Northern Ireland Politicians Aim to Tackle Sectarianism

Representatives of Glasgow's Rangers and Celtic football clubs have met this week with unionist and nationalist politicians from Northern Ireland as part of a fact finding mission to Scotland that they hope will shed fresh light on how to tackle the scourge of sectarianism.

The meeting was part of a joint initiative to tackle bigotry and gave the nationalist SDLP and Ulster Unionists the opportunity to find out how the Old Firm clubs are tackling bigotry among their Scottish and Northern Ireland-based fans.

A delegation of Stormont Assembly members held talks with Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson at the Scottish Parliament on Thursday as part of the visit and heard from the Scottish Executive team commissioned with tackling the problem.

The Scottish Executive taskforce includes members of the Strathclyde Police, the Scottish TUC and Sense Over Sectarianism.