FOR more than 130 years, Rangers Football Club has inspired both passionate support and deep loathing throughout Scotland and beyond.
But a controversial new book, in which some of the club's most high-profile supporters discuss Rangers, Celtic and sectarianism, has reignited the decades-old debate about the rights and wrongs of Old Firm rivalry.
It's Rangers For Me?, edited by
a football journalist and politics lecturer, includes an admission by Labour MSP Karen Gillon that she once belted out choruses of 'The Sash', a song regarded by many as a sectarian anthem, which begins: "Sure I'm an Ulster Orangeman, from Erin's isle I came; To see my British brethren all of honour and of fame..."
The book also features a Church of Scotland minister and Glasgow University chaplain who claims some Celtic fans "wallow" in their victim status and hold ludicrously romantic "O'Brigadoon" views about Ireland.
And Gordon Smith, the SFA chief executive and former BBC pundit and Rangers player, used his chapter in the book to claim that Catholic schools in west central Scotland cause divisions that are "one of the saddest things in our society".
Sectarianism was labelled "Scotland's secret shame" by former First Minister Jack McConnell, and both sides of the Old Firm have launched high-profile initiatives aimed at rooting out bigotry.
The book was compiled by two lifelong Rangers fans, football journalist and writer Ronnie Esplin and Graham Walker, professor of politics at Queen's University, Belfast. Walker felt the voice of Rangers supporters had been largely unheard.
Gillon uses the first sentence of her contribution to the book to admit singing the Ulster anthem which commemorates the 17th-century military victories of King William of Orange's forces over those led by the deposed Catholic monarch James VII.
"Yes, I have sung 'The Sash'," she wrote. "I would be a liar to deny it and I'm not a liar. And I knew the words long before I went to Ibrox. I'm not proud that some people take offence at the song, but it is not worth lying about."
The MSP strongly denied being a bigot or sectarian, but defended the right of others to sing the song. "I don't think 'The Sash' is automatically an offensive song, but I am conscious that people can be offended by it. I do think people should be allowed to celebrate their heritage and where they come from.
"There are a number of people who have seen me singing 'The Sash', albeit some years ago now, and I don't think it is worth trying to cover up."
Gillon, who is married to a Celtic-supporting Catholic, revealed that she had witnessed "nasty and vicious" sectarian behaviour in Lanarkshire politics: "I accept that in some places in Scotland the Labour Party is associated with Catholicism. Religion is an issue for some people at a lower level in the Labour Party.
"No way would people stop you from becoming an MSP, MP or a councillor because you were a Protestant, but there is certainly a perception there and we have to tackle that. I certainly wasn't going to pretend that I wasn't a Rangers supporter to get on in the party."
SFA chief executive Smith said in his section of the book: "Growing up in Ayrshire, the biggest factor I encountered in terms of the Catholic-Protestant divide was in schools football. I think it is one of the saddest thing in our society. I have nothing against Catholic schools, but there is no doubt about it: in the west of Scotland it brings in an inclination right away to think of people being different.
"We played against schools with names like St Mary's or St Peter's and the games were very competitive. When you are competitive with someone then you automatically think they are the enemy. That was the case with me."
Walker said he expected some people would take "umbrage" at some of the more robust statements in the book.
"Undoubtedly in places the book does stir things up, but I hope it provokes a helpful debate. Thankfully we are now past the point of tip-toeing around this issue in Scotland."
Richard Benjamin, of anti-sectarian charity Nil By Mouth, urged people to think twice before following Gillon's example and singing political and religious songs: "We would ask people to think about what they are singing and about the impact it may have on others around them."
