| Grant, James (1897-1914); Identified + grave located | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jan 8 2011, 06:14 PM (11,229 Views) | |
| chuck | Jun 1 2011, 09:52 AM Post #41 |
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Absolutely spot on. Glasgow Celtic played afriendly in Belfast against Distillery in 1890 (the year before Belfast Celtic began). The stats are on the official site: http://www.celticfc.net/matchstats.php?fid=340&date=1890-04-08 This had the same effect as Hibs visiting Glasgow in 1887 and three junior teams, Millvale, Milltown and Clondara, were combined to form Belfast Celtic. In the History of Belfast Celtic Football Club (published in 1929) it says this:
http://www.belfastceltic.org/history/history.html I don't have Padraig Coyle's book to hand, it's at home, but he details how they wrote to Celtic asking for a donation and one was duly sent. From there on, they played numerous friendlies against each other - even after Belfast Celtic went out of business and regularly swapped players, 50 or so in all apparently, probably most famously Willie McStay, who won the Irish Cup with Belfast Celtic in their first ever cup win in 1918. The Celtic Site only lists a handful of the friendlies but they were very regular - for example, I've seen pictures of the mixed squads from 1913, but there's no reference to this game on the official site, but there are some there, particularly from the late 20's: http://www.celticfc.net/matchstats.php?fid=1702&date=1926-04-19 This one is interesting because Joe Bambrick was playing for Belfast Celtic - he was a star striker of Linfield, so this is a bit like Celtic playing Ally McCoist in a friendly. http://www.celticfc.net/matchstats.php?fid=1839&date=1929-04-29 As I say the official site records are incomplete - it doesn't list the 4-4 friendly fromt he mid-40's, which is where Celtic spotted Charlie Tully, and it doesn't list the big farewell friendly in 1952. These were played to raise funds for the Catholic orphanage at Kircubbin. In essence the clubs were umbilical - joined at the hip. Edited by chuck, Jun 1 2011, 09:52 AM.
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| CelticIreland | Jun 1 2011, 11:11 PM Post #42 |
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Viewpark Tims is the mhan to find these stats Chuck, he'll be along shortly i've no doubt. Didn't Belfast Celtic give Celtic the original and famous shamrock away strips with the white body and green sleeves?
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| The Wee Shamrock | Jun 2 2011, 12:49 AM Post #43 |
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Fantastic Chuck, a great read. Wonder how much Celtic donated to the new club? References to Belfast Celtic's early days are few and far between in the historical Celtic texts. Re Tully - James Handley refers to Celtic being interested in BC's Currie, Jones and Tully "the bait for the trio being £20k, and more if need be". The bold Charles Patrick crossed the water alone for only £8k. |
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| chuck | Jun 2 2011, 10:16 AM Post #44 |
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That's partly true - initially they came looking for Jackie Vernon (the summer after we escaped relegation, saved by Tully's pal Jock Weir). Jackie was an imperious centre-half and Celtic were quoted £10,000 for his services - which they refused to pay because Robert Kelly said the Celtic supporters would never stomach paying that amount for a defender. It's a crying shame they didn't pay up as Vernon would have been an incredible addition - and West Brom got the benefit of him, they paid up the 10k Belfast Celtic were looking for. Jimmy Jones was an absolute goal machine and even after his broken leg, he went on to rack up hundreds of goals - he's still the Irish League's top goal scorer and was inducted into the IFA Hall of Fame a few weeks ago (what kept them so long, I hear you ask). Matt Busby had made it his life's work to get him to move to United, but he wouldn't leave Ireland - he still tells a funny story about his mother throwing Busby out of her kitchen one day, as she was sick looking at him. Here's Jimmy being inducted by Malcolm Brodie, the veteran journalist, at teh Europa a few weeks ago. http://www.facebook.com/BelfastCelticSociety#!/photo.php?fbid=116790978405352&set=a.108919709192479.18060.101525766598540&type=1&theater United also took Belfast Celtic player Kevin McGarry, who got cold feet about living in England and returned home to open a Doctor's surgery in west Belfast. It's as well he did, as there was a chance he'd have been part of the Munich air disaster, so his family are very relieved that he went with his second profession. Edited by chuck, Jun 2 2011, 10:19 AM.
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| The Wee Shamrock | Jun 3 2011, 12:29 AM Post #45 |
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That's a fascinating photo Chuck. Off the back of your posts was reading Barry Flynn's book 'Political Football' last night and read that Malcolm Brodie was the only pressman allowed to interview Jimmy as he lay in hospital after surgery on his fracture. Great to see two old acquaintances still going strong after all these years. The Flynn book seems to lack a bit of detail - is the Coyle book a better buy? |
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| chuck | Jun 3 2011, 01:24 PM Post #46 |
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Much better mate - the Flynn book was poor imho. Coyle's book is harder to come by unfortunately - it's been out of print for a while. Edited by chuck, Jun 3 2011, 01:25 PM.
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| Dianogah | Jun 3 2011, 02:50 PM Post #47 |
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Copy here for £12 http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=5004736715&searchurl=an%3DPadraig%2BCoyle%26bt.x%3D44%26bt.y%3D6%26sts%3Dt |
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| The Wee Shamrock | Jun 3 2011, 09:25 PM Post #48 |
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Thanks bhoys - managed to secure that copy (and avoid the fecking exorbitant postal charges on amazon too). I'm not surprised re your opinion on the Flynn book C. Seems pretty broadbrush. Reading the chapter of the infamous game at the Theatre of Hate he gave the clear impression that Jimmy Jones never played again. Then, much later on, he confirms - as you did earlier - that he continued to bang in goals by the barrowload for Larne. The coverage of the foundation of Belfast Celtic was also very general, doesn't even look as though he consulted the old booklets copied onto the Society's website. |
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| CelticIreland | Jan 29 2013, 12:00 AM Post #49 |
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Committee member from 1895 and became the largest shareholder in 1897. Built the Grant Stand in his name in 1898 before selling it to the club. ![]() |
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3:13 PM Jul 11