BS: And if you know your history......

Subject: BS: And if you know your history......
From: GUEST,Red Eye.
Date: 01 Apr 04 - 12:39 AM

HOW CELTIC FC CAME ABOUT.....

On the 18th of May, in the small, sleepy village of Ballymore, County Sligo, a baby boy was born into the Kerins family. Christened Andrew by his parents, John Kerins and Elizabeth Finn, he would survive the ravages of a famine-stricken Ireland and devote his life to the welfare of the poor and needy, an endeavour which ultimately culminated in the foundation of one of the world's greatest football clubs.

Andrew Kerins was but an infant when the first reported case of potato rot was recorded in Ireland on the 13th of September 1845. Known as 'The Great Hunger', from 1846 to 1851 a series of failures in the potato crop resulted in at least 1.5 million deaths from famine and typhus.

Kerins, however, managed to survive the destitution of a broken country and joined the Marist Priests' Teaching Order on the 11th of September 1864, at the age of 24.

Taking the name Brother Walfrid, he subsequently moved to Scotland and settled in the sprawling East End area of Glasgow, where after teaching at St Mary's School he took up a new change in 1874 as headmaster of the newly-opened Sacred Heart School.

In association with the St Vincent de Paul Society, Brother Walfrid organized the Poor Children's Penny Dinner' Table where children and some old people were provided with one warm substantial meal each day.

Brother Dorotheus did likewise at St Mary's and the school's Centenary History publication recall: 'The penny was charged only when no great hardship was involved to preserve the self-respect of the beneficiaries. Many parents whose children needed the meal would have baulked at the idea of receiving charity but were reconciled by the face-saving device of a token payment.'

Brother Walfrid was an energetic, enthusiastic man and a born organizer. Besides his clerical and educational duties, he ran youth football teams, initiated and chaired a literary society for the school leavers in the parish and was noted for his persistence and success in pursuing prospective employers on behalf his young students.

He shrewdly observed the growing interest in the sport of football among the working class and became involved in arranging exhibition games for charity.

After the glowing success of Edinburgh Hibernians in the 1887 Scottish Cup Final, the representatives of St Mary's, St Andrew's and St Alphonsus parishes decided it was time Glasgow had an Irish football club.

A number of stormy meetings took place during September 1887 and the new club was formally constituted on the 6th of November that year.

Brother Walfrid advocated the name 'Celtic', which was duly adopted in preference to that of Glasgow Hibernians. The name was consistent with the fact that he had previously organized teams under the name 'Columba', which evoked the common religious inheritance of Scotland and Ireland. But so unfamiliar were the Glasgow Irish with the name 'Celtic', they immediately mispronounced it with a soft 'C'. To his dying day, Brother Walfrid maintained the proper pronunciation.

Although he held no official position of power in the club, Brother Walfrid's influence was far-reaching and extended into every committee and meeting.

Only one week after the meeting of 6 November, six acres of vacant ground were leased beside Janefield Cemetery. For the next six months, the Marist priest and his throng of voluntary workers laboured night and day with their hands, driven on by love and pride, to transform the vacant site into the first Celtic Park.

In 1892, Brother Walfrid was transferred to London, where he continued his excellent educational work. However, with his departure the club lost its unswerving primary interest in charity. Thankfully, though, when the second decade of the 2oth century arrived, Celtic displayed an increased awareness of social responsibility and a welcome return to the older values of charitable concern for orphanages and people who had fallen on hard times. It was a development which pleased Brother Walfrid.

His last published comment about Celtic came in the summer of 1911, when he renewed acquaintance with the Celtic officials and players as they returned from a Continental tour.

In a conversation with Tom Maley, then a football writer with the 'Glasgow Observer', he was reported to have said: "Well, well, time has brought changes; outside ourselves there are few left of the old brigade. I know none of the present lot of players, but they are under the old colours and are quartered in the dear old quarters, and that suffices."

Not long after this meeting, Brother Walfrid's health broke down and he crossed back over the border to the Marist house at Mount St Michael, Dumfries, where after a prolonged illness his remains were laid to rest on the 17th of April 1915.

Willie Maley paid the following tribute as he reflected on the great man's career: "He must have spent a considerable period near the Blarney Stone in his young days, as his persuasive powers once experienced could never be forgotten. His work for Celtic had been a labour of love remained as keen as ever to hear how his 'boys', as he termed the team, were doing."

Brother Walfrid lives on today, not only in the annals of Celtic Football Club, but also in his native Ballymore, County Sligo, where the community park commemorates his name.


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Andrew Kerins, better known as Brother Walfrid and the man whose energy, enthusiasm and organising ability helped to found Celtic and set it on the road to becoming one of the most famous football clubs in the world. Although he held no official position, his influence extended into almost every aspect of the club's early days.

Subject: RE: BS: And if you know your history......
From: Big Mick
Date: 01 Apr 04 - 01:24 AM

Great post, Red Eye. Thanks!!

Subject: RE: BS: And if you know your history......
From: GUEST,Jack Walsh
Date: 21 Apr 04 - 03:19 PM

I would just like to say as a true Celtic fan I am always to see info on Brother Walfrid i am only 16 yrs old but for generations through my family we are to remember what he did for the club and i thank u coming up with this and i would back 110% if u were to work on any other further projects on Celtic Football Club (c'mon the hoops)

Subject: RE: BS: And if you know your history......
From: Hillheader
Date: 21 Apr 04 - 03:45 PM

There are now move to have a statue of Brother Walfrid erected at Celtic Park--and so there should be.

He founded a great club with a tradition of charitable giving which persists today.

(And we just won the Scottish Championship last Sunday!!!)

Subject: RE: BS: And if you know your history......
From: GUEST,sosickadntiredoftosserslikeredeye
Date: 21 Apr 04 - 05:10 PM

Thanks Red Eye for a long and tedious explaination of how another fucking football club came into existance. You might have added that the Celtic football club, along with Glasgow Rangers, helps perpetuate the religious and racial intolarance that blights Scotland to this very day. However, I have no doubt that there are many here who will turn a blind eye to the bleeding obvious and congratualte you on religious and racial bigotry under the guise of allowing of supporting a football club.

Subject: RE: BS: And if you know your history......
From: GUEST,sosickadntiredoftosserslikeredeye
Date: 21 Apr 04 - 05:12 PM

in the last sentence you should delete "of allowing". I apologise for that as should Mudcat for allowing a pretty unpleasant bigot like RedEye to post.

Subject: RE: BS: And if you know your history......
From: Strick
Date: 21 Apr 04 - 05:17 PM

I always see this thread subject and am reminded of the argument that started between the people at the railstation in the beginning of A Quiet Man when John Wayne asks how to get to Innisfree. That alone is worthy of a thanks for starting it.

Subject: RE: BS: And if you know your history......
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 21 Apr 04 - 05:20 PM

Celtic football club played no small part in my escape from Catholicism. Thanks for that, anyway. SP is a pub league BTW ... ;o)

Subject: RE: BS: And if you know your history......
From: GUEST,Melanie Davis
Date: 21 Apr 04 - 05:26 PM

Thanks sosic-this that and the other-for pricking the myth of Celtic FC. It is a club based on racial and religious exclusivity whose agenda was to stop the Irish immigrants from mixing with the Scots, who happened to be protestant, so that the catholic church could keep its grip on its flock. It is no coincidence that it was a catholic cleric who started the club, no coincidence at all. Glasgow Rangers, as far as I can tell, is the protestant mirror image of Celtic FC.

Subject: RE: BS: And if you know your history......
From: paddymac
Date: 21 Apr 04 - 08:39 PM

It sounds to me like there are a few dozen verses to "Bless 'em All" lurking about the place in this thread.