It is with great regret that we report the death, at least in its present form, of “The Celt”. surely the best Celtic fanzine of them all. “The Celt” started in 1983 and has now reached 152 editions, but has now decided to fold in view of the increasing costs of printing.
We are assured however that other ways are being investigated of keeping “The Celt” in business, and we really must hope so, for the fanzine has been a tremendous boon to those who are interested in the history of our great club.
“The Celt” has seen some great events in its 35 years. It kept going through the bad days of the early 1990s – in fact that may have been when it was at its best, cheering us up when things looked grim – to the sunnier times of O’Neill and Seville all through to the Double treble of today. It was reassuring, pleasant to read, encouraged contributions from many people, yet resisted the temptation not to go sensational. It was always readable and basically light-hearted.
The magazine (backnumbers are available, I understand) was factual, historical but also humorous as well with the rantings of Cyclops always able to raise a laugh e.g. “Is Graham Roberts a Freemason? Don’t know. He won’t shake hands!” This very week, Cyclops sat in a busy shopping centre counting the green and white tops vis a vis the blue ones.
We won 22-3. Yes indeed, guaranteed one-eyed reporting – but always informative, very gentle and very humorous in a very Scottish and Glasgow way, disdaining foul language and not feeling the need to descend to too much vitriol against organizations like UEFA, SFA and Rangers FC – but still making the point.
The credit was all this must go to several people, but in the main George Sheridan, a retired teacher (he was still going strong of course in 1983!) whose contribution to Celtic historiography is already guaranteed by his involvement in “An Alphabet of the Celtic” along with Martin Connor and the late great Eugene MacBride, who was also editor of “The Celt” for a while.
If “The Celt” is to go forever (heaven forbid!) then surely George must be prevailed upon to go digital, or at least to be signed on very quickly by some website or other. The brainpower, energy and devotion of that man are remarkable, and there is so much that he can contribute to the all-encompassing subject of Celtic historiography.
He would be made very welcome on The Celtic Star team.
David Potter
