ABSTRACT
Heart of Midlothian (Hearts) and Hibernian (Hibs) Football Clubs are historic football rivals based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Both clubs have past and present connections to sectarian identities resulting in their rivalry often being reductively labelled ‘a mini Old Firm’ (a mini Rangers vs. Celtic rivalry). This reductionism misunderstands the genuine ethno-religious (sectarian) connections of both Edinburgh clubs and overlooks other significant factors that underpin and sustain the rivalry in twenty-first-century Scotland. Hearts have British and military-related ‘remembrance’ signifiers and Hibs have Irish-Catholic signifiers and these do continue – under quite specific and sporadic conditions – to linger today. Yet both clubs also have additional aspects to their identities which underpin the rivalry and these relate to a failed takeover of Hibs by Hearts, to playing style, social class and geographical place. Utilizing semi-structured and unstructured interviews and observation, we conclude that the Hearts–Hibs rivalry has entered a post-sectarian period where lingering sectarian signifiers sometimes reveal themselves – often when the two clubs play the Glasgow clubs Celtic and Rangers – but where more often, largely overlooked elements constitute the rivalry to a greater extent for large sections of both respective groups of supporters.
