The Dominant Underdog

 

The Dominant Underdog

The first Celtic history conference was held at Celtic Park this weekend and it was both educational and enjoyable. A full house turned up to listen to diverse and interesting speakers give their take on different aspects of Celtic’s history and how that history was shaped by the social, cultural and political context of the times. Dr Joe Bradley, academic, author and editor of the ‘Celtic Minded’ series of books gave the keynote speech and emphasised the pivotal role of An Gorta Mor in the Celtic story. The influx of tens of thousands of Irish refugees to Scotland, fleeing the horrors of a man-made starvation accompanied by imperial mismanagement and cruelty at home, was a key factor in the birth of Celtic. Joe emphasised that the revival of the Catholic church in Scotland, a church most of these immigrants adhered to, was another strand in Celtic’s DNA as it brought teaching orders and other religious bodies to the country. It is from the charitable work of the Marists that the idea of football as a vehicle for community pride, fitness and fund raising was born.

Joe was clear that there is nothing to be ashamed of in the Catholic roots of Celtic FC. The society Celtic was born into was deeply anti-Catholic and there was a time when the city of Glasgow had more anti-Catholic societies than it had actual Catholics. Celtic, as the identifiable symbol of the Irish-Catholic community in the west of Scotland did not escape this prejudice. Cartoons in sports papers like the ‘Apes and Aryans’ image which appeared in 1905 showed a Celtic and Rangers player involved in a game of snooker. The Rangers man is handsome and smart looking. The Celt is portrayed as ape like. Those overtly racist images are gone now but there are those still uncomfortable with this club and what it represents. You only have to look at the reaction in some quarters to Celtic’s league win in May to see that. The phrase ‘the dominant underdog’ was used and in some ways it fits the recent history of Celtic.

Dr Joe was followed by Dr Michael Connolly. Michael is known to Celtic fans for his pioneering work in uncovering a fuller picture of the life of Brother Walfrid. His PhD Thesis ‘Walfrid: A life of faith community and football was published in book form and I can highly recommend it. His work uncovered previously unknown photographs of Walfrid and details of his life before and after his time at Celtic. Before being given his Marist name, Walfrid had been part of the post An Gorta Mor Irish diaspora arriving in Scotland as a teenager in the 1850s. Walfrid’s chief motivations were discerned as his Catholic faith, a commitment to community-based charity and his lifelong association with Celtic FC. From his years in London, to his time in Kent and retirement in St Joseph’s, Dumfries, Walfrid would receive telegrams keeping him up to date with Celtic’s latest results.

Dr Margot McCuaig is best known to Celtic fans for her films on the lives of Jock Stein, Jimmy Johnstone and Tommy Burns, though her work in film and story is far more extensive than that. Her input to the conference examined the gendered authorship of Celtic’s history and asked why so little of the printed and online material about Celtic is created by women. Her stated goal was to ‘challenge assumptions about who possesses the authority to write the club’s football history and why women remain marginalised in documenting Celtic’s past.’ She asked at one point about women having ‘permission’ to write about Celtic and I thought immediately that they don’t need permission. Nobody gave me permission to write about Celtic. I just decided I wanted to do it. I understand the deeper meaning in her question though. Society has historically wanted to keep women ‘in their place’ and that patriarchal outlook hasn’t died out completely. Would some men take women writing about Celtic as seriously as they do male authors? I think most judge the quality and content of the writing rather than the gender of the author, but Margot’s input was well received and thought provoking.

Matthew Marr, known to many of you for his excellent guided walking tours of Celtic related sites around Glasgow, spoke next on ‘Celtic's story around Glasgow' His knowledge of Celtic’s early days and the sites around the city where many of the club’s early dramas unfolded is first class. He delivered his input with clarity and humour, illustrating his points with maps and photographs. His knowledge of Celtic’s first finals and trophies was built on detective work which uncovered many interesting facts that may otherwise have been lost to us. Matthew is the author of ‘The Bould Bhoys! "Glory to their name,’ a book detailing Celtic first league winning season in 1892-93 season. He is working on a book about the trophies Celtic has won over the years and the interesting stories about them. Matthew’s enthusiasm and affection for the club came across in all he said.

Stephen Murray will be known to many of you from his excellent ‘St Anthony’ account on twitter, though he recently had to start from scratch as Mr Musk’s faceless bots shut his account down. Stephen spoke of his ‘labour of love,’ the Celtic Wiki and the countless hours he and others put into creating and maintaining this encyclopaedic bank of information and photographs on Celtic. Stephen has more Celtic photographs on his computer than there are seats in Celtic Park which gives you an idea of the scale of what he has achieved with the wiki. Like the other speakers, his love for Celtic shone through his input and we owe a debt of gratitude to folk like Stephen who provide us with accessible information and photographs on the history of our club.

The speakers encouraged the audience to ask questions about what they’d heard and give their opinions on the topics raised. One recurring theme was the need for Celtic to invest in a proper museum in keeping with the status of the club. There are so many artefacts, stories and images illustrating Celtic’s history which go unseen and unheard. I love the Celtic Park tours and have been on them several times, but when one looks at the museums of other major European clubs, Celtic is way behind.

The first Celtic history conference was a huge success and the numbers in attendance suggested that there is an appetite for this to become an annual event. There is so much Celtic history which could be explored in future conferences and I hope and believe that this is just the start of something which will grow in the future and become a date in the calendar we all look forward to.

On a personal note, I did allow myself a wee smile when one of the speakers used a quotation I had written myself. It read…

‘We handed on our stories of Celtic to the next generation as if it were the most valuable thing we had to give our children. In some ways it was. It was the green thread which ran through the fabric of our lives. It was and is, part of us, part of who we are, and we should thank those dad’s, mothers and uncles who taught us to love Celtic. It was a fine gift they bequeathed to us.’

In some ways that is the essence of what the conference was all about. Well done to all involved.