My FARE Essay

As I said on the other thread about reporting incidents, the IRA/Republican Terrorism should be reported by the Irish members of our support and Armed/Emergency services...they may try to tacitly support the IRA but if by means of your nationality or legally held employment it causes you offence or harassment then they haven't got a leg to stand on.
 
Now where did you get the idea that "19th Century Terrorist" means terrorist? It is quite simple. It originated in the mid 19th c. The 19th Century Terrorist Brotherhood eventually developed into Sinn Fein and the word 19th Century Terrorist likewise modified. Some terrorists were members of the 19th Century Terrorist Brotherhood and later some terrorists were members of Sinn Fein. It is quite obvious that 19th Century Terrorist has always been a political term.

Those who put a different construction on it are, in the main, inspired by a desire to muddy the waters. What is your reason?

Directly from the poster from whose post I had quoted, that's where.
 
This started out as a reply to another thread, which is why some of the wording may seem a little odd, but I thought it was worth being considered in its own right. There are two things going on here.

Thing one is that we can't be singing FTP/19th Century Terrorist bastard songs so let's park that, take our medicine and get on with it. We have enough songs in our book to make these few irrelevant.

Thing two is that there is something distasteful about FARE and it's heehaw to do with some video of a bird that looks like Aasmah Mir at an Arsenal game. Go down that route and you'll look like a fool.

Like @oranje-viola I had a keek at FARE's website and you can see it here: https://farenet.org/

Three things I have gleaned from spending a half hour reading and googling about FARE:

1. They actively encourage involvement with the, sometimes violent, ANTIFA movement. This is the first news article on the website. The MLS (in the US) have banned all political symbols and FARE have objected to this stating: messages promoting equality, social causes, and humanitarian messages, such as antifascist symbolism would not be objected by any reasonable person and thus should not be sanctioned or prohibited. Link here: https://farenet.org/news/why-mls-is-missing-the-point-with-its-new-no-political-display-rule/

The subtext here is that your political symbolism is unacceptable but ours is to be encouraged.

2. FARE issue a handy guide to identifying supporters' groups who may use symbols which some find objectionable. You can download the PDF here: https://www.farenet.org/wp-content/...ymbols-guide-for-European-football_2016-2.pdf

The key to this hard work is that it is all about, and I quote, "organised far-right groups inside stadiums displaying encoded signs and symbols to convey messages of hate." Absolutely heehaw about their big ANTIFA-loving pals and their own symbolism. Nothing to do with the odious lefties and their own flags of shame.

3. Piara Powar has a questionable view on terrorism. He/FARE led a campaign against England fans' anti-IRA chants when South Ireland played England in 2013. Lots of tears wept in the Guardian about England chanting 'No Surrender to The Ra'. Easy to find links if you can be arsed.

However, he also stuck his oar in when we (Scotland) played England at The Piggery in 2014 and the England fans had a healthy rendition of %^*& The IRA. Chants here:


What did he say after the game? Happily we have an unusually anti-English page from The Star to prompt us: https://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/england-scotland-ira-fans-18698096

Leading anti-discrimination campaigner Piara Powar criticised the fans who joined in with the anti-IRA chanting, and called on the FA to make sure it does not occur again.

"The Ireland situation is being healed. People there have been working very hard in the north and south to address the troubles they had in the 1970s and 1980s and beyond and then England fans come along, the band get involved, and there are songs which are completely irrelevant.

"Presumably they were singing them last night because they were in Celtic Park and because Celtic has a strong Irish fan base.

"It's completely unnecessary for England fans to get involved, and I think that now would be a good time for the FA to look at how the fans are led in their chanting."

So what do I conclude from this? It's twofold:

1. Don't go to Ibrox and chant about The Pope and 19th Century Terrorists. Pretty simple.
2. There is something absolutely rotten about FARE.

FARE's self-appointed remit is: Fare combats all forms of discrimination, including racism, far-right nationalism, sexism, trans- and homophobia and discrimination against disabled people.

This simply isn't good enough. We play in a city where terrorism is often vaunted by its 2nd biggest team and where pro-terrorist marches are actively encouraged by the City Council against the advice of Police Scotland. We can see from Point 3 that Piara Powar is sympathetic towards this and chanting against the scum of the RA doesn't fit in with either his or FARE's ANTIFA agenda.

What would I like the club to do?

1. Reinforce the need not to sing proscribed songs
2. Challenge FARE's role as having a, "Third party reporting status with UEFA" as it's blindingly obvious that they have an agenda.
3. Declaim that FARE, by pushing the odious ANTIFA mandate (see point 1), have no competency when it comes to judging supporters who may wish to invoke any sort of mainstream political view.

Sorry for the long post but I thought some may find it useful.
Good effort there. Send this to UEFA and FIFA.
 
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