Billy “Caesar … sorry, Cesar” McNeill – A Man For All Seasons

WELL, not sorry at all, actually – albeit ‘Cesar’ is historically correct, it seems to me altogether more appropriate to align the Lisbon Lions figurehead with an all-conquering Roman Emperor than a bit-part, Hollywood Rat Pack chauffeur: “Caesar” First among equals, for class unsurpassed; the true stuff of legend, in sculpt bronze now cast.  …

The Big Man

TRIBUTES will be many and fulsome today, as the Celtic-minded in particular remember a true legend and giant of our beloved club. It is well-nigh impossible to say anything new and meaningful about Jock Stein. Thousands upon thousands of eloquent words have been written extolling his abilities, charisma and achievements, both as player-captain in the…

THE ANCIENT AXIS OF DIASPORA

THE ACQUISITION this weekend of Scott Allan triggered the notion in my fevered brain that the current Celtic first-team squad is arguably now more reflective of Scottish football’s historical indebtedness to Irish immigration than it has ever been. The nineteenth-century exodus from the Emerald Isle sparked by An Gorta Mor sowed the seeds of Irish re-settlement…

NAC BREDA HIT-MEN …

THE RECENT and ongoing speculation surrounding the possible signing by Celtic of former NAC Breda hit-man, Nadir Ciftci, has had me reminiscing about our acquisition twenty years ago of another striker from that unfashionable Dutch club. Forget the controversy that dogged big Pierre van Hooijdonk’s brief and sometimes turbulent career in the Hoops … focus…

ON YER MARK, DAVIE!

NO-ONE who witnessed panelist David Wierd’s shell-shocked visage and wildly OTT comments during and after the recent Scottish Championship play-off final second leg at Fir Park will be surprised at the unveiling today of the latest Sevco management team – or, in the “wake” of the stunning outcome of that encounter … in another way,…

DAY OF DAYS … BEST OF TIMES

Dateline Lisbon, Portugal, 25th May 1967 …                                                      THE END OF A PERFECT DAY IN PARADISE … THE CULMINATION OF WALFRID’S DREAM … A      BEACON ON THE HIGH…

“RMS CELTIC” REVISITED …

ANYONE intrigued by our previous snippet about the early-twentieth-century liner that bore Celtic’s name and was a White Star Line forerunner and stablemate of the Titanic, as well as being a contemporary of the equally ill-fated Lusitania, might find some of the following links interesting: http://www.whitestarhistory.com/celtic https://www.nmni.com/titanic/Design-Build/Harland—Wolff/Launch-of-RMS-Celtic-1901.aspx http://www.greatships.net/celtic2.html Johnbhoy

“WEE TAM” … A CALTON BHOY!

R.I.P. TOMMY BURNS … another year, another reflection – gone but forever in the hearts of the truly Celtic-minded. Whether as Player, Manager, Coach or fan-in-a-jersey, nobody was more dedicated to the Hoops than “Wee Tam”, our very own “Calton Bhoy”.                 A young Tommy, depicted by Alexander…

LUSITANIA LINK

ON THE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY of the sinking of the “Lusitania” we recall the story of another ocean-going liner of the time that bore our club’s name and came to grief during a storm in the same waters that skirt the southern Irish coast, thirteen-and-a-half years after its more famous, U-Boat victim. Not everything in the Celtic Park…