Political Science Midterm

Midterm Part I: Textual Analysis

Chapter Two: How Soccer Explains the Pornography of Sects

“Karl McGraorty, twenty years old, shot in the chest with a crossbow leaving a Celtic pub. Liam Sweeney, twenty-five years old, in a green shirt, beaten by four assailants in a Chinese carryout. Thomas McFadden, sixteen years of age, stabbed in the chest, stomach, and groin—killed after watching the game in an Irish pub” (Foer 37). As shocking as it may appear, bloodshed such as this has almost become routine when the Old Firm match is played between Celtic and the Rangers in Glasgow, Scotland. This game is more than just a simple rivalry; over the years it has embodied the ethnic feud between Catholics and Protestants in Scotland and Northern Ireland. In chapter two of How Soccer Explains the World, Franklin Foer explores the dynamics of this ages-old rivalry in the face of globalization and makes some surprising conclusions.

According to Foer, “the Celtic-Rangers rivalry represents something more than the enmity of proximity. It is an unfinished fight over the Protestant Reformation” (36). During the Protestant reformation, almost all traces of Catholicism were eliminated from Scotland. By the end of the 1700’s there were more anti-Catholic societies in Glasgow than there were Catholics. However, the Catholic population regained strength as many Catholics sought refuge in Glasgow due to the potato famine in Ireland during the 1800s. Because Catholics still faced harsh discrimination in Glasgow, a Marist monk named Father Walfrid started Celtic in 1888 as a means of giving hope to the Catholic population and “puncturing the myth of Catholic inferiority” (Foer 44). Due to the club’s wild success, Protestant soccer fans sought after a “Scottish” team to overtake Celtic, and gradually took the Rangers as their own. This was the beginning of what is known as the “Old Firm” rivalry between the Celtic and the Rangers. The rivalry became violent during the 1920s...