The inbox has been busy for the past few days as indignant Dundee fans re-familiarise me with their flimsy arguments and excuses. Ignorant of Invergowrie wrote “It's just a name, like the shed, used by United”. No, no it's not. No one ever called something “the shed” to align themselves with one side or the other of a sectarian divide. I can't “make out we're sectarian on the basis of just one word” Loopy of Lochee advises me. He appears to be unaware that the threshold for an acceptable number of sectarian terms in a club's repertoire is actually less than one word; so yes I can. Bonkers of Balgowan informs me that “sectarianism is a West Coast problem”. Personally I think it's a problem no matter which coast it rears its head on.
Comical Wullie - There is no sectarianisms in Dundee
It's a pity more can't react with the maturity of the Dundee fan who wrote the following post on their official forum...
"I now find this particular fact rather disturbing and now that my eyes have been opened, and everyone else who reads these posts should also take note, I do not feel I can continue to sing this song. The reference to the Apprentice Boys of Derry just cannot be ignored also. Whether we choose to accept it or not, the Derry boys reference has sectarian undertones that I am no longer prepared to accept.
"Ignorance might be an excuse, but once you are informed (as someone on this thread has already said), you have a responsibility to act and to modify your behaviour. Burying your head in the sand and sitting there in denial just doesn't wash. Neither does the "well we've been singing it for years" excuse. I have been singing this song for years too without fully grasping the meaning of the words I was singing. I for one will no longer be singing this song as the sectarian undertones just cannot be explained away by pitiful excuses.
"For the record, I too dislike the PC Brigade and unnecessary pandering to some perceived offence. However, I do not see this as just another do-gooder situation. I abhor sectaranism and will not perpetuate it by continuing to sing a song that is best consigned to history and left to the west coast bigots to sing.
"If you continue to sing this song and have managed to convince yourself that it's all innocent and can't be put in the same category as the Rangers song, I'm afraid you are kidding yourself. We should not be singing this song."
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