I have a season ticket at Glasgow Celtic, they play football you know. I've had it for about five or six years now, possibly more and possibly less but a while anyway.
I don't come from Glasgow and I am not a Catholic so there's no real reason why I should support Celtic. Well, there are two reasons really. Firstly, when I originally moved to Glasgow I worked in a homelessness charity where a lot of my friends where from Ireland. It went on from there, nearly all my friends since have been Catholic and Celtic supporters. I love football and Leeds is too far away so I started going to the games. My friends would say I was more of a football appreciator than a partisan supporter. I think that was true, I love football. I think good football is beautiful. Witness Arsenal and Barcelona at times - just poetry.
However, watching football on television and actually being there - it's night and day. At the time I started going to Celtic games they were playing in the UEFA Cup and then a few seasons later were regulars in the Champions League. The atmosphere and tension and sheer excitement of going to a game is just, it's great. It really is just great.
When I first had a season ticket it was on my own with my friends in another stand. I didn't mind it too much because I can totally lose myself in football. Everything else just melts away and seems less important. I would just drift and watch and be absorbed. Now me and my pal are in seats together and have been for a while and I love it. We catch up and have very bizarre conversations which we break off from for corners and goals and things but we also exchange theories and ideas about the game and give other supporters nicknames ("pick n mix" for the lady who always comments when J is late and always brings out a bag of pick n mix which she never shares with us - she's not here this season, wonder where she is?). We make observations, agree with other supporters' shouts for substitutions or tut at their swinging back and forth about players. We sing and cheer and, it's just great.
The second reason I decided to plump for Celtic over their Glasgow neighbours Rangers (Thistle aside) was political. I am not a violent person and I do not support the IRA but I do have some sympathy with the political and emancipatory struggle of Glasgow's Catholics and of the Irish people in general. I have no sympathy with monarchism and consider it incompatible with socialism. Above all else I am a socialist. I like the work that Celtic does in the local community and I can happily align myself with the club's mission statement and ethos. I haven't picked a public school via prospectus as such but I have made a well thought out and long considered decision.
Today I watched Celtic lose to Rangers at Parkhead, our home ground. Two poor pieces of defending and a dreadful penalty decision and I struggled like never before. I felt an intense loathing for the opposing fans dancing on our ground at our expense, singing vile sectarian songs (for which Rangers are not alone I accept) and I despaired at our team's capitulation in the second half where we lost our spirit and ability to pass coherently out of defence. I wanted to leave and I wanted to leave as soon as I could. It was humiliating and it was painful.
However, today I also came to a decision and it's this. I feel at home at Parkhead. I feel tied to Celtic and I feel that Celtic fans and me share a bond. For richer and for poorer. In victory and defeat. I have come home and I would quite like to stay please.
