I was talking to a socialist friend some time ago when he brought up the International Brigades who fought against Franco's fascists in the viciously brutal Spanish Civil War. The Republicans, for whom the International Brigades fought – many hailing from Scotland – ultimately lost, resulting in Franco's undisputed power to violently oppress dissenters and persecute any expressions of culture that didn't fit with his view of Spain.
I referred to the savagery of the war and the wilful slaughter of approximately 7,000 Catholic priests and nuns. “Could anyone justify that?” I asked. “Of course not.”
“But those killings were carried out by the International Brigades – almost every division of them.”
I never received a satisfactory answer to how someone can give blanket support to the International Brigades and claim to be appalled by deliberate slaughter carried out as part of a process that subordinated humanity to their espoused ideology.
If you're reading this, there's a fair chance that you, too, would consider yourself an intuitive supporter of the Spanish Republicans and almost certainly not a fascist. And, in my experience, the majority of people who hark back to those days of the glorious fight against Franco know very little about the sordid details of what really went on.
Because, frankly, most people who shout from the rooftops about militant causes are too intellectually lazy to really inform themselves about the inconvenient details. As humans, we have a tendency to favour binary choices – you're with us or against us; the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
And in doing so we naturally amplify the horrors of those perceived as our enemies while muting or mitigating the wrongdoings of “our side”.
So people who would castigate Ulster loyalist terrorists for targeting Catholics for murder can praise the International Brigades for far exceeding those crimes without a moment of self-reflection.
But facts matter and so do principles and so do human lives – all of them.
And so we come to what really should – but probably won't – be the final chapter of the Green Brigade Saga – or “How We Took an Esteemed Football Club and Made it all About Us”.
I have already made my feelings known about the Green Brigade's most recent attention-seeking behaviours.
The suspension of approximately 200 tickets has been met with predictable ire amongst fans to whom the Board of Directors can do no right and thus, through the “enemy of my enemy” doctrine, decided that the Green Brigade are being unjustly punished.
Despite the lengthy list of complaints against them – many of them extremely serious – the popular view of that is “TLDR”; “They're being banned for opposing genocide”; “It's cos the Board are Tories!”; “I stand with the Green Brigade”.
So you stand with the violence and intimidation towards other Celtic supporters and people who work at the ground, many of them Celtic fans and mostly doing low-paid, casual work. Could you tell me is that being done in the name of socialism, Irish republicanism or the people of Palestine?
The pyro (yes, it's dangerous as well as illegal and both safety and punishments against Celtic matter); the breaking into Celtic Park, rushing gates, trying to break in through fire exits. You stand with that, too.
The “Pigwatch” whereby this clan of juvenile delinquents publish photographs of police officers, seeking to identify them and put their details online. Of course you stand with that because “ACAB!”
The Green Brigade have drawn much praise for their displays and their charity collections (though the list of groups and individuals that have used charity work to whitewash their reputations is peppered with people with whom decent folk would rather not be associated).
But this is what it's about for them – their own profile and Celtic is just a convenient platform from which to project their logo across the Internet.
And in doing so now, they are not just flying the Palestinian flag but hiding behind it. They are taking the symbol of an oppressed people and using it like a cheap throw to cover some nasty stains.
And, if social media is any guide, most supporters are falling for it hook, line and sinker.
This group, mark you, doesn't see you as its equal. With its secretive membership, and privileged status within the club allowing it to make territorial claims, home and away, has come an elitism to which many fans have become only too willing to doff their bunnets.
Because, wherever there are bullies and self-appointed bad-boys, there are snivelling suck-ups who think they can get some reflected cool points for supporting them. They are the Richard Hammonds to the Jeremy Clarksons of the world.
And then there is the Celtic Trust – another group that sees itself as speaking for Celtic supporters in their own elitist way. They have spoken out in support of the Green Brigade, presumably to emphasise how much better they are than the directors whose positions they covet.
Celtic should – but almost certainly won't – stand firm until the Green Brigade stops becoming a topic. I say they won't because the Board seems to be filled with cowardly stuffed shirts who understand conservative financial policies but nothing at all about strategy.
So it seems inevitable that they'll sit down with the usual suspects who reckon they represent the intelligentsia within the Celtic support.
And they'll thrash out a tentative agreement, again! And the Green Brigade will break it, again! And we'll go through the same process, again.
And we'll be urged to stand with the Green Brigade, again!
Another international break is past, another visit to Tynecastle looms, another Champions League week to whet our appetites - and what, against a backdrop of unspeakable evil on the world stage, are we talking about? The Green Brigade.
I've expressed mixed feelings about them in the past: I've condemned them, criticised them, praised them and defended them.
And all of that is quite appropriate. Because as for Oscar Wilde, the only thing worse for the Green Brigade than being talked about is not being talked about - and that can't be allowed to go on for long.
The last two weeks have seen yet another division based on whether the Green Brigade do or don't “speak for me”. Has there ever been a precedent for a fan group that quite deliberately sets itself apart from the main, diverse body of Celtic supporters and demanded that everyone pick a side? (Of course there were other fans' groups who either faded away or lost some battle for pre-eminence as the only show in town – but we don't talk about them.)
— Hooligans.cz Official (@hooliganscz1999) May 1, 2022
There have been statements authored by the types we all know. The people who call themselves republican socialists who don't so much believe in those values as they project them like vegans declaring the heinousness of carnivores at dinner parties.
And, all the while, they get the support of mediocre academics and white, middle-class fan media commentators who see their bread being buttered on the side that exalts cosy rebelliousness from people who would have to run to the toilet if they heard a car backfiring.
To the last rebel
Rebels? Really? There's a difference between being rebels and being belligerents; modern-day Wild Ones answering, "What are you rebelling against?" with, "Whaddya got?"
The views the Green Brigade claim to espouse chime with those of fans who see our club as being born of oppression, a reaction against prejudice, racism, religious bigotry and injustice.
Yet it's possible to believe all of those things without feeling that only the Green Brigade can preach the revealed Word; just as it's possible to consider yourself a Labour Party supporter who is neither a blindly loyal adherent of Jeremy Corbyn nor Keir Starmer - and maybe feel that you preferred something about the party in another era.
Their latest show support of the Palestinians would be laudable were it not for the sheer crassness of its timing and the manner in which it was done.
It's no exaggeration to say that when I woke up to the shock of the Hamas attacks, my thoughts were firstly with the people harmed and in terror; followed by a sickening anticipation of just how brutally Israel would inevitably respond and then, “I wonder what the Green Brigade will do to make it about them?”
Centre: Green Brigade banners and (l) Sideshow: Celtic players
They didn't disappoint.
Do people have a right to fly Palestinian flags at games or elsewhere? Yes. Is there a wider context? Also yes - more than one, in fact - but they are not easily conveyed with a spray-can.
But it would be unforgivably dishonest to ignore the fact that the Green Brigade's actions (at Celtic v Kilmarnock!) were justifiably interpreted as an expression of a palpable glee that Hamas had launched such an audacious attack and that many Israelis had been killed, wounded, kidnapped or terrified. There would have been no reasonable room for doubting that even without the “Victory to the Resistance” banners and – as appalling as it was ludicrous – Hamas-ispired flags.
(There have been risible claims that the green flag with white writing in Arabic saying "ultras Celtic" just coincidentally evokes the style of the official Hamas flag. They belong with excuses that the Totenkopf flag with "936", flown at Ibrox, was just an unfortunate choice of clipart for an ICF flag - in the bin.)
Let me make it clear. I can very easily relate to why many Palestinians, abandoned by what purports to be the civilised world, choose to support Hamas or, even if they don't, refuse to be drawn into condemnation of them. Equally, I can relate to the many Palestinians who are opposed to Hamas, tolerate them distrustfully or even suspect them of actively working with the other side. (Despite what some would have you believe, all of those views can be found by both Palestinian and Israeli individuals.)
As if we did not know! Netanyahu: Money to Hamas part of strategy to keep Palestinians divided | The Jerusalem post https://t.co/V1CdsOMBg4
Let's also be clear: there can be no false equivalency between the plights of the Palestinian and Israeli peoples. It should also be understood that death, suffering, fear, and grief are universal experiences, felt as keenly by all, regardless of nationality, culture, or beliefs. Decent people should recognize that the victims of war have an equal right to compassion. This is a truth often understood by war survivors but scorned by armchair warriors for whom battle is merely televised entertainment.
And, just as I would never dare to condemn any Palestinians – whose connection to the horrors that are ongoing now, and who have been suffering persecution and injustice since their land was taken from them – for how they see their plight best expressed, neither would I presume that they must share my perspective of the issues that affect them viscerally.
And, yet, with their typical sledgehammer understanding of politics and war, that's just what the Green Brigade did with those Hamas banners.
They conflated Palestinian solidarity with support for a group that is in direct opposition to the Palestinian authority and many of its people. A group that controls Gaza, largely thanks to Israel's blockade.
It's as egregious an error as conflating Judaism with the state of Israel, Protestantism with the Orange Order or Irishness with the Provisional IRA – and we know where the Green Brigade stand on those positions.
But worse – far worse than that – is the irreparable harm that flying those banners will have done to Palestinians themselves. Why? (Perhaps this was being profoundly pondered as the spray cans hissed and the delicious prospect of being shared by Ultras social media channels was being drooled over).
Because the major excuse Israel has given for blockading Gaza and intercepting aid on innumerable occasions has been that it may be a front for smuggling weapons.
Aid worker Mohammad El Halabi was alleged to have funnelled $50m to Hamas
Right now – without exaggeration the Mossad will be paying close attention to everyone involved with the Green Brigade's “fund-raising efforts for Palestine”. Of course they are – you have a group that continually sings about the Provos, who were closely affiliated to the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, another organisation that Israel and its western allies deemed terrorists. Naturally, the majority of the political sages in the Green Brigade are too young to remember the PLO's iconic leader Yasser Arafat, and most of them weren't born when the Provos officially disbanded.
The facts that Arafat was able to win admirers through his efforts to make peace with Israeli governments that considered him a terrorist or that Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness understood that ultimately peace must be negotiated would be of little consequence to the Green Brigade because cheering on the fight from a safe distance is more fun.
And this “football fans'” organisation which embraces low-level criminality as a cultural tattoo believes it can swirl all these issues into one big pyro sing-song and have their charity to Palestine waved on without a raised eyebrow from the Israeli security services.
Has anyone stopped to ask if the flying of the Hamas flag would be worth one aid package to Palestine being blocked? Of course not.
It's worth noting that while many Palestinians interviewed in the Western media avoided criticizing Hamas, others did distance themselves from the attacks and express sympathy with the victims. Few expressed enthusiasm for the events celebrated so vibrantly by the Green Brigade.
To require the Green Brigade's delinquent expressions as thought-leadership is both intellectually lazy and morally vacuous. (I await the charge of being a “snowflake”.)
In recent years, some fans have rightly complained about outrageous harassment from special units of Police Scotland. It's almost comical to think that some of the very same would be thrilled to be elevated to the status of a security threat by Mossad.
Calling on the Green Brigade to consider their values is a futile exercise; they take such entreaties as personal affronts. But any fan has the right to say the Green Brigade speaks only for themselves, not for the club or its supporters as a body.
Yes, they bring banners; yes, they bring noise and yes, they bring colour. But there are those who believe that should give them carte blanche.
Admittedly, they have done well in the aforementioned charity drives for Palestinians and others. Equally, the Celtic Charity Foundation raised £400,000 from one dinner this month and, across the world, countless fans have and still do raise money for charity - large amounts and small.
Charity is part of Celtic's identity and all of it is to be welcomed but it didn't start with the Green Brigade and it certainly won't end with them.
The Green Brigade have been given privileged status by the club and, with that has come a sense of entitlement. They seem to feel that they, and only they, have the good of the club at heart and that, coincidentally, is always what raises the profile of the Green Brigade themselves.
Many say people don't understand Ultras culture, as if we are all too insular to see how football fans organise in central and eastern Europe. We do – ultras culture is most often associated with the far-right that the Green Brigade so despise. It's also associated with the “not here to take part; we're here to take over” culture more often linked with clubs of a nationalist/imperialist agenda.
Green Brigade's IRA-themed Brendan banner
Several of their banners have been out of order, not least when Brendan Rodgers had to criticise them for attaching his image to political messaging he had good reason to wish to eschew.
Unlike most of the Celtic supporters, they have declared Brendan irredeemable, not so much because he left as because they produced a typically childish banner after his move to Leicester from which they cannot step back. Because they can never step back: they lack the maturity for introspection and self-criticism, never mind accepting any from outsiders.
And outsiders are everyone who doesn't worship at their altar. Many do. Many have come round to the board's idea that Celtic is about atmosphere and being loved abroad before fielding a competitive team.
The sort who constantly post selfies in their latest Adidas kit – and doesn't it go well with the latest Stone Island range? The people who boast about how much they spend on merchandise and join in the modern football selfie culture. “Look at me – I'm at the game – amazing atmosphere – goosebumps!”
The irony shouldn't be lost on anyone that Celtic continually tolerate and try to work things out with the Green Brigade because they're a useful marketing tool, who the club uses like a minstrel show. It's one of those tawdry, unspoken deals that serves the interests of both parties – until it doesn't.
The board of directors have acted, with abysmal timing that appeared tin-eared as Israel's bombardment of Gaza escalated. This can be attributed to a "jobs for the boys and girls" culture within Celtic that often renders their media and PR activities amateurish and counter-productive.
The board was partly motivated by the understandably hurt words of Nir Bitton and concerns for Liel Abada, who found himself in an invidious position. Unlike most Celtic fans, both are directly affected by the Hamas attacks and the ongoing war and they have every right to express their feelings robustly during this emotional time.
Due to Celtic being, as ever, behind the curve, events have brought so much misery to the Palestinian people have worked in favour of the Green Brigade. Most fans are no admirers of the board, and the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza has solidified their support for the Palestinians. So, being asked to pick a side has had predictable results.
Green Brigade banned by Celtic for away games amid rising fine fears @NCCeltic This has been a long time coming. I was bullied out of my seat last year in Madrid. Unacceptable behaviour goes a long way back https://t.co/2CrbCG0Bex
However, reports of fans being bullied out of seats, ticket forgeries, and attempts to rush gates and burst open fire exits, among other transgressions, may leave the club with no choice but to take long-lasting action against the Green Brigade, irrespective of the fall-out for their show of support for Hamas.
It is their very determination to live up to the "last rebel" image that evinces the reality that they will never keep to an agreement. It's against their identity and recidivism is inevitable.
If that happens, and Celtic do draw a line, expect fan anger and a flurry of statements from performative rebel socialists. But the club will survive, fans will sing again, and perhaps energies will be refocused on the team and the football.
Congratulations to Manchester City on becoming the third team from the UK to secure a treble including the European Cup/Champions League.
Of course, the first team to do so were Celtic, who completed a quadruple, also against Inter Milan (or a quintuple, if you include the Glasgow Cup).
The match was a tight, tactical affair, with City winning, 1-0, in contrast to the thrashing many pundits were expecting but Celtic fans had an additional interest due to the involvement of Enzo Maresca, currently hotly tipped as a potential successor to Ange Postecoglou at Celtic.
Maresca, a former midfielder with a playing career, in Italy, Spain, England and Greece, has been catching the eye in the coaching world, with Pep Guardiola the most notable admirer. Maresca's journey in football has seen him play for clubs such as West Bromwich Albion, Sevilla and Juventus, coming on as a late substitute in the famous 4-3 Champions League game at Celtic Park.
After transitioning into coaching, Maresca joined Pep Guardiola's Manchester City backroom staff in July 2022, after coaching the Elite Development Squad to their first-ever Premier League 2 title 2021. That link will surely be of interest to the Celtic board as they seek a manager who can deliver success through player development, rather than the chequebook.
The similarities between Guardiola's and Postecoglou's styles should make for a smooth potential transition to Celtic and there are also obvious parallels with Mikel Arteta at Arsenal. Additionally, he would bring elite level performance coaching experience, which should now be a standard qualification for any Celtic Head Coach.
If many are uncomfortable giving the job to someone with no managerial success (his brief spell with Parma ended controversially), it's worth noting that the Celtic manager role has often been a platform for less experienced, but highly promising managers.
Neil Lennon had no coaching experience before first being appointed Celtic manager. Similarly, Ronny Deila – who, like Maresca and Ange Postecoglou, was also nurtured by the City Football Group stable – had only coached with smaller clubs in Norway.
It's also worth remembering that the highest level of coaching includes strong focus on the psychological aspects of the game, which Maresca will certainly be well-versed in, if he has, so far, had few opportunities to lead a top-level group.
While Celtic have a host of interesting candidates, the prospect of Maresca taking the reins at Celtic is an intriguing one.
No appointment is without risk, of course, the “safest” option remaining Brendan Rodgers. Maresca, though, seems to have as strong credentials as it's possible to get, in the absence of a track record of managerial success.
Then again, as the Chinese proverb goes: a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
*This article was updated to include the result of the Champions League final.
