Lachiemor

It is curious that these problems only arose when he came to play in Scotland. He had 14 seasons or so in the English Leagues and playing international football without anything remotely approaching the abuse he has experienced in this country. There have been many other players who played in a combatative style and who wound opposition fans up. Your own manager was no angel and Paul Hartley was one who wound up Celtic fans for years before donning the Hoops and doing the same to other sides. None of them have been subjected to the off the field nonsense that Neil Lennon has experienced. You are entitled not to like him, but that does not make him the person you describe, unless it suits your own agenda to believe that.

It is too simplistic a response to lay the blame at segregated schools. I had lifetime in education and worked in both Catholic and denominational schools. I never experienced any anti-protestant attitudes in the Catholic sector and perhaps I was fortunate in the schools I worked in, but the same applied in the non-denominational schools as well. The attitudes you see demonstrated in these incidents are a product of poor parenting and a general disease in Scottish Society by which certain communties adopt extreme positions towards others. We see this in racist behaviour as much as in sectarian behaviour. It does however make one wonder at the paucity of thought going into this debate when Magnus Linklater, an esteemed Scottish journalist can equate the Famine Song, The Billy Boys and the revised version of Simply the Best, with the Fields of Athenry as he does in todays Times! I can appreciate how people in the North might see this as two equal forces at war, butit is a far more complex issue than that.

As a Celtic supporter who has long admired Inverness Caley Thistle's efforts to promote the game in the North (honest) I applaud Terry Butcher's comments on the BBC interview. I have yet to meet anyone who thinks the 10 team league is a positive step - well I have met one guy, but he is a contrary individual who would argue against anything for the sake of it . We should be trying to support the efforts of teams like ICT, Ross County etc, but also to help the likes of Dundee, Dunfermline, Raith Rovers, Q.o. S. and Morton to get back to a place where they can at least compete in the way that Caley Thistle are doing this season.