I’m sure the ways you become a Celtic supporter are so many fold that everyone’s story would fill a library or two.
Fortunately it was very much in my background and I certainly claim a direct lineage through my Da’ who had attended the 1937 Celtic v Aberdeen Scottish Cup Final. First and foremost Celtic won 2-1 that day but it’s claimed as the World Record attendance for a Club match at 147,365!
I remember him talking about this match even right up to 1970s. He said it’d been so tightly packed that if your arms weren’t by your side you’d lose them in the crowd and almost have your circulation cut off! He reckoned someone working for the SFA had done a sort of calculation to justify to the media they’d carefully considered crowd and crowd control. It was total eyewash of course.
Unfortunately this was probably the last time he watched Celtic. A fan all his life and of course he watched the career of the legendary Jimmy McGrory (I think this Cup match was his very last competitive match playing for The Bhoys).
Bennie McKenna (my Da‘) had come late to married life around 1937 and to compensate threw himself headlong into having nine of us kids with Nan McKenna (née Duff). To try and pay for all these weans he also started his own Coal Merchant business too. He worked 24/7 and 365 days a year with only Fair Fortnight off.
No more watching Celtic. He did follow it on radio on Saturday afternoons and midweek matches tae. As TV came more into its own he religiously watched all and any Fitba‘. Despite the enmity with Rangers he didn’t say anything directly about them and their rigid non-Catholic policy of his era. To a large extent he just didn’t bother to acknowledge their being.
So this passion for Celtic FC was there in the DNA and via my Da’ goes back to the 1920s. My older Sisters weren’t interested and all married men who’d no time for football. In certain cases they were a bit antagonistic towards Celtic and their fans stereotyping us as unruly or somehow unwholesome.
My older brothers were a mixed bag on matters Celtic and one of them went off and supported Dundee United for some time! He soon fell out of love with them and now has no interest in football. No-one had my passion.
In these circumstances there was no-one to take me the matches and being young I wasn’t allowed to go on my own. It was here that I actually had some fortune in that a neighbouring family of five brothers became friendly with my family. They’d moved to Balornock from Drumchapel and were Celtic zealots to a man.
I was in the same class as one of them and most times other than school was spent playing football or talking about it and in their case actually attending frequently. I was taken to my first Celtic match by one of these brothers and his mate.
Celtic beat Motherwell 4-2 and it was Willie Wallace‘s debut although he was a bit quiet. Stevie Chalmers got a hat trick and Bobby Murdoch also scored from 30 yards. I was hooked.
Brendan McKenna (Breandán Mac Cionnath)
PLEASE SHARE YOUR FAMILY EXPERIENCES AND STORIES OF WATCHING CELTIC IN THE 1930s
* A great wee contribution there from Brendan, telling us about his life supporting Celtic. We are particularly interested in hearing from older Celtic supporters who have memories of their dads, uncles or grand-dads talking to them and telling them stories about watching Celtic in the 1930s. If you can help with that please email editor@thecelticstar.co.uk
