Billy Boys

[1] It originated in the 1920s as the signature song of one of the Glasgow razor gangs led by Billy Fullerton[2] and later became viewed to reflect the long-running sectarian religious hatred directed by some Protestants against Catholics in the city.

[12] In 1999, the Scotland national football team manager Craig Brown was filmed singing "Billy Boys" (as part of a joking exchange with his Catholic girlfriend) and faced calls to step down from his position in charge of the Scotland national football team.

[13] The song was at the centre of a controversy surrounding "ninety-minute bigots", an expression allegedly coined by former Rangers chairman Sir David Murray: "Ninety-minute Bigots do not hold beliefs but nonetheless sing songs at football matches which are sectarian, simply to join in with the rest of the crowd.

Rangers were found not guilty due to "Billy Boys" having been sung for years without the SFA or the Scottish government intervening against it and ruled that it was tolerated as a social and historic song.

[19] It was banned because it was decided by the Scottish government that "Fenian" in the context of the song meant Roman Catholics and was thus sectarian.

[26] In April 2014, the Irish Football Association (IFA) introduced punishments for "any ... song or chant that is undeniably sectarian or offensive".

[27] There was doubt expressed by fans as to how the IFA would enforce the ban on the Marching Through Georgia tune if it was used in a song other than Billy Boys.