A supporter’s book written from the heart
Jungle Days: Supporting Celtic in the 1980s by John Wight does what it says in its title. The book chronicles his support of the Bhoys in the one of the most turbulent decades of the 20th century.
Yet the tome delivers far more, giving a superb history of Celtic football club.
Jungle Days evokes the mood of the time from the viewpoint of a fan on a supporters’ bus travelling to the games from outside Glasgow.
The drink and the characters flow from the book’s pages. And the 1980s music of Frankie Goes to Hollywood and U2 provide the soundtrack to the journeys to Paradise—Celtic Park.
Wight is able to capture the supporters’ collective memories of great Celtic days. One such day of celebration was 3 May 1986, when Celtic won the league at St Mirren Park in the final eight minutes of the season.
When reading Wight’s account, we are back on the open terraces. The pandemonium and pitch invasion in Paisley are all there in these pages.
Wight blends memories of a supporter with an insightful historical analysis of why Celtic is so important to the Irish of Scotland. His accessible history of the club and its origins is superb because it accurately describes the discrimination faced by Irish immigrants in Scotland.
In response to racism, the Irish established their own parallel social structures. This included setting up Catholic education institutes and charities as well as sports teams like Celtic.
While Wight demonstrates his passion for the team, he nevertheless pulls no punches in his account of the historical tensions within the club.
He observes that by the 1980s the charitable intent of its Catholic founder Brother Walfrid was replaced by business self-interest. Financial considerations became the paramount concern of the board. In a decade of Thatcherism, the board viewed the supporters as “customers rather than custodian.”
Wight makes parallels between the 1980s and contemporary dynamics between the ultras of the Green Brigade supporters and the current board. He says the more things change, the more they seem to stay the same.
This is a supporter’s book written from the heart but also with a clear mind of a fan who understands that “If you know your history” is not a cliche but a mantra to be lived by Celtic supporters.
David McKinstry
- Jungle Days: Supporting Celtic in the 1980s by John Wight is available at Bookmarks, £18.99
Black Arms to hold You Up, Ben Passmore
A new graphic novel, Black Arms to Hold You Up, examines the brutal violence meted out against black people in the United States and instances of armed response.
Writer and artist Ben Passmore makes a version of himself the central character, moving through US history, sometimes looking for and sometimes guided by his militant father Ronnie.
The drawing style is cartoony, but graphic. It is largely rendered in black and grey with splashes of red for fire, blood and gunshots.
It starts with the 2016 police murder of Philando Castile sitting in his car in Minnesota. The circumstances are all too familiar to anyone who has followed the killings that inspired Black Lives Matter, or the recent Ice shootings.
From here, our protagonist drifts back through time to take part in the story of Robert Charles in 1900. After he was attacked by police his fearless gun battle with them made him a local hero.
It journeys back to the present, engaging Marcus Garvey and Assata Shakur, alongside other figures and events more often left out of the story of black militancy.
These include Robert F Williams of the Republic of New Afrika, and the bombing of the headquarters of the organisation Move in 1985.
This allows people to explain their own motives, and also to react to Ben, sometimes ridiculing his naivety or saying he is not black enough to take part.
The tone is both pessimistic and humorous. It looks to a revolutionary black militancy that does not get caught up in the corruption of the US system or a suicidal attempt to challenge the US state bullet for bullet.
At the back is a reading list of historical and activist texts. In the end, as one character says, getting involved in this life or death struggle is “about life and loving it so much you want to fight for it”.
Ken Olende
- Black Arms to Hold You Up, Ben Passmore is available at Bookmarks, £22
