We decided to do something different, so headed to the Eye cinema. I hadn’t been very often since Covid, something I realised as I handed over more than the cost of the tickets for Coke and popcorn. To be fair, my grandchildren had warned me.

What brought us to the Eye was the new film which is creating waves across the world – Kneecap. The name of course will resonate with many of us of a certain age, as during the conflict years in the Six Counties, the term, ‘watch your kneecaps’ was code to behave yourself in areas under IRA control.

Domiciled in Belfast in my formative years, I was interested to see how a film set in modern, post-conflict times in that former unionist citadel – now perhaps a republican city – featuring a rap group from West Belfast, would translate to the big screen. After 125 minutes of manic cinematography with Liam og (Moglai Bap),  Naoise (Mo Chara)  & JJ O’Doc (DJ Provai) we left the Eye for a much needed aperitif in the G Hotel to decipher what we had just witnessed.

We live in relatively peaceful times today, bar the recent disgraceful scenes of racist fascists on our streets, but 25 years after the Good Friday Agreement, there is a new dynamic in former conflict societies. A new generation of young people have grown up without conflict, and the film highlights this.

In a once divided society there is now a confidence that young people look forward to a better future. The film embraces everything that went before in a highly satirical way, but all through the medium of the Irish language which has flourished in Belfast in an ingenious script written by an Englishman, Rich Peppiatt, who obviously has his finger on the pulse of a post-conflict society.

The film is provocative, challenging, thought-provoking, and creative. It has a brilliant sense of a downtrodden language which was once banned in our schools. That the dialogue would transfix audiences across the pond by winning a gong at the Sundance Film Awards in Utah earlier this year is testament. The film has won rave reviews by no less than the New York Times, Guardian, Hollywood Reporter, Hotpress, Irish Times, Examiner, Rolling Stone, and now even More than 90 Minutes.

In recent months the film had its Irish release at the Galway Film Festival. The lads brought along their ‘retired’ RUC land rover as a stunt. Many will remember these vehicles driving through riots, bombarded by ‘Molotov cocktails’: a trendy term for a Kennedy’s milk bottle filled with petrol in those mad days.

Some older cinema goers might find the film a bit uncomfortable with drugs on tap, spicy language, political messages, guns, and dissidents, but as you seen at Electric Picnic recently and ask any of the thousands of young people who listened to the Wolfe Tones at the Picnic if Kneecap was a fair reflection of life in Ireland in 2024?

The film follows young boys who form a hip hop band and practise in their teacher’s back street studio/garage until it went up in flames. They are the sons of former IRA veterans from the 70’s who were Gods (of a sort) on the streets.

Of course as in any film nowadays there is the love interest, and as in everything mBeal Feirste, it crosses the sectarian divide:  Moglai Bap has exotic high jinks with middle-class Protestant beauty Georgia. She engages in cross-community love, but finds ‘Brits Out’ stamped on his butt cheeks a step too far. Definitely ‘Tiocfaidh ar La’ will have a different meaning after seeing this film.

This is comedy and musical entertainment. The dialogue might cause problems as gaeilge if you are from Connemara, but with sub titles for those of us challenged by our native tongue, it is no problem to follow. It will rock the cinemas this year, and already it has been booked into more cinemas in Ireland than any other film. Keep an eye out for the Academy Awards shortlist in December as ‘Kneecap’ might feature big time.

Finally as we drove home from the ‘G’, Mary and I had a heated discussion on the merits of the film. While I was of the opinion it was Oscar material, she voiced the opinion that while it’s a 16+ film, it promotes the idea delving  into cocaine and ketamine isok?  But as RTE’s Joe Duffy found out last year, no Wolfe Tones song ever made a young person lift an AK47. Likewise, no film should make anyone take up drugs. But that’s a debate which will be discussed for many months as audiences flow to watch Kneecap worldwide.

Paddy McMenamin was born in Belfast with Donegal and Tyrone parents. He spent the 70’s in Long Kesh. He has been going to Paradise since the Benfica game in Nov. 1969. He lived in Donegal for 30 years but now lives in Galway. He returned to University at 50 and became a secondary school teacher of history and English.

It’s hard to believe that More than 90 Minutes, Celtic Fanzine  first went on sale outside Celtic Park in September 2001. It was a sunny day in the Eastend of Glasgow that day and if memory serves me right, Celtic beat Dunfermline 3-1. Lubo scored 2 and Chris Sutton got the other one. It was exciting times we had just beaten Ajax to qualify for the Champions League under Martin O’Neill’s guidance.

Four of us drove over the night before via the Belfast ferry. We sold the fanzine in the Gallowgate bars and on the way to the ground before taking our position around the ground for the first time to raise the fanzine in the air and shout out “More than 90 Minutes Celtic Fanzine issue 1 only £1”

The reaction was positive and we sold about 500 fanzines between us and we also had a seller on the boat that morning who sold another 100 or so. The bus and boat would become very important for the growth of the fanzine in those early days. I met so many Celtic fans through selling the fanzine on the boat and at the ground and many became great friends.

Outside the ground a young Kevin Bridges would buy the fanzine for his Dad and Lisbon Lion, Charlie Gallagher would stop for a chat and buy a copy after parking his taxi up on the way to the ground to take his seat beside his fellow Lion, John Fallon who has been a columnist for about 20 years or so.

On the boat, I had so many great conversations and learned so much from older fans some who had been travelling for decades from Ireland and they would recount many journeys on the old cattle boat which brought them up the Clyde on match day and the father and son, Tony and Mark Kavanagh living in Dunleer, County Louth who travelled in all weathers on a motorbike before the Naomh Padraig CSC bus started in the late 1980’s, the new pick up for the bhoys made life a lot easier to get to see Celtic.

The Naomh Padraig bus still pulls out of Dublin in the early hours of matchdays and makes the Pilgrimage to Glasgow passing the airport where many Celtic fans will gather at boarding gates.

On those boats fans also spoke about the great players and memorable games they had attended. There were so many characters. From those who loved a beer in the bars, each Celtic Supporters club had their own area in the bars and for those not drinking they also had their place on the boat to talk about all things Celtic and share a flask of tea and a sandwich.

Grange CSC boss man. Jim Mervin would have a queue around him as Celtic fans picked up their match tickets. Marty would be punting dodgy DVDs and there would always be a ballot for a Celtic picture for a pound.

Since then we have lost so many friends. One friend, Gerry Morgan was so supportive during those early days of the fanzine.

Away days were documented by a number of contributors and Scott Crystal would regularly write about his travels from London following Celtic all over Europe with Michael Pringle and Joe Miller as his travel companions on many of those adventures.

They re-enacted the Chris Commons fall out in the dugout with Ronnie Delia after he was taken off by getting into the dug out, not sure how they got into the dugout but I’m almost sure it was against Molde.

I remember in Milan when we played Inter staying with Michael and Scott. On the way back into the city on the underground Scott got talking to a young Celtic fan from the North of Scotland who had lost his wallet and phone. He gave him his phone to call his Mother back home and as the train pulled into our stop he handed him €50. This just summed up the type of person Scott was. Sadly Scott passed away in 2022.

I would bump into Scott in McChuills on match days or in the lounge in Glasgow airport  The last time we had a good few pints was in McChuills when I hosted an Evening with Rudi Vata. As we plan to continue our European adventures this season we will be thinking of Scott on our travels.

The fanzine was also sold at away games with Gaxy always on duty for domestic fixtures while in the early days we always brought some with us on our European travels and I remember Ken selling out of the fanzine in the snow in Teblice in the Czech Republic.

A big shout out to all the ground sellers who braved all weathers to sell the fanzine outside Celtic Park before dashing to the turnstiles to be on time for kick off and position themselves close to the exits at full time to get fans leaving the stadium.

After a few seasons we got the fanzine distributed to newsagents in Ireland and Scotland and this arrangement ran until Covid. By then the media world had changed and we had also started bringing out the fanzine in digital format as print sales started to drop. Due to the costs of print and transport we made the decision to keep the print going but only to sell it from our online shop and to grow our subscription base.

During Covid we hit record subscribers and without them and our sponsors we would have been forced to wrap up the print edition and go fully digital but thankfully that was a false dawn and we can continue to produce both print and digital

Once again thanks to everyone who has supported the fanzine over the past 23 years. Some said we would never see 3 issues of the fanzine being based so far from Glasgow but here we are 23 years on still going strong. Older, maybe wiser and whole lot greyer!

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

The University of Glasgow has carried out an independent survey of Celtic supporters, shareholders and fan organisations.  The interim results on Celtic’s fan engagement make interesting reading.  View the results here and give your response.  Are they as you would have expected or not?  Let the researchers know your views before the report is finalised.

https://www.gla.ac.uk/research/celticfc-assessment-stakeholder-engagement/

What a weekend and a half that was. I was settling in for a pretty normal few days now that I have reached the age of 71. It doesn’t feel as traumatic as last year when I hit the big 70. I’ve stopped counting now, as we say at the golf everyday above the fairway is a good one.

I played 4 rounds golf at Galway Bay during the week, one 18 and 3 nines. I have not done that for years, right enough the buggy helped. On Wednesday the ritual defeat of Dundee kept things ticking over despite a laboured effort, 6 changes didn’t help but Brendan Rodger’s rotational system shows we have strength in depth.

I thought moving Liam Scales to left back was a sign of things to come and Brendan disguised metaphors on Friday paved the way for the omission of Scales and Taylor on Saturday. I wasn’t over impressed with the managers take on it that ‘speed’ at the back was his motivation to replace our best player for a year with a ‘Trusty’ left foot.

One goal conceded to the sheep in the league which really came from a bad pass from McGregor in midfield was hardly justification to omit the new Republic centre back, but that’s why I’m writing this article on the Citylink bus to Dublin airport at 5am on Tuesday  morning and the Celtic manager is tucked up in bed at the swanky team hotel by Loch Lomond and the manager of our great club.

The 6-0 demolition of our nearest rivals at the smoke filled so called national stadium highlights that it’s time we parachuted out of that poor league set up and seek pastures new. We are being held behind playing Ross County and the rangers regularly, to compete at Champions League level we need better weekly opportunities.

Nevertheless on the Sunday I had mixed feelings watching the bears; on one hand I wanted Motherwell to win and Clemente to follow Beale, Van Bronkhorst et al to sign on the dole on Monday but on the other hand another final against the new boys in town from Govan would be more fun especially as we will be watching it in either Bar 67 or the Auld Triangle in Lanzarote.

As half time came my day took an unexpected twist, my granddaughter Tiarnach who has spent the past year in Vancouver arrived in the biggest surprise of this year or most years even more than Kamala being President or Mary Lou Taoiseach. It was a wonderful surprise to see her and boyfriend John who is from near Brother Walfrid’s home place in Ballymote, Tiarnach from Termon in Donegal and a real Celt too.

The TV got switched off and the bubbly started flowing (My partner Mary was actually in on the secret) and the stories of the latest Irish migrants to ‘Raincouver’ (as it’s dubbed because of Irish rain level) flowed, skiing in Whistler, driving in the Rockies, sunshine in the city amid snow covered peaks surrounding, an experience to be savoured.

Later at dinner, I just checked to see the score from Hampden not expecting a team with Dressers as their main scoring threat to pull back but score they did without him and what they used to call ‘old firm’ and is now men against boys will resume on 15th December bringing plenty of sleepless nights for Clemente before the final.

So on the bus to Terminal 1 and Aer Lingus to Edinburgh as Mary goes Terminal 1 with Michael O’Leary an hour earlier, we’re like the royals or big business now travelling on separate flights now in case the 747 hits a big mountain on route, well actually no she just decided to go at last minute in case my mates, Gerry and Danny lead me astray in Kitty O’Shea’s.

The game tonight will be tough, Leipzig are top drawer despite a poor start in CL, but that’s the level we want to be at, I expect Brendan to go with the same starting 11 as Saturday, let’s hope we sit on 7 pts after tonight amid a bouncing Paradise, it’s always special on European nights and why I love it even after 55 years.

The top two teams in Scottish Football went toe to toe Saturday at Hampden Park. There was not a mention of toe nails in the aftermath of Celtic’s slaughter of the sheep. Aberdeen fans travelled with plenty of confidence after an unbeaten opening to the domestic season.

A share of the spoils at Celtic Park and a midweek win over the rangers at Pittodrie on Wednesday gave all connected with Aberdeen a false sense of security. Celtic were clinical from kick off. Kick off was delayed after a Pyro display from both set of Ultras as smoke filled the Glasgow evening air.

Celtic dominated the game from start to finish with a Man of the Match performance from Daizen Maeda who took home the match ball after his three goals. A  6-0 scoreline in a cup semi-final is impressive on a day that saw Aberdeen lose in 90 minutes for the first time since March which makes it sound even more impressive.

Celtic wasted a couple of chances before CCV popped up with a rare goal headed in from a corner. CCV partnered Trusty who Brendan Rodgers picked ahead of Scales on the left side of the central defence. Trusty getting the nod ahead of the Irish man for his speed.

We only had to wait for another 3 minutes for Kyogo to score after a pass from Maeda before he took over from his international mate to put in one of his best performances in a Celtic jersey. Funny how things turn out. On Wednesday night at Celtic Park when he made a mistake a gentleman who sits close to me mentioned that Maeda needs a shake up from Brendan Rodgers. Not sure if he got that but whatever Brendan said  to him it worked. Outstanding!

With Maeda’s first goal coming close to the half time whistle both managers half time talks would have been worth hearing. Dons manager, Jimmy Thelin looked at times calmer during the game than Brendan Rodgers who looked frustrated when his Celtic players made mistakes. He ended up on his arse after slipping while kicking the ball in frustration. Referee, Kevin Clancy booked him for waving to the crowd after getting up which would suggest that Clancy is a complete arse.

Celtic continued to pile on the agony for Aberdeen after the break and the Celtic fans reminded them that our team will continue to put on the style as Maeda made it 4. Daizen was Man of the Match but Nicholas Kuhn deserves plenty of plaudits for his performance and his outstanding goal to make it 5.

The sixth and final nail in Aberdeen’s coffin came from Maeda with 5 minutes left on the clock as he collected the match ball from the back of the net to bring home for a kick about in the park with his kids.

Brendan Rodgers will be happy with another final date in his diary and had the luxury of replacing CCV, Engels, Valle, Kuhn, Kyogo with Scales, Taylor, Bernardo, Forest and Idah. The Celtic manager spoke about bringing in quality at every opportunity last season and now he is making that quality count.

Glasgow continues to be dominated by the Green and White and now the focus is firmly on Celtic Park under the lights on Tuesday Night when RB Leipzig come to town for a mouth watering Champions League clash and a much tougher task for Brendan and the players. The German Bundesliga team were beaten 2-1 yesterday away in Dortmund.

The journey up the road for the Aberdeen fans will have been a long one but we know how they feel. The journey back from Germany after we took a similar beating in Dortmund was a long and a sore one for us.

Rodgers was humble after that defeat and so was the Aberdeen manager yesterday praising his fans for staying with the team till the end and complimenting the quality of the Celtic performance. No excuses and not a mention of a toe nail.

The Scottish League Cup Final takes place at the National Stadium on Sunday December 15 against the rangers. Their fans had another sleepless night ahead of their semi-final win over Motherwell after Celtic’s trashing of Aberdeen.

Halloween may be over but will their nightmare season continues for them. There were plenty of empty seats at Hampden and banners calling for the removal of those running the club. They don’t want their manager and the club is broke.

The games are coming thick and fast for Celtic FC and our fans. After the midweek win over Dundee this evening we have a mouth watering clash against Aberdeen. The Dons also had a big win over the rangers midweek and they and their long suffering fans will travel down to Hampden in confident mood.

Confidence will also be high within Celtic circles but across the city the rangers fans are not a happy bunch not only are they once again in financial meltdown, the defeat midweek saw them fall nine points behind both Celtic and Aberdeen who remain unbeaten domestically this season.

That unbeaten record will be gone for one team when the lights are switched off at Hampden this evening. Celtic had the luxury of resting players on Wednesday night such is the strength in depth and should be the fresher team. Aberdeen do not have that luxury and may be drawn into a false sense of security after taking a point at Celtic Park recently.

That game was a great advertisement for Scottish Football but Celtic switched off for a period at the start of the second and conceded 2 goals. Celtic had looked comfortable going in at half time at 2-0 and had plenty of chances to win the game but in the end had to settle for the draw which was followed up by a brilliant and dramatic defensive performance against Atalanta in the Champions League.

Celtic will have all the big guns back for this game and are the bookies favourite to make the final. Best of luck to the Bhoys and to Motherwell tomorrow.

The game is a sell out. Celtic fans have travelled from all around for this one including Japan, the US and Australia.

Both League Cup semi finals will be shown on Premier Sports.

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