There will be no green jerseys on Hampden Park's turf today. The heroes or villains will be called Libbra and Zitelli rather than Breslin or Callaghan.
Yet the Scottish Cup Final between Celtic and Hibernian in Glasgow is only the latest episode in a century-old battle of the greens between Scotland's two leading Irish clubs. And their particular rivalry, both older and less renowned (or notorious) than Celtic's with Rangers, represents also two different paths by which post-Famine immigrant communities both changed and adapted to Scottish society.
The Celtic story is known world-wide and built on a mountain of achievement. Hibernian's reward for 126 years of striving is meagre by comparison: four league titles, two league cups and two Scottish Cups.
But like the Old Believers of Russian Orthodoxy, there is a quietly passionate quality to the Hibernian faith that has consoled the fans in their Leith bastion through decades of underachievement. And its favourite narrative of struggle against the odds, of romance and football poetry, has a rich history to draw on.
Hibernian were formed in 1875 in the Little Ireland of Edinburgh's Cowgate, under the aegis of Limerick-born Canon Edward Hannan. Their first decade's struggle for acceptance by the game's authorities made the Scottish Cup victory of 1887 hugely symbolic for their immigrant followers.
In these early years, Hibernian were ambassadors for the Irish all over Scotland, invited to play a host of exhibition and charity games. The existence of Celtic and Dundee Hibernian (now United) owed much to Hibs' example. But Celtic's foundation in 1888 was accompanied by a mass poaching of Hibernian players that sent the Edinburgh club into precipitous decline.
A pattern was set, as Celtic acquired the mantle of Scotland's premier Irish club. But Hibs did not fade away. In 1902, the Scottish Cup was won again, 1-0 over Celtic at the latter's ground. The coach and horses that welcomed the team home was painted with "Hurrah for the Green Jerseys" on one side and "God Save Ireland" on the other.
So, a generation on from Hannan and first captain Michael Whelehan (from Roscommon), Irishness remained at the core of the club's identity. The club's motto was Erin-go-Bragh, its symbol a harp.
Links to the Catholic Church and even to politics remained strong for the first half-century. Hibernian were in origin a Home Rule as well as a Catholic club (the Catholics-only policy lasted until 1892). The Land Leaguer, Michael Davitt, was an honoured guest; the young James Connolly (born in the Cowgate in 1868) a supporter who in letters from American exile lamented defeat by local rivals Hearts. And Hibernian were run by a secretive group of families which only relinquished control in the early 1930s when a visionary (and Protestant) master baker from Leith, Harry Swan, seized the reins.
If this was one watershed, the second World War was another. Returning soldiers flocked to Easter Road as the majestic Famous Five forward line, including Gordon Smith, perhaps the club's greatest player, roasted the Old Firm before regular crowds of 60,000, leading the club to three league titles in five years.
The old town communities around Holyrood and Cowgate were dispersed to the suburbs. Modernity was in the air. Under Swan's leadership, Hibernian became another kind of pioneer: floodlights, tours of Germany and Brazil, and (in 1955) the first British team to enter the European Cup.
James Ritchie, author of the hauntingly beautiful poem Easter Road, evokes the unique charm of the old stadium, where from a terracing top you look down on an emerald Arcady, with green mountainous views all around. Ireland and Scotland were blending. Even in the city where John Cormack's Protestant Action won 30 per cent of the council vote in the 1930s, sectarianism and football were poor mixers (and Hibs' maroon rivals, proud Heart of Midlothian, must share in the credit).
The 1960s and 1970s were good years for Hibs: twice league runners-up to Jock Stein's Celtic, while epic European victories over Real Madrid, Barcelona, Napoli and Sporting Lisbon sustained the fans through the locust years that followed. In cups, however, it was ever a different story. There were four green finals between 1969 and 1974, with Hibs' solitary league cup win of 1972 led by Pat Stanton, a descendant of Whelehan, the only refuge from crushing Celtic wins.
No wonder that 1902, the date of our last Scottish Cup win, is engraved on the mind of every Hibernian. There have been plenty of finals since then: Celtic in 1914 and 1923, Airdrie in 1924, Aberdeen in 1947, Clyde in 1958, Rangers in 1979. In the latter, we lost in the second replay to an own goal in extra time. It still hurts.
The Edinburgh club has perhaps negotiated a more easeful passage to Scottishness than its Glasgow rival. After a 50-year absence, the harp was recently restored to the club's badge, along with the port of Leith and Edinburgh Castle (and no one raised a murmur). Ged O'Brien, the Cork-born curator of Scotland's football museum, suggests that, in a sense, Hibs are in front of Celtic because they have largely come to terms with their dual identity.
Today, both sides will, inexplicably, wear their away strips, adding insult to the blight of sponsored logos on the famous shirts. But 20,000 Hibernians with high hopes and long memories will make the trip. No doubt the stalwarts of 1902 will (as my father used to say) be looking down from atop the floodlights; 99 years on, we Hibernians are still here. Perhaps, at last, it is time for the harp to be restrung.
