Reintroducing The Celtic Star’s Fan of the Week after a period in cold storage. We are delighted to welcome Kieran from The Glasgow Celtic Wear, who will answer a few questions about his love for Celtic and kits.
1. Introduce yourself…
“Hello to The Celtic Star readers, my name is Kieran McCaughey and I am the founder of ‘The Glasgow Celtic Wear’. My page on Instagram and stall at the famous Barras Market afford Celtic fans the chance to own anything from match-worn shirts to original classic kits.”
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A bit about you…
2. Earliest Celtic memory?
“A somewhat bittersweet one for me as it was the loss of the 1994 Cup Final to Raith Rovers. It was the first game a remember being at with my dad and I always think back to that game during the current period of dominance as it puts things into perspective that you can’t take success for granted.”
3. How did you end up supporting the Bhoys?
“Like many of the readers I was brought up on Celtic as soon as I was born. From my first Celtic baby grow to my current shirt collection, Celtic and Celtic shirts have always been a massive part of my life.”
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4. What does a normal match day involve for you?
“It has changed quite a bit since I started the stall at the Barras as I am there Saturday and Sunday 10am-4pm. I do however still manage to get to midweek fixtures, and unusual kick offs and I always make exceptions for cup finals, which there have been a few of recently.”
5. Best Celtic Memory?
“I have two… the first one would be Paul Lambert’s third goal in the 6-2 victory over our city rivals in 2000, I remember the feeling of breathlessness and sheer illation when his strike hit the net and we were 3 up in 11 minutes.”
“The second one would be Tom Rogic’s 92nd minute winner to clinch the treble in the Scottish cup final in 2017. Being sat in the corner where he ran to celebrate with the fans was an special moment. I actually remember turning round to and looking at the stand and it seemed like all the fans in the stand were in the front two rows!”
6. Favourite player and why?
“Again being greedy I have two, a historic one and a more recent, One was a Maestro, the other, a gift from God. Firstly Paul McStay was my Celtic hero in the early days, I played the same position as him as a kid in my local team and I always used to think Celtic were lucky to have him as he could have played in any midfield in Europe during the 90’s. My second was Lubomir Moravcik, I remember being memorised by his two-footedness and his willingness to try something different and take risks.”
7. Favourite current player?
“My favourite current player is Callum McGregor and has been for a while. Although Ange has added some flair and undoubted quality to the team, McGregor is the constant and again like McStay I feel he could play in any midfield in Europe and not look out of place. I am lucky to have spent a bit of time with him socially on several occasions and he is a cracking guy, very humble and tailormade to be Celtic captain.”
Onto the shirts
8. How did you get into it?
“Again like many of you reading this any new Celtic shirt release was a must-have purchase whenever they were released but my love for shirts has developed into what some (my wife) would call an obsession.
“The page was originally designed to offer fans the chance to purchase Celtic training wear worn by their heroes. Whether they were after Forrest’s fleece or Sinclair’s socks it gave fans the chance to own something player-worn that didn’t cost a fortune. Some of the best feedback i had was that people would wear the training tops to play 5’s and by all accounts would offer some type of ‘Space Jam’ magic powers and turn them into Dembele or Brown!
“It then began to involve into Matchworn and classic shirts as followers were requesting me to source different items that had a special meaning to them.”
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9. Favourite shirt you own and why?
“My favourite shirt I own would be my Matchworn Moravcik shirt from the 6-2 game I spoke about earlier and it also had quite an unusual story behind how it came into my possession.
“I actually purchased the shift from one of Lubo’s former teammates Didier Agathe. Didier was managing Durham city in early 2000 and the club were going through some financial difficulties so Didier decided to sell some of the shirts he had collected during his playing career. This included a shirt gifted to him by Lubo. The shirt is signed on the front ‘To Didier my friend love Lubo’. I even asked Didier if he was 100% sure he wanted to sell it as it was a personal gift. Although, I told him that if he ever wanted it back it wouldn’t be leaving my collection anytime soon and just to drop me a message…”
10. Are you superstitious about certain kits?
“I wouldn’t say I was particularly superstitious about any of our shirts. I can only really say this now after the redemption of the grey shirt from this season at St Mirren though.”
11. Favourite all-time kit?
“My favourite all time kit is the 93-95 home shirt for the reason I highlighted earlier that it was my very first Celtic memory. I have a particular fascination for long sleeve shirts and it was my holy grail quest to find this shirt in a long sleeve for my collection but I feared this was forever going to be one that evaded me. That was until only a few weeks ago when a woman came into the Barras with one to sell which had been given to her by the manager of the famous ‘Bairds Bar’ in the Gallowgate when she finished up as a bar girl. Turns out the shirt was worn by Peter Grant and was gifted to the pub by Peter following the 1994 season.”
12. You will have posted a number of items over the years, has it ever surprised you when you look at the areas in the world that have Celtic supporters?
“To be honest, this doesn’t surprise me in the slightest and is something I knew I would encounter from the early days of Instagram. Celtic as a club is world-renowned and its fans are hugely passionate when it comes to showcasing its kits around the globe.
“How many of you take your shirt on holiday or watch a random program on tv and see a Celtic shirt in the crowd??. I would say I have been surprised however by the demand for shirts from fans in South America to which I ship regularly. North America was an area that I knew has a strong Celtic following due to having a strong Irish connection in states such as New York and Boston; although many South American followers of the page have stated that it was the passion of the Celtic fans that had drawn them to the club as the are similarly passionate about South American football.”
13. If you could have any shirt from any game, what would it be and why?
“Oh this is a tricky one but I would have to say Jinky’s from the 1967 European cup final…for obvious reasons. Another would be Larsson’s from the 6-2 game where he chipped Steffan Klos as its such an iconic moment.”
14. Thoughts on the current kit being produced by Adidas?
“I think Adidas and Celtic have been something fans have wanted to see for a while and I feel we didn’t get off on the best foot with some cracking shirts being lost to the horrid covid season and will always be synonymous with losing the 10. However, I think this season’s shirts have been really nice and with the new fourth kit launching recently we are spoiled for choice.
“I would, however, like to see Adidas include us in there top tier teams grading which would afford us the chance to have both the away and the third kits available to buy in long sleeves which currently is somewhat of an irritant to the guy that is obsessed by sleeves on shirts.”
Thanks to Kieran for taking part in The Celtic Star’s Fan of the Week. The Glasgow Celtic Wear are available on Instagram and have a weekend stall at The Barras Marketplace in Glasgow with 7% of all sales going towards the Celtic Foundation.
If you would like to take part, please get in touch with editor@thecelticstar.co.uk.
Brilliant and helping the foundation also 👏👏👍 HAIL HAIL