What makes us Celtic fans?

[michael duffy]

Ah remember ma uncle Robert,throwin his scarf in the fire and cryin, when Jock Stien's Dunfermline beat us in the cup,ah vaguely remember sayin, somethin like, "theres always next season"blah, blah, but we we were livin in maryhill at the time, (Cameron street) ma parents were mixed, da wiz a catholic, ma wiz a proddy,so ,on a saturday night ,when they came back fae the pub, it wiz "wan singer wan song"! (yooz of a certain vintage will know whit ah mean) so ma ma's brother "billy" used tae sing perry como songs, then he wiz up tae his knees in fenian blood,then ma uncle Robert used tae sing songs, that told stories,! bang! Mick Duffy wiz a Celtic fan.
What ah started realisin, was the similarities across the world,civil right's in northern ireland,the usa,south and central america,spain.south africa,that certain sections of a population were, to put it mildly,discriminated against! ah,remember the campaign, when the sfa tried tae ban the tricolour,and ah'll tell ye, they were the back ae feckin bus days,
Ah remember goin tae the movies,and when the film ended,they played the nashnul anfum! did ah stand, did ah phuq!, same wi' the telly after " "last call" aye, the nashnul anfum! the institutions, the powers that be, made sure, you knew that ye were a second class citizen,
that's why the "lion's" are so important in our history, from the depths of An Gorta Mor to the triumph in Lisbon,it's been a struggle,against every thing,that those in power in our wee corrupt country can throw at us,and that struggle continues, with Glasgow Celtic F.C as our flagship,the embodiment of what our forebears fought for and struggled against,
and if somebody tells me a should respect the queen,they can go and take a flyin wan! rant over, geeza Sella, COYBIG! apologies fur any spellin mistooks, first and only draft! Hic......

 

[TET]

1967 Respect

 

[50 Shades of Green]

Family sing songs, wan singer wan song, got many a skelp roon the heed if I talked when my Granny was singing, only time I shut up was when I was asked to sing ??.

If it was mixed company that night then "nae party tunes" was in order and the night usually finished with my wee maws rendition of Danny Bhoy,bloody good at it tae... ?

But what made me a Celtic fan, well in mycase it was ma da taking me to games and lifting me over then sitting on the barriers the whole game eating macaroon bars. From then on I was hooked. One time he never got home from work in time to take me and my mate, so we decided to get the bus fae castlemilk to Celtic Park ourselves and get a lift over, no problem till my da arrived at the game just after half time and went mental at me, apparently it wasn't safe for a couple of 7yr olds to go to the game themselves,, who knew eh ?.

YNWA

 

[Richybhoy]

My Granny Kean, made me Celtic. She got it from her Mum and Dad, both Glasgow/Irish. Must be in the DNA.
I am in Carmel, California just now.
The hotel has a wee Library. There is a book from 1963 called the, The Footballers Fireside Book, compiled by Terence Deleaney.
This is the article on page ten,
Catholic Young Men
CELTIC FOOTBALL AND ATHLETIC CLUB
Celtic Park, Parkhead
(Corner of Dalmarnock and Jeanfield Street)
Patrons
His Grace the Archbishop of Glasgow and the Clergy of St Mary's, Sacred Heart and St Michael's Missions, and the principal Catholic laymen of the East End.

The above club was formed in November 1877 by a number of the Catholics of the East End of the City. The main object of the club is to supply the East End conferences of the St Vincent de Paul Society with funds for the maintenance of the 'Dinner Tables' of our needy children in the Missions of St Mary's, Sacred Heart and St Michael's. Many cases of sheer poverty are left unaided through lack of means. It is therefore with this principal object that we have set afloat the 'Celtic', and we invite you as one of our ever-ready friends to assist in putting our new Park in proper working order for the coming football season.
We already have several of the leading Catholic football players of the West of Scotland on our membership list. They have most thoughtfully offered to assist in the good work. We are fully aware that the elite of football players belong to this City and suburbs, and we know that there we can select a team which will be able to do credit to the Catholics of the West of Scotland as the Hibernians have been doing in the East. Again there is also the desire to have a large recreation ground where our Catholic young men will be able to enjoy the various sports which will build them up physically, and we feel sure we will have many supporters with us in this laudable object.
Handbill distributed in Dec 1877 in Glasgow.

There are few more stories about Celtic in it
The First lights at Celtic Park
The Death of John Thomson
Cup Final v Motherwell 2-2 1931
The 1909 riot that led to the Old Firm tag, a five page article from the Scotsman.
The Wembeley wizards 5-1 game v The Anglo-Saxons from 1928.

I'm still on Dundee Mean Time and am up all night. If I canna get turned around I will type any of the above if anyone wants to read them.

 

[Greenghirl]

What made me a Celtic fan....
My Father God Rest him was born in Charlestown, Boston Massachusetts in 1910, the daughter of an Irish immigrant, my grandmother, from Donegal.
She met and married an Italian America and on his death she returned on the Steamship Caledonia with my father and his brother, settling in Glasgow in 1912.
They lived in a tenement in Gladstone Street, Dalmuir West.
My father joined the Argyle and Sutherland Highlander’s at age 16 and he also worked in John Browns Shipyard as a riveter on the original Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth.
He met my English mother and moved to England. He was a staunch Celtic man proud of his religion his roots and his beloved team. He always spoke of Celtic and would tell me stories of the players and the games. We watched the 1967 Lisbon Lions on a wee black and white tv. He taught me to love the team in the same way as he did just one if his many legacies to the daughter he loved.
Thank you Da
Love you for ever ?

 

[Winter]

Ah remember ma uncle Robert,throwin his scarf in the fire and cryin, when Jock Stien's Dunfermline beat us in the cup,ah vaguely remember sayin, somethin like, "theres always next season"blah, blah, but we we were livin in maryhill at the time, (Cameron street) ma parents were mixed, da wiz a catholic, ma wiz a proddy,so ,on a saturday night ,when they came back fae the pub, it wiz "wan singer wan song"! (yooz of a certain vintage will know whit ah mean) so ma ma's brother "billy" used tae sing perry como songs, then he wiz up tae his knees in fenian blood,then ma uncle Robert used tae sing songs, that told stories,! bang! Mick Duffy wiz a Celtic fan.
What ah started realisin, was the similarities across the world,civil right's in northern ireland,the usa,south and central america,spain.south africa,that certain sections of a population were, to put it mildly,discriminated against! ah,remember the campaign, when the sfa tried tae ban the tricolour,and ah'll tell ye, they were the back ae feckin bus days,
Ah remember goin tae the movies,and when the film ended,they played the nashnul anfum! did ah stand, did ah phuq!, same wi' the telly after " "last call" aye, the nashnul anfum! the institutions, the powers that be, made sure, you knew that ye were a second class citizen,
that's why the "lion's" are so important in our history, from the depths of An Gorta Mor to the triumph in Lisbon,it's been a struggle,against every thing,that those in power in our wee corrupt country can throw at us,and that struggle continues, with Glasgow Celtic F.C as our flagship,the embodiment of what our forebears fought for and struggled against,
and if somebody tells me a should respect the queen,they can go and take a flyin wan! rant over, geeza Sella, COYBIG! apologies fur any spellin mistooks, first and only draft! Hic......

Great rant and post MD? myself as a kid growing up in a family of Celtic supporters had the strongest influence of course but my catholic family were never sectarian, I was taken to Clyde home games at shafield when cells played away . I'd crawl under or be lifted over. I was allowed by my father and brothers to go to hampden with the neighbours son, a rangers fan and best friend of my oldest brother. As a kid it was some atmosphere I saw Davies Cooper score and amazing free kick very dundee utd. Religion also for me didn't have a great deal to do with it . It wasthe ability of Celtic, as the great cesear said " sometimes we feel like underdogs in our own city " to show the world and deliver those spectacular beyond words and belief moments that only following Celtic brings. I look back to games i was at like the sporting Lisbon, comeback. , I was 12 I think when I was at the home leg of the ajax ec 2-2 game we won in Amsterdam and I listened on the radio as if I was there it was so amazing. I've already ranted longer you MD haha but those nights and moments over the years I think leading to the ultimate in my lifetime 9iar. I was at the partisan game, Barcelona juventus Milan man utd Liverpool real Madrid, I wish I was at all those games shakthar karagandy ,, rogics last minute thunderbolt winner v Aberdeen. This trully is the club that keeps on giving and that's what made me a Celtic supporter , we don't need a lot to be done for us to become a regular European last 16 club whichever tourney. End of big rant thanks if you read it ?

 

[CelticRose]

Grew up in a large Celtic family. My dad would gives us a rendition of the John Thomson song and Kevin Barry when he had too much of the fizzy juice on a Saturday night. Everyone one of us supported Celtic but only the boys got to the matches way back then in the fifties. I watched the European cup on our wee telly and went out dancing in the street after they won it, still too young to get into the pubs.

My late husband loved Celtic with every fibre of his being. He followed them everywhere and is buried with his Celtic scarf. So I consider myself so lucky to have had a dad that passed on his belief and faith in Celtic and my husband for his passion for his team. When I hear some of the stories on here I think about them and smile because I know they were at the same games as many of you were. HH and thank you all for the memories??.

 

[lennono]

As I said in a previous post, my Grandad was an Irish Catholic...Came over to Scotland, married my Gran, a protestant...She brought the family up as protestants, but there was always a return to the catholic side of the family, with ma Dad supporting Hibs(the famous 5 and all that) and playing Irish Rebel songs on the 'radiogram'. Ma next door neighbour who was older than me tried to get me to support Hearts...Took me to the games, but I wasn't interested. But I liked watching Wullie Wallace, and when he moved to Celtic, I moved with him. It wisnae easy, as where I came from, nae proddys supported Celtic, and I used to get laffed at etc etc.....a few fights anaw. But I never gave into them, and I got the better of them when we won the Big Cup. Ma wee brither supports Celtic anaw

 

[lennono]

As I said in a previous post, my Grandad was an Irish Catholic...Came over to Scotland, married my Gran, a protestant...She brought the family up as protestants, but there was always a return to the catholic side of the family, with ma Dad supporting Hibs(the famous 5 and all that) and playing Irish Rebel songs on the 'radiogram'. Ma next door neighbour who was older than me tried to get me to support Hearts...Took me to the games, but I wasn't interested. But I liked watching Wullie Wallace, and when he moved to Celtic, I moved with him. It wisnae easy, as where I came from, nae proddys supported Celtic, and I used to get laffed at etc etc.....a few fights anaw. But I never gave into them, and I got the better of them when we won the Big Cup. Ma wee brither supports Celtic anaw

And further than that, my son's a Celtic supporter, great days oot the gither in the auld jungle. and his son is a Celtic supporter. First game I took my Grandson to Celtic Park was the tribute for Tommy Burns and Phil O'Donnell

 

[Larsson67]

I absolutely hate The Huns and everything they are. Brought up around bigoted Aholes all my days.!!!! BRING ON 10. All we all want!!!