The Grand Old Team, the late, great Belfast Celtic.

Red Rosa's Spartacus League

This Redcast is about the late, great Belfast Celtic. Gone but most definitely not forgotten.
Celtic were founded in 1891, a few years after Glasgow Celtic and with a sense of responsibility to imitate their counterparts in “style, play and charity.”
We talk to our friend and comrade Jack Duffin about the history of the club and their importance to the nationalist community in the North of Ireland, to Irish football, and of course about the interaction off that football with the politics; more about the politics in part 2 of the cast. Jack is a Belfast historian, political activist, former member of the Official IRA and football fan with a uniquely knowledgeable perspective on the history of the Six counties.
In 1896 they were admitted to the Irish league, in 1900 they won that league for the first and by the means the only time. Now, Celtic were always the team of the nationalist community in Belfast and Celtic Park was in the heart of Catholic West Belfast but the club was not sectarian, many of the club’s famous players were Protestants as was the most successful manager Elisha Scott, and Protestants consistently formed a good 10% of the club’s support. Like most things, the history of the North of Ireland is more complicated than it looks.
However, the club’s support was overwhelmingly Catholic and in 1912 the turbulent politics in the Northern counties lay behind some serious violence at a match against Linfield. The Great war ended formally in 1919 but hostilities certainly didn’t cease in the North of Ireland. In 1920, Celtic was forced to abandon their participation in the 1920–21 season, and did not rejoin the league until 1924–25 season. The return was triumphant with Celtic winning the league 4 times in a row between 1925 and 1926. Celtic were champions on 6 more occasions in the 1930s and also in the 1947/48 and 1948/49 seasons. Then it was pretty much all over.
The spark for the end of the club came on 26 December 1948, at the traditional Boxing Day league game between Linfield and Celtic at Windsor Park. Celtic were winning for most of the match but Linfield equalised in the final minute. Linfield fans, high on adrenaline and sectatianism invaded the pitch and began attacking several Celtic players, including centre-forward Jimmy Jones, a protestant, who suffered a broken leg and was kicked unconscious. Celtic felt the response from the police and Irish Football Association was wholly inadequate. The team's management met on the night of the match and decided that the club had no option other than to withdraw entirely from the league after the end of the 1949 season.
In a 2011 profile, The Guardian spoke with Celtic fan Jimmy Overend, then 86, about the void left by the team's exit: those of us who never saw the club but were brought up with tales of its legendary prowess, what it meant to the community and the tragedy of its demise, can feel his words:

"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."
http://www.belfastceltic.org/history/index.html
Fine site with a lot of information on the club.
http://coiste.ie
The tour company that Jack works for in Belfast, highly recommended.