Belfast Celtic F.C.

Early years

The club, formed in 1891 simply as Celtic, was named after Celtic Football Club of Glasgow. Upon incorporation as a limited company in 1901, however, the club adopted the name Belfast Celtic, the title "The Celtic Football & Athletic Coy Ltd" already being registered by the Glasgow club.^[4] Their home from the same year was Celtic Park on Donegall Road in west Belfast, known to the fans as Paradise.^[1] Celtic won their first league title in 1900 after beating fierce rivals Linfield by a single goal.

The political violence that engulfed Ireland in the 1920s spilled onto the terraces of the Irish League. In 1920, the Irish Football Association fined and suspended the club following violent incidents at the Irish Cup semi-final. Celtic was forced to abandon the 1920–21 season, and did not rejoin the league until 1924–25 season.^[5] Celtic's support base was strongly Irish nationalist and Catholic, but also enjoyed support from Belfast's Protestants, who accounted for about 10 percent of the fan base.^[2]

Despite this, the club went from strength to strength and the inter-war years proved to be Celtic's strongest: they were league champions four years running after their return. The club also produced some of the greatest players of their generation and at one stage had five international goalkeepers in their squad. Charlie Tully of Celtic, learned how to kick a ball with Belfast Celtic.

1948–49: Withdraw and North American tour

The end came on Boxing Day 1948 at the annual Linfield-Celtic game at Windsor Park. Celtic were winning for most of the match but Linfield equalised in the last minute. Linfield fans invaded the pitch and attacked several Celtic players, including centre-forward Jimmy Jones, who suffered a broken leg and was kicked unconscious, and Robin Lawlor and Kevin McAlinden, who were both seriously hurt.^[6][7]

Linfield issued a statement in which they blamed the attack on Celtic. However, Celtic's statement did not put blame on Linfield or its supporters, but instead on the police present, who sat back and made no arrests: "During the whole of this concerted attack the protection afforded to the unfortunate players may be fairly described as quite inadequate. In the circumstances the directors wish to make the strongest possible protest against the conduct of those responsible for the protection of the players in failing to take measures either to prevent the brutal attack or to deal with it with any degree of effectiveness after it developed."^[2]

Celtic also felt the response from the IFA was inadequate as well. The team's management met the night of the match and decided to withdraw from the league after the end of the 1949 season.^[2][7] Northern Irish journalist Frank Curran later commented, "[Belfast F.C.] knew that it wasn't a football problem, and that there was nothing they as a football club could do to end it. So they got out."^[2]

Belfast Celtic went on a 10-game tour of the United States and Canada in May and June 1949. The dates of the tour forced the team to withdraw from the County Antrim Shield after qualifying to the semi-final, in which they were replaced by Linfield, whom they had earlier beaten 4-0.^[8] While the team was preparing to set sail for New York, it was announced publicly that Celtic would leave the league, pending the final decision of the team's shareholders at their annual meeting in June.^[5][9][10]

In New York City, the team were embraced by Irish nationalists. The team were introduced to New York City Mayor William O'Dwyer, a native of County Mayo, at New York City Hall on 4 May. They were presented by then-Deputy Commissioner Sean P. Keating, an IRA member, and present Mayor O'Dwyer with a silver sugar bowl. Manager Elisha Scott fastened the club's pin, featuring the team's green and gold harp logo, upon the mayor's lapel.^[11] The first match was played 8 May against a mixed team of players from the Greater New York professional American League clubs Brookhattan, Brooklyn Hispano and Brooklyn Hakoah at Triborough Stadium in New York City.^[12]

There was an uproar in Northern Ireland when a photograph of the team marching behind an Irish tricolour flag before a match in New York was published in the Belfast Telegraph on 11 May. Likely fearing the incident would ensure the end of the team in Belfast, the Protestant Elisha Scott^[3] sent a letter signed by seven of the players in which he explained the incident and claimed the team was loyal to the United Kingdom:

"Before the game the team was requested by the American Soccer League officials to parade in single file round the Stadium, led by myself. Half-way round Mr Connolly, editor of the Irish Echo, New York, took down a Tricolour which was flying in front of the enclosure. He requested me to carry one end and proceed in front of the team. We considered it better to carry on with the parade. Since then steps have been taken to ensure against a recurrence. On the other side of the picture, which has apparently received no publicity, I may say that while the team was in Toronto, the King was toasted at a dinner given in honour of the Belfast Celtic Club, and further, before the match in Toronto, both teams stood to attention while the British National Anthem was play."^[13]

On 29 May, Celtic upset Scotland 2-0 in front of 15,000 fans at Triborough Stadium in New York City, where fights broke out during the second half, including Scotland's Willie Waddell and Celtic guest Mick O'Flanagan throwing punches. The New York Times reported that the American crowd was overwhelmingly partisan in favour of the Scots, cheering ref decisions against Celtic. Reported The Times, "The game held the crowd spellbound from beginning to end. Part of the reason was that it had come to see a highly favored Scots eleven—a team that had won the British Isles triple crown before 97,000 at Wembley Stadium last month—take the Irish into camp. Instead, the throng saw an inspired Belfast combination score once in the opening session and again in the second half to sew up the decision."^[14][15] It became one of the most famous games in Celtic's history, and Scotland never played a club team again, and Belfast Celtic left the league.^[16]

At the time, no public reason was given for the team's withdrawal. Belfast Celtic's owners quietly sold its players to other teams. Crusaders replaced the team in the league, but fans were left without an explanation. In a 2011 profile, The Guardian spoke with a Celtic fan Jimmy Overend, then 86, about the void left by the team's exit:

Of the demise of the club, which had lit up the lives of politically oppressed, impoverished Catholics such as himself, a general labourer, Overend laments: "It was like a black cloud coming down, as if there was nothing to live for or look forward to on a Saturday. It's a grief which never went away."^[3]

Post-exit from league

The club would never again play a competitive match but played several friendlies, including a match at home to Celtic on May 17, 1952, when a team of ex-Belfast Celtic players took the field under the name of 'Newry F.C.' in aid of De La Salle Boys' Home in County Down. A final match—a testimonial—was played at Coleraine on June 24, 1960.

Celtic Park continued to function as a greyhound stadium until 1985, when it was bulldozed and replaced by the Park Centre, a small shopping centre.^[1]

Senior honours

• Irish League: 14
  • 1899–00, 1914–15, 1919–20, 1925–26, 1926–27, 1927–28, 1928–29, 1932–33, 1935–36, 1936–37, 1937–38, 1938–39, 1939–40, 1947–48
• Irish Cup: 8
  • 1917–18, 1925–26, 1936–37, 1937–38, 1940–41, 1942–43, 1943–44, 1946–47
• City Cup: 11
  • 1905–06, 1906–07, 1918–19 (shared with Glentoran), 1925–26, 1927–28, 1929–30, 1930–31, 1932–33, 1939–40, 1947–48, 1948–49
• Gold Cup: 6
  • 1911–12, 1925–26, 1934–35, 1938–39, 1939–40, 1947–48
• County Antrim Shield: 7
  • 1894–95, 1926–27, 1935–36, 1936–37, 1938–39, 1942–43, 1944–45
• Dublin and Belfast Inter-city Cup: 1
  • 1947–48 (shared with Distillery)
• Belfast and District League: 1
  • 1918–19
• Northern Regional League: 4
  • 1940–41, 1941–42, 1943–44, 1946–47
• Substitute Gold Cup: 4
  • 1940–41, 1943–44, 1945–46, 1946–47

Intermediate honours

• Irish Intermediate Cup: 5
  • 1913–14†, 1934–35†, 1935–36†, 1936–37†, 1939–40†
• Steel & Sons Cup: 5
  • 1912–13†, 1916–17†, 1917–18†, 1934–35†, 1935–36†

† Won by Belfast Celtic II