The Ibrox disaster

[Sporting]

Not really sure where to post this, so excuse the new thread. Sombre reading;


https://www.theguardian.com/news/202...saster-glasgow

[Jobi1]

Mind-boggling that they'd had that many issues in the preceding 10 years and done so little about it.

[Duncan Gardner]

Sporting thanks for posting. Slightly surprised the writer sees it as the Forgotten Disaster. It's still talked about in NI and I assumed more so in Scotland

[Lang Spoon]

It's definitely remembered in Fife, after all the kids from Markinch that died.

[Jah Womble]

I'm a little surprised by that as well. Given its consignment to history, the Ibrox disaster of 1902 that left twenty-five dead is more likely the 'forgotten' one - despite its precipitation of changes in construction. There would have been one or two around in 1971 who remembered that tragedy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1902_Ibrox_disaster

In the case of Ibrox Park and Rangers itself, two smaller 1960s incidents were recorded after the fatalities of 1961: the club shelled out for further 'improvements', but not enough was either spent or learned, it seems.

[Greenlander]

Although I knew it started through the reaction to a very late equaliser I never realised Celtic had only just taken the lead.

I've often wondered whether the players involved ever feel a sense of guilt over the thought that grabbing that point in such a manner was the catalyst for all that followed. Does Colin Stein ever wish he just shanked it wide?

[Snake Plissken]

The way I look at it is that it (like Bradford and Hillsborough) was always going to happen, it just happened then so it would be some other poor bugger who was the catalyst.

[Satchmo Distel]

I think there's a parallel to Aberfan in the neglect of working-class safety but not in the public response, which was much more a mood of national mourning for Aberfan than for Ibrox. Football ground deaths got less national sympathy than deaths in other places, a pattern repeated up to Hillsborough in the tabloid media of course. Fans were, by implication, less fully human. The Burnden Park disaster of 1946 (which I know far less about) might make an interesting comparison:

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-35697169

Greenlander, I seem to recall that Jock Stein was haunted by it. Contemporary Celtic source:

http://www.thecelticwiki.com/page/Th...ter+%281971%29

Our own Alex Anderson on Willie Johnston:

Four years on, he’s suspended for the Old Firm match that led to the Ibrox disaster but attends as many of the subsequent funerals as he can.

https://www.wsc.co.uk/reviews/64-Pla...ff-at-gunpoint

[Jah Womble]

Although I knew it started through the reaction to a very late equaliser I never realised Celtic had only just taken the lead.

This was the initial reason given for 'why' it happened. After Jimmy Johnstone put Celtic ahead (89'), hundreds of home fans assumed that 'that was that' and headed for the exits: Stein (who doubtless does wish he'd put it wide) then netted the equaliser (90') that supposedly saw many try to turn back to join the celebrations. An inquiry found however that the majority of those caught in the crush had been headed in the same direction.

[Greenlander]

The way I look at it is that it (like Bradford and Hillsborough) was always going to happen, it just happened then so it would be some other poor bugger who was the catalyst.

I get and agree with that, but the catalyst for both Bradford and Hillsborough wasn't really specific events on the pitch. Maybe that they were having successful seasons but that's more of a collective thing.

[My Name Is Ian]

I'm almost certain that the subsequent inquiry found that the Colin Stein goal, despite its timing, had little to no direct effect on what happened on the stairway outside.

[Foot of Astaire's]

Fans were, by implication, less fully human. The Burnden Park disaster of 1946 (which I know far less about) might make an interesting comparison:

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-35697169

"It was believed fans may have forced the gate open" has a definite familiar ring to it.

My Grandfather was at the game and talked of walking up his street afterwards and all the anxious wives stood on their doorsteps hoping it would be their husband who would be the next to appear.

[Flynnie]

"It was believed fans may have forced the gate open" has a definite familiar ring to it.

My Grandfather was at the game and talked of walking up his street afterwards and all the anxious wives stood on their doorsteps hoping it would be their husband who would be the next to appear.

Multiple stories of this from the Ibrox disaster as well, especially when you consider the Old Firm Derby’s attraction for travelling fans. Women stood en masse outside the pub where the coach left that morning, often meeting husbands who had no idea what the fuss was about.

[DPDPDPDP]

A very good read, especially the lack of sugar coating of the sectarianism crap which continues to significantly inflict the two Glasgow clubs and casts a huge, dark and dismal shadow over all of Scottish football. I said quite a few times over the last few months that the Scottish Football Authorities should have combined the “black lives matter” kneeling with some form of “religion doesn’t matter”. However, given the control exerted by two Glasgow club over Scottish Football, there’s no way that the Scottish Football Authorities would have done such a right and proper. Out with the two Glasgow clubs most of Scottish football doesn’t give a toss about bigotry and sectarianism and the baggage that goes along with it, but the rest of Scottish football has no choice other than to put up with it.

finally, calling it “football’s forgotten disaster” seems very odd, especially for such an articulate, well written article. Fans, of a certain age, will remember the horror only too well. I was only 7 when it happen, yet I know it well. This was Scotland’s version of Hillsborough or Heysel and like those other tragedies, should never, never, never be forgotten.

[My Name Is Ian]

I think there's a tendency these days to forget just how unsafe grounds were in the 1970s or whenever. The description of the state of that staircase sounds appalling in 1961, and it doesn't sound as though much more than the bare minimum was done after that.

Calling it "football's forgotten disaster" seems odd. I'm sure there was a documentary about it in the BBC, possibly at the time of the 40th anniversary. Mind you, I'm certain I've heard the same thing said about the Luzhniki Stadium disaster of 1982 and perhaps even the Bradford fire.

[Mr Beast]

I was in Dundee for New Year and although I wasn’t quite 7 I clearly remember the shock of my father and uncles, all of whom knew in different circumstances it could have happened to anyone. It isn’t a forgotten disaster, maybe the one in 1961 is though.

Things definitely hadn’t changed in the 80s. I’ve mentioned on here in the past a derby against Birmingham at St Andrews and a quarter final at Upton Park where things got extremely frightening and the police were a fucking disgrace.

The Bradford fire was used in a fire training course I attended. It was really hard to watch. Visiting Bradford City a couple of years later the memorial made us all misty eyed.

[Jah Womble]

Calling it "football's forgotten disaster" seems odd. I'm sure there was a documentary about it in the BBC, possibly at the time of the 40th anniversary.

There was indeed - as one might expect, it is both very moving and at times disturbing.

Here's a YouTube link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgqWjMabsCY

[Paul S]

Markinch streets could be named after the five Fife teenagers who died at the Ibrox disaster:

[Paul S]

The five boys who didn't come home:

[Satchmo Distel]

There was a song about the disaster

https://www.footballandmusic.co.uk/absent-friends/