Sectarianism - Scotland's shame

This is my blip for this week's challenge - 'anger'.

One of the first things that struck me when I went to live in Aberdeen in '75 was how different it was to live in a town/area where there was only one football team to support, where everyone followed the Dons. And no separate secondary schools either. Different in Edinburgh - where it's Hearts and Hibs. My father was a Hibs fan, not for religious or political reasons , because he loved opposite the stadium. #2 son supports the omnipotent Man U - how times have changed

My friend in Glasgow, who's worked alongside the police, tells me how bad it can get. Her husband and daughter support the Dons, her son in law Celtic. He's a great person, from a lovely Irish/Glasgow family, but I feel uncomfortable at times about some of the views he expresses. Her husband tells me he's been to Dons/Old Firm matches where the police and stewards have turned a blind eye to sectarian behaviour. Not acceptable.An ex-colleague, originally from Northern Ireland told me the first question he was asked was 'what team do you support' (in Edinburgh it used to be 'which school did you go to? and that's a DIFFERENT story). T, being a trade union leader, is political but not religious. He did the, to him, sensible thing and said 'Partick Thistle'.

Watched the BBC documentary on sectarianism last night. How much about the politics and the history of Ireland, North and South, do these young people chanting sectarian songs KNOW? How many of them have any religious affiliation? How much of it is just modern day tribalism? Sectarianism, bigotry we used to call it, is not ok, ever. Monday night I'm going to the Edin Uni lecture on the topic. Perhaps the academics will shed some light on it.