
Originally Posted by
Lynchmeister
I spent some time living and studying just outside of Edinburgh and, as a naive college kid, was both fascinated and terrified by the...hmmm...for lack of a better word, I'll say "casual hooliganism" in the UK surrounding football and inner city life.
Some background on myself. I grew up in Midwest American Suburbia and didn't witness my first fist fight until high school, so violence not on TV was not something I was used to.
I remember when I got to Scotland, I was warned by some locals in the pub that I should stay away from Lothian Road at night because I'd probably get hassled at best, but more than likely get beat up and mugged.
Another common sight were signs in the pubs that read "No Football Stripes!" It amazed me that something like a soccer jersey could be the catalyst for a bar brawl. When I mentioned an upcoming trip to Glasgow, the first thing people told me was "do not wear football scarves or stripes (especially Rangers, Celtic, Hearts, or Hibs) and do not talk about religion."
Ok. So soccer and religion are hot topics and cause for a fight and are often associated with each other...kinda sorta. Then there are the firms. I'm a huge Irvine Welsh fan (he wrote the book Trainspotting, which then went onto become a movie) and in many of his novels the characters go to football matches looking to fight with the opposing team's supporters. In fact, the fighting takes precedence over the game. In addition to the associations between teams and religion, he also makes several references to unionism and republicanism as they pertain to the teams and their associated religions (protestant/Rangers/Hearts/Unionist...catholic/Celtic/Hibernian/Republican).
Can an Englishman, Irishman, Scotsman, or Welshman explain to this clueless, yet curious, midwestern, American guy just how and why religion, football, politics, and casual fighting all came together the way they did in the UK?
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