Playing to the Cameras
The infamous match between Ireland and England on 15th February (1995) provided
the fascists with a previously unimaginable propaganda coup. The greed of
the FAI, added to the incompetence of the policing, combined to make Combat
18 a household name in Ireland and England. Headline news in all the papers,
and even the C18 death's head symbol displayed as a backdrop to the BBC
news, was publicity that money could not buy.
Aware of the fascist following of the English team, AFA in Ireland set about
countering their presence. We stickered the centre of Dublin and the area
surrounding the ground. In the days before the match we kept a look out
for known fascists among the English fans and for any fascist paraphernalia.
On the night of the game we were outside the ground selling the anti-fascist
football fanzines 'Tiocfaidh Ar La and 'Red Attitude'. We were unchallenged
all night.
The scenes displayed on TV screens from Lansdowne Road seemed to indicate
a full scale riot, when in fact the level of violence was quite tame. Apart
from the initial attacks on Irish fans in the immediate vicinity of the
English section there were very few clashes between Irish and English fans.
The English never attempted to get onto the pitch, even though there was
nothing to stop them. They were quite happy with their achievement of
disrupting
the game and adding to their 'fearsome' reputation. What the TV viewer
didn't
see was a crowd of Irish supporters, including AFA members, get onto the
pitch and attempt to get at the fascists. The police didn't hesitate in
batoning the Irish fans in an attempt to clear them off the pitch, while
allowing the English fans to continue breaking up seats and attacking people
in the stands. In fact the first arrests of the night were Irish fans trying
to get at the English. At one stage there were about 100 Irish fans on the
pitch trying to get at the English fans.
With no chance of confronting the fascists at the ground AFA went into
Dublin
city centre to check out the English fans for any obvious fascist presence.
Contrary to Charlie 'Fat Bastard' Sargent's interview in the 'News of the
World' neither he nor any known fascist 'faces' were openly in the city
centre. The police in the city centre stewarded groups of English fans from
place to place, ensuring that no one got near them. Apart from a few minor
scuffles there was no trouble, a situation no doubt helped by the buses
coming from areas surrounding the city reportedly being stopped and any
'likely lads' being removed.
Even given the massive publicity and hype that the fascist received there
were moments of amusement for anti-fascists in the following days. Seeing
some of the English 'hard men' crying and even begging the judge not to
send them back to Mountjoy jail was one. Another was the arrested English
fans being put in with the perverts in Mountjoy, only to be attacked in
the special section. This puts fascists on an even lower evolutionary scale
than child molesters.
Another interesting aspect of the affair was the different strands of the
media and the agenda to which they were working. From the mainstream
newspapers
hyping the whole thing in an effort to sell more papers, to the likes of
Gerry Gable claiming the whole thing was a pre-planned attack on the Irish
Peace Process. Don't create the hype, Gerry! We had the 'Socialist Worker'
Irish paper desperately trying to convince themselves that the fascists
involved were 'middle class mobile phone carrying thugs' despised by the
rest of the English fans. This was also a point picked up by other 'leftie'
groups, a small minority (1% according to 'Socialist Worker' 5/3/95) causing
all the trouble, much to the annoyance of the 'genuine' English fans.
Obviously
none of the groups had anyone at the match itself, if they had they would
have seen that the vast majority of English fans in the Upper West Stand
were involved in the trouble. Just because people are not in fascist groups
doesn't mean they are not fascists. We also had 'Militant' call for 'a
serious
campaign... launched in Britain to stamp out racism and fascism at football'
('Militant' 5/3/95). Ever heard of AFA, Celtic Fans Against Fascism, Red
Attitude.... comrades?
Of all the Irish media coverage of events at Lansdowne Road only two papers
commented on AFA's campaign around the match, with 'Trinity News'
acknowledging
our 'significant presence' at the ground. This lack of attention to the
fightback should not surprise us. For the mainstream media admitting that
there were Irish fans willing to fight the fascists would damage the much
hyped 'best fans in the world' reputation of Irish supporters. For the
'leftie'
press admitting that the fascists can be beaten by physical as well as
ideological
methods would mean having to abandon their talking shops and lollipop
protests
in favour of action. No chance, Comrade!
Fighting Talk Issue 11
May 1995