Silence is not the answer.

"People saying 'I didn't know that was going on ...' Yes you do! Neil Lennon, booed up and down the length of Scotland, everyone knew why, but nobody said it! There was silence - and silence is where bigotry thrives."

As for what his role as patron will involve, Connolly admitted that he is unsure. "Originally I was just to have my name somewhere, and then all of a sudden there was a press conference, and you know my deep love of the Scottish press. I had a wee party in my heart! And now here we are. And it's a joy to be here."

And just when he threatened to go off on one of his famous tangents, he gathered himself: "I don't fancy just being a name on a piece of paper, I'm happy to do much more. I'm a patron of West of Scotland Ballet, and I do show up.

"One of my talents, if I have any talent at all, is communication. I seem to communicate very easily with the young. I'd like to talk to them as they come in here."

It was an appropriately sincere and earnest Connolly who spoke at Celtic Park yesterday. Which is perhaps why he seemed initially uncomfortable - until he was asked for a prediction for the season ahead. "We'll skoosh it," he replied.

"Ask him, he knows more about it than me," he added, gesticulating to the club captain, Stephen McManus, seated beside him, but then carrying on, even as McManus opened his mouth to speak. "Nah, we'll clatter them. It'll be a skoosh." And the Champions League?

"Easy. We'll win it."