A little trip back to November 1887 and the inception of our great club.
I found this circular on the Internet recently and thought I would share it with the faithful.
The following circular was issued in January 1888, asking for financial assistance, which came along, but not in the amount that was desired. A large number of subscriptions were later acknowledged, among these being one from Mr.R.F.Barr of the firm now known as A.G.Barr & Co., Ltd., the well known aerated water manufacturers.
Celtic was founded on the 6th of November 1887 at a meeting held in an adjacent building to St.Mary's RC Chapel in Abercromby Street.
CELTIC FOOTBALL AND ATHLETIC CLUB
Celtic Park, Parkhead
(Corner of Dalmarnock and Janefield Street)
Patrons
His Grace the Archbishop of Glasgow and the Clergy of St.Mary's, Sacred Heart, and St.Michael's Missions, and the principal Catholic laymen of the Eat End.
The above club was formed in November 1887, by a number of Catholics of the East End of the City.
The main object of the Club is to supply the East End conferences of the St.Vincent De Paul Society with funds for the maintenance of the "Dinner Tables" of our needy children in the Missions of St.Mary's, Sacred Heart, and St.Michael's. Many cases of sheer poverty are left unaided through the lack of means. It is therefore with this principal object that we have set afloat the "Celtic', and we invite you as one of our ever-ready friends to assist in putting our new Park in proper working order for the coming football season.
We have already several of the leading Catholic football players of the West of Scotland on our membership list. They have most thoughtfully offered to assist in the good work.
We are fully aware that the "elite" of football players belong to this City and suburbs, and we know that from there we can select a team which will be able to do credit to the Catholics of the West of Scotland as the Hibernians have been doing in the East.
Again there is also the desire to have a large recreation ground where our Catholic young men will be able to enjoy the various sports which will build them up physically, and we feel sure we will have many supporters with us in this laudable object.
Any subscriptions may be handed to any of the Clergy of the three Missions or to the President, Mr.John Glass, 60 Marlborough Street , Glasgow, Dr. John Conway, 14 Abercromby Street, Glasgow, or to J.O'Hara, 77 East Rose Street, Glasgow, or to any any member of the the Committee, and same will be gratefully acknowledged in course
Now many of our enemies have jumped on this particular circular proclaiming it as proof that our club was set up on sectarian principles, and the references to Catholicism point to us not having as in-exclusive employment principles as we might have liked.
However this was written in 1887, a time when your average Catholic had no money, couldn’t get a job (due to many employers excluding him due to his religion/and or his land of origin), had no social outlet and lived in conditions that we couldn’t even imagine.
The club was initially set up, as is written above, to feed these peoples and to give them hope, something to believe in. Many falsely claim that the club was set up to stop these poor people seeking alms from churches out with their religion, that this was to ensure the numbers were maintained in the chapels, so to speak.
This, however was not the case, in order to receive handouts from the well wishing Ministers from the other Denominations, the immigrants and their families had to publicly renounce their faith. A bit like "join our religion and we will feed you". Hardly charity now is it? Apostasy or starvation – You decide?
So our forefathers formed this great club, borne out of desperation for the plight of the poor, and as the above circular points out, many helped the Phoenix rise from the ashes, with A.G Barr being one of the main principle backers in this project. The links with this company does not end there, with the first Celtic Park initially residing in the area now containing Barr’s factory.
This circular is an important part of our history, marking the time prior to the first ball being kicked in Celtic Park, and should be preserved as such.
Yours in Celtic
Clydebuilt