Source: http://www.manchestercsc.com/Celtic%20Universe.htm
| Across the Celtic universe | |
| Date: | 5/11/2003 8:21:54 AM GMT Daylight Time |
| From: | m.odonnel@chello.nl |
| Reply-to: | celtic@topica.com |
| To: | celtic@topica.com |
| Sent from the Internet (Details) | |
A few days ago I spent an hour or so flicking through one of those huge Celtic club histories which I acquired some years ago. By far the most important section to me was the club’s origins. What after all is Celtic about? In these days of “mission statements” and the ‘need to explain’, it seems to me the origins of the club hold the key. I’m looking at photos of men taken in the late 1880’s resplendent in their handlebar moustaches, Irishmen in the main captured for posterity when Victoria and her empire were at their zenith. However, it seems every picture does not tell a story. John McLaughlin and John Glass are the two men who feature prominently, Brother Walfrid is nowhere to be seen though there are frequent reminders of his spiritual and temporal role.
I just wonder if John Glass (the club’s first chairman) and John McLaughlin (Celtic’s third chairman) realized what they had done when they helped form Celtic. What we don’t see in the pictures are those ordinary people who strove literally to create the club that we all love. It was never just about founding a football club, it was about something much more important. It was about self-respect and pride. Hated and despised for what they were, it was virtually impossible for those strangers to be assimilated into a hostile and resentful society. Marked out by their speech, religion and customs the immigrant Irish sought self help to overcome their lot. Those that were fortunate enough to have any kind of job were grateful for their pittance, many more however were victims of the systematic discrimination which flourished then and even today still exists, albeit in a limited but much more subtle form
I’m thinking of how that community was able to gradually establish itself in the city of Glasgow and beyond despite the formidable barriers which were placed in its way down the generations. I see too a reflection of its progress in the success and development of Celtic football club on and off the field.
I’m thinking of a report a few years ago which showed the voting patterns of Scottish football supporters. The contrast between Celtic and Rangers could not be greater. Rangers are broadly speaking on the right and Celtic on the left. The left in this context is not the austere, empty rhetoric of Trotskyist students but that of Old Labour. Social justice, solidarity and equality. Big words maybe but true nonetheless. For example, I have never met a single Celtic supporter espouse any understanding, never mind support for the ideas and political philosophy of Margaret Thatcher. Celtic was never about winning at all costs and the survival of the fittest. We leave mindless triumphalism to others, Celtic is about the collective and solidarity.
However, statistics and voting patterns can only convey so much, for me the human factor is the most important aspect of Celtic. I’m thinking of the Scottish/Irish diaspora which has seen the establishment of many Celtic clubs throughout the world.
I’m thinking of the time I was in Boston and was worried that I wouldn’t find a pub that was showing the game on television. As it transpired, I had the choice of six different venues to watch the game. I opt for South Boston and a pub called the Molly Darcy as it is the heart of the Irish community. It’s the first game of the season and we are playing Aberdeen away. It is also Celtic’s first competitive game under the Barnes/Dalglish duo and I am genuinely excited about what promises to be a brave new world. The omens are good after all, two superb ex-footballers with relative youth and energy on their side. I find the pub after a leisurely stroll along Broad Street. Because the doors are closed and I hear nothing and I fear that the place is empty. As I open the door to go in, I am genuinely stunned by what I see. The pub is packed to the rafters with every conceivable type of person on that August day. God knows where they had all come from but it was remarkable to think that they had managed to assemble in such numbers early on in a Sunday morning to watch a game from the other side of the world.
I’m thinking too of the time when I stood behind the goals at Stuttgart and was surrounded by Germans clad in Celtic scarves and colours. Puzzled, I ask one huge German directly “Why are you here?”. He is in his forties and explains in fluent English that he is from Hamburg and is a fan of Sankt Pauli. That doesn’t answer my question so I ask him to expand which he does very eloquently. Sankt Pauli are a “Volks” club and has its ground near the notorious Reeperbahn district of Hamburg. Famous for its red light area and the place where the Beatles came of age, he tells me that the Sankt Pauli district has always been proud of its working class identity and refusal to conform to the norm. Even under Hitler’s Nazi regime, the dockers of Sankt Pauli never ever embraced the perverse ideology which swept that country. I note too that he has a badge which says “Sankt Pauli gegen racismus” (Sankt Pauli against racism) So why Celtic? Contacts had been established between the two clubs and both sets of fans saw something in each other that they admired. The big guy explains that Celtic and their fans were somehow ‘different’ from what they had come to expect from football supporters from Britain. What shone through was their passion, devotion and sense of fun and fair play. None of the mindless violence and xenophobia which characterized so many English supporters when they travelled abroad..
I’m thinking too of the effect that Celtic and their supporters have had on all those people who have come into contact with them. Take for example Jesús López, a Celta Vigo fan who was awestruck when he entered Celtic Park to watch the first leg. In his own words , “I was so staggered by what I saw and above all by what I heard that I couldn’t speak for five minutes. This huge wall of green and white and the noise was something I will never forget for as long as I live”. Jesús López and a few hundred brave souls made the long haul from Galicia to Glasgow with a certain amount of trepidation as he subsequently confided to me in an e-mail. Like the Stuttgart fans and countless other foreign visitors to Celtic Park, they were moved by the warmth of the reception they received. Exchanging scarves, shaking hands and embracing the true spirit of sportsmanship Jesús López and his fellow Celta supporters left Glasgow also deeply touched by the spirit of Celtic.
By way of contrast, as somebody who lives very close to the city of Rotterdam I had to explain to my neighbours very promptly that although I was from Scotland, I was in no way connected with the ‘Rangers of Glasgow’, as they quaintly put it. The Feyenoord-Rangers games more than anything demonstrated the essential difference between the two Old Firm clubs.
Pitched battles broke out at Ibrox and Rotterdam stadium last season. Rangers stuck in time, entrenched in the seventeenth century still literally fighting battles against demons real or imagined. The contrast could not have been greater. This too following on from events in Eindhoven a few years earlier when a bus load of right wing extremists caused havoc in the city centre and required the Dutch authorities to impose severe custodial sentences. Some of those sentenced had absolutely no link whatsoever with Rangers football club, they had however attached themselves to the main body of the support as they sensed the potential to exploit the sympathies of many of its supporters.
I’m thinking of the Celtic worldwide family brought much closer together with the advent of internet. The ability to communicate and share information relating to all things Celtic with people from different parts of the globe, literally within seconds. The sheer size and scope of the fan base is breathtaking as are the lengths to which some people are prepared to go to follow Celtic. I think of people like Tommy Donnelly and Jim McGinn from the New York Celtic supporters club whom I have never personally met, yet I consider friends because of the commitment they show to Celtic. Their club , the Parlour Bar situated in Manhattan, could be any one of many in North America, Europe or the Southern hemisphere. Their website shows an array of photographs, statistics, anecdotes and charts the New York CSC’s history from its foundation in 1995. True to the spirit of Celtic, they are involved in charitable works in their adopted homeland. I’m looking poignantly at a picture taken of Bobby Murdoch three weeks before his death with a New York CSC member called Bill Hendry.It was good to know that Bobby was surrounded by such people before he was taken from us, far, far too young. Above all, I’m looking at the photographs of the club members and I see the sort of people that you make you proud to be associated with Celtic football club. Happy, smiling, good natured and well adjusted people, the sort that you would want your own family to mingle with.
And so to Seville.
Much has already been written about what is going to happen there. As each day passes we read and learn of the extraordinary lengths to which Celtic supporters are prepared to go to make it to Seville. Literally thousands of people will be going to Spain with absolutely no expectation whatsoever of seeing the game itself. It is like some latter day mass pilgrimage where the mere fact that you were there will stand you in good stead for the rest of your life. This is of course is not rational, but when were Celtic supporters ever rational? That is perhaps their most endearing quality, a refusal to be treated like a consumer and to behave like sheep. Celtic are not a product to be packaged and sold to a greedy public, Celtic supporters wouldn’t fall for such gimmicks. Manchester United may call themselves the biggest club in the world and may ‘target’ the Far East for their next commercial venture but Celtic they will never be. There is no such thing as a “Real Tim” as some would have it, you either feel an emotional attachment for the club or you don’t. It is not incremental and conditional.
In Seville we will see literally thousands of Celtic supporters descend upon this beautiful city. I wonder what John McLaughlin and John Glass would make of it all as they look down from above. The Celtic support is far broader than they could have ever imagined. They come from all parts of the globe, they speak different languages, have different religions and very different backgrounds. What unites them is Celtic. Win , lose or draw they will celebrate the Celtic way with fun and dignity. That after all is what sport is all about.
Martin