Time For The Fat Lady To Sing On Abusive Songs

The following was submitted by mcfcirish.

I have decided to write this article about a subject that I am sure divides football fans opinion; abusive songs/chants. Chanting and singing are and will always be part of the spectacle of football, so let me say straight off that I am not calling for a ban on singing at football games!

Perhaps I can put forward an example if a song that bugs me, the song in question is ‘The Fields of Athenry’. I’ve always hated the damned thing, as an proud Irishman this song is far from patriotic, all it does is drag up the past and has an air of ‘small oppressed nation’ nonsense that bugs me. As I mentioned I feel it drags up the past and while football should treasure its history the history of nations, conflicts etc, has no place whatsoever in football. After all is that not the reason we come to watch football? To get away from religion, politics, etc?

‘The Fields of Athenry’ is a song that has been adopted by Munster rugby fans, let me first say for those not up on their geography, Athenry is in Galway which is in the province of Connacht and NOT in Munster so why they sing it is beyond me. The same song has also been adopted by a certain section of Glasgow, why they feel the need to sing it at a football game I’ll never know, if they were so interested in bringing up the past and shouting at people on the opposite side of the fence then maybe they should consider a job in politics.

This song and many others are, in my view, one of the main reason we no longer see international friendlies between the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and England. These kinds of games would be passionate enough affairs even if sectarian etc songs were banned so let’s stop the singing of these songs altogether and have friendlies that fans of the three above nations can get excited about. The majority of fans from the three nations are I’m sure, totally fed up about hearing about the past and just want to enjoy an ‘international’ derby game or two. Maybe I’m asking too much, hopefully I have given people who may sing these kind of songs something to think about.

Now, onto the clubs scene, again chanting and singing is a BIG part of club football, it adds to the atmosphere and fun at games of football. But like its international counterpart, there are songs that couldn’t have less to do with football. United fans seem to think it’s clever to sing and make fun of Hillsborough and we City fans think it’s alright to sing about the Munich air disaster. Both of those examples were obvious cases of human tragedy and disaster, we may dislike our archenemies on the football field and on the terraces but when we start singing about events, where lives have been lost, then we are crossing the line.

One thing that seems to confuse me is the fact parents seem to be concerned about their kids hearing swearing at football grounds but aren’t concerned about songs that make fun of events of the past just as bad? Surely if a kid grows up hearing this kind of stuff he or she will think it is ok to make light of the same or similar events in the future. Football has made great strides in stamping out racism at grounds and all those involved should be applauded for it but what I am asking now is that we all try and get together and put a lid on abusive songs based on religion and history. We fans are proud of our clubs, why should we feel the need to tarnish our beloved club’s image by singing such songs? Surely we are better than that? I am not for one minute saying singing should be banned because if I were, we may as well ban the whole game while we are at it. Singing and teasing is part of the game but there is a line and surely if clubs and fans can get together to establish where that line is, then all the better for the game as a whole. I hope that I have given everyone something to think about and let me end by saying I’ll be looking forward to seeing you and hearing you all on the terraces soon.

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