HIbs and Hearts fans share their views on controversial merger bid 30 years on

Wallace Mercer takeover attempt temporarily united both sets of fans

While the vast majority of Hibs supporters were enraged and distraught on the launch of Wallace Mercer's highly-controversial takeover bid 30 years ago this week, it's often thought that fans on the other side of the divide took great delight at the prospect of putting their great rivals out of business.

On the contrary, while a section of the Gorgie faithful did back Mercer, it is well documented that large numbers of Hearts fans attended the rallies against the merger proposal, with some even donating towards the Hands Off Hibs campaign.

A policeman watches as Shareholders' Association chairman Ewan Stewart addresses the hundreds of angry Hibs fans who turned up at Easter Road football stadium after hearing Hearts chairman Wallace Mercer planned a takeover of their club in June 1990.

Though not in the way that had been intended, the merger bid very temporarily galvanised both sets of supporters and brought Edinburgh’s big two together in a way that had never been seen before or since.

Now, precisely three decades on from the first rallies, we’ve spoken to fans on either side of the Edinburgh divide to gather their views on those six, crazy weeks in the summer of 1990, when it looked as if two of Scottish football's biggest and oldest entities were about to do the unthinkable and join as one.

David Heaney (Hibs)

Having moved to Edinburgh from Belfast in the 1980s, Hibs fan David Heaney had an outsider's view of the Mercer bid and the subsequent Hands Off Hibs campaign.

A football fan all his life, he says his dislike of the Hearts chairman and admiration for the spirited fightback from Hibs supporters is what prompted him to follow the Easter Road side.

David, 55, who has 5 sons, all of whom are Hibs season ticket holders, didn't think the merger would have worked.

He said: "I thought it was terrible. The thought of one Edinburgh team seemed wrong to me.

"Growing up in Northern Ireland, I took a big interest in Scottish football, but I didn't want to support Rangers or Celtic - I wanted away from all of that.

"I knew all about the two clubs and it just seemed crazy to me that one of them could go out of existence.

"The end of the Hands Off Hibs campaign was when I decided I would support Hibs."

Steven Oliver (Hearts)

Long time Hearts supporter Steven Oliver, 45, says Wallace Mercer had failed to appreciate the fervour of the fanbases from either side.

Steven says his abiding memory from the six-week period was a letter from a reader of the Evening News.

He said: "I remember it well. Wallace Mercer had good intentions but he hadn't bargained for the fan loyalty from both camps.

"There was a suggestion from an Evening News reader in one of the Saturday editions, that if the teams were to merge and the new strip was maroon with green hoops then the merged entity should be called "Rhubarb" - it made me laugh then and still does now.

"My dad was a Jambo, as was my grandad and uncle. We were dominant in the derbies back then but even so, there was no way I wanted to see Hibs put out of business, no matter how good the idea of a merged team was. The "Rhubarb" line suggested by that reader summed up my feelings on it entirely!"

Margaret Alcorn (Hibs)

Margaret Alcorn's husband, the late Bill Alcorn, was a key member of the Hands Off Hibs campaign and the longest-serving general secretary of the HIbs Supporters Club at Sunnyside.

Juggling his duties as a schoolteacher during the intense campaign, Bill's main focus, Margaret explains, was ensuring a vital element of the local community was not lost forever.

She said: "Sunnyside was the beating heart of the campaign and Bill was absolutely distraught and determined to find a way round the merger plan.

"He believed it was a terrible thing to happen to the community of Leith and the people he valued.

"For sure, the football was important but that wasn't key to him. He saw the takeover as being a disaster for the area and he acted with integrity throughout.

"When the bid was withdrawn you couldn't move down Easter Road. It was jampacked, but such a lovely atmosphere. It was as if they had won the cup."

David Larter (Hibs)

Former goalkeeper David Larter was playing for Montrose at the time of the merger bid, where he would go on to become the Angus club's record appearance holder.

Brought up in Fountainbridge, David, 60, was destined to follow the Jam Tarts like his dad, but a curious quirk of fate, in the form of the No1 bus, tempted him to Easter Road instead.

"My first game was aged 5, and, being a goalkeeper, Jim Cruickshank was a big hero for me," recalls David.

"Most of us were going to watch Hearts, but my dad was a bus driver at the time and used to drive the No1 buses that went to Easter Road We decided one day we were fed up just walking down to the game and wanted to get on a bus on the Saturday instead. So Hibs it was. My dad was devastated!"

Having a very personal connection to both sides of the Edinburgh footballing divide, David was not an advocate of Mr Mercer's plans.

He said: "I think it was just unbelievable. I was just stunned. I remember thinking how could this happen - even Hearts fans were saying it was ridiculous.

"He [Mercer] couldn't have possibly thought he was going to bring along the core of the Hibs or Hearts support, but, had the general public not got behind the Hands Off Hibs campaign, it could have happened.

"I think it's like lockdown, it brings a side in people that we never knew we had. It brought out a side of Edinburgh that we actually could support each other.

"Hearts fans did support the Hibs through that time. It brought them together in the fact that they didn't want to be together."

Innes Thomson (Hearts)

Innes Thomson says his whole family were Hearts die hards, but believes the club would have been “soiled” by an amalgamation. Despite his maroon allegiance, Innes, who now lives in Australia, was among the many Hearts fans to briefly cross the Edinburgh footballing divide and join the Hands Off Hibs rallies.

“For me at the time, all I knew is I had no interest in following an ‘Edinburgh United’,” says Innes, 52, “I saw no value in a club that had green and maroon colours, I probably felt that my club would’ve been soiled with such an amalgamation.

“I felt no threat being in the very terracing that ordinarily I would’ve been slinging faux hardman venom at during the cauldron that is an Edinburgh Derby. Here I was surrounded by Hibs fans in the Dunbar End protesting at the very notion of our clubs being merged.

“I’m not sure in actual fact, that anyone knew I wasn’t a Hibs fan, save for the mates that I was with. I don’t think it mattered; in a strange paradox, it was football fans rebelling against the Capitalist ideology that football was business, not sport.

“I believe that Edinburgh, and Scottish Football in general needs two Clubs in the nation’s capital.

“Our respective histories are far too deep, long and precious to forego.

“I am somewhat aghast, although not entirely surprised, by the apparent delight of many Hibs fans thoughts on Hearts being ejected from the SPFL.

“Dark times with unimagined consequences for all. I have no interest in clubs perishing as a result of current events, least of all, my much-disliked city rivals, had the tables been turned.”

David Barr (Hearts)

Lifelong Tynecastle devotee David Barr, 70, admits that, while he was initially rather amused by the notion of his club buying out its bitter rivals, he soon realised things would never be the same without Hibs.

"I could hardly believe it,” says semi-retired electrician David, “I thought it was a bit of a joke at first, but I wasn't for it at all once I reflected on it.

"Quickly, I realised what you'd be missing, even if I did wonder whether we could challenge the Old Firm.

"It wasn't an amalgamation. There was a feeling Hibs would be done in and that would be it. Part of our heritage growing up in Edinburgh would be gone. I'm glad it didn't happen.

"In a way, Mercer saved Hibs. He gave them that spur that the fans needed and soon their sugar daddy, Tom Farmer, came in.

"Mercer saw the chance to make a few bucks, but ultimately made life a hell of a lot harder for himself, with police outside his house, under threat etc.

"Hearts and Hibs need each other, though both sets of fans will deny it. The biggest days of the season are the derbies.

"I could certainly sympathise with the Hibs support. I was one of the few Hearts fans who felt sorry for the Hibs after the 2012 cup final, thinking of all those parents bringing along their young kids there that day.

"It's never an easy life being a Hearts or Hibs fan!"

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