(497)  ANTI-WELSH PREJUDICE IN SCOTLAND AGAIN

 

Another case of anti-Welsh racial prejudice has been sternly dealt with, this time in Glasgow Sheriff Court (for the previous case, in Lanark Sheriff Court, see No 487). Kevin Bonar, a Hearts supporter from Edinburgh, was convicted on 8 September 2005 of racially abusing the then-Celtic footballer and Welsh international, Craig Bellamy, while attending a match between Hearts and Celtic at Parkhead, Glasgow, on 2 April (which Hearts won 2-0, incidentally and irrelevantly, but Scots Law News feels like putting it on the record).  Bonar apparently called Bellamy a Welsh bastard when the latter came near to the former’s section of the ground in order to take a corner kick.  A nearby policeman, with the good Scots name of Duncan McLeod, then arrested Bonar.  Iain MacSporran, Bonar’s defence solicitor and another who was plainly not of English origin, asked what PC McLeod would have done if Bonar had made derogatory remarks about other characteristics of other Celtic players – for example the weight as opposed to the Welshness of John Hartson (him again – see No 487), or the ginger quality of Neil Lennon’s hair (him again too, but he’s from Northern Ireland – see No 324).  The policeman replied that he would have told Bonar off but not arrested him.  Sheriff John Baird fined Bonar £250, more, be it noted, than the price of a basic Hearts season ticket for 2005-2006.  With the number of foreign players now performing in Scottish football, fans are going to have to be even more than usually careful in weighing their comments and epithets on the entertainers appearing before them this season.  The Welsh themselves are in trouble for booing God Save the Queen” at the England-Wales World Cup match played in Cardiff on 3 September