They gave us .......... Brother Walfrid

[FONT=&quot]They gave us........Brother Walfrid[/FONT][FONT=&quot]​

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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]The 18th of May 1840 is an important date in the history of Celtic Football Club, despite it being a whole 47 years before the club was formed. This is because it was on this date that Andrew Kerins was born in the small village of Ballymote in County Sligo in the West of Ireland. His parents, John and Elizabeth (nee Flynn) were poor crofters who would raise their children as devout Catholics, giving them a foundation to build on despite the adversity inflicted by an Gorta Mór. Andrew Kerins was a mere six years old when the famine struck, the poverty, desolation, death and the lack of help for those most in need that he witnessed during those dark days would have a lasting effect on him and would prove to be a driving force in his life, and the life of Celtic Football Club.[/FONT]

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[FONT=&quot]The ruins of the house where Brother Walfrid was born[/FONT]​

[FONT=&quot]Potatoes were the main staple of the poor Irish’s diet, the blight that destroyed the potato crops, coupled with the failure of those who ruled the country to help by distributing the large amounts of grains and livestock that were being successfully farmed led to a million people dying and at least another million being forced to emigrate from their native land. Many of those who were forced to leave made their way to the cities of Britain’s Industrial Revolution, London, Liverpool, Manchester, Edinburgh, Dundee and Glasgow. Andrew Kerins lived through this, he witnessed it with his own eyes. He felt the hunger in his own stomach, and although it is not known how the Great Famine affected his family it is safe to assume that because they were poor people of the land they would have been affected by this great calamity.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Whatever happened to Andrew’s family we know that he survived, studied teaching and at the age of 24 he joined the Marists Priests Teaching Order. The Marists Brothers was (and still is) a Catholic Religious Order, in the Marian tradition, dedicated to the teaching of young people, especially those most neglected. Although the Marists Brothers were founded in 1817 in France it wasn’t long until the Order spread it’s missionary wings so as to provide an education to those most in need throughout the world and have had a presence in over 100 countries, Ireland being one of them. It was this desire to teach those most in need, together with his devout upbringing that led Andrew to join “Fratres Maristae a Scolis” (Marists Brothers of the Schools). Upon joining the Religious Order he took the name of Brother Walfrid, after a wealthy citizen of Pisa, Italy, Galfrido Della Gherardesca who founded his own monastery and was canonised as St. Walfrid.[/FONT]

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[FONT=&quot]An Gorta Mór remembered[/FONT]​

[FONT=&quot]In the early 1870’s the Order sent him to the East End of Glasgow, where he was assigned to teach at St. Mary’s School. Upon arriving in Scotland he was once again confronted with desolation, disease and human suffering. This time it was the descendants of those who had fled the famine who were suffering. When the Irish arrived in Glasgow they were so desolate that they were willing to take any job, often working long hours for less pay, the native Scots perceived them as a threat. Their different culture, religion, and traditions, and the fact they were poorly educated led to them being resented and discriminated against by the native Protestants. They lived in poverty and squalor, they had nothing and without education no way to escape from the misery, Brother Walfrid knew he had found his calling.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Brother Walfrid had immense drive, enthusiasm, compassion and initiative, his faith was strong and the passion he had for teaching was evident, so much so that by 1874 he was appointed headmaster of the Sacred Heart School. He never forgot the hunger he witnessed as a child though and in conjunction with his assistant Brother Dorotheus and the St. Vincent de Paul Society they set out to feed and clothe the poor children of Glasgow’s East End. Although the Irish immigrants lived in poverty, they were a proud people, often ashamed to accept all out charity, thus in 1884 Brother Walfrid set up the Poor Children’s Dinner Table, also known as “Penny Dinners” for the children in his care, whereby for a penny (or some bread and half a penny) the children would get one, hot, nourishing meal a day, the nominal donation paid by the families alleviated some of the shame of having to receive charity to feed their children.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]In order to fund his charity Brother Walfrid made the most of the new craze that was sweeping the nation: football. By arranging exhibition games which not only brought the local community together it also raised much needed funds for the Poor Children’s Dinner Table.[/FONT]

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[FONT=&quot]Celtic’s founding father[/FONT]​

[FONT=&quot]Although the exhibition games provided much needed funds it was soon obvious to Brothers Walfrid and Dorotheus that it wasn’t enough, as local Presbyterians were also providing food, however, only if the Irish rejected their Catholic faith and converted. As a man of deep faith this troubled Brother Walfrid greatly, this together with the worsening poverty in the area convinced Brother Walfrid that something more was needed to keep the community together. Brother Walfrid wanted the community to have an identity and symbol apart from the Catholic Church, he wanted something that would vitalise the whole community and be a sense of pride for all.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]On the 12th February 1887, Edinburgh Hibernian won the Scottish Cup at Hampden Park in Glasgow, a team established purely for Irish Catholics and influenced greatly by the temperance movement it was a team supported by all the Irish in Scotland. Indeed after winning the Scottish Cup, Brother Walfrid and John Glass invited the victorious team to St. Mary’s Hall in Calton for a celebration. So overwhelmed with the outpouring of joy from the Glasgow Irish, the then Hibernian Secretary John McFadden jokingly suggested to Brother Walfrid that he should do the same for the Irish in Glasgow that Hibernian have done for the Irish in Edinburgh - so the seeds were sown for the birth of a football club in Glasgow that would represent the Irish Diaspora living in the city slums.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Brother Walfrid had built up a sizeable list of contacts through his many works of charity in the East End of Glasgow, a list that he was able to utilise when it came to forming the football club that would fund his charitable ambitions. Men like John Glass, Pat Welsh, Dr. John Conway, James Quillan, William McKillop, John O'Hara, Thomas Flood, J.M. Nellis, Joseph Shaughnessy and Hugh and Arthur Murphy, John Ferguson and Michael Davitt all of whom would bring their own unique talents and skills to the development of our wonderful club.[/FONT]

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[FONT=&quot]St Mary’s Calton, whose chapel hall would be the setting for the formation of Celtic[/FONT]​

[FONT=&quot]On 6th November 1887, John Glass called to order the meeting that was being held that Sunday afternoon in St. Mary’s Hall in the Calton area of Glasgow. This meeting would formally constitute the Glasgow Celtic Football and Athletic Club. The meeting wasn’t all straightforward; there were those who wanted to follow the example of Edinburgh's Hibernians exactly so that the Glasgow club would be exclusively for Irish Catholics and would be based in the foundations of the temperance movement against the demon drink. Equally there were those opposed to making the club exclusively Irish Catholic.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]From the very outset Brother Walfrid and John Glass realised that Celtic would have to be run with some financial expertise in order to survive and as such they decided not to forgo the money available from the licensing trade and so Glasgow Celtic would not be steeped in the Temperance movement like their Edinburgh counterparts.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]This wasn’t the most significant departure from the model set up by Edinburgh Hibernians however, as while Hibernian was an exclusively Catholic club this was not to be the case for Celtic. There were those at that meeting not happy with the decision, especially in the face of such prejudice and discrimination faced by Catholics but in the end those with a great vision for this club won the debate. A decision that to this day is fondly and proudly remembered, indeed Celtic’s first ever manager summed up the feelings of the Celtic faithful when he stated “It is not his creed nor his nationality which counts - it's the man himself.”[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Brother Walfrid’s vision was now a reality. Glasgow would have a football team where the whole community would be welcomed, a symbol for not just the Irish Catholics to be proud of but for everyone connected with the club to be proud of, but most importantly of all a team that could raise money to feed the poor children of the East End of Glasgow. It was Brother Walfrid who named the team 'Celtic'; a continual link between the Irish and Scots a force for uniting, not dividing. So when the following week a lease of land was acquired Brother Walfrid looked for volunteers to help build the first Celtic Park. For six months Brother Walfrid and his band of volunteers, used at times their bare hands, working night and day to turn the vacant site next to Janefield Cemetery into Celtic Park.[/FONT]

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[FONT=&quot]The first Celtic team[/FONT]​

[FONT=&quot]The team was now up and running and on 28th May the new team would beat their city rivals Rangers 5-2 in their very first game. Brother Walfrid would see the team that he created go from strength to strength, winning the Scottish Cup and the League, as well as being forced to relocate to a new ground when the landlord tried to increase the rent from £50 per year to £450 before his Order moved him on again.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]In 1893 he was sent to the East End of London where he continued his charity work aided with the organising of football games, this time for the poor children of Bethnal Green and Bow. Unfortunately little is known of his time in London, other than when he reached the compulsory age of 65 he stepped down from his teaching duties at St. Anne’s. All we know is that when he left St. Anne’s in 1908 he had established a Boy’s Guild and Young Men’s club, once again showing that community was at the heart of his being.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]In 1903 religious congregations were expelled from France, as such the Boarding College at Beauchamp looked to England for asylum and Brother Walfrid was charged with the task of finding suitable accommodation for the Order. The French asked if Brother Walfrid would be allowed to help develop the boarding school, a task he joyfully accepted as he saw it as a means of repaying the French who had given him his own education and religious teaching. The property obtained was situated around 70 miles from London and would be able to host 150 boarders together with 30 brothers and so his dedication to the teaching of children continued.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Indeed while he was based here he had the opportunity to be reconnected with Celtic. In 1911 the Celtic team were returning from a European game via London and the club took the opportunity to have a celebration dinner to which Brother Walfrid was proudly introduced. A reporter for the Scottish Observer, Tom Maley (who played for Celtic) noted that Brother Walfrid was visibly moved by his introduction and quoted him as saying “Well, well, time has brought changes and outside of ourselves, there are few left of the old brigade. I know none of these present players, but they are under the old colours and quartered in the dear old quarters and that suffices”.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Shortly afterwards Brother Walfrid’s health began to deteriorate and he was moved to the Brothers retirement home, Mount St. Michael in Dumfries where he remained in rather poor health until his passing on 17th April 1915, the following day he was buried in Mount St. Michael’s cemetery, with his simple grave marking making no reference to the great works he done. [/FONT]

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[FONT=&quot]Brother Walfrid Memorial at Celtic Park[/FONT]​

[FONT=&quot]However, his passing is not the end of the Brother Walfrid Celtic story, on 5th November 2005 thousands of Celtic fans gathered to pay tribute to the clubs founding father; a bronze statue had been commissioned and was to be unveiled at the entrance of Celtic Park.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Once the statue had been unveiled it was blessed by Archbishop Mario Conti, he also presented the club with a Celtic Cross, this Celtic Cross wasn’t just any Celtic Cross though, as this was made from the rubble of St. Mary’s Hall in Calton, the very place where Celtic Football Club was formed, based on the vision of Marists Priest from County Sligo.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Brother Walfrid’s home county has also honoured his name with the naming of a park in the county as the Brother Walfrid Kerins Community Park, which also has a Brother Walfrid Memorial Statue proudly erected in it.[/FONT]

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[FONT=&quot]Brother Walfrid Memorial in Ballymote County Sligo[/FONT]​

[FONT=&quot]Brother Walfrid had a vision for a football club that would raise money for charity, that would be a shining light for those in despair, that would provide hope to those with none that would be the centre piece of the community and provide refuge from victimization, his vision is still going strong today and it is entirely fitting that one of the first things a visitor to Celtic Park will see is a statue, funded entirely by Celtic fans, as a lasting memorial to the Marists Brother that founded our dear club and was the complete embodiment of all the traditions we are so proudly steeped in.

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Celtic Park: The ultimate memorial to Brother Walfrid and the Famine​