The idea seemed straightforward enough. I would write a piece for the Belfast Shamrock website incorporating Christmas, Celtic and Belfast. Unfortunately, though, once I actually sat in front of the screen, it turned out to be more difficult than I thought.

After all, the characters in any Festive tale include elves and fairies. Now, while I have seen the guys in the club look a bit like an evolutionist’s Missing Link on the morning after the night before, they do not resemble elves and fairies. Or is the spirit of Christmas getting to me?

Anyway, at that point, my better half ( known to you as Elisabeth; to me She Who Must Be Obeyed) came into the room. “Oi! You” she shouted - I have warned her about watching too much Eastenders – “ stop leaving your damn books all over the house!” And with that, she threw rather a weighty tome in my direction. I caught the book and glanced at the title. The South Pole, by the Norwegian Roald Amundsen. As I noted the year was 1911, a little bell rang in what passes for my brain. Eureka!, I thought, I’ve got my story. So, here it is :

The year was 1911, the month December. The French physician Mme Marie Curie had just received her second Nobel prize for chemistry and there had been a severe storm in the Channel, during which 54 fishermen from Brittany lost their lives.

On the domestic front, the papers were full of articles about the new King, George V, whose coronation had been in June; diagrams of the newly-launched liner “Titanic’ were published, its sheer size catching the imagination; and the public were whistling or singing the top hits of the year, ‘I’m 21 Today’ and ‘Alexander’s Ragtime Band’.

In Scotland, the league season in football was approaching the halfway mark, with Celtic  struggling slightly. The club had just won six consecutive championships, using a fairly small but talented and competitive group of players. However, the majority of that squad had either come to the end of a career or was rapidly approaching it and, so far, the replacements had not lived up to expectations.

Of the 20 matches played up till the week before Christmas, Celtic had lost 5 and drawn 3, hardly the form of champions. On the 23rd December 1911, Celtic ran out at Parkhead to face Morton, with whom they had drawn earlier in the season. A crowd of only 14,000 turned up for the match, an attendance perhaps understandable in view of the date. In the North British Daily Mail on the following Monday, the opening paragraph from the match report read as follows;

CELTIC   1   MORTON   1
Want of Combination at Parkhead by  ‘Bedouin’.

“Not such a good game as our recent match with Rangers but all the same a most satisfactory result”. The words are not mine. But I agree with the judgement of Provost W B McMillan of Greenock, who joined his Celtic friends in the directors’ room at Celtic Park, from where an excellent view of the field of play can be obtained.

Left half Peter Johnstone, later to lose his life on the Somme, scored Celtic’s goal and, of course, that ‘excellent view’ was from the Pavilion, originally sited at the north-east corner of the ground. And the fairly small crowd, while not exactly pleased to drop another point behind League leaders Rangers, was enthusiastic in their praise for a skinny young inside-forward called Patsy Gallagher, playing only his fourth first-team match.

The next league match was due on the 30th, one week later. But the players would be in action much sooner than that, as someone – presumably the manager - had organized a friendly match on Christmas Day. Now, that would not normally be a problem, as players even back then, would have been used to playing on holidays etc. But this match was due to be played in Belfast, with the team travelling over on Christmas Eve and back on Boxing Day!

While the younger players might have been quite philosophical about the situation, those with wives and families would not have been so happy. In the team listed below, I have appended the ages of the players, which, by the standards of the time, would suggest that few would have been single.
In 1911, Christmas would not have been celebrated in quite such a commercial way as today but the day itself would still have been an occasion for families getting together. Why would anyone have organized such a fixture?

Perhaps a recent book might give us a clue. In David Potter’s ‘Willie Maley’, he explains that, although the first Celtic secretary/manager married in 1896 and quickly fathered two sons, domestic problems caused him to leave the house round about the beginning of the 20th century. His wife Helen lived in Whitevale Street in Dennistoun and Maley lived in Partick. As a result of this estrangement, would Christmas have meant the same to the Celtic manager?

In any event, the team, accompanied by directors Michael Dunbar and James Grant plus Willie Maley, took the boat across to Belfast on the 24th and were entertained at night by the Belfast club. On Christmas Day, the rain poured down but a crowd of 10,000 turned up to see the match, when the Celtic team was Mulrooney ( 25), Dodds (24), McGregor (18), Young (29) , McAteer (30), Mitchell ( 26), Nicholl (24), Travers (28), Quinn (33), McMenemy (31) and Brown (23) .On Boxing Day, the North British Daily Mail reported the action as follows;-

McMenemy  Pleases  the Crowd
Left Wing Prominent
Belfast Celtic 0  Glasgow Celtic 1

That left wing duo of McMenemy and Brown was the difference between the sides. The only goal was scored by inside-right Paddy Travers, who only made 22 appearances in total for the club, but later managed Aberdeen to the 1937 Scottish Cup Final, where they were beaten by Celtic. He also won the Cup twice as manager of Clyde -  in 1939 and 1955 – and was even mentioned as a possible successor to Willie Maley.

Probably, the players had a great time in Belfast, always noted for its hospitality. And, I’m sure they would have received a great welcome from their families the following day. I just wonder if Maley’s decision to travel improved the manager/player relationship of the period?
NB Celtic only drew their next match, 0-0 against Airdrie at Broomfield but one day later, hammered Rangers 3-0 in the Ne’erday encounter. And although the Bhoys finished second in the League, they did win both the Scottish Cup and the Charity Cup.

So, there you are, that’s your story ; Christmas, Celtic and Belfast all included as promised. Now, its time for all of you to enjoy the Festive Season. May I take this opportunity to wish every one of you a very Happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year.