Killing Neil Lennon Perhaps a Step Too Far?

My pernickety internet seems to have fixed itself, so I can get back to posting some stuff (I'm sure you've all been dismayed by the absence of my writing of late).

Circumstances dictate that I need to, yet again, write about the Old Firm. Trust me, I'm as bored of writing about them as you are of reading it, but the current story in the news demands our attention.

There is an ongoing police investigation into what have now been confirmed to be letter bombs sent to Celtic manager Neil Lennon, as well as Celtic FC lawyer Paul McBride QC, who has been prominent in the Scottish press of late due to his pointless war of words with the SFA (Here is a quick paraphrased summary of his opinions: "Boo hoo, waa waa! Everyone hates Celtic! Nobody has mentioned my name for over 50 seconds! Why do I, a respected professional, still feel the need to publicly bleat and pout over trivial nonsense! I am a tosser and was shit at actually playing football at school!"). Interestingly, a bomb was also sent to obscure former Deputy Speaker of the Scottish Parliament Trish Godman MSP, whose only 'offense' of late was to wear a Celtic top to Holyrood one day.

The targeting of Ms Godman suggests that the perpetrator(s) of these attempted attacks, assuming they are all part of the same plot, are eerily avid followers of devolved Scottish government. Even I had no idea who Trish Godman was. I assumed at first that she might be Phil Godman's mum, and so felt that her letter bomb could be forgiven.

Seriously though, these attempted attacks are simply disgraceful. When people are victims of attempted murder simply for being associated with a football club then society really has got something to answer for. Letter bombs are weapons associated with the Troubles of the 70's; at least the IRA were nominally fighting for an 'independent' Northern Ireland. The perpetrators of this attack are pissed off at a football manager. That people such as that can continue to live in our country is an indictment on us all; how could such idiots be allowed to act like this. Does nobody know them? Has nobody the guts to report these criminals? And have our football clubs, our police and our government failed so utterly to condone and eradicate such idiocy?

The full details of this incident are, as I have said, not yet known. I speculate that this crime was either orchestrated or executed in Northern Ireland. The bullets sent in the post earlier this year to Lennon came from Northern Ireland after all. If this is the case, then these idiots/terrorists can fuck right off back to the Maze. People of their ilk have done enough attempting to destroy what little peace and social cohesion the United Kingdom has achieved in the Province at the cost of numerous lives. For some wannabe hard men to then perpetrate attacks on Scottish soil apparently only because of a mere "footballing rivalry" is enough to make my blood boil. While there is a lot of violence and hatred,there is precious little of this 'old school' sectarianism in the Old Firm rivalry these days. What little remains is perpetrated almost exclusively by Northern Irelanders living either in the Province or the West of Scotland (this is the police and government view, not just my own opinion).

It is simply depressing to live in Scotland or Northern Ireland when events like these letter bombs or the recent Irish car bombs remind us that some things simply have not changed. Idiocy for idiocy's sake is about as low as a person can sink.

GM