River City actor Sean Connor claims he couldn’t believe it when he and his friends were asked to leave a Glasgow bar for singing Scotland songs just after the match.
Sean, 23, who plays Dylan Christie in the BBC Scotland’s soap, was out with five of his pals to celebrate Scotland’s first appearance at a men’s major finals in 23 years.
He and his friends had booked a table to watch the games and followed the rules, wearing masks when they entered , and taking them off at the table to watch the match.
(Image: Sean Connor/Instagram)
He said the atmosphere was brilliant and that as they watched the preamble everyone was singing the national anthem.
Sean said: “We were in The Merchant watching the game, me and a group of my friends.
“I’m only twenty three and we had not seen Scotland play in a major tournament ever.
“It was a big day for us. The national anthem kicked off and we were belting it out, couldn’t have been louder. There were other people in the bar belting it out.”
“It was quite loud and that was fine. There were no issues, none of the staff came over and raised any issues.
“The game ended – not how we wanted it to – but me and my pals thought ‘We’ve not been here in 23 years so we may as well have a good time’ and we were just sitting, drinking, chanting and singing Scotland songs.
(Image: Sean Connor/Instagram)
“We started singing ‘We are on the march of Ally’s army’ and another table joined in and another, and the manager came up and told us to leave.”
He added: “He came up. They had not said anything before the game or when we were singing the national anthem. We sang in the lead up all the way up to kick off.”
Everyone was having a good time and after the game we were doing a bit of chanting and they came up and told us to quieten down but we never really thought much about it.
“Then we started singing again and the manager came up and said ‘Right ,you have been told so get out.”
I said ‘Are you serious?’ We booked a table and had been in there since 1pm and were in there for half an hour, forty five minutes after the game.”
He said: “You have been told. You need to go.
I said: “What do you mean? If you don’t want us to be singing we will quieten down. I’n really sorry but he said we all had to leave.”
Sean said it was confusing knowing what he could or could not do, but added that he didn’t want to ‘bash the business’ if that’s the rules.
He said: “Everyone was singing during the national anthem. I don’t know if they let everyone away with it because it was the national anthem and it was the first time Scotland was there in a long time.
“Everything was fine during that but they weren’t happy with us singing Scotland songs after it, which I just thought was absolutely absurd.”
Sean added: “To be fair, if that’s the rules fair enough. I don’t want to be bashing the business.
“I just found it absolutely crazy that we are out on the day Scotland are in the Euros for the first time in 23 years and I’ve been kicked out of a pub for singing Scotland songs.
“I couldn’t understand it. It’s very confusing.”
After Sean took to Twitter to explain what he’d been kicked out The Merchant in Glasgow for singing Scotland songs, his followers sympathised with him.
One said: “Too dear in there anyway. Paid more than £8 for a double in there.”
Another joked: “To be fair you were singing the River City theme tune.”
The Daily Record has reached out to The Merchant for comment.
