CQN BOOKS is delighted today to publish CELTIC; The Early Years by Brendan Sweeney (Celts For Change & Celtic Graves).
This absolutely beautiful new book gives an in depth and comprehensive analysis of the circumstances surrounding the birth of Celtic Football Club in the East End of Glasgow on 6th November 1887 in St Mary’s Hall, Calton to it’s rise to the top of the Scottish game in less than five years when it overcame all the odds to win the club’s first Treble in 1892, a feat that shook Scottish football to its foundation.
“The main object is to supply the east end conferences of the St Vincent de Paul Society, with funds for the maintenance of the “Dinner tables” of our needy children in the missions of St Mary’s, Sacred Heart and St Michael’s. Many cases of sheer poverty are left unaided through lack of means. It is therefore with this principal object that we have set afloat the Celtic and we invite you as one of our ever ready friends to assist in putting our new Park in proper working order for the coming football season”. 
Not only is it a detailed review of the birth and early years of the club, but it gives a supporter’s perspective, speaking from the heart on all the key events and the key individuals to an extent that has never been accomplished before covering the early years of the club. The level of research carried out over years of study and the attention to detail is what makes this book stand out in over 500 pages jam packed with facts, the evidence to back it up and the accompanying pictures, which help to paint the picture of the early Celtic.
Many unknown details, never presented before are unearthed, including a comprehensive study on the life of Brother Walfrid up to his departure from Celtic.
This is the story of a forgotten Celtic, in the original Celtic Park that the support helped to build, a community effort, the embryonic Celtic. This book tells of the “mushroom like” growth of the club, our many challenges on and off the park to establish our dream, to become accepted, our successes and our failures and all in a short four year spell that was to whet the appetite before we moved to the current Celtic Park in 1892. Similar to watching Celtic, this book has the ability to make you laugh and make you cry and whilst carrying that undying pride in being a member of the Celtic family, it also retains that admirable ability to laugh at our own expense too.
No stone has been left unturned in the search for the complete story of Celtic Football Club from 1887 to 1892 and as many direct quotes as possible are used in this book to give the reader the exact source of the information in the correct context, rather than having it paraphrased for you to come to the author’s conclusion. The author puts forward his own analysis of the evidence shown but the reader has the opportunity, and are indeed invited, to come to their own conclusion, taking into consideration all the facts presented.
Today we continue to live that dream but what sets us apart is the history, the Celtic story and it is our duty to cherish that history, the good days and the bad and to pass it on to future generations of Celtic supporters. In the beginning, we emerged against all the odds led by the men of vision on the Celtic Committee, and Brother Walfrid, who with a steely determination, a will to win and a humble charitable objective, wrote a new chapter in Scottish football.
This book tells the untold story of the early Celtic in great detail, of the men who established our club, of the detailed circumstances that brought them together, of the original Celtic Park and of the fairytale that is …CELTIC FOOTBALL CLUB.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Brendan Sweeney is 48 years old, a life time Celtic supporter born and bred in Clydebank to Irish parents from Donegal. He is married to “his other love” Elaine and they have two children, Sinead and Declan.
