Save Our Celts

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Details

Name: ‘Save Our Celts’
Founder: Willie Wilson
Reference: The original fans pressure group during the Celtic Takeover days
Formed: Early 1991
Disbanded: Late 1991

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The first Celtic Fans Pressure Group

‘Save Our Celts‘ was the original Celtic supporters’ pressure group formed to tackle the old incumbents on the Biscuit Tin board. The club was fast heading down the drain, having suffered some horrendous seasons of late, and a gap was opening up fast both on & off the field with Rangers as they spent their way to the top.

The group began in 1991 founded by Willie Wilson (from Clydebank). A brave man who decided to begin a stand against the board with this group, and he simply dived into the pool at the deep end. The fanzines were already in full flow but this was the first attempt for some direct action by the support.

The inaugural meeting was held at Shettleston Town Hall, and Willie Wilson took the stage to get the attending fans going. It was invitation-only for this meeting, and there was said to be a healthy attendance of around 300. Some might makes jibes about the invitation-only aspect but it was the first of its kind, and an organised orderly start was likely better than a potential free-for-all. It was a fair success and got things off the ground.

Larger rallies were organised with deposed board member Brian Dempsey brought in to speak to the support. In his speech he urged us all to “Go that extra mile to achieve what we want and deserve as the paying customer“. Nice words!

In addition, the lauded lawyer Joe Beltrami opened up proceedings reading out a disparaging letter from board member Chris White. The letter stated that the rally would “serve little purpose and simply cause embarrassment to the Club“. If you were to ever describe Chris White’s efforts at the club, then you could use the same line!

Lisbon Lion Jim Craig also stood up in front of the support at these rallies. It is said that he lost his role with Radio Scotland (as an analyst) due to his appearance at the rally. In fairness, neutrality in these issues is meant to be a prerequisite for the roles on Radio Scotland Sportsound, but seems to never have been an issue for many others.

Board member James Farrell attended a rally as well (he was joined by Tom Devlin whose family had also been long-term shareholders and board members). James Farrell was a persona non grata on the board, and his contribution was welcome but not necessarily easy. Mr Farrell was asked a question from the floor, requesting feedback on what had happened to the gate receipts the club had taken in over the years. The reply was “…it has all been ploughed in to the stadium…” (we are talking about the old Celtic Park here of course!). In NTV’s immortal phrase, “Jimmy walked off stage to the sound of his own footsteps“.

Sadly despite the initial interest, the group declined very rapidly. There just wasn’t the supporter morale or even sufficient enthusiasm for a concerted effort by the wider support (and possibly not the manpower backing).

Ironically, the group got going in a bad spell but then Celtic hit a purple patch with two consecutive wins over Rangers which were live on TV (St Patrick day massacre and league game following Sunday). This in itself seemed to raise spirits amongst the support. What was needed for the group was a continuation of the prior set of poor results and falling attendances but it never wholly fell that way for a short time. Myopia amongst the general support made it all appear as if the group was no longer necessary.

It was disappointing and with hindsight the support were to regret not taking action sooner with this group. It was to be another three years before the board were brought down.

The later rallies were likely scaled up too fast, and possibly was another reason for the demise of the group. Numbers weren’t as high as could have been (mainly as some of the venues were too large) but this was the days before the internet, and the fanzines were only monthly publications (then the main Celtic based forum for discussion/analysis within the support). Possibly more widespread publicity and discussion on the group’s efforts would have made the rallies more successful.

The board easily dismissed the efforts by ‘Save Our Celts’. Terry Cassidy (Celtic Chief Executive) made patronising remarks and dismissed the group & their rallies in the club newspaper. It didn’t reflect well on him and was another step in creating a division between the club and the supporters. Terry Cassidy’s mentality was to be a bone of contention for everyone in time (both within and outwith of Celtic).

Disappointingly, George Delaney (General Secretary of the Celtic Supporters Association) would not attend and was as dismissive of the group as our own board, and is said to have described the group as a bandwagon for certain people to use. Sad to see but it does illustrate the divided nature of the support during the early days of “Sack The Board“. There is a big myth that the whole support was wholly united against the board. The truth is far different. There were factions and extremes of views, and it was a prime cause for the longevity of the board in the circumstances. It wasn’t until much later on that the support could be said to have been united as such against the old board, and it took a lot of work to do so.

One group of people who definitely learnt lessons from this group were those behind ‘Celts for Change‘. They were a later successor to the original ‘Save Our Celts’ and unlike their predecessors, there was no way ‘Celts For Change’ could fail without the club also failing with them. Willie Wilson was invited to be part of running the new group but opted not to. It was he who introduced Brendan Sweeney to Matt McGlone to get the new group going. The committee men behind ‘Celts for Change‘ were able to take the experiences of ‘Save Our Celts’ as a basis for their efforts, and thankfully they were to succeed.

‘Save Our Celts‘ is too often forgotten in retrospectives on the whole Celtic Takeover. Certainly all the supporters empathise with what they set out to do, and for that we should pay them the due respect that they have always deserved.

So, on that Saturday, myself and two mates (Andy McGarvey and Stevie Hepburn) handed out about a 1,000 leaflets prior to the match –most of the fan reaction was hostile, but we had support from ‘Not The View’ in that day’s fanzine to help attract awareness. Ten days later the inaugural meeting of ‘Save Our Celts’ was held in the Sundowners pub on Queen St –attended by about 20 fans.

From this, a core group of Jim Orr, David Ashman, Brian Mullan, Duncan Hart and myself started to issue a newsletter to about 400 or so who had registered an interest in the movement. We targeted the media at large to promote our name and aims and in this respect Hugh Keevins was exceptional at the Scotsman and on Clyde . We got ‘Not The View’ and ‘Once A Tim’ onside too and we stared to spread the message of why we were so frustrated and alienated and we set out what we were seeking – the removal of the board and a share issue for ordinary fans.

We had no internet or mobiles, so we had to type up and print off these 6 page newsletters every couple of month or so. It was quite a job and it cost us all a few bob in stationary and postage- but it was worth the effort and expense. (Brian Dempsey actually gave us money when he came to our rally to help us).

It became clear that we would hold a rally in Glasgow and we would invite a number of guests to the podium who agreed with our agenda. We also agreed to invite the Board so as to give the their opportunity to speak and respond. Who knows- maybe we had got it all wrong?

We approached GCC for the hire of a hall and when asked on the numbers we could only guess- anything from 50-500. They said that they needed exact number for health and safety so we went for Shettleston which held 400 or so and decided just to issue tickets to those on our mailing list on the hope they would turn up. They all did!

The first rally took place on Feb 24th 1991. The panel included Gerry Dunbar, Jim Craig, Brian Dempsey and myself with Tom Grant and Jimmy Farrell representing the board. It was chaired by Joe Beltrami. Each panel member said their piece on where they believed Celtic were going wrong and the direction needed to go in an effort to change things quickly. Jim Craig read out letters of support from 5 of the Lions and I spoke of the desire to set up an ‘Independent Celtic Supporters Club’ (ICSC) to rival the voice of the Association and George Delaney. Tom and Jimmy, while affable and pleasant were just so out of touch with the rest of the room that it was embarrassing. They genuinely believed what they were saying and that millions had been spent on making Celtic Park a ‘great stadium’.

The event raised our profile and publicity followed, but yet we never seemed to have more than 500 or so on our mailing list and the idea of an ICSC never really got off the ground. Nevertheless, we issued 8 newsletters to the masses on a bi monthly period to keep them updated.

In between times we had numerous spats with the Board and Terry Cassidy in particular. Celtic’s form improved a bit, we beat the Huns twice in a week and McNeill seemed to have steadied the ship, but defeat by Motherwell in the cup signed his sack papers. Still, our numbers never increased.

By summer Liam Brady was appointed and given a decent amount of money to improve the club. His reign started well and we became a bit of an irrelevance for the best part. However, we pressed ahead and arranged a second rally at Shettleston – this time with Cassidy agreeing to appear.

What really should have been a show of defiance by our members in Dec, ended up a bit of a damp squib as Cassidy played the pantomime villain to perfection and won a fair amount of the audience on his side with his smart answers whilst never really telling them anything of note – promising big new stadium, new players, smashing the Huns etc.. etc…

Things looked up for us in early 1992, as we had back to back defeats to the Huns and hearts, ending our title aspirations. Soon after Brady resigned. This should have been the catalyst for us and the fanzines to ram home our opposition to the Board and get the fans on side, but the team under Frank Connor then Macari went on a run of about 15 games undefeated in the league (inc the Huns) – it looked again as if we as a club had turned the corner and for many of the support that’s all that mattered – wining on the pitch. Still no trophies appeared.

We decided at the end of that season to wind up the campaign- it had been going for 18 months and, despite raising awareness to the wider ranging issues of control and ineptitude of the families running Celtic- we had achieved very little in the way of fan power. As I mentioned before, I think we just arrived a bit too soon for the support to embrace such radical change. We were too small an organisation to have real clout and certainly we never got in a position to organise a boycott. The reality though, was that we were not radical enough and subsequent events by ‘Celts for Change’ highlighted that fact. Indeed, Matt’s book summarises the times very well I think.

Thankfully, by the end of that year Brendan Sweeney got in contact with me to talk about starting it up again, I’ll be honest my head said the fans wont be up for it whilst my heart said go for it, in any case I advised him to talk to Matt McGlone and take it from there – the rest as they say is History.

Newspaper articles on “Save Our Celts”

Daily Record
March 4, 1994, Friday
BRIAN IS VOICE OF THE FANS

MILLIONAIRE Brian Dempsey has consistently championed the cause of the Celtic fans for change …

After experiencing at first hand the determination of the board to do things their way.Dempsey, 44, was co-opted as a director of the club in May 1990, along with Michael Kelly.It was a real break with tradition which was seen at the time as a far-sighted move to help the Parkhead club increase revenue and boost their image in the business community.Property developer Dempsey’s company had enjoyed a turnover of £20 million in the financial year prior to his walking into the boardroom.Dempsey was from outwith the family dynasties which had controlled Celtic – he even had an executive box at Ibrox – but his commitment to the club was never in doubt.

However, five months later, he found himself booted out in bizarre circumstances.A mere five minutes before the club’s AGM in October 1990, Dempsey was told that Michael Kelly and major shareholder Chris White intended to oppose his ratification to the board.White said at the time there was a “fundamental difference of opinion at board level as to how the club could be kept at the top level in British football”.

Where Celtic should play their football was central to that difference of opinion.Dempsey felt Celtic should relocate in another part of Glasgow.And he had a piece of prime land, at the edge of the Stepps bypass, which he was keen to offer for a new stadium.It was also felt his idea that Celtic should become a public limited company had not gone down well with the men at the top.Fellow-director Jimmy Farrell became embroiled in the row and claimed White had tried to axe him, too, because he backed Dempsey.Fans were furious at the boardroom coup and began a campaign for change.Dempsey, whose late father was the Labour MP for Coatbridge and Airdrie, became their unofficial champion and spoke at the inaugural meeting of the Save Our Celts group in February 1991.He said the board should stop their “childish petulance” and forget the idea that anyone who dares to criticise them is creating mischief.And later he withdrew thousands of pounds in sponsorship to the club.

Since then he has been a major player on the sidelines as the grass-roots campaign to get rid of the board gained momentum.In March 1992, along with financial expert David Low and Canadian Jim Doherty, he led a successful fight by rebel shareholders to prevent Farrell and fellow-director Tom Grant being booted off the board.Dempsey ridiculed the board’s plans to build a super stadium at Cambuslang, calling it “worse than EuroDisney,” and encouraged fans to boycott matches.He told a supporters rally: “You have the power – use it. You have the courage – don’t be afraid.” When Scots-born tycoon Fergus McCann came from Canada to join the power struggle, Dempsey teamed up with him.

The McCann-Dempsey consortium launched an £18 million bid for control of Celtic.But a voting pact of five directors stopped them in their tracks.The pact prevented the “rebels” mustering enough votes to push through their financial lifeline.The plug had been pulled. Dempsey and McCann walked away.But they were never too far away from the action.

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Born in a rage with rebellion in the blood

Scotland on Sunday
January16, 1994, Sunday
BYLINE:Celtic’s Directors Box Has Always Been A Target For The Fans’ Resentment And Vituperation, reports Kevin McCarra

THE blood-letting has a bloodline.

You can trace a genealogy for the protests which are now the most vivid feature of any match at Parkhead.Resentment over the ownership of Celtic has flared among the support in each generation and large doses of success are usually required to tranquilise them once again.Celtic, in their present form, were even born in the midst of rage.

There was great dissent at the meeting in 1897 when the club turned itself into a private limited company.Infuriated members complained, rightly, as it turned out, that Celtic’s original charitable purpose would be weakened.Most insurrections, however, have been alfresco.

In the dismal post-war years mutiny always seemed to be one bad result away.The Supporters Association, then as now, toyed with the idea of a boycott.The 1946 discussions were prompted by a 4-1 beating from Third Lanark at Celtic Park.After the match 2,000 demonstrators gathered out-side the stand until the police drove them off the premises and down to London Road.

In 1963 the mounted police were performing exactly the same manoeuvre to clear a crowd of comparable size.Those events are recalled by David Potter, a classics teacher and writer of many wry articles about the club who has been so angered by the present board that he no longer attends Celtic games, preferring to commentate on Raith Rovers matches for hospital radio.

“I was 15 in 1963,” he remembers, “and went to the Queen of the South game with my father.It was early in the season and Celtic, as they always seemed to, had just lost 3-0 to Rangers.They played very poorly to scrape a 1-1 draw with Queen of the South and the people in the enclosure turned to shout obscenities at the directors box.”After the match many fans gathered spontaneously outside the stand. I was as furious as anyone. We were all protesting about the chairman of that time, Bob Kelly.”The object of the displeasure was happily oblivious to it all.He was not even on the premises, having presciently chosen to travel to Dumfries for the reserve fixture.This impressive gift for prudent absenteeism could be genetic.Michael Kelly, nephew of the former chairman, was out of the country when disorder broke out at the recent Old Firm match.

Decades of furious incidents may make the current board believe that the current episodes are no more than another passing squall.Pat Woods, co-author of The Glory and the Dream, regarded as the finest history of the club yet written, thinks that such confidence is misplaced.He is a member of a Celtic Supporters Club and considers that the discontent is more widespread than ever before: “People I would have expected to be sympathetic to the directors are utterly hostile. In fact, any backing for the board has become a bit of a novelty.”

Woods also points to the changing nature of the support.

“I don’t want to patronise the previous generations but there have been far more opportunities for working people to get a good education in modern times. You will now find many fans who are in the professions and they see the situation differently.

“In the old days Kelly was the only director anyone knew and people would perhaps just be shouting that they wanted a new inside -forward.Now they want a revolution. The protest groups are far more organised and expectations are higher.You could say that Jock Stein is also responsible for the current situation. After his sustained success supporters will always resent it when Rangers dominate.”A chronology of recent years tends to support Woods’ analysis.

Instead of sporadic outbursts there has been a cumulative process.Not The View came into being in the mid-1980s and has proved to be one of the most enduring of British fanzines.

Subsequently, it has been joined by Once A Tim which has specialised in lengthy accounts of the struggle for control of Celtic.

The pressure groups have also evolved.

“Save Our Celts”, in operation at the start of the 1990s, ran out of steam but has been succeeded by Celts for Change.The names tell the story.”Save Our Celts” is a little plaintive.

“Celts for Change” sounds like people with an agenda.

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