The story of Pat Welsh is one of both intrigue and importance, in terms of the history of Celtic. He was born in Killargue, County Leitrim in 1848, growing up to become an activist. For his part in the 1867 rebellion, Welsh found himself on the run from the authorities. One evening, hiding from security forces on the banks of the Liffey, with the hope of boarding a ship bound for Scotland, to his horror he found himself confronted by a British soldier.
“Halt he who goes there?”
Welsh detected an Irish accent and pleaded, Irishman to Irishman, that he had no sinister intentions and longed only for a life of peace in Glasgow. The soldier, a County Clare man from Ennis, understood the plea, having previously left home to join the army in England. Thus, at considerable risk to himself, he led Welsh to the appropriate ship. Before parting, the pair exchanged names. The name of the soldier was Thomas Maley.
Once in Glasgow, Pat Welsh served an apprenticeship as a tailor, before becoming a master in the trade, owning a renowned business on Buchanan Street. He immersed himself in the local community and built sound relationships within his local parish of St Mary’s, maintaining appreciation for the soldier who had granted his freedom. Indeed, the pair kept in touch, and after Maley had completed 21 years of active service with the army, he informed Welsh that he viewed the prospect of life in Glasgow as much more appealing than attempting to raise a young family in an Ireland still suffering from the effects of An Gorta Mor.
At the invitation of Welsh, Maley and his family headed to Glasgow, from where his Canadian-born wife’s parents hailed, Thomas finding employment with the 3rd Renfrewshire Rifle Volunteers at Thornliebank as a Drill Instructor. His sons, Tom and Willie (the latter being born in an army barracks in Newry prior to their move), had a keen interest in sport, becoming respected footballers, whilst Willie earned the title of 100 Yard Scottish Sprinting champion.
These events proved of great importance when Pat Welsh was among the committee that founded Celtic in late 1887. During a meeting of the Founding Fathers, the name of Tom Maley was raised as a possible player of whom Celtic could attract the signature. Welsh vouched for the family and assured the committee he would be an ideal fit for the club. Therefore, the decision was taken for Welsh to visit the Maley household in Cathcart, accompanied by fellow founders Brother Walfrid and John Glass.
The Celtic delegation only intended to secure Tom’s signature when they called, however, he was not at home. The trio then began to speak with Willie and asked that he would ensure his brother contact them with a response to their proposition of him signing for the club.
As the Celtic delegation left the premises, Walfrid turned to Willie and said:
“Why don’t you come along too?”
Although not of the same ability as Tom – who had featured on occasion for Hibernian – Willie had played for Third Lanark reserves. Once his modesty and doubts over a future in the game were shunned, Willie agreed to put pen to paper for Celtic immediately. Upon hearing of the visit, his brother Tom contacted the Founding Fathers and agreed to join Willie at Celtic Park.
It would prove the start of an enduring 52-year love affair between Willie Maley and Celtic…
Liam Kelly writing in Walfrid & The Bould Bhoys
…Bernard Battles was born on 13 January 1875 in Springburn, in the north of Glasgow, but he moved to Musselburgh and spent his early footballing life in the east of Scotland before joining Heart of Midlothian in September 1894. This was a fine Hearts team, who indeed won the Scottish League in 1895 over a Celtic hamstrung by internal dissensions, a foretaste of what was to come. Battles’ success at Tynecastle did not go unnoticed at Celtic, and there is an indication he was ‘tapped and approached’ by members of the committee before he joined up at Parkhead in summer 1895. He would claim that he did not always “fit in” at Tynecastle.
Battles then performed the unusual, unprecedented and possibly unparalleled achievement of winning the League in consecutive years for different clubs. It was Celtic who won the title the next season, 1895/96. Strictly speaking, he won the League twice in the SAME calendar year, for the title was won comfortably by December 1895. Barney was one of the stars, well-loved by the Celtic fans, with the half-back line of Maley, Kelly and Battles a very impressive one indeed.
Barney’s big mistake came in November 1896, foolishly prevailed upon to join Peter Meehan and John Divers in their refusal to play unless a journalist who had come perilously close to libelling some Celtic players was removed from the Press Box before a game against Hibernian. The ‘strike’ was foolish and ultimately self-defeating, with dire consequences for Celtic and Battles, who did not play again. Celtic’s season imploded after the shock Scottish Cup defeat at Arthurlie and Battles spent the 1897/98 campaign with Liverpool – where he never really settled – then Dundee. The truth was that he wanted back to Celtic. His heart had never really left the club.
Barney had one great moment for Celtic while playing for Dundee. On Saturday, 12 February 1898, he scored against Rangers at Carolina Port. As Celts beat St Mirren, Barney, playing with a broken wrist, scored the goal which won the League for the Bould Bhoys! Sounds familiar? It was by no means an exact parallel to Albert Kidd in 1986, although the similarities lie in the rain, Celts playing St Mirren and the crucial Dundee goal being scored by a man who wished he was wearing the green-and-white!…
David Potter writing in Celtic & The Bould Bhoys
…Wednesday, 1st August 1888 – 1.8.88 – was the appropriate date of Celtic’s first competitive fixture, a first-round Glasgow International Exhibition Cup match against Abercorn, played on the University of Glasgow playing fields at Kelvingrove, near the site of the current Art Gallery & Museum. As would be the case 50 years later, for the 1938 Empire Exhibition at Bellahouston Park, the football tournament would run alongside the main event being held at the adjacent Kelvingrove Park. Sixteen clubs were invited to participate, although, for whatever reason, none of the great sides of the day – such as early Scottish Cup-winners Queen’s Park, Vale of Leven, Dumbarton, Renton or Hibernian – were involved.
Celtic’s opening round opponents, Abercorn, were based in the Ralston area of Paisley. They had been formed within months of local rivals, St Mirren, 11 years earlier, their finest hour coming in January 1888, going all the way to the semi-final of the Scottish Cup, drawing 1-1 with Cambuslang at home before succumbing to a 10-1 hammering in the replay. Cambuslang themselves would find the going tough in their first Scottish Cup final, the following month at Second Hampden (later renamed as Cathkin Park, the home of Third Lanark from 1903-1967). They faced the new ‘world champions’ Renton, featuring James Kelly and Neil McCallum, losing 6-1, a record scoreline for a Scottish Cup final which would not be matched until a certain John ‘Dixie’ Deans destroyed Eddie Turnbull’s Hibernian at Hampden in May 1972, some 84 years later, in the favourite Celtic game of my childhood.
Both Kelly and McCallum had since left Renton and would feature against Abercorn in Celtic’s first-ever competitive line-up, which was as follows:
Willie Dunning;
James Coleman & Mick McKeown;
Paddy Gallagher, James Kelly & Jimmy McLaren;
Neil McCallum, Willie Groves, Johnny Madden, Johnny Coleman & Charlie Gorevin.
Details of the game itself are sketchy, although Celtic did score first before Abercorn equalised just before the break. Reports of the day suggest that many within the 4,000 crowd were not so kindly disposed to ‘the Irishmen.’
I guess the more things change, the more they stay the same.
In any case, Abercorn declined the offer of a replay, the tie thus awarded to the Bould Bhoys as a walkover…
Matt Corr writing in Walfrid & the Bould Bhoys
