Celtic’s Brendan Rodgers: Catholic-Protestant thing does not interest me

Brendan Rodgers grew up in a society where the phrase “mixed marriage” refers to religion rather than race.
Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers. Picture: Jose Jordan/AFP/GettyCeltic manager Brendan Rodgers. Picture: Jose Jordan/AFP/Getty
Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers. Picture: Jose Jordan/AFP/Getty

The son of a Catholic father and Protestant mother, his childhood coincided with the Troubles which saw atrocities on both sides of the sectarian divide affect his home town of Carnlough in County Antrim in the 1980s.

To Rodgers, the religion of his late parents was a complete irrelevance as their love and support nourished the abilities and ambitions which have seen him become such a hugely
successful football manager.

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He left Northern Ireland as a teenager, forging the career which ultimately earned him high repute in charge of Swansea City and Liverpool. It was not until he became Celtic manager in the summer of 2016 that Rodgers found himself reacquainted with echoes of his homeland.

“When I came to Scotland, I sensed it,” said Rodgers as he reflected on a week which has seen the issue of sectarianism among supporters of Celtic and Rangers come depressingly to the fore again.

“In my first week in Glasgow, I remember I was on Maryhill Road putting some petrol in my car and the next minute I heard the drums beating. There was an Orange Walk going on and it was coming past the petrol station. I had a feeling that day that I hadn’t felt for years.

“You have never seen me dance around a car with a petrol pump so fast! Thankfully, it was only one marching band out on a Saturday, just having a wee practice.”

While there is humour in that recollection from Rodgers, he has only disdain for the continuing enmities which exist, most notably in the west of Scotland, and express themselves on religious lines within the Old Firm rivalry.

The baiting of Kilmarnock’s Kris Boyd and Steve Clarke as “Orange” and “Fenian” by sections of Celtic and Rangers fans respectively over the past week left Rodgers shaking his head in despair.

“The whole Catholic-Protestant thing does not interest me one iota – not one iota,” he added. “And it’s only really come back into my life since I’ve come to Scotland. That’s the reality. Absolutely.

“I moved away from the Troubles when I was 16, I lived in England and Wales, and then I came here to Scotland when I was 43.

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“Thankfully, I have had a wonderful time in Scotland, an amazing experience. I have never felt anything like Steve Clarke did this week. I have had bits and pieces of it, but I always ignore it. But there is certainly an element of that up here.

“From a manager’s perspective, there is getting a little bit of stick in grounds, lots of stuff you have to let go. If you listen to the words too much, you can suffer. But I tend not to listen too much. But there are certainly cases when it can just come out. That was Steve’s moment on Wednesday night.

“Yeah, he was brave to say what he did about it, because he is not that way. He just gets on with his work. It is about society and he mentioned his kids [not understanding it because they don’t live in the west of Scotland].

“When I brought my wife up here, she didn’t know what a Catholic and a Protestant was. She just didn’t get it. But we need to try and find a way to resolve it. It is a challenge, but we have to keep trying. I grew up in it in Northern Ireland. I’ve had more time away from it in my life. And the narrative of what happens around here? I’m not interested in it, to be honest.

“For Scottish football, I just want the best standard of football, the best pitches and the best refs. That’s all about standards, not about whether you are a Catholic, whether you are a Protestant or whether you support Rangers, 
Celtic or whatever. It can’t be 
in the game. It’s no good for anything.

“It is such a shame because religion and football are such a big thing in Scotland. But it needs to be a positive or else you are going to ruin a country, going to ruin a society that has so many positives.”

Rodgers will happily return his focus solely to football tomorrow when Celtic continue their defence of the Premiership title at home to Motherwell. He does so buoyed by his team’s display in Valencia on Thursday night, despite the 1-0 defeat which saw them exit the Europa League at the last 32 stage on a 3-0 aggregate.

“We got back late and have to recover but we’ll have a nice training session on Saturday and it’s a nice game to go into on Sunday against a Motherwell team who have won six games in a row and picked themselves up really well.”