TIME FOR FOOTBALL TO DANCE A DIFFERENT TUNE
Time for football to dance a different tune
HELLO, hello, we are the Billy Boys.
Hello, hello. you'll know us by our noise...
For obvious reasons I'm not going to print the full lyrics of that well known football party song.
They did. however, appear in the latest issue of TAWSIE: the Northern Ireland football fanzine.
At first I was rather taken aback when I saw them; I mean, were the producers of this publication actually encouraging Northern Ireland fans to sing this song?
Within seconds though I realised I'd grasped the wrong end of the stick.
The piece was not a sing-a-long lyric sheet. Quite the reverse, in fact - an appeal for supporters to desist from giving that particular tune an airing at Windsor Park.
In the light of the Omagh atrocity, it was laudible enough.
Yet the fanzine people had obviously written this before Omagh, and before the resultant cancellation of the international friendly against Malta.
Obviously their sales took quite a hit as a result of the big game being called off. but I'm more than happy to convey their message.
The Bridgetown Billy Boys." who inspired the song were a Glasgow street gang from the Twenties and Thirties.
They were formed by a bloke called Billy Fullerton. who had the misfortune of being the victim of an axe attack after scoring the winning goal in a park game.
The assailant was a Catholic, and for the next decade or so the 'Billy Boys" from Bridgetown vowed - and in many cases exacted - retribution.
They met their Waterloo courtesy of the police back in 1934 but their memory remains immortalised in that song.
And it still gets a regular blast at the likes of Ibrox and Windsor Park.
To be honest this anachronistic ditty causes little offence to the non-Protestant layers of Rangers. Linfield and Northern Ireland.
I have yet to hear of one of them being even slightly bothered by it.
And its sentiments have been dulled by constant repetition: indeed. I doubt if many of those who sing it actually know what it's meant to be about.
But it does cause offence to Northern Ireland's Catholic supporters - and indeed to the moderate Protestant ones as well.
It is. after all. a blatantly sectarian song. Mind you. it was notable by its absence at grounds throughout the country last Saturday.
So. too. were the often inflammatory - or retaliatory, depending on your viewpoint - songs from "the other side."
The minute's silence so meticulously observed in the stands was followed by commendable restraint during the games themselves.
It would be great if this was a permanent addition to the watershed of Omagh. 1998.
No-one is asking football fans to be cissies: it is a tribal game after all. and the terraces will never be places for the sensitive or easily offended.
Referees will continue to be blind, and footballers and managers will continue to be both fat and illegitimate.
But the cessation of sectarian songs, although infinitesimal in"the great scheme of things, would certainly he a gesture in the right direction.
Those who 'know us by our noise' might appreciate our silence at this difficult time.
They certainly did last weekend.
HELLO, hello, we are the Billy Boys.
Hello, hello. you'll know us by our noise...
For obvious reasons I'm not going to print the full lyrics of that well known football party song.
They did. however, appear in the latest issue of TAWSIE: the Northern Ireland football fanzine.
At first I was rather taken aback when I saw them; I mean, were the producers of this publication actually encouraging Northern Ireland fans to sing this song?
Within seconds though I realised I'd grasped the wrong end of the stick.
The piece was not a sing-a-long lyric sheet. Quite the reverse, in fact - an appeal for supporters to desist from giving that particular tune an airing at Windsor Park.
In the light of the Omagh atrocity, it was laudible enough.
Yet the fanzine people had obviously written this before Omagh, and before the resultant cancellation of the international friendly against Malta.
Obviously their sales took quite a hit as a result of the big game being called off. but I'm more than happy to convey their message.
The Bridgetown Billy Boys." who inspired the song were a Glasgow street gang from the Twenties and Thirties.
They were formed by a bloke called Billy Fullerton. who had the misfortune of being the victim of an axe attack after scoring the winning goal in a park game.
The assailant was a Catholic, and for the next decade or so the 'Billy Boys" from Bridgetown vowed - and in many cases exacted - retribution.
They met their Waterloo courtesy of the police back in 1934 but their memory remains immortalised in that song.
And it still gets a regular blast at the likes of Ibrox and Windsor Park.
To be honest this anachronistic ditty causes little offence to the non-Protestant layers of Rangers. Linfield and Northern Ireland.
I have yet to hear of one of them being even slightly bothered by it.
And its sentiments have been dulled by constant repetition: indeed. I doubt if many of those who sing it actually know what it's meant to be about.
But it does cause offence to Northern Ireland's Catholic supporters - and indeed to the moderate Protestant ones as well.
It is. after all. a blatantly sectarian song. Mind you. it was notable by its absence at grounds throughout the country last Saturday.
So. too. were the often inflammatory - or retaliatory, depending on your viewpoint - songs from "the other side."
The minute's silence so meticulously observed in the stands was followed by commendable restraint during the games themselves.
It would be great if this was a permanent addition to the watershed of Omagh. 1998.
No-one is asking football fans to be cissies: it is a tribal game after all. and the terraces will never be places for the sensitive or easily offended.
Referees will continue to be blind, and footballers and managers will continue to be both fat and illegitimate.
But the cessation of sectarian songs, although infinitesimal in"the great scheme of things, would certainly he a gesture in the right direction.
Those who 'know us by our noise' might appreciate our silence at this difficult time.
They certainly did last weekend.
Further Information
Publisher: BELFAST TELEGRAPH
Ref: BT/0269
Published Date: 25-Aug-98
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