Born From Charity – Brother Walfrid and the Poor Children’s Dinner Table

The Soul of Celtic | Celtic’s Foundation

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“…a club whose very raison d’etre was charity”

In a perfect world Celtic would never have been formed. Why? Because in a perfect world there would be no poverty. There would be no squalor. In a perfect world people would offer charity without expecting the recipient to renounce their faith. Glasgow in the 1880s was far from a perfect world.

Sligo-born Brother Walfrid created Celtic to aid an impoverished community. A community often shunned because of their faith and nationality. He was driven by a desire to not just save them from poverty but to help them retain their dignity. Through the Poor Children’s Dinner Table and Celtic FC he wanted to put food in the belly and pride in the heart. That’s not romantic revisionism, that’s the reality behind Celtic.

The club’s rapid success on the pitch would see it quickly steer away from these original off-field aspirations. Today such honourable intentions are, bar few exceptions, almost alien to a world of football more concerned with multi-million pound transfers, sponsorship deals, executive boxes and merchandising.

Yet these roots remain a source of great pride for Celtic supporters.

While the club is now ‘owned’ by shareholders, charity and community will always remain at the very heart of the club.

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Links

• Celtic’s Foundation
• Celtic & Charity

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From 1889

Celtic, “…a club whose very raison d’etre was charity”

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