The Old Firm I: Roots of A Rivalry

By: JT | October 15th, 2007

Look, like everyone else out there, I try to avoid reading historical accounts of anything, because they are usually about as exciting as those monotone fools who are announcing the National League Championship Series on TBS. Talk about destroying a sporting event for the viewer!

But when it comes to the Old Firm, you’ve got to understand the history to really know what the match means to supporters, players, and staff alike. Its more than just a simple rivalry fueled by on-the-pitch competition. The Old Firm story is rife with political, religious, and sporting intrigue, unbelievable footballing success, and two sets of supporters who identify more with their football club than with anything else on this earth.

You know that I’m a Celtic supporter, so there may be a tint of green bias as I tell the Old Firm story, but I do get much of the info from “neutral sources” so this should all be on the mark. The roots of this rivalry can be found in only one place. Northern Ireland.

NORTHERN IRELAND

I’m going to go through this quick, because its only part of the story, though it is essential. I can’t do full justice to the complexity of the issue here, nor will I attempt to. If you are closer to the situation than I, please understand. If not, you’ll probably learn something.

***** Terminology note: Nationalist and Republican are used interchangeably to mean supporters of Ireland as one nation, or a united Republic of Ireland. They tend to be Catholic. In modern times, these are generally Celtic supporters.

Unionist and Loyalist are used interchangeably to mean supporters of a union with Great Britain, or loyalty to the British crown. They tend to be Protestant. In modern times, these are generally Rangers supporters. *****

Northern Ireland has always been strong territory for resistance to English rule in Ireland. Even before a significant English and Scottish population moved into the six counties that would later form Northern Ireland after the Flight of the Earls in 1607, the northern Irish province of Ulster was well-known to be a strongly nationalistic area, and the heart of opposition to the crown since the late 1500’s.

When the War of Two Kings ended in 1691, the Protestant Ascendancy became the preeminent political, economic, and social force in Ireland. These Anglican land owners, Church of Ireland clergy, and wealthy professionals dominated the traditionally Catholic Irishmen, even going so far as to codify this discrimination in the Penal Laws. These internal tensions led to the Irish Rebellion of 1798, which the British put down after a few months, but which saw several abominable sectarian massacres on both sides.

The Act of Union 1800 merged the Kingdom of Great Britain (England & Scotland) with the Kingdom of Ireland to create the brilliantly named United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Both the government and the monarchy were London-based. Tensions continued at a low boil until 1912 when the prospect of greater autonomy for Ireland was granted. The unionists in the north were in full opposition to “home rule”, creating their own militia called the Ulster Volunteers to make sure it didn’t happen. Home rule was passed in 1914, with the northern six counties still being governed by London. Civil war looked inevitable. The only thing that prevented implementation of the Government of Ireland Act 1914 and an immediate outbreak was World War I cracking open the continent.

By the time that WWI wrapped up in 1918, the Government of Ireland Act of 1914 was meaningless, as the demands from the nationalists grew from home rule to independence. The Easter Rising of 1916, its bloody aftermath, and Britain’s attempts to conscript the Irish to serve in the war in Europe saw to that.

The Irish War for Independence kicked off in early 1919, with most of the fighting taking place between the pro-one Ireland Irish Republican Army and British regular forces. The British government attempted to resolve the situation and protect their allies in the north of Ireland with the Government of Ireland Act of 1920. This created two “home rule” parliaments in Ireland, one in the south and one in the northern six counties. This was accepted as law in the north, where the loyalists who were in the majority began setting up their new government, but rejected by the leaders of the Irish resistance, who already viewed Ireland as a united state. The fighting in Northern Ireland during the war was not so much between the IRA and the British, but between Catholic and Protestant. It wasn’t pretty. In fact, it was damn ugly.

The Anglo-Irish treaty ended the War for Independence in 1921 (though fighting still went on), and provided for the partition of Northern Ireland. The treaty allowed the North to remove itself from the Irish Free State, which it quickly did. The split between those who supported the treaty and those against it led to the Irish Civil War, which the pro-treaty folks eventually won.

After the violence of the early 1920’s, sectarian conflict reared its head sporadically, but things were as stable as they could be considering the circumstances. Since the mid-1960’s and the creation of ideologically-based paramilitaries, violence or the threat of it has become a day-to-day reality for the people of Northern Ireland. From 1969-2001, over 3,500 people have been killed in “The Troubles”. Republican forces are responsible for about 60% of those deaths, with Loyalists at 30% and security forces at 10%.

WHAT THE HELL DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH FOOTBALL?

The answer to this question is far less complex than the description of the history. Beginning in the late 1700’s, primarily because of the instability in Ireland, various famines, high unemployment and sectarianism in the North, many Irish emigrated to Scotland, and specifically, the east side of Glasgow. There they settled, and Celtic Football Club was formed in 1888, modeled on Hibernian FC who were founded by Irish immigrants a dozen years earlier in Edinburgh. The purpose of the club was to alleviate poverty in the East End of Glasgow.

Rangers FC was founded in 1873, though there was no precise ethnic or religious affiliation involved, and the purpose was, well, to play football.

Originally, the clubs were friendly rivals, so much so that the term “Old Firm” refers to the flourishing business partnership that the clubs enjoyed from their frequent matches in the early days of professional Scottish football.

But as events transpired in Ireland, many of the Irish who lived in Glasgow began to connect with their troubled brethren in their native land through Celtic. The club and its supporters began to identify themselves with the cause of republicanism, and matches became an opportunity to express solidarity in song and on the pitch with the Irish fighting the British in Ireland.

As mentioned above, Rangers was not founded with any religious or ethnic affiliation. So how exactly they became identified with loyalty to the crown is unknown to me. Certainly the wealth in Glasgow, as well as the heritage, was in the Protestant’s favor in the early 1900’s. Marches led by the Orangemen, which celebrated William of Orange’s victory at the Battle of the Boyne over predominantly Catholic forces, have been held in Glasgow for years. These marches are always good for getting people heated and close to violence, but how these things relate to Rangers’ political leanings is unknown. The circumstances obviously existed for Rangers to become the “Protestant Club”, but how it transpired, I just don’t know.

Maybe it made sense to support the opposition to the upstart, immigrant Irish through football. Maybe Celtic’s obvious allegiances made them easy targets for banter and chants. I’m not sure how it occurred exactly, but it definitely did. (if you know anything about how this happened, please fill me in and I’ll update the post).

So, through the lens of what was going in Ireland, Old Firm matches became a manifestation of the hatred between Catholics and Protestants which existed for centuries and many a war had been fought over.

It should be mentioned that both Rangers and Celtic have come to grips with the fact that sectarianism exists and is a huge part of the rivalry. They have done some things to help sort the situation out, but sometimes I think that’s just lip service.

You can bet the house that you’ll hear old IRA tunes being belted out by the Celtic support come this Saturday. And you can also be sure that you’ll be able to detect the strands of “Billy’s Boys” (remembering the Battle of the Boyne) emanating from pretty close to every corner of Ibrox as well.

The history isn’t pretty, it isn’t perfect, and to some its unfathomable that battles from the 1600’s are still being used as motivational tools for football matches in a modern society. For good or ill, it is this way and its always going to be this way. Hopefully, knowing the history will help you understand it a bit better.