IF YOU know your history, as those whose lives revolve around Celtic should do, then you’d know some of the songs that have recently resurfaced at games ought to be jettisoned pretty damn quickly.

For those of us who felt that Roamin’ in the Gloamin’ – with its offensive lines about the founder of a church – now belonged to a bygone era, there was a surprise to hear it allowed an airing or two of late.

Tannadice on Monday evening also heard – as a replacement line in a different song –  a toxic audible outburst of “soon there’ll be no Protestants at all”. It was not the first time in recent weeks that particular insulting assault on the ears has been given an outing.

For the hard of thought: there really is no place for such naked bigotry and sectarianism – for that is what it is – in the minds of the majority of Celtic supporters.

“Proud to be a Roman Catholic” is one of the addendums to Roamin’ in the Gloamin’. Proud to be a Roman Catholic? It should be reflected then in the dignity with which all are treated, welcomed and embraced; the very word Catholic means all-embracing, universal.

The modern-day structure that is Celtic owes much of itself to Fergus McCann. Time has been kinder to him than the reality of how his day-to-day stewardship was perceived.

It remains something of a puzzle that a man who stepped in when the club was just eight minutes away from bankruptcy, wiped £9million of debt, spent £41million on the rebuilding of a stadium and invested £40million on players would be viewed with any kind of scepticism.

McCann’s influence was not only economic, however, but also social. When Celtic were told that they could play their games at Hampden as the stadium went through substantial renovations in 1994, one of the many caveats was that the Irish tricolour would not be allowed to fly above the national stadium as it did at Celtic Park.

One of the aphorisms of those inside the club at that time was that before looking out of the window, it would be wise to look in the mirror. That is as relevant today as it was 30 years ago.

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As McCann lamented the lack of movement, in a societal sense, in the time since he had left Scotland for North America, the perceived lack of tolerance was the catalyst for an inward-looking approach to a laudable attempt to change the outward landscape. Bhoys against Bigotry was born as McCann, amid some resistance, sought to tackle a prejudice that he felt the silent majority were repelled by.

Had it taken place in today’s confines the suspicion is that he would have been accused of being ‘woke’. At the time, the main accusation was that he was trying to ‘dilute the Irishness of the club’, taking off any hard edges for commercial reasons.

Framed by the passing of time, it is difficult to see his reasons as anything other than moral; after all, which businessman – and McCann was a businessman to his core – would take on a fight with his own customers who felt he was in the wrong?

Gradually and slowly, as is the case with all cultural changes taking root, there was a shift.

In the Martin O’Neill era, when the Celtic support found their voice again for all kinds of footballing reasons, Parkhead danced to a different kind of tune.

Celtic Way:

There is no real need to list the catalogue of influencers, non-Catholic in creed, who are woven tightly into the fabric of Celtic and who are fundamental to the club and its story. Doing so would only appear like a perverse defence.

Whatever the romantic glossing of Celtic and its origins, a move back in 1895 when the board rejected an attempt to restrict the number of non-Catholic players to three definitively set the tone for an inclusive club.

It is a story that has been celebrated down through the ages by Celtic fans: a club that is open to all, that celebrates the joy of supporting something by being all for it rather than simply against everything of its rivals.

If it is what has set Celtic apart then it has to be lived as such rather than simply paid lip-service to.

The moral superiority that Celtic long held fast to in this regard is in danger of corroding without a moment of self-reflection from those who would think to sing such songs.

A club like no other? It shouldn’t be an empty mantra, it should be a code of conduct.