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Topic: Other Clubs called Celtic FC before ‘Celtic’ was even formed in 1888
Ref: Celtic FC
Background
The term Celtic is synonymous now with our football club, but there have been other Celtic football clubs to have existed before our own.
It is believed that possibly Brother Walfrid was influenced to name our club ‘Celtic‘ as his original club (‘Columba‘) was listed in which a competitor was titled Celtic.
The Parkhead History site reports a ‘Celtic‘ team to have played one game versus ‘Eastern‘ on 25th January 1873, so long before our Celtic FC was formed. The team was listed as playing at Flesher’s Haugh on Glasgow Green. Records show two teams called Celtic were playing in Glasgow before our Celtic FC was even formed.
In Liverpool, another city with a large Irish population, there were 11 Irish teams in the 1880s. Significantly four were called Celtic and one Hibernian. It’s unlikely that they had all copied their Glasgow counterpart, a team still in its formative years. The term in certain circles referenced Irishness so Celtic was seen as an identifier.
So, ‘Celtic‘ weren’t the first ‘Celtic‘ football club, but then our Celtic have influenced enough clubs over the years to adopt the name, most famously the brotherly Belfast Celtic (sadly now gone).
Our club keeps the term alive and has helped breathe new life and respect into the name. The name of our club reflects and resonates more of what its foundations are than that of any other name for any other club anywhere in the world.
Links
Report of a match between Eastern and Celtic played at Glasgow Green on 25 January 1873.
