Northern Ireland Politicians Meet Old Firm Clubs to Tackle Sectarianism

Representatives of Glasgow's Rangers and Celtic football clubs have met this week with unionist and nationalist politicians from Northern Ireland as part of a fact finding mission to Scotland that they hope will shed fresh light on how to tackle the scourge of sectarianism.

The meeting was part of a joint initiative to tackle bigotry and gave the nationalist SDLP and Ulster Unionists the opportunity to find out how the Old Firm clubs are tackling bigotry among their Scottish and Northern Ireland-based fans.

A delegation of Stormont Assembly members held talks with Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson at the Scottish Parliament on Thursday as part of the visit and heard from the Scottish Executive team commissioned with tackling the problem.

The Scottish Executive taskforce includes members of the Strathclyde Police, the Scottish TUC and Sense Over Sectarianism.

Day two of the visit included a meeting with the Scottish Football Association.

Senior SDLP negotiator Sean Farren explained prior to the meetings that the visit followed on from the tackling sectarianism conference organised by the SDLP in the spring of this year, which featured Ms Jamieson as keynote speaker.

At the conference, Ms Jamieson highlighted efforts being made by the executive to tackle bigotry, which includes restricting parades, creating a law on sectarian aggravation to crimes, and working in partnership with schools, football clubs, and churches on confronting religious bigotry.

"We found this engagement to be both worthwhile and educational and the idea of a return visit was suggested," he explained.

He continued: "The delegation is travelling to Scotland at the invitation of the Scottish Executive to update and inform ourselves on recent Scottish initiatives on dealing with sectarianism from which we believe we could learn.

"Sectarianism has been a poison in Scottish society as it has been here and there have been determined efforts since devolution to tackle the threat head on."

The Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) hope next week's Ulster summit in St Andrews could provide the breakthrough for the devolved Stormont assembly to return from suspension, allowing the MLAs to start work on an anti-sectarian strategy, the Scottish Herald newspaper reported.

Ms Jamieson said: "Sectarianism is not only about football, but clearly the football clubs have a role to play.

"They've already made a number of changes, and we're looking to see the active involvement of supporters here and in Northern Ireland in putting that anti-sectarian message across."