TWELVE years ago this week I lost my parents. A few days apart. There’s not a day that God sends that I don’t think of them. There are even days where I still think ‘I’ll have to tell my da’ that…’

 

I miss our chats and my da’s sarcasm and cutting wit. He would phone home to speak with me of an evening and when told I was still at work he would ask my wife: ‘What’s he doing down there at this time? Polishing turnstiles…?’

 

In the time between then and now the world has changed beyond recognition. My folks wouldn’t know it. They don’t know our #6 wean or many of their other grandkids. They don’t know about iPhones or how influential Social Media is and they’ve no concept that in 2017 the Celtic are light years ahead of everyone else in this country.

 

So, if those are the changes in 12 short years, what would Brother Walfrid make of this dear green place since he helped form this football club of ours 130 years ago…?

 

My view is that he’d recognise more of it than you think. He’d recognise there’s still a division in society – arguably a greater one than when he kicked it all off – and he’d recognise there’s still a need to help people on our doorsteps, across all of our communities, and not just here in the East End of Glasgow.

 

He’d recognise there’s still exclusion, discrimination and racism, but he’d undoubtedly recognise that the concept of caring and sharing has transcended the generations and is in our DNA as we approach 2018.

This week on November 6, 2017 marked 130 years since ‘a football club will be formed for the maintenance of dinner tables for the children and the unemployed…’ by Brother Walfrid and our other Founding Fathers.  And the club and St Mary’s marked the occasion with a Mass at the parish where it all began in the Calton in 1887, it was open to all faiths and none, etc.

On Monday, November 6, 2017, Celtic FC Foundation and the club, through funds raised by our supporters, also fed Glasgow’s homeless community at Celtic Park at lunchtime.

Plus ça change…

 

While the Celtic support across the world don’t want a slap on the back, they should take stock for a moment and be enormously proud of the work they do to help others, whether that’s through the Foundation or the Green Brigade’s initiatives or many other charities in the name of Celtic.

 

Thanks for reading. Thanks for your support. If you want to share the spirit of Celtic this Christmas, click here

 

Tony Hamilton

Chief Executive

Celtic FC Foundation