Two years ago today we lost Shane MacGowan on this day he was the outward symbol of what millions of people globally saw as Irishness.  He was and will forever remain at the forefront of Irish music, culture and storytelling.

From his punk days in London in the 1970s and the rise of The Pogues, to his long illness and subsequent withdrawal from public life, Shane took the torch that was passed to him from generations of Irish troubadours and used his rare abilities to reach new heights for Irish folk music.

It is almost 40 years since The Pogues debut album was released.  Red Roses for Me would be the initiation for many to the new wave Irish/Punk/Folk fusion that would allow the band to remain at the pinnacle of the music scene for over a decade and beyond.

For me, as an 8 year old growing up the youngest of 9 children in the east end of Glasgow, I can be thankful to my older siblings for introducing this music to me.  How we consume music has certainly changed in the last 40 years, but the lasting legacy of the unique style Shane had, means he along with The Pogues still list in my top 5 artists when it comes to Spotify Wrapped at the end of every year.

Shane was more than a front man.   He was a teacher, a poet, a director and a star.  He had the ability to not only paint a beautiful picture with his words, but build a set, furnish the surroundings and then make you feel like you were living and breathing every word he sang.   A one-off and a legend in his time.

His tour stories are legendary, all of his gigs memorable to anyone fortunate enough to be there.  I was too young to see The Pogues live first time around, but was lucky to see him play in and around Glasgow, including the reunion tour in 2002.   However to see to him play at the Barrowlands along with the full arrangement of musicians is a memory that will stay with me forever.

From The Pogues to The Popes, the master lyricist always produced a story that had you mesmerised from the opening chords and words.   Collaborations with Sinead O’Connor, Christy Moore, The Dubliners and Johnny Depp all broadened the appeal of the lovable rogue.

A genuine sadness hit me when I heard the sad news of Shanes passing.  So many happy memories of family gatherings and gigs, or introducing his music to my own children now.   Shane has been a staple of my music tastes for 4 decades and his gift to us will be that his music and poetic storytelling has already become part of the great Irish songbook, shared and cherished by those who knew him well, and folk like me who just connected with his music.

 

Christy Moore probably put it best “Fair play to you Shane MacGowan…….but you sure know how to write them boy”

I’ve been loving you a long time,

Down all the years, down all the days

And I’ve cried for all your troubles

Smiled at your funny little ways

Martin Donaldson is a Glasgow East End Bhoy, 

 

 

This could be Rotterdam or anywhere, Liverpool or Rome. Or even Paisley or Edinburgh. What a week it has been for the Celtic Support. 3 Wins from 3 on the road. The week started off at 8pm on Saturday against St. Mirren after another ticket scramble for Celtic fans who just want to watch the team.

ST. MIRREN AWAY 0-1

Most SPFL teams refuse to give us tickets and would rather lose out on cash and have half empty stadiums than give us the chance to watch the team. They also lose out on food and drink sales in the ground. While local businesses also miss out on the match influx of Celtic fans.

The game was a frustrating watch as Celtic huffed and puffed and it looked as if we were going to drop more points in the league until Callum McGregor scored the winner with a wonder strike before running to the Celtic fans behind the goal to celebrate. Final whistle and I enjoyed celebratory pints with my Dad celebrating his 90^th Birthday.

FEYENOORD AWAY

Feyenoord away was the high point of season so far. What a day/night in the Dutch city. Myself and the bhoys journey began on Sunday when we headed for some Winter Sun in Spain to to catch the end of a Trad Festival.

After a brilliant time in Spain we flew direct to Rotterdam from Alicante. Leaving the warm sunshine for the bitter cold of the Dutch city does not sound like a clever idea. Once we met up with the rest of the crew we knew we had made the right  decision.

The craic before the game in the pub was magic. The staff made us feel so welcome and gave us access to their sound system before we headed out into the cold evening to catch the train to the stadium. Getting in the ground took about a half an hour and by the time we got into the top tier the atmosphere was already building up.

Celtic showed plenty of heart fighting back from 1-0 down after the first goal, the noise levels were upped and with each goal the atmosphere grew and grew until it  reached boiling point. I have had so many miserable nights watching Celtic away in Europe this was not one of the them. It was fantastic apart from being held in the stadium for about an hour. With a very early start the following morning this old man headed for his bed while the young crew continued to party into the early hours.

HIBS AWAY 1-2

After the decent away allocation in Rotterdam it was back to Scottish Football and the sad state of it when once again Celtic’s ticket allocation was cut while the rest of the stand lay almost empty.

On the pitch the Celtic players had to dig deep in the second half. Games after European football are never easy but the bhoys showed plenty of courage to ground out the win. I thought at 2-0 at half time it could be game over and hoped for one more Celtic goal to seal the deal. Hibs got a dodgy penalty and converted it. The goal gave the Hibs players and fans a lift. The win takes us to within 2 points of league leaders Hearts.

We’re back on the road on Wednesday when we travel across the water once again to Glasgow for the Dundee game for what we are told again will be Martin O’Neill’s last game in charge. Hearts are at home to Kilmarnock and then on Sunday we do battle with them at Celtic Park.

Andrew Milne is Editor of More than 90 Minutes & host of the Celtic Soul Podcast 

 

Martin O’Neill has made one change to the starting XI from Thursday night’s game in Rotterdam, with Marcelo Saracchi replacing Kieran Tierney at left-back.

CELTIC: Schmeichel, Donovan, Trusty, Scales, Saracchi, McGregor, Hatate, Engels, McCowan, Maeda, Yang.
Subs: Sinisalo, Nygren, Balikwisha, Tounekti, Kenny, Bernardo, Murray, Ralston, Tierney

Kick-off at Easter Road is 12noon. The game is live on Sky Sports Football coverage from 11am. The game will streamed on Celtic TV for Celtic Fans outside Ireland and UK.

Celtic are back in action tonight after the international break in Paisley when they travel to take on St. Mirren in a dress rehearsal for the League Cup Final.

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Today we get back to football in Paisley. Tickets are scarce and the game has a kick off time of 8pm for Sky Television. After yesterdays shambolic AGM it will be good to get back to watching Celtic after a very exciting International break watching Ireland with Liam Scales and Johnny Kenny playing their part.

Kenny spoke to the Press yesterday and described making his debut for his country as surreal after Ireland were written off. The Irish players have united a nation sadly after yesterday AGM a large section of Celtic Fans are now more divided from the Celtic board and Ross Desmond has not helped after he read out a statement from his absent father.

We now need meaningful dialogue to start between Celtic supporters representatives and the Celtic board.

There was no tracksuit yesterday on Celtic manager Martin O’Neill when he met the press ahead of the St. Mirren game this evening.  Instead he was dressed in a sharp suit and club tie at the press conference which came shortly after the abandoned AGM.

The journalist present only wanted his opinion on the AGM instead of the game ahead. Martin mentioned what the great Jock Stein would think what he failed to mention was it was Jock Stein who said ‘Football is nothing without fans”.

Defending Ross Desmond’s (Trump like) statement was a poor judgement on this occasion. Dermot Desmond brought Martin to the club twice and he has been paid handsomely so I can understand that he will not want to bite the hand that feeds him. He mentioned how much money Dermot has put into the club but failed to mention how much you, me and all the other Celtic fans have put into the club.

Lets be honest Dermot would not put his last penny into Celtic but we would. We are there home and away while the Billionaire stays away preferring plush golf clubs in the sun instead of a pie and Bovril on cold match days.

I think Martin should stick to the football side of the club in the short time he has left at the club. He can charm the press but defending Ross Desmond was ill advised in my opinion. Now lets get 3 points today and keep the pressure on league leaders Hearts who travel to Pittodrie tomorrow for a 3pm kick off.

Andrew Milne is Editor of More than 90 Minutes & Host of the Celtic Soul Podcast 

The pantomime season may be just around the corner but it seems to have started earlier this year as the club’s AGM took place at Celtic Park, oh yes it did, sort of!

A shambolic meeting in which the board cemented the very reasons why so many fans are howling for change, and howl they did. While there may not have been any Mars Bars thrown at the current custodians just about everything else bar the kitchen sink was – verbally anyway.

 It was clear right from the first whistle that this AGM wasn’t going to pass as it does most years, stage-managed by the club as a back-patting exercise with a few cheap jibes thrown in about Rangers to appease shareholders, and everyone enjoying a wee cup of tea before heading home happy.

 Shareholders were determined that the usual run of the mill proceedings would be anything but, and before we could even get to the end-of-season-type “glory” video that precedes the resolutions for vote, Peter Lawwell was posed a question from the floor, one he wasn’t willing to answer. He then demanded “respect” but that only prompted numerous shareholders in the audience to question the board’s respect, or lack of, for the fans.

 The AGM was scheduled to start at 10.30am and finish at 12.30pm.

I was in the Number 7 suite/restaurant which was being used as an overflow. As there was a much bigger turnout than normally., However, from my position it was hard to gauge what was going on in the audience in the main room, as the camera focused on the table hosting the board, but red cards could be seen being waved and there were chants of “sack the board”.

The chairman then decided that he was using his authority to adjourn the meeting for 30 minutes which led to an even bigger outpouring of dissent from those within the rooms. He could have rode it out and let the situation calm but he chose to go down a different route, no doubt such an eventuality would have been discussed beforehand.

Let’s get one thing straight here, the dissent wasn’t coming from a small minority. The vast majority of those present seemed to be onside with the protestors.

 The half-hour passed and Lawwell informed the shareholders in the audience that the AGM would finish at 12.30pm as planned, which would either eat into the Q&A or mean it wouldn’t take place at all. When the meeting did resume it did so with the aforementioned video, outlining the previous season’s successes which included the women’s team reaching the Champions League, the Barrowfield development and a variety of improvements at Lennoxtown, such as a cinema room (for match analysis). The video also included interviews with Lawwell and Nicholson which stated the obvious – loosely along the lines of – we want success, we’re Celtic fans too, we hurt too, blah blah!

Then, in an unusual move, Dermot Desmond’s son Ross was given the time to read a statement on his (absent again) father’s behalf.

 He mentioned Fergus McCann asking his father to “help” Celtic in the 90s, before launching an astonishing attack on supporters in which he portrayed his da and the other board members as victims who were refusing to be bullied by those who are “anti-establishment”.

 Does he know anything of Celtic’s history?

It was a disgraceful statement that again showed Desmond (Snr) and the other board members have nothing but contempt for supporters. The audience present responded with what could be described as fury, as shouting broke out before Lawwell called a halt to the proceedings.

Talk about being unable to read the room ffs, if anything it showed the narcissistic side of the directors who seem to lack any self-awareness whatsoever, and Desmond as a self-determined dictator who cares not a jot about anyone bar himself and his cohorts.

The outcome was that Lawwell and Desmond (Jnr) were able to get across the message they wanted to, that seemed to be their only aim, before the meeting was abandoned. Instead of olive branches being offered, battle lines seem to have been drawn.

 The club can ban as many supporters as it wants – this clearly isn’t going away anytime soon, nor quietly.

Michael Pringle is a Glasgow Journalist 

Celtic’s AGM ended prematurely today as Dermot Desmond’s son launched an astonishing attack on our fans.

Ross Desmond, who has probably never paid for so much as a pie at Celtic Park in his life, claimed supporters who have pumped money into the club for years are people whose “only vocation in life is to be  anti-establishment and try to degrade the club”.

It was the latest attack from people at the very top of the club, who think they are above criticism.

Martin O’Neill asked afterwards what Jock Stein would think and given our European record for the past two decades, probably dismay.

Tabloid Tim at the AGM