I too am a Catholic from Leigh but none of the priests at St joes/St Gabriels/Holy Family ever suggested we should support the IRA - perhaps you went to a different parish!

So you want RL to become like football. Last night was the first time I had heard RL fans chant the referees a ... since the late 80's. Leythers made plenty of noise but only garbage emerged. 15 minutes of anti Widnes chanting was desparate.

Peeps stop rising to this tool.......... What`s galling if we went on the Humble board you`d get banned by the sensitive little pies... So just put him on the Ignore list...Simples.

You must go with cotton wool in your ears then - it is sung every other week on the Telly matches, indeed it was highly audible from the KR fans this afternoon!

Whats the tune?

Tom Hark

I was talking the sectarian nature of the song, it was anti Pope in origin sang by Rangers fans/BNP.

Change the problem words to stuff and rfl no problem

I thought they were singing " Stuff Wigan rugby and their aye aw reet "

Now that would make it more PC and sensible. Wouldn't make us sound like a bunch of silly thugs.

Jeez. Roots? Really??? Songs at every football and rugby club are "adapted" from everywhere - pop songs, traditional songs, hymns, or songs that come from all over the place. If you think everybody who sings the footy/rugby versions of songs also believes fundamentally in their "roots" then I don't know what to say. Should we not have sung "Hill will tear you apart" without all being avid fans of Joy Division? "you're not singing any more" or "you're supposed to be at home" (Bread of Heaven) for fear of offending the Welsh? Swing low sweet chariot has its "roots" in slavery but the yawnion lot weren't so precious about adopting it for England.

In fact, the flute songs "roots" are probably in the music, with lyrics added later by whoever has ised it over the years - so a South African song from the 50's covered by a British ska-punk band in the 70's. Nothing offensive there.

I joined in with "the" song on Friday, and I'm a Catholic. I also not only don't know how to play a flute, in fact I don't even own one (however 20p does seem reasonable so I would probably be prepared to purchase one at that price). FWIW I don't think its relevant but I do hate the IRA, not for their cause, but for the things they've done to innocent people over the years, and I do hate W***n and its rugby team. You can argue the two are not even remotely comparable, but we could equally have a song comparing W***n to Nazi Germany or any other source of evil or perpetrator of unpleasantness - you can try and read as much significance as you like into it but at the end of the day its just that - a song. It's designed to have a dig at an opposition team, which it does.

I can see the point about the use of a swearword in the song. Personally I swear and am not offended by hearing swearing. However, if there are young kids around me I try and tone down my language. As far as I know my mates tend to do the same. What I do notice, though, is that every few months we have one of these threads - people get upset about some song or other (usually this one) and it isn't sung for a while. But you always see other songs crop up in their place with the same words in them. Generally if people are going to swear they're going to swear whether we like it or not. You'll never completely remove swearing from football & rugby terraces - in language or song, or even what you hear snippets of from the pitch or the dugouts. But to be honest the language on rugby terraces is nothing compared to what kids use or hear in their playgrounds or when they get together away from adult ears.

For the purposes of this debate people have changed the word to "stuff" and the song still continues to cause far too much debate. It's a song - get over it. It's not designed to be a pleasantry, you're trying to have a go at the opposition. But to start going on about "roots" - for Gods sake....

I agree 100%,i have sang the song many times , and i DONT hate anybody , let alone Wiganers ,it was Played at my wifes 50th birthday party last year , and all her Wigan family found it amusing , not offensive .Mo you will be appearing on the Sunday morning debates soon with these deep thinking views .

Well said.
a few years ago i got dragged to knowlsley rd for a saints vs wigan playoff game that saints won.
Whilst we were in the pub having a drink before the game a group of wigan fan came in and started singing the flute song 'loud and proud, but they changed wigan for Leigh,i couldn't help but laugh.

FWIW I cannot stand the Socialist State of Wiggin aka Wigan MBC, we were sucked into it via a pact similar to Hitler/Stalin's and I feel a bit like a Pole or Ukraine probably did for 60 years. I am sure there can be far wittier words used to get that message across in a clubs anthem though. The fans were fantastic all night on Friday yet 10% of the chants are detracting from the image I would want our fans to project.

Its a crap song which has no place. Sounded pathetic.
Not been heard for a while. I guess some bone heads who cant take the ale returned to watch the team after an absence and thought it was smart.Rest of the sheep joined in.
Surely we can do better than it.