Let the people sing? Irish rebel songs, sectarianism, and Scotland's Offensive Behaviour Act

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Introduction

On 1 March 2012, the Scottish Parliament enacted the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act, making the singing of 'sectarian songs' punishable by an unlimited fine and up to five years in prison.²Despite every other major political party voting against it, the ruling Scottish National Party (SNP) used its parliamentary majority to pass the Bill in an attempt to 'tackle sectarianism ... particularly where it incites religious hatred' (Scottish Government 2011, p. 1). The Government argued that new legislation was required to address the issue, pointing to a series of events in 2011 that included: the chairman of the Scottish Police Federation calling for a ban on Old Firm³fixtures in light of the violence and trouble associated with them (Churchill 2011); a heated, public altercation by the football managers of Celtic and Rangers; liquid explosives posted to high-profile Celtic supporters (Carrell 2011); a knife posted to prominent Rangers supporter Donald Findlay QC (Watt 2011); live bullets posted to Cardinal Keith O'Brien's Edinburgh home (Hamilton 2011); and a heightening of tensions in Northern Ireland (McDonald 2011).⁴

The connection between football and sectarianism in Scotland is well documented,⁵yet the relationship between music and sectarianism remains under-researched. The Old Firm's song traditions have been strongly influenced by binarisms between Catholicism/Protestantism, Irish nationalism/British unionism and republicanism/loyalism, yet prior to 2012 the two teams' experiences were quite different under the law. Using earlier legislation,⁶Scottish courts could impose additional penalties for offences aggravated by religious prejudice; those singing songs such as 'Hullo, Hullo', 'The Famine Song' and 'No Pope of Rome', sung by some Rangers fans against arch-rivals Celtic, could be prosecuted owing to their anti-Catholic content.⁷Yet, despite causing offence to some, the law was ineffective against Celtic fans singing Irish rebel songs because it was unclear as to whether they were religious or political.⁸

The Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications Act has been used to charge those singing rebel songs,⁹yet there is continuing debate over how this alleged offence should be dealt with.¹⁰Further, although singing sectarian songs in public is now illegal in Scotland, there has been no official definition as to what actually constitutes a 'sectarian...