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Personal
Fullname: John Herbert McLaughlin
aka: John McLaughlin, John H McLaughlin
Chairman: 1897 – 1909
Biog
Wine and spirit merchant John H McLaughlin was elected onto the first ever Celtic board at the first meeting of the newly formed limited liability company on June 17th 1897.
Another whose roots were in Donegal, he was a prize-winning pupil at St. Aloysius and Stonyhurst Schools but abandoned plans to go to university and worked instead as a clerk in Bridgeton. Musically minded he played the organ at mass at St. Mary’s, that hotbed of Celtic activity in the Calton (and later played piano with the ‘Rangers Glee Club‘).
Aged 25 when Celtic were founded and with no prior knowledge of football, he was to become one of the leading advocates of professionalism in Scottish football and an expert legislator. His time at Celtic became significant even before he was co-opted onto the board, not only just for Celtic but for Scottish football as a whole. In the early days, the idea of professionalism was anathema to the establishment clubs, with Queen’s Park (one of the most successful clubs in the world at that time) one of the strongest defenders of the amateur stance.
Professionalism had been permitted in England with the inevitable consequence that poaching of the best players had begun. So how were the Scottish clubs dealing with this? As ever they stuck their heads in the sand and espoused the Corinthian spirit of the amateur world. This issue was discussed by the Scottish Football Association in 1893 but rejected by 20-4. Thomas Lawrie, the president of the SFA, argued “that all Associations should unite to stamp out professionalism“.
Shamateurism was the real truth of the game, and every club was at it with underhand payments. Rightly so, as the players were generally working class and couldn’t afford the loss in earnings through loss times requesting breaks from their work for injuries sustained in the game. Many players lost earnings as they lost time to play football instead of being at work (it was generally a six day week back then) so players needed broken-time payments to sustain them to carry on playing. Queen’s Park had a number of middle class players in their sides (inc ex-University graduates), so financially there was no issue for them unlike the others which explains the greater reluctance of Queen’s Park administrators to change the status quo.
John McLaughlin was a realist and a progressive. At a meeting of the SFA in May 1893, he proposed the motion to accept professionalism. He argued “you might as well attempt to stop the flow of the Niagara with a kitchen chair as to endeavour to stem the tide of professionalism”.
Using his political acumen McLaughlin helped pave the way for the creation of the Scottish Football League and official, rather than under-the-table, wages for players – which helped put Celtic immediately at the forefront of Scottish football and cast a long shadow over their early rivals, Queen’s Park. McLaughlin’s argument was accepted and Scottish clubs were able to pay players (openly), and through that revolutionised Scottish football and brought it into the modern age, and Queen’s Park were set to decline from then on. Men like John McLaughlin pushed for a reality check ahead of his time. Likely professionalism would have been delayed for far longer without men like him (any cynics need only look at places in Europe where amateurism carried on well on into the 20th Century till surprisingly late).
Never one to take things lying down, John McLaughlin even led a charge against Celtic’s original landlord in 1891 who attempted to impose a massive increase in rent for the first Celtic Park when he said: ‘Being an Irish club it is but natural that we should have a greedy landlord.’
John McLaughlin subsequently became the originator of the great Celtic Park moniker ‘Paradise‘. By sources, the oldest reference for ‘Paradise‘ stems from a prediction by John H McLaughlin at the May 182 AGM that ‘a desert would become a Garden of Eden’. This comment prompted one member to enquire if the players would ‘dream of Paradise when flitting on its sward?‘. According to authors Tom Campbell & Pat Woods in their book ‘Dreams & Songs to Sing‘ this exchange seems the most likely origins of the ground’s nickname. So whenever we make reference to ‘Paradise’ we are in part referring to an old exchange involving the great John McLaughlin.
Interestingly, he was virtually unique among the Celtic pioneers in having no public involvement or profile in Irish political affairs (at the time of the Boer War he was a vocal supporter of the British, very much out of step with many others on the Celtic Board; moves were made to have him unseated, which thankfully failed).
“The Irish & Catholic Elements were exclusively employed in the composition of the side, but the old Hibernian principle of confining the membership to one sect was never contemplated.”
He would serve on the board until his death in August 1909 during which time he was a generally well respected Chairman. He was Chairman of Celtic for 12 years from 1897, and helped to steer our club during the glory years of the 1900s.
From Scottish Cup final of 1899 (see link)
An interesting speech after the Scottish Cup final of 1899 saw Celtic chairman JH McLaughlin say in a fulsome mood:
“Sectarianism is a dead letter in Scottish football… We cull players from all quarters, regardless of sect.”
A wag in the crowd shouted back “Or cost!”. A dig at Celtic’s spending (Harry Marshall‘s loan had cost £300, a lot in those days).
Regardless of the retort, John McLaughlin was to sadly prove very wrong in this, but it is an interesting anecdote. Celtic were to remain true to his word, but it was the opposition that day (Rangers) who were to become a standard bearer for sectarianism in Scottish Society.
Memorial
Obituary – Glasgow Observer, Aug 21 1909
The Chairman of Celtic Football Club dies
(source: http://kjellhanssen.com/2013/05/04/the-chairman-of-celtic-football-club-dies/)
Wednesday, August 11 – 1909
By the death of Mr. John Herbert McLaughlin, chairman of the Celtic Football Club, a well-known figure in Scottish Athletics has been removed. Mr. McLaughlin had been ill for eighteen months, and his death did not come in the nature of a surprise. Indeed, about a year ago his illness was of a severe nature.
Mr. McLaughlin died at his residence, Strathmore, Hamilton. He was one of the founders of the Celtic Football Club in 1888 and on is formation as a Limited Liability Company in 1897 he became chairman. He also acted as secretary and treasurer of the club at various times. He took an active interest in the affairs of the Scottish Football Association, serving for a time as its president, and also filled the office of treasurer. He represented Scotland on the Football International Board, and his opinion on football matters commanded much respect on both sides of the Border. Kindred sports also claimed a good deal of Mr. McLaughlin’s attention, especially bowling, and he was president for three years of the Hamilton Caledonian Club.
The deceased, who was 46 years of age, is survived by a widow and family. A native of Glasgow, he was educated in St. Mungo’s School and finished at Stoneyhurst College, where he took the highest honours and was gold medalist for two years in succession. An accomplished musician, he was organist for many in St. Mary’s Church, Abercromby Street, Glasgow, and latterly he held a similar appointment with much acceptance in St. Mary’s Catholic Church, Hamilton.
The funeral takes place on Saturday to Dalbeth Cemetery, and a pathetic coincidence is that on the same day the annual athletic meeting of the Celtic Club in which the deceased always took a great interest, will be held.
(Evening Telegraph, 12-08-1909)
