111th anniversary of the passing of Brother Walfrid

111th anniversary of the passing of Brother Walfrid

It was on this day 111 years ago on April 17, 1915, that the founding father of Celtic, Brother Walfrid passed away in Dumfries at the age of 74.

It was 28 years earlier amid the poverty, neglect and intolerance of Victorian Glasgow, that Brother Walfrid had a dream. His dream became a reality on November 6, 1887, and had flourished, and now 139 years later, countless thousands share his vision of a football club that opens its doors to all.

He was born Andrew Kerins in Ballymote Co, Sligo on May 18, 1840, and ventured on the divine path by taking up the oath of the Marist Brotherhood...

And as thousands of Irish took flight from the deprivation in their homeland by sailing to Glasgow, Brother Walfrid was assigned to Sacred Heart School in the city's East End to cater for their spiritual and educational needs.

He had already taught at nearby St Mary's before moving to Sacred Heart in 1874 but by the time he had moved to London's Spitalfields in 1892, the first buds of his vision had started to unfold.

The immigrants from Ireland soon realised that the streets of Glasgow were not paved with gold and not for the first time in Scottish history the ogre that is religious intolerance raised its ugly head.

Walfrid therefore had two main aims; feeding the newcomers who were finding employment difficult to attain AND integrate them into the mainstream of Scottish life where two religions were increasingly at loggerheads with each other.

Feeding the poor was a problem with a relatively straightforward answer - a charity drive. Knocking down the walls of religious intolerance, however, was a rather thornier issue and one that was to present pitfalls on both sides of the divide.