Tommy Burns – Funeral (2008-05-20)

Yesterday that generosity of spirit was rewarded, when thousands of fans and senior football figures gathered in Glasgow to pay their final respects to the Celtic hero.

The East End was brought to a virtual standstill as supporters thronged to St Mary’s Church in Calton, where a two-hour requiem mass was held. A mile away at Celtic Park, 10,000 people stood in silence to listen to the service broadcast on loudspeakers.

Burns, 51, died last Thursday as a consequence of the skin cancer for which he had undergone treatment two years ago.

He was one of Scottish football’s best-loved and most respected characters and his funeral drew many of the British game’s most famous faces. Joining Gordon Strachan, the Celtic manager, and the entire first team was Roy Keane, the Sunderland manager, who joined Celtic in the final months of his playing career; David Moyes, the Everton manager; James McFadden, the Birmingham City and Scotland striker; and Martin O’Neill, the former Celtic manager who is now in charge at Aston Villa.

Former Celtic stars attending included Tommy Gemmell, Kenny Dalglish, Murdo MacLeod, Andy Walker, Frank McAvennie, John Collins and Tony Mowbray.

Burns’s coffin was carried into St Mary’s, close to the area where he had been brought up, by his former team-mates Danny McGrain, Pat Bonner, Peter Grant and George McCluskey, as well as Walter Smith, the Rangers manager, and his assistant, Ally McCoist.

Smith and McCoist were Burns’s colleagues when he helped to coach the national squad. Their roles as pall-bearers demonstrated just how Burns’s popularity transcended Old Firm rivalry.

Delivering the eulogy, Billy Stark, who played alongside Burns at Celtic, described him as a graceful, elegant and classy footballer. But he joked about how scatty he had been, recalling fondly how his friend used to ask him to put his glasses in his bag because he would always forget to bring his own. Burns, he said, was a dignified man of principle who always showed compassion for those less fortunate than himself.

“Tommy Burns treasured three things above all others – family, faith and football, especially Celtic Football Club,” he told the mourners.

“I remember when I became his team-mate I’d never seen such a contented man.”

Monsignor Tom Monaghan, parish priest at St Cadocs, in Newton Mearns, where Burns worshipped, paid tribute in his sermon to “a good man”. He said: “It may be that better players or managers have passed through the gates of Celtic Park, I don’t know, but what I do know is that there could never have been anyone as loved.”

Monsignor Monaghan also praised his commitment to his family and his Roman Catholic faith. Speaking of the first time that he met the player, more than 20 years ago in a chapel in Barrhead, he said that although he was by then a well-known footballer it was some time into the conversation before he revealed that he was a Celtic player. “I tell that story to point out the humility of the man,” he added. “Celebrity sat lightly on his shoulders. Faith did not.”

The special mass was led by the Right Rev Joseph Devine, the Bishop of Motherwell. At the end of the service he thanked Smith and McCoist for acting as pall-bearers. It was a moving gesture that would mean a lot, he said, and show that football need not be divisive.

Some fans cried as they bade goodbye to their hero. Alana Riggins, 28, whose father had grown up with Burns, said that it had been an overwhelming day. “It is great to see so many people here in the Calton,” she said. “It means a lot – he was born here and he died here.”

Supporters waved and sang You’ll Never Walk Alone as the cortege drove on to Linn Cemetry.

Burns joined Celtic as a teenager before leaving in 1989, aged 32, to join Kilmarnock. He returned to Celtic in 1994 as manager.

Surgeons removed two growths from his leg in 2006. He said he hoped that his illness would make people more aware of skin cancer.

He is survived by his wife of 28 years, Rosemary, two daughters and two sons.