A Trip Through Celtic History

The start of Celtic

From time to time i will be starting a thread about a historic figure or time in Celtic football clubs history. I think this would be good for fellow fans to read, and discuss what was going on at that particular time. I will try to do this on a weekly basis and then we can see were it goes. It will not be in any specific order so we may be talking about different decades at different times, so i will try to cover as many things as i can, and i will be open to any requests in the future.

The first topic i will be writing about is none other than Brother Walfrid and the start of celtic. We would not be were we are today if it was not for the great Brother Walfrid real name Andrew Kerins. Brother Walfrid came to Scotland at some point in the 1870's to start a new life outside his own country which was still in the depths of despair after the great hunger, which took so many lives of the people in his homeland. He quickly established himself in his new adopted country working at several schools including St Marys school and also the sacred heart school where he became headmaster.

Brother Walfrid’s idea for Celtic football club started in 1887 when Hibernian from Edinburgh were visiting Glasgow during a Scottish cup final match . A lot of the Glasgow Irish including Walfrid watched the match and spoke with many of the Hibernian players and staff after the match, who encouraged them to start their own club in Glasgow.

By September the wheels were in motion in the Parishes of St Mary’s, St Andrew’s and St Alphonsus, with St Mary’s taking the bull by the horns thanks to the input of representatives such as John H McLaughlin, John Glass, James McKay and Hugh Darroch. Finally Glasgow would have its own club for the Irish people with Walfrid the driving force behind it. This was a very special time in history although none of them probably realised how big it was! The Irish of Glasgow desperately needed something to give them hope at this very hard time and Brother Walfrid was about to start one of the greatest sporting clubs in the world. It was not very long before Celtic were playing football and we leased our first ground at Dalmarnock Street (Springfield Road).

The first match at Celtic park was actually played by Hibernian, and a few weeks later the Celtic story was about to begin with a match against our neighbours and soon to be old firm rivals Rangers. The match ended with a 5 v 2 win with our first ever goal being scored by Neil McCallum. In August 1888 we joined the Scottish football league and the rest is history.

Walfrid continued to support celtic on and off the park until his sad death in 1915. Walfrid is now buried in the Mount St. Michael Cemetery in Dumfries.

Thinking back the beginning of Celtic must have been such an exciting time for Brother Walfrid and everyone else who was connected with the club in the early days. I have always wondered did Walfrid have an idea of how big this club could become? We can all only guess.

I would like to end this by saying thank you to Brother Walfrid and everyone else who started our great club Celtic.



Brother Walfrid

 

great idea ,,if u need any help let me know

 

Thanks Davie, Kennydal had a lot to do with the idea too

 

Brilliant idea.
Will look forward to reading these threads and discussing things.
Where will you be sourcing your facts from?

 

Internet and books for the very early days like this. I could have written so much more but i didnt want to make it too long.

 

Intresting stuff i like reading things like this always a joy to learn about our club :icon_mrgreen: great story to how it all started off to.

 

At least 1000 words mate...anything less would be an injustice

Only joking...good idea, might be worth asking the mods to sticky this as for foreigners and newbs it could be a goldmine of info

 

slightly off-topic but has anyone got the history dvd box-set that came out the other month?

is it worth buying?

 

Yeah it could be in the future. It's still at an early stage so im hoping it can go on to be good enough to maybe be stickied at some point.

 

I have it.
Buy it. Well worth the money.

 

nice one
i've been a good bhoy so santa will be bringing this

 

Thanks rendog ,just a bit mate ,its your baby ,good on you ,interest right away ,get it stickied ,a worthwhile thread ,well done

 

i like this thread, does someone fancy writing a few words about the great TB?

 

Great read. Well done Rendog.
Stickied

 

He will certainly be covered

 

another great idea from you again rendog mate well done

 

very informative and a well good read cheers

 

Brilliant idea for a topic. Learned new stuff already. Turns out the pub I watch games at is straight across the road from where Brother Walfrid's burried, didn't even know he was there!

 

thanks a lot

as a newer fan this helps a ton

 

gd idea man. does any1 think brother walfrid looks like neil lennon?