Merseysides Old Firm

There remains an enduring fascination with Merseyside football's relationship with religion. A prodigious amount of anecdotal evidence exists claiming Everton FC to be the team traditionally supported by the city's Catholic population and Liverpool FC predominantly supported by Protestants ─ a proposition summarily dismissed by most serious commentators as more urban myth than reality. This somewhat controversial subject, though, has never been investigated to any great depth and deserves closer scrutiny than the cursory attention it has hitherto been afforded. What has been absent from the debate is a dispassionate quest for knowledge about the claimed associations of the two clubs backed up by authentic and detailed research. The idea of this study is to provide this by adding documentary evidence to the anecdotal evidence this subject has trundled along on for decades.

First Published in 1994. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This book features interviews with fifty former Everton players who have lived my boyhood dream to grace the famous Goodison turf in the royal blue jersey. My writing days began as a hobby back in 2012 when I submitted articles and match reports for a couple of Everton websites under the pseudonym, 'Blue Echo'. Inside this first edition of 'Blue Echo' interviews, these players tell their own story of their time at Everton. I sincerely hope one of your favourite players is included, and that you enjoy reading their stories. We as fans know what the club motto Nil Satis Nisi Optimum means to us. These interviews highlight exactly what being at Everton means to the players, too.

Merseyside has been the birthplace or home of literally hundreds of extraordinary men and women over the years. Modern-day noteworthy figures, such as Kim Cattrall, Daniel Craig, Beth Tweddle and Patricia Routledge rub shoulders with the historical great and good, including Sir Thomas Beecham, George Stevenson and Lady Emma Hamilton. Personalities from all eras and walks of life are featured, from politics, art and industry to music and entertainment. In this book Christine Dawe has penned a fascinating selection of mini-biographies of Merseyside's most famous sons and daughters to make a perfect souvenir for visitors to the area. This is also essential reading for Merseysiders everywhere, and is sure to appeal to those wanting to know more about these people's contributions to the Merseyside we know today.

First published in 1994. This book is an outstanding product of St Helens, as remarkable in its way as sheetglass and Beechams pills. It is the first full scale nineteenth century history of a small industrial town as distinct from the bigger and better-known cities and as such it deserves to be very widely read and studied.

Local historian and broadcaster Ken Pye has collected a further fifty true tales that celebrate the weird and wonderful side of Merseyside's history.From the subterranean munitions factory at New Brighton and the bird-man of Speke, to wild tigers at Tranmere and a mysterious leprechaun, you are sure to uncover some truly amazing and extraordinary stories here.Richly illustrated, this fantastic collection will delight everyone interested in finding more about Merseyside's strange and curious heritage.

‘Mersey Built’ chronicles the little-known commercial battle that raged between North and South during the American Civil War. The South relied on Europe for its military supplies, which the North tried to stop with a naval blockade of all Southern ports. The South retaliated by destroying Northern merchant ships on the high seas, using war ships, secretly procured from British shipyards and smuggled out of Britain by sympathetic British captains using British crews. The Charleston-based business empire headed by George Trenholm provided a conduit for Confederate finance with its Liverpool branch acting as bankers for the Confederacy’s procurement agents. Merseyside, with its extensive docks and numerous shipyards quickly became the epicenter of Confederate operations in Europe. Several British businessmen bought ships specifically to run supplies through the Union blockade, leaving relationships between the United States and Britain strained, close to breaking point. The book relates the history of Trenholm’s commercial empire, its pre-war expansion into Liverpool and the pivotal role it played in supporting the Confederate war effort. The involvement of other Liverpool-based entrepreneurs and their successes and failures in blockade-running is described. Background histories of the Merseyside ship builders who constructed warships and blockade runners for the Confederacy are included as well as several mini-biographies of the Liverpool-based captains who smuggled out warships and braved the Union blockade. Details of each ship built on Merseyside for involvement in the Civil War are listed. The role of the United States consular service and its extensive, Liverpool-based, spy ring is described, as are the efforts of the United States ambassador in London to influence British government policy on neutrality. The author, a direct descendant of a Liverpool ship builder, and a blockade-running captain, brings new insights and previously unpublished facts to light in this fascinating chapter of history.

From the makers of the UK’s best football magazine! MATCH is the UK's bestselling football annual and is top of Christmas wishlists for footy fans everywhere. Inside the Match Annual 2021 you can find the ultimate guide to Euro 2020, epic interviews with the stars, plus the UK and Ireland dream team and also discover everything you need to know about Messi, Ronaldo, Kane, Salah, Mbappé, Maguire, Hazard, Pogba and all the other top footballers. Plus, it’s packed with legendary Prem No.7s, craziest hair of 2019, brain-busting quizzes, the greatest Premiership team ever, bonkers pics, footy stars emojis, cool cartoons and loads more! Don’t miss it!

'This is like a scene from Apocalypse Now' Archie Macpherson examines the story of football's most explosive rivalry - Celtic v Rangers. In this book he centres on the infamous riot at the Old Firm Scottish Cup Final at Hampden on 10 May 1980, at which he was the match commentator, and which resulted in the banning of alcohol in football grounds. He explores his memories of the many clashes between the two clubs over his half-century broadcasting career. This leads him inevitably to the sources of the sectarianism which has characterised this fixture and the West of Scotland. He weaves his experiences, and those of others, into the complex tapestry of social issues and club loyalties and takes us through the wider political context: World War II, the invisible hand of Margaret Thatcher and Scotland's independence referendum. This vitriolic conflict is more than a game. It is a kaleidoscope of bitter dispute, and occasional violence, and Archie Macpherson provides a colourful insight into how it was to live with the Old Firm for over five decades.