Or is it a cynical political manouvere designed to placate the most deranged elements of the Celtic support?
Since I started attending Old Firm matches there’s rarely been a match where Celtic fans haven’t flaunted either a Basque flag (the Ikurrina) or a Palestinian one. Why?
Is there a sizeable Basque community in Scotland? Are they all Celtic fans? Are those flying the flag of Basque descent? Or is there a more sinister reason behind it?
Do they admire the Athletic Bilbao policy of only playing native Basques? Is it based on a deep understanding and care for the people of the Basque country? Or is it an admiration for the wilder fringes of the Athletic fanbase and their support for ETA terrorism despite their rejection in election after election?
My analysis is that the mania for Basque and Palestinian flags amongst the Celtic support was, and still is, an aping of the support give by Sinn Fein/IRA to ETA and the PLO. We’ve all seen the wall murals etc over the years. For Celtic fans in Scotland, snugly insulated from political violence in a stable society, it was a cheap thrill to cheer on murder from the sidelines. For them it was an ETA flag not a Basque flag.
For them it was a tawdry display of support of violence despite a deep ignorance of the political situation. For them it mattered little that the Basque people (however you define them) didn’t support ETA and never gave more than 15% of a vote to their apologists in the Herri Batasuna party. A bit like their willful ignoring of the views of real Irish people - north south, Protestant, Catholic, etc - with regard to the glorification of sectarian murder.
A sizeable section of Celtic fans, thankfully not a majority, live in such a perverted cultural circle that any glorification of violence endorsed by the Provos will be snatched up promoted with glee. Hence we saw them supporting the fascist Argentine junta during the Falklands War and nowadays we see them flying the flags of Afghanistan and Iraqi.
They have no care for the people of Afghanistan or Iraq but they do like seeing members of the British Army being killed and maimed, such is their degeneracy.
It is that degeneracy which Celtic FC have chosen to pander to.