‘And if you know your History…’ An Examination of the Formation of Football Clubs in Scotland and Their Role in the Construction of Social Identity

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of how the processes through which specific football clubs were established in Scotland operated interdependently with the processes of identity construction. It is acknowledged that this paper does not provide any new primary evidence to an already wellresearched area. However, rather than offering a new perspective to the debate, the explicit aim of this contribution is to provide a review of recent research into football and sectarianism in Scotland, and to conceptualise the topic within this literature. In this respect, this paper synthesises the material on the development of football clubs in Scotland and places it directly within the context of majority/minority inter-group relations (that is, indigenous Scots and migrant Irish communities) in early twentieth century Scotland. In particular, by examining the establishment of teams based in Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Dundee, all of which housed significant Irish communities, the objective is to examine both how and why particular clubs have developed and become associated with particular social groups and identities, and why these clubs were adopted (consciously or subconsciously) as vehicles for the expression of social identity.

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