A YOUNG man has revealed how he was subjected to sectarian abuse and anti-Irish taunts in Manchester city centre while wearing a Celtic shirt.
Stephen Russell, 19, from Rochdale told The Irish Post how he “thought he was dead” as the incident unfolded last month.
Greater Manchester Police have confirmed they investigated the incident as a religiously aggravated public order offence.
Famine Song
Mr Russell was with his 17-year-old girlfriend when four men in their late 30s targeted him at around 4pm on Saturday, May 12.
He says the unprovoked incident begin as he entered the Waterhouse pub in the city centre while wearing his Celtic shirt.
“As I was walking up the steps, all I heard was, ‘f*** off home you Fenian c***’,” he said.
After ignoring the jeers, he entered the pub but was unable to find a seat.
As he left by a different exit, the taunts started up again.
“One of them is singing the Famine Song and one of them is singing the Billy Boys,” said Mr Russell.
“They were like, ‘f*** off home you Irish c***, f*** off you Fenian c***’.
“One of them stepped out of the beer garden and he’s pointing at me and he’s shouting things like ‘I wish you were f****** dead, if your girlfriend wasn’t there you’d be dead’.”
Mr Russell and his girlfriend went into a nearby supermarket, from where he called the police.
While there, the men passed the store and gestured inside, however a security guard reassured the young couple he would not let the group in.
After the couple left the store and made their way out of the area, they came across the same group outside a different pub and the verbal abuse continued.
Fotunately they were able to carry on their way without the situation escalating further.
'Hatred'
Mr Russell, who was born in England and whose father is from Glasgow, believes he was targeted because he was wearing a Celtic shirt.
Despite not being Irish, he says he was disgusted by the abuse during the terrifying experience.
“I was terrified, I thought I was dead,” he said.
“You could see the hatred – they hate me, they hate that I’m a Catholic, they hate my football team and they hate that they think I’m Irish, which I’m not.”
Despite the experience, Mr Russell said he would continue to wear his Celtic shirt.
“They want to scare me into not wearing it again, but it’s not going to happen, it’s my club,” he said.
Mr Russell contacted the pub afterwards where staff expressed their sympathy at the incident, however both the pub and the police have been unable to identify the men.
GMP confirmed to The Irish Post they had attended the area and had treated the case as a religiously aggravated public order offence.
However after investigating, they have been unable to identity the suspects.
Wetherspoon spokesman Eddie Gershon said: “We are sorry that the man suffered abuse in one of our pubs.
“We praise our staff for the way in which they dealt with the situation and we will assist the police in any way possible.”
