Barrhead Mick McCarthy CSC…

Founded in September 1987 by John Gillan, Paul Deehan, Martin Bradley, Allan Curran, Ian Arbuckle, and Michael D’Arcy, who joined later in the season. Their first game wasn’t until 11th October, against Hibernian.

The club was founded not long after the old Barrhead Emerald CSC folded. They have 59 adults and 4 children as members and they use the Whitestar bus company, which leaves from Barrhead Railway Station. Previous bus companies include Sunningdale, Marbil, and McNiven.

Over the years, they have been based in the Barrhead Sports Centre, Fereneze Inn, and the Knights of St Columba. They are homeless at this moment in time, although they all head to the Brig Inn after the games. The Brig is strictly a neutral pub, and no colours are allowed. A no-drink rule on alcohol consumption on route to games has been in place from day one to the present.

After initially going by train to Celtic Park at the start of the centenary season, it became apparent that they had to start a new club, basically for their own safety. Back then, they still had the old football special trains arriving back at Glasgow Central at roughly the same time as they reached the station for the train back to Barrhead.

After a few near misses with Rangers supporters charging down Union Street looking for anyone in Celtic colours, they began to get worried. The situation finally came to a head after Celtic beat Rangers 1-0 at Celtic Park in August 1987. On the way back to Central, all the boys who attended the game were ambushed at the old Lewis department store by a large group of Rangers supporters.

Thankfully, no one was seriously injured, and all made it safely back to their local pub to party the night away. Not long after that, 15 of them got together in the Fereneze Inn and decided to start their own club. The club quickly grew, and before long they had 25 members. By the end of the centenary season, they were running a 40-seater to home and away games. Of the original 25 members, only three remain who have been present since day one. John Gillan, Martin Bradley, and Paul Deehan.

As our Malawi adventure continues this week, we are proud to showcase another of the 67 Kitchens sponsored by one of our generous CSCs. Thank you to the Mick McCarthy CSC Barrhead for their magnificent donation of £2,000 towards the project 💚🌎 pic.twitter.com/WrLtIjbAwL

— Celtic FC Foundation (@FoundationCFC) June 14, 2018

Others have come and gone over the years, and some of the original crowd are back with them. At their peak, they ran both double- and single-decker buses, taking roughly 120 people to Celtic Park for a full season and most home games, but that changed after the formation of another CSC in the town.

On a Saturday, when arriving at the away venues, they would be waiting for the opening times of the pubs and stopping off in Perth on route to Dundee. On the way back from Aberdeen, they would go to a pub called The Highlander. Other great pubs back then welcomed them with open arms.

Although they have always had a no-drinking policy on the bus, everyone always ends up merry on their away days and arrives back in Barrhead a little worse for wear. Their trips to Blackpool at the end of the season started out as an away day and ended up being a full weekend.

The road to Seville was another great journey, apart from the result. About 40 of them travelled in various forms, including planes, trains, and automobiles; 20 with tickets got to the game, and the rest watched it in local pubs.

The CSC nearly folded in 1992–93 when the bus was down to the bare bones in terms of funds, and the straw that nearly broke the camel’s back came on 20 February, 1993, Celtic vs. Partick Thistle. They ran a 24-seater that night with only two members on it. With only a few hundred pounds left in the bank, they decided to call it a day for the season with a view to regrouping the following season.

As it turned out, they ran a supporters dance in the Barrhead Sports Centre at the end of the season, and to their eternal credit, the Celtic supporters of Barrhead didn’t let them down, with over 200 tickets sold. They raised over £700 on the night. Looking back, that night saved the Mick McCarthy CSC, along with Fergus McCann arriving on the scene and the greatest uptake of season tickets in Celtic’s history.

On a more sombre note, the deaths of members over the years, some of them at a young an age, include Wee Jack ‘Borland’ Wade, Derek Coyne, James Sim, Wullie Boyle, Davie McCarthy, Harry McGunnigle, Ger Finnell, Joe Finnell, Mick Finnell, Darren Borg, Wullie McDowell, and Jim Ross, all of whom are sadly missed.

The loss of their local pub, the Fereneze Inn, which they left for over 20 years, and also the loss of the Columba Club, which has also sadly gone now, have had an impact on them. The end of away games, which they stopped running buses to a good few years ago due to the lack of tickets and kick-off times to accommodate Sky Sports, put paid to their away day adventures.

The cost just got too much and nearly crippled them again. Back when they started, it was hard to get a local bus company to take them on due to the history of previous buses from the town, but they eventually got Sunningdale Coaches from Giffnock to take them onboard, and that’s when they met Auld Dickie, who was their driver. The coaches weren’t the best, but beggars can’t be choosers.

On one game, a lot of members had been off the drink for Lent, which had just finished, and they were in a rush to get back to Barrhead, then onto Paisley for a night on the tiles and their first drink in six weeks. The bus stalled at the off ramp at Stepps as Auld Dickie was dropping off his son, who always joined them on away days as his dad always got him a freebie.

After about 10 minutes of the old man trying to get the bus restarted, he jumped off the bus and checked underneath. He then proceeded to tell them that the gearbox was lying in bits on the road. This was before mobile phones and Dickie had to walk up to Stepps and find a public phone to call for help.

After about half an hour, he returned to say the replacement bus was on its way, but not until 9 o’clock. Not to be defeated, they found a pub just up off Old Edinburgh Road, called The Phoenix. Everyone of drinking age marched up for a drink, and the young team were told to stay on the bus and behave themselves. Famous last words—they didn’t.

Dickie arrived at the pub to tell them they had knocked out one of the windows while carrying on. They were all marched down to the pub and told to sit outside and behave themselves while the rest of them tried to enjoy a well-earned drink after Lent. Eventually the replacement bus showed up, and they all made it to Paisley. Years later, after moving on from Sunningdale Coaches, they heard that Dickie had passed away. He gave them many a laugh and a scare on their away days back then.

Other characters over the years include Davie McCarthy, Wullie Boyle, and Harry McGunnigle, to name but a few. Harry McGunnigle and his twin Alex were grade one officials in the old Scottish League back in the 1970s. Harry was a lineman, and Alex was a referee. Two mad Celtic supporters all their days. On one occasion, someone from the sidelines threatened Harry, and he retorted, ‘Well, you better get a team because I’m fae the Gorbals.’

The whole sidelines burst out laughing, and the said individual stood there red-faced and never uttered another word the whole game. Harry told a story about the Celtic vs. Hibs game in October 1975, which was abandoned due to fog and a pitch invasion. Celtic were down 2-0 at the time to a very good Hibs team. Harry was hit on the head with a scotch pie from the Jungle after giving an offside decision against Celtic.

On recalling the story, Harry said he heard someone question his religion and then, thump, he was whacked with the pie, and his retort to himself was, ‘Here’s me, a good practising Catholic and a member of the Knights of St Columba, getting called an orange so and so. Have you ever heard the likes of it?’ He was also as tight as two coats of paint. Trying to get him to pay his outstanding dues was murder, but he was a gem of a man and sadly missed as they all are.

Since their first season, the bus has donated money to charity. Their first dance was in June 1988 in the Columba Club and there were over 200 in attendance. The guest of honour was Jimmy Johnstone, and over £700 was raised for the Lourdes Hospitality, Paisley, to send sick children to Lourdes. Since then, the club has donated well over £10,000 to various charities.

The club is now in its 35th year. Will it still be here in another 35 years? They hope so, but one thing’s for sure: it’s unlikely that it will be the same committee running it, as they are well and truly the auld yins on the bus now. The current committee is John Gillan, Michael Dunne, Eamon Boyle, and Anton Owens.

David McIntyre – CelticBars.com

An extract from Football Without Fans – The History of Celtic Supporters Clubs by David McIntyre ( Celtic Bars). Football Without Fans – The History of Celtic Supporters Clubs is out now and available in print and kindle versions HERE.

More from Football Without Fans tomorrow on The Celtic Star, the Celtic supporters website. Will it be your CSC that’s featured?

Just before Christmas, David McIntyre from Celtic Bars was interviewed by Celtic TV about his Football Without Fans book. Here’s the video on Celtic TV’s You Tube channel . You can order a copy in print or kindle from Amazon regardless of where you are in the world. Order your copy HERE.