'You cannot escape the glorification of the old Celtic values'
By Tom Kelly. . .IN GLASGOWThere are hundreds of classic stories to be told about Celtic supporters, anecdotes which encapsulate the fanaticism of many who make up the curious breed. But the one I like best was only enacted about two weeks ago when the Hoops took 8,000 followers with them to St. James Park in Newcastle for Peter Beardsley's testimonial. Seemingly Celtic turned on an exhibition performance on the night, and some of the elated fans drank bountiful amounts of dark brown ale with the same indulgence as if they had won the European Cup. As it happened, quite a number of them ended up behind bars from being drunk. But one particular group from Glasgow were so concerned when they lost their friend, John White, that they went to the nearest Police Station for help. "'Ave ye a John White here," asked a member of the anxious party. "No, but we have five Bobby Sands!" came the reply from the police officer. Not all of the new age of Celtic supporters subscribe to it, but there is a deep fenian and republican pathos running right to the heart of the club's heritage. You don't quite realise it until you make the pilgrimage to the place they call Paradise. You just cannot escape the glorification of the old values, values passed down by Irish families who had been driven to Scotland by the inability of their rack-rented, colonised country to sustain them. Rebel songs are recited in the disheveled pubs around Parkhead before every game. It's like a warring ritual. I was there for a game against Hearts on Saturday which, they tell me, was only a mild expression of the faith in comparison to when the enemy in blue from across the town come to play. Glasgow is not the most pleasant cities I have ever visited. From what I saw of it, it is downright dreary and depressing. It is probably a good job that the majority of the population is engrossed spiritually and emotionally in the activities of two football clubs because there does not seem to be too much else to excite the mind. I don't mean to sound unkind to the Scotsmen amongst us, but I'm being honest when I say that I have no wish to return, apart from attending a match at Celtic Park, of course. I realise now why they call it paradise. It is a glorious architectural oasis in the middle of relatively nothing. An imposing structure which represents so much to so many football people throughout the globe. Manchester United may be the richest and best supported club the world, but Celtic are watched by more people at their home games than any other side in Britain. Fergus McCann, the current Celtic chairman, has been the target of stick from some quarters because of his determination to stand up to professional players who became too big for their boots. But when he steps down in a few months time, he will leave a magnificent legacy behind him. A stadium fit to restore Celtic to their rightful place among the elite clubs in Europe. He has lifted the club out of the doldrums and instilled the realisation that football success is not built on the dreams of past glorious but on solid business acumen. Declan Prendergast, the founder of the Mayo Branch of the Celtic Supporters Club, holds a season ticket and loves the place as if it were his own. He makes a point of travelling over at least once every six weeks, but it is a journey he rarely makes on his own. Prendergast, who is the well-known goalkeeper of Ballyglass F.C., was not even born when Celtic won the European Cup in 1967, but he has followed the club with a passion since Murdo MacLeod scored the winning goal in a 3-2 triumph over Rangers to clinch the league championship title in 1977\1978. It was Billy McNeill's first season as manager, and Prendergast vividely remembers many of the greats of that era, including Danny McGrain, Roy Aitken, David Provan, Bobby Lennox, George McCluskey, Tom McAdam and Tommy Burns. Celtic went on to record a 1-0 win over Rangers in the Scottish Cup final a few days later, and a young boy from Ballyglass was hooked on Celtic for life. Huge InterestWhen he grew older, he became aware of the huge interest in Celtic's fortunes throughout Mayo. But he was disappointed by the turnout when, in 1994, he called the first meeting of the Mayo Branch of the Celtic Supporters Club in Mick Walsh's former pub, now Hennelly's, at Main Street, Castlebar. He recalled:"Only two people turned up apart from myself, and one of them, David Walsh, was working behind the bar. The other person who came was David Breen, or Jock as we call him. He was a native of Glasgow who had settled in Castlebar. "Jock told us he had contacts in Parkhead and could get his hands on tickets anytime a group from Mayo wanted to go over. So we put a note in the newspaper saying that we were organising a trip, and the attendance at our next meeting was up to fixteen or sixteen. "We subsequently got in touch with a strong core of Celtic support in Ballina and Achill, and the Mayo Supporters Club was put on a firm footing." Prendergast stated the club made its first official trip to Parkhead on a 12-seater minibus, a journey which took almost 16 hours, broken up by a number of pit-stops along the way. "We arrived in Glasgow around 11 o'clock in the morning without any sleep the night before. Headed straight to Shannon's Pub to soak up the pre-match atmosphere. Went to the game where we sang our hearts out and, as soon as the match was over, we got back on the minibus again and began our return journey. "It was a gruelling, tortuous and yet enjoyable experience. Nowadays we usually stay over for a night or two before returning home." Last Friday, the Supporters Club, headed by Ballina-based chairman Vinny O'Hora, took a group of 66 supporters over to Glasgow by coach for Saturday's game against Hearts. It was an eventful voyage which began from the Kingsbridge Inn, Castlebar, at 7.00 on Friday evening, with stops along the way at Ballina, Sligo, Manorhamilton, Dungannon and Belfast before catching the early morning ferry from Larne to Stranraer, and arriving at the Normandy Hotel, ten miles from Glasgow, at around 8 o'clock on Saturday morning. I (luckily) didn't qualify for a bus pass, so I took a 40 minute flight instead from Dublin, albeit following a three hour drive in darkness from Castlebar. When I docked into the Normandy at around 9.30 on Saturday morning, I was greeted (sorry, wrong choice of words: nobody was in any condition for greetings) by what looked like a mass of dead soldiers slouched in an exhausted state on couches and chairs in the hotel foyer. It's a bit of a downer alright when you arrive from an energy sapping trip to be told that you have to wait four more hours for a bed. Not that it took too long for this particular group to whip themselves back into shape. Once the bar opened, it was not such a bad morning after all! It's amazing the limits some people with push themselves to support their team. But that's all part of the culture within a culture. If it was easy, everybody would be doing it. Famous QuotationDubliner Noel Lester, who lives in Castlebar, has been a staunch Celtic supporter all his life and he is fascinated by the views of the club's fans who live in the Scottish capital and eat, drink and sleep Celtic, so to speak. He told me:"Many of them have told me they regard themselves as Irish and not Scottish. They feel very strongly about that, in fact. They hold the view that their decedents were driven out of Ireland by the English ruling classes. "Celtic Football Club, which was founded in 1888 by Brother Malfrid from Ballymote, Co. Sligo, gives them a strong sense of Irishness. They treasure that association very ardently. To borrow a famous quotation, they are more Irish than the Irish themselves." It stands to reason that the club has a strong Catholic following. Despite the best efforts of both Celtic and Rangers to break down the religious barriers between the two clubs in recent years, the Catholic perspective is still very important to those who travel to Parkhead regularly from communities in Northern Ireland, in particular. Some of the Celtic chants during games refer reverently to the Pope. The I.R.A.'s name is also chanted with equal enthusiasm. A glaring paradox, it has to be said, but not in the minds of the hardcore Celtic followers. Paul Campbell, who grew up in Belfast, regards Celtic as an important part of his life. He spent eight years working in San Francisco before returning to live in Mayo after marrying a Castlebar woman, Bernie Ruane. "I followed Celtic as fanatically in America as I did when I was living at home. There were three Celtic Supporters Clubs in San Francisco, and each one had a big membership. "The Celtic matches were shown live in a pub at seven o'clock on a Saturday morning. I rarely missed a game. We cheered every attack with the same exuberance as if we were sitting in the stands at Celtic Park. "We lived every week waiting for Saturday to come. A win brought immense joy, but defeats were harder to take than if you were there. Once the green and white is in the blood, it is there to stay." Real CrescendoDavid Breen, a member of the outdoor staff of Castlebar Urban Council, has seen it all as far as Celtic is concerned, and he told me not to read too deeply into the manner in which the supporters vented their anger at opposing supporters. "It is all part of the atmosphere, really, but those experiencing it for the first time get a false reading of the situation. The taunting reaches a real crescendo during the matches against Rangers. But what outsiders don't understand is that people on both sides of the fence work alongside one another come Monday morning and get along quite well." David had a surprise for us when we went to the Hoops Bar for an after match drink. Hanging from the ceiling was a Castlebar Celtic replica shirt. David said he was not directly responsible for putting it there, but the important thing was that the jersey of his adopted club was gracing the interior of one of Glasgow's most famous football pubs. Across the roads in Bairds, every available space on the walls and ceilings was covered with some type of Celtic memorabilia imaginable. The role of the Celtic supporter is not a male preserve by any means. Mary McGrath, a hairdresser who lives in Ballyglass, has made the trip to Parkhead on a number of occasions. "I enjoy the whole mystic and magic which goes with being a Celtic supporter. There is no club quite like Celtic. It is an institution in many respects, and Irish people rightly regard it as their club." As historian Brian Wilson wrote in his book,"Celtic: A Century with Honour", Celtic was instituted for reasons closely related to Irish identity and Catholic charity in an age when Irish emigrants retained a passionate concern for the fate of their native land. To many, the very basis on which Celtic was founded remains as concrete as ever. |
