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Brother Walfrid: Pilgrimage to his Resting Place
(written by Hullbhoy from KStreet forum)
Both the booklet and the documentary rekindled my long held intention to visit the resting place of the founding father of Celtic. With these two items fresh in the rapidly diminishing brain cells there was no time like the present to make a visit and pay my respects to the man who played the greatest part in bringing about the formation of Celtic.
For those who have not seen the TV documentary it interwove two themes. Firstly there was the story of Walfrid from his birthplace through to his resting place and secondly there was the tale of a hard working group of fans who worked to commission and finance a sculpture of Walfrid in Sligo, the Brothers’ birthplace. Of course the documentary dwelt not least on the great legacy that Walfrid formed in the East End of Glasgow, namely Celtic Football Club. The financing of the sculpture was achieved in part through a sponsored walk by two Sligo men from the birthplace of Walfrid in Ballymote through to Celtic Park. Many fans may recall the walkers entering the stadium for the Dunfermline game to rapturous applause. This in itself was a remarkable achievement.
The journey that Andrew Kerins (later to become Brother Walfrid) made on a coal ship from Ireland to Glasgow was a journey that would ultimately change the man himself and lead to him building the foundations of the club that millions throughout the world support today. In 1855 at just 15, Kerins was escaping the ravages of famine and poverty and heading to Glasgow to look for work.
Meanwhile the Marist Brothers had been at the forefront of bringing education and care to the malnourished and poverty stricken Irish in the East end of Glasgow.
Undoubtedly Andrew Kerins benefited from the education that the brothers provided through night classes and meetings. His impressions and experience must have been greatly stirred as in 1864 he decided that his vocation would be with the Marist Brothers. To fulfil this he went to France for his religious and professional training at the Marist Novitiate House at Beauchamps. It was during this time, and in keeping with the Marist Brothers, he was given the name Walfrid. It seemed throughout his training that his desire was always to return to Glasgow and the East End and he fulfilled this ambition in 1868 by taking up a teaching post at St Mary’s parochial School.
The efforts of Walfrid were obviously recognised and in 1874 he was appointed as headmaster of the Sacred Heart School.
By this time it appeared that Walfrid had astutely built up a network of businessmen and local dignitaries which he could call on to provide potential employment and support for those he was responsible for educating. This network also enabled him to sow the first seeds in working towards the formation of Celtic. The work he did with the SVP Society in organising the poor children’s dinner table was something he persuaded the more philanthropic individuals in the business world to get involved with.
From this dedicated and tireless work Walfrid clearly saw the tremendous appeal of arranging sporting events for spectators as a means of raising much needed funds for the charitable work.
Many will have read of Walfrid’s work in bringing Edinburgh Hibs to play Renton in an exhibition match in Glasgow in 1887. The match was an unprecedented success with 15,000 people attending.
By now the momentum was well under way for Walfrid, aided by prominent individuals from the East End parishes, to create a football team in Glasgow. The team was to be not only a fundraising venture for charitable work but a sporting and social focus for the catholic community. John Glass and John Conway both played a major part in helping to bring about the football club.
Finally in November 1887 in St Mary’s parish hall the formation of the Celtic Football and Athletic Club came to formation. Walfrid’s stamp was all over the new venture as he asserted that the name of the club should be “Celtic”.
From the time Celtic played their first game in May 1888 to the present day the name of Walfrid has constantly remained as a lasting reminder of a man who came to establish a significant social and cultural club to which we can all so readily identify with.
Walfrid’s time in Glasgow was cut short in 1892 and he moved to become a headmaster in Whitechapel, London. Retiring in 1908 Walfrid, had one final major act in finding a new home for the Marist Brothers exiled from the French novitiate he had studied at. During this time in 1911 he met up with staff and players from Celtic at a celebration dinner as they returned from a trip abroad. By that time Celtic had been in existence for nearly a quarter of a century. Walfrid remarked on the changes in players since his days but was glad to see that Celtic were ‘under the old colours’.
Walfrid subsequently settled at the brother’s retirement home at Mount St Michael’s in Dumfries. The house was in the same grounds as St Joseph’s College run by the Brothers. It was here that Walfrid was laid to rest along with the other Brothers when he passed away in 1915 and it was here I had planned to go to pay respects to the founder of Celtic.
Not being familiar with Dumfries or the specific location of Walfrid’s burial place there was only one thing to do. Contact someone who would know. Fortunately our very own Lachiemor resides in that part of the world and so we arranged to meet to visit the grave.
As is typical of the Marist Brothers there is no great elaborate remembrance to them. Through the buildings of the College in a beautiful secluded spot the Brothers are laid to rest in small rows. The unassuming aura is confirmed by the simple metal crosses over each grave with a sacred heart shaped plaque recording the name of each Brother, both their birth name and their vocational name. Indeed there was even more than one Brother Walfrid.
On a bright sunny day the tranquillity and peacefulness of the resting place of Walfrid compared with the noisy atmosphere of Celtic Park ran through my mind.
We paused for a moment to pay our respects to Walfrid. There are all kinds of ways fans connect with Celtic through family, friends, memories of games and players, and the affection for the club. It was an honour and a privilege though to spend a moment in memory and respect for the man who played such a significant role in bringing about the foundation of Celtic 118 years ago. The connection of seeing Walfrid’s grave and the moment of contemplation cut to the core of the foundation of Celtic
Today, the modern Celtic is a world away from what Walfrid created and the times in which he created it. Even though Walfrid recognised the important role that business and businessmen could bring to his vision of forming a football club there are fundamental differences in what we see in Celtic today compared with Walfrid’s template for the club. Even though he recognised, along with the other directors and senior figures like Tom and Willie Maley, that professionalising the sport and bringing in quality players was a must to attract the crowds and raise the necessary funds for charitable reasons, surely he couldn’t foresee the Celtic of today. Celtic is now predicated by materialism and consumerism. Charitable giving by the club is widely publicised but relatively small in comparison to the huge entity that Celtic has become. The demands of fans largely dictate that players are paid vast sums which bear no relation to their talent or their worth. Do these players still represent a cause and a community as they did in Walfrid’s day? It would be hard to argue a case that they do.
With all these random thoughts between the old and the new spinning around in my mind there is the next phase in the Walfrid legacy. The memorial booklet and the sale of the pin badges are all a means of funding a statue to Walfrid outside Celtic Park. On first thought this would seem a fitting endeavour but there’s something that keeps niggling away at me which suggests that Paradise as we know it today has a tainted feel about it and a lost link with the Celtic of Walfrid’s creation. Standing at Walfrid’s graveside created a contradiction between what was and what is as regards Celtic.
Maybe the intention of a statue for Brother Walfrid outside Celtic Park is just a connection too far for me given what Celtic is today. Is this what Walfrid would want?
The notion of a statue will undoubtedly find favour with most fans and allow them to show their appreciation and thanks to a visionary Marist Brother who helped create the club who was dedicated to educating and supporting the poverty stricken of the East End. Such a tribute may fulfil the intentions of the various sponsors of a Walfrid statue at a simplistic level.
For me though the cemetery at St Joseph’s will always be a more poignant place to show appreciation and thanks. I can’t help feeling that buried with Brother Walfrid is a crucial element of Celtic’s soul which has been lost along the way.
*** Update – Further to hullbhoy’s excellent piece – I spoke to Brother Colin a Marist Brother in Glasgow on 6th July 2010 – He informed me the Marist Brothers now no longer have The Marist House in Dumfries opposite the Cemetery (All the remaining Marist Brothers in Scotland are back in Glasgow) – The Council have agreed to take care of the Cemetery – Subsequently contacted the Council and they confirmed that Mount St.Michael Cemetery where Brother Walfrid is at Rest is now under their jurisdiction and still open for the public to pay their respects.