December | 2023 | Woolly Days

There have been multiple winners of my annual media personality of the year before, but this is the first time I’m giving the award to an entire team: the Spanish women’s football side. In 2023, Spain won the women’s world cup tournament, which was held in Australia and New Zealand, however that is not why they are winning this award. The team has had to deal with a history of sexism which came to a head when Spain won the trophy by beating England in the final and the then Spanish soccer federation president, Luis Rubiales kissed player Jenni Hermoso on the lips during the awards ceremony. It led not just to the expulsion of Rubiales but an entire movement that galvanised Spain known by its hashtag: SeAcabó (It’s over).

Spain was late coming to the table on women’s rights. In the Franco era, women had few rights and needed permission to apply for a job, open a bank account or travel alone. The law even allowed husbands to kill their wives if they caught them in the act of adultery while lesbians were put into psychiatric institutions and given electroshock therapy. Women were not afforded full equal rights until the 1978 Constitution and cultural change has lagged behind political change.

The issues with the culture in the Spanish women’s football team date to the regime of Ignacio Quereda, team manager between 1988 and 2015. The problems became public in October 2021, when the documentary Romper el Silencio (Breaking the Silence) featured interviews with former players about Quereda’s culture of “rampant fear, bigotry, sexism and homophobia”. Quereda viewed homosexuality as an illness and wanted to eradicate it, one gay player said. When players complained to the Spanish federation about him, the president “reportedly dismissed their concerns and often enabled the coach’s abuse”. Quereda was dismissed in 2015 after the players went to the press with their concerns.

At Euro 2022 Spain were knocked out in the quarter finals by eventual winners England. Afterwards senior players told manager Jorge Vilda they needed tactical changes. By September 2022 the Guardian was reporting a “mutiny” as 15 players declared themselves unavailable for selection for as long as Vilda remained head coach as he had “affected their health and emotional state”. The Spanish Federation refused to budge, calling it a situation that “goes beyond sport to be a question of dignity”, and insisting it would not give in to player pressure. All 15 players were stood down from the national team. Many of the 15 played for Barcelona and when Barcelona won the Spanish Super Cup in January, the players were left in the bizarre situation of picking up their own winners’ medals as the Spanish football president refused to hand them out.

Despite the toxic atmosphere in the dressing room, the national team stormed on to win the World Cup in Australia. After the final, Spanish Federation president Luis Rubiales made headlines for forcibly kissing Spain’s all-time top-scorer Jenni Hermoso on the lips after grabbing her by the head with both hands. Rubiales strongly denied any wrongdoing dismissing it as “an unimportant gesture of affection.” In a Federation press release Hermoso is quoted as called it a “natural gesture of affection” but this was fabricated and she said privately on social media she didn’t like it. Rubiales later apologised but the Spanish prime minister said the apology was not enough and “his behaviour shows that there is still a long way to go for equality.” Rubiales was expected to resign at Spanish Football Federation Extraordinary Assembly but instead doubled down calling his critics exponents of “fake feminism” which he said was a scourge of modern society. He also brought his three daughters to the Assembly and told them they had to “differentiate between truth and lies”. The speech was met with a standing ovation from men in the hall.

Meanwhile Spanish women unleashed a wave of personal experiences of sexism and abuse of power in the workplace. An academic working with Women in Global Health Spain said most had never previously reported the incidents, due to fear or not knowing how to do so. “These comments about women, about the way they look, there is this kind of humour, it’s normalised behaviour,” the academic said. “Women feel uncomfortable but they don’t dare to highlight it because of power [imbalances].”

As the controversy rumbled on, FIFA announced an investigation into four incidents of indecent behaviour on Rubiales’ part during and after the game, while Spanish male players came out in support of the women. The Spanish government started legal proceedings against Rubiales with the social rights minister Ione Belarra declaring: “Consent is not decided by the aggressor, it is decided by the woman. Mr Rubiales’ violent, mafia-like discourse will not work against a country that has already changed. Everyone already knows what kind of man he is.” The court agreed his misconduct was “serious” but not “very serious” and therefore he could not be immediately removed from office. Rubiales complained he was the victim of media lynching.

However FIFA did not agree and on October 30 announced Rubiales had breached their disciplinary code and banned him for three years. Rubiales finally announced his decision to quit in an exclusive interview with Piers Morgan announced his intention to quit in an exclusive interview with Piers Morgan, whom Barry Glendinning noted was “a similarly boorish and divisive alpha male who has form in the field of stepping down from a cushy, well-paid gig after being publicly criticised by a colleague for the manner in which he continued ‘to trash’ a popular, high-profile woman.” Like Morgan’s own behaviour, there was no apology or suggestion of wrong-doing.

The incident was a #MeToo moment for Spain, but it had its own hashtag. It has spurred a wider anti-sexual violence, anti-machismo, and pro-women’s equity movement known as #SeAcabó (Spanish for “It’s over”). According to Spanish journalist Maria Ramirez the time was right in 2023 for three reasons. Firstly, said Ramirez, society has changed. “All-male panels still happen, corporations are dominated by men and news media leaders are rarely women. But our gender laws are among the most advanced in the west, and Spain fares better in the UN gender equality index than the US and the UK because of a higher percentage of women in parliament and a lower maternal mortality ratio and adolescent birthrate.” The second element was good reporting on Rubiales and his behaviour. A key moment was when Relevo, a small sports-focused news site for young people, published an article saying that Hermoso was being pressured to support Rubiales while the federation made up her words in a statement. But the third element, and the most important was the team itself. As Ramirez, they were “a group of talented women who have been through professional trials and who were finally powerful enough to speak up and be heard.” As the England team, whom they defeated in the final said, “The behaviour of those who think they are invincible must not be tolerated and people shouldn’t take any convincing to take action against any form of harassment.” It was put best by a Spanish cartoon on social media of a young girl talking to her grandmother. “Grandma, tell me about how your team won the World Cup,” the girl said. The grandmother answers: “We didn’t just win the World Cup, little one. We won so much more.”

Previous winners:

The great Anglo-Irish band The Pogues were fortunate to have two fine lyricists, both now dead. The lesser known of the two, Philip Chevron died of cancer in 2013 but his legacy is assured as the author of the Pogues’ best song Faithful Departed. The other, Shane MacGowan, was the same age as Chevron and the only surprise is that it took another ten years for MacGowan to join him in the grave, given his lifelong battering of booze and drugs. In 2007, the Guardian was amazed that MacGowan had survived half a century. MacGowan finally died of complications from pneumonia on November 30, 2023, aged 65. As with Chevron’s death, I felt deep sadness at the news.

I loved Horslips in the 1970s for the way they fused celtic and rock music traditions. Then the Pogues blew me away when they added punk to that mix in the 1980s. I will never forget two raucous Pogues concerts I attended, one on St Patrick’s Day in London and the other in Melbourne where MacGowan’s wildness on stage was matched only by Irish pub shenanigans after the gig. Two great albums where the power of McGowan’s songwriting and performing shone through, will stay with me for life: Rum, Sodomy and Lash (1985) and If I Should Fall From Grace With God (1988).

MacGowan was born on Christmas Day 1957 in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent. By coincidence I was living there in 1988 when I saw the Pogues for the first time. It’s still hard to reconcile Tunbridge Wells’ home country genteelness with MacGowan’s rough edges. His Irish parents took him back to the homeland where, more credibly, he was raised at a farmhouse near Borrisokane in rural Tipperary amid “three generations of Fenians”. His mother was a folk singer and his father was a wannabe-writer. There was always music in the background. He claimed his parents gave him Guinness and whiskey as a child because they believed it would stop him from becoming an alcoholic. His family returned to England when he was six, first to Brighton and then to London. Despite the Tunbridge Wells experience, it was a huge culture shock for them and his father took refuge in Irish music, especially the Dubliners. Young Shane loved them too, “especially the dirty songs.”

He also absorbed his father’s book collection and by age eight was reading the novels of Joseph Heller and the poetry of Yeats. Aged 12 he gained a student bursary for prestigious Westminster public school where he impressed with his literary knowledge before being expelled for taking marijuana and LSD. He took a succession of menial jobs. Aged 17 and hooked on “the acid, the booze, the dope and the pills” he spent six months in rehab at St Mary’s of Bethlehem hospital.

In 1976 he went to a gig where the Sex Pistols were the support act. It was a life changing event. “This was the band I’d been waiting for,” he said. MacGowan became immersed in the London punk scene of the late 70s. Performing as Shane O’Hooligan he founded The Nipple Erectors, later called The Nips, playing “bog standard shouty punk”. He met tin whistler Peter “Spider” Stacy at a Ramones gig and joined Stacy’s punk band The Millwall Chainsaws, a band one observer called “brilliant but shit”.

Stacy said the idea of combining Irish and punk music “came to us like Archimedes in the bath”. In 1982 they formed The New Republicans with Stoke-born banjo player Jem Finer and were joined by Nips guitarist and would-be accordionist James Fearnley and Anglo-Irish bassist Cait O’Riordan. They built up a live following under the name Pogue Mahone and a MacGowan-penned single Dark Streets of London achieved airplay on the BBC. There were complaints from Scotland because of Pogue Mahone’s meaning in Gaelic. The BBC instructed DJs that the song could only be played between 8pm and midnight, which NME’s Sean O’Hagan said, was the only time it was permissible to say “kiss my arse” in a language no-one understood.

The publicity was good for the band and Stiff Records signed them up, insisting the band ditch its name. Following the example of the Nips, they shortened it to The Pogues and released their first album Red Roses For Me, a collection of Irish songs and MacGowan tunes. They reached a wider audience in 1984 with MacGowan’s snarling rendition of “Waxie’s Dargle” on Channel Four’s The Tube (Stacy stole the show by repeatedly smashing his head on a beer tray). Elvis Costello became involved with the band after they supported him on tour. He wooed and married bassist O’Riordan while producing the Pogues’ second album Rum, Sodomy and Lash. Costello claimed his job was to “capture them in their dilapidated glory before some more professional producer fucked them up.” Chevron, who emerged from Ireland’s punk scene with The Radiators, joined the band, replacing MacGowan on guitar.

The album was a revelation, due almost entirely to its lyrical power. Its wealth of classical references jarred against MacGowan’s alcoholic stupor from the start of the first song The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn: “McCormack and Richard Tauber are singing by the bed / There’s a glass of punch below your feet and an angel at your head.” The album’s wild attitude was summed up by its memorable cover; Théodore Géricault’s “Raft of the Medusa” with the band members superimposed on the faces of the shipwrecked crew which resorted to eating their dead before being rescued.

*Poster for a Pogues gig at the Leadmill, Sheffield, featuring Shane MacGowan.* *Artist: Martin Bedford*

The Pogues were not yet ready to be cannibalised and went to make an even better album in If I Should Fall From Grace With God. Producer Steve Lillywhite imposed a more disciplined studio approach than Costello, but gave the band a wide leash, if no rum nor sodomy. Mark Deming said the sound was tight and precise “while still summoning up the glorious howling fury” of Rum. Fairytale of New York became the band’s signature piece and featured in every lazy journalist’s subsequent cliche piece about MacGowan. Chevron flew high with Faithful Departed and my only regret is that my battered CD copy of the album does not feature the rollocking The Irish Rover. Check out this fabulous version on the Late Late Show with the Dubliners. As Joe Merrick wrote, MacGowan aligned Irish music with his experiences of “fallen souls, wasted life and the cruelty of the city.”

But as the Medusa crew and one of the Pogues’ punk contemporary bands might have said, Pop Will Eat Itself. The next album Peace and Love (1989) was serviceable but not on the same plain of genius as the previous two. MacGowan was sacked from the Pogues in 1991 and achieved success with own band The Popes. Though the band reunited with MacGowan in 2001 they were running on fumes. Shane became a 21st century institution and like Keith Richards, famous just for staying alive. Julian Temple’s 2020 Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan is worth watching for insights into his enduring genius.

MacGowan has wider cultural power beyond his songwriting ability. I remember going to Germany in 1988 to support the Irish football team in the European Championships and I met fans from London and Birmingham. They were all born in England and had English accents. But they wore green shirts and all said they were absolutely Irish. Five years earlier I would have been doubtful. But Shane MacGowan and the Pogues widened Irishness in the late 1980s. As former president Mary Robinson said in her Diaspora speech, the richness of Irish heritage is beyond territorial. That speech remains a warning as Ireland now frets over its own immigration issues. “If we expect that the mirror held up to us by Irish communities abroad will show us a single familiar identity, or a pure strain of Irishness, we will be disappointed,” Robinson said. “We will overlook the fascinating diversity of culture and choice which looks back at us. Above all we will miss the chance to have that dialogue with our own diversity which this reflection offers us.” Shane MacGowan would have raised a glass or twelve to those sentiments.

So sad to see the grieving of the people that I’m leaving
And he took the road for God knows in the morning

Shane MacGowan “Sally MacLennane“

Woolly Days

The World View from Wooloowin

Month: December 2023

Media personality of the year 2023: The Spanish women’s football team #SeAcabó

Shane MacGowan: Poguetry in motion