I am Celtic author and historian and write for The Celtic Star. I live in Kirkcaldy and have followed Celtic all my life, having seen them first at Dundee in March 1958. I am a retired teacher and my other interests are cricket, drama and the poetry of Robert Burns.
Ian Young was one of my heroes. He had played one or two games in season 1962/63 but it was season 1963 that he became a…
Merrier Christmases for Celtic – Like 1935… It was indeed the bleak midwinter. 21 December 1935 was frosty and foggy, so much so that many other…
Better! Encouraging! But let’s not go any further than that. I heard Stephen Craigan using words like “terrific” and “vibrant”. That was maybe going a little…
Things were happening in December 2000. Celtic had narrowly gone out of the UEFA Cup to Bordeaux, but everything else was good – more or less.…
Christmas need not be a time of sadness and depression as this one clearly is. There have been many far better Christmases than this one. Take…
Celtic is a concept that does not give itself to easy comprehension. We are suffering at the moment, and it has to be said that unless…
More disappointment for Celtic, I’m afraid to say. This time there was slightly more commitment and the defence was marginally better than it had been of…
Chris Sutton asked early in the second half which Celtic was going to turn up, and I think we got an answer. But yet, there was…
Tom Maley, the son of a soldier by the same name, was born in Portsmouth in 1864 and is thus four years older than Willie. He…
FOUR STRAIGHT HOME DEFEATS FOR CELTIC…here’s what happened the last time Celtic lost four games on the bounce at Celtic Park… Score: Celtic 2 Partick Thistle…
It hurts to say it, but now I must join those who say that our Manager has to go. There can now be no possible excuse…
There was something so predictable about this. The game turned on two key moments. The first was when Kristoffer Ajer refused to go when that ball…
I had often been told by people who should have known better that Rangers = Scotland = blue as distinct from Celtic = Ireland = green,…
Not a good day for Celtic! A draw was probably a fair result, for Celtic deserved something for their belated fight back, but we really could…
It is the custom in quite a few Celtic families (well it is in mine, anyway!) for a grandparent to cradle a newly born child in…
“Proudly the note of the trumpet is sounding…” – so begins the stirring song of Hugh O’Donnell, the “dauntless red Hugh” of the 16th century who…
Patsy Gallacher was born in Milford Poor House, County Donegal in 1891. He spent his early years in Ramelton before his parents decided to join the…
I was always told that the first Celtic team to wear the green and white horizontal stripes (they weren’t called the Hoops until decades later!) was…
John Deans’ career was going nowhere fast in autumn 1971. He was playing for Motherwell, or rather he wasn’t, for he was in the middle of…
WILLIE LYON was anything but a Celt in background, ethnicity or even (in his early days) inclination. He was an Englishman whose family had moved to…
13 April 1918 was the day that it all ended for Celtic, and it almost all ended for the British Empire as well. The German Ludendorff…
Charlie Shaw was a legend in a team which is already rich in goalkeepers – Dan McArthur, Davie Adams, John Thomson, Ronnie Simpson and many others…
THE CELTIC SONG was released in October 1961 and sung by the Celtic supporting Glen Daly, this song is still played at Celtic Park on match…
We all know that Celtic’s next game is against Hibs at Easter Road on Saturday 21 November, with a 3pm kick-off. We also all know that…
It was with sadness that we heard of the death of Alec Byrne. Alec played for Celtic between 1957 and 1963, and these years immediately tell…
Well, the problem about watching Celtic these days is that there seem to be several Celtics! Even today, there were two of them. We had a…
This was an absolutely shocking performance. This was a Celtic team in name only, and little can be said to mitigate or excuse the performance of…
The build-up throughout Scotland was intense, made all the more so by the fact that the Scottish League was to be decided that day as well.…
In retrospect one can see clearly that the semi-final replay was Gallagher’s career changing moment. It did not necessarily look that way at the time, but…
Every new Manager worth his salt will make a few changes in any case, for he will want his own men. All that Charlie could hope…
