Whenever I want to play in a league, I start off by doing some research into the history of said league. Previous winners, former topclubs who have dropped down the divisional ladder, stuff like that. I recently wanted to start a game in Northern Ireland. When checking the list of previous champions, I stumbled across the name Belfast Celtic. I was intrigued by the name and did some research into the team. What I found out was pretty interesting.

Belfast Celtic Football Club was a former Irish football club that was founded in 1891, and was one of the most successful teams in Ireland until they withdrew from the Irish League in 1949 at the end of a season which had seen continual attacks on the club and its supporters.

The club was named after Celtic F.C. and was founded on the same principle of raising community spirit and money for charity. Their home was Celtic Park on the Donegall Road in West Belfast, known to the fans as Paradise. Celtic won their first league title in 1900 after beating fierce rivals Linfield by a single goal. The team was affectionately referred to as The Mighty Belfast Celtic by its support.

The political violence that engulfed Ireland in the 1920s spilled on to the terraces of the Irish League and Celtic was forced to withdraw in 1920, not rejoining until 1924. Celtic's support base was all-inclusive but strongly Irish Nationalist.

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. The famous Charlie Tully, a legend at Celtic F.C., learned how to kick a ball with Belfast Celtic.

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 Jones who suffered a broken leg. The events on December 27, 1948, would finally signal the club's end.

The game in question was a decisive one between the two top teams of the time. Linfield was the established team, which was largely supported by people with pro-unionist or pro-British sympathies. Celtic was commonly regarded as a team representative of people with pro-Irish or nationalist sympathies.

Celtic were a creative and flamboyant team. Their record was one of outstanding sporting achievement. They were the first Irish club to play on the European mainland (a six-match tour of Czechoslovakia in 1912, with future Fianna Fail defence minister and War of Independence hero Oscar Traynor in goal).

They once supplied seven players to one Irish international side, had a centre forward Peter O'Connor who scored 11 goals in a single game in 1941 (still a record in Irish football), and went undefeated in all competitions for an entire season, winning 31 matches in a row in the process (1947-48). The final triumphant flourish was to defeat the one of the top teams in international football -- a full Scottish international side 2-0 during a valedictory tour of the United States in 1949.

For Belfast's beleaguered Nationalists, Celtic provided a thrilling counter point to the weary reality of day-to-day life. The club's veteran chronicler Bill McKavanagh, once said: "When we had nothing we had Belfast Celtic, and then we had everything." The club was supported, too, by a sizeable contingent of people from a unionist background. It differed from Linfield in not caring which religious or political persuasion a player or supporter had. Six of the team attacked that day, including Jimmy Jones and captain Harry Walker, were from a unionist background.

That triumphal victory over the Scottish national side was several months ahead when the Celtic team took to Linfield's pitch at Windsor Park, in staunchly unionist South Belfast, on Boxing Day 1948. Tension at matches between the two sides was always at a high. The match ended with the Celtic team having to run from the pitch for their lives when Linfield fans poured over the terrace barriers at the end of a 1-1 draw. Centre forward Jimmy Jones was thrown over a parapet, kicked unconcious and left with a broken leg. Defender Robin Lawlor and goalkeeper Kevin McAlinden were seriously hurt.

At a meeting the same night, Celtic's directors decided to withdraw from football once the season's commitments had been fulfilled.

Linfield issued a strong statement denouncing the attack on Celtic. Dozens of Linfield supporters contacted the nationalist Irish News to disassociate themselves from the thuggery. Significantly, the Celtic statement on the night of the attack focused blame, not on the Linfield club, but on the Royal Ulster Constabulary (the local police) present in force at the ground.

The statement asserted: "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."

Frank Curran, the doyen of Northern football writers, observed recently: "They 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."

It was not the first occasion on which sectarianism had forced Belfast Celtic to withdraw from competitive football, but it was to be the last. The city of Belfast never recovered from its loss and neither did Irish football.

After the 1948/49 season The Mighty Belfast Celtic would never again play a competitive match but played several friendlies including an historic victory over Scotland in the United States in 1949. and a match against Celtic F. C. in 1952. A final match was played against Coleraine in June 1960.

Paradise continued to function as a greyhound stadium until the 1980s when it was bulldozed and replaced by The Park Centre, a small shopping mall. Today, a small plaque reminds shoppers of the glory days.

sources:
Wikipedia
The Wild Geese.com

Anyway, I was intrigued by the story and decided it would be a pretty cool idea to make the team playable once again, to see if it were possible to restore the team to its former glory. I re-created the side in the Northern Irish Second Division, same kits as Celtic and with Celtic as a parent club. The team has no players and a fairly decent budget to start with, so it should provide a nice challenge.

<<< DOWNLOAD >>>

After downloading the patch, place it in the following folder:

My Documents/Sports Interactive/FM 2008/db

When starting a new game, select the Belfast Celtic database and the Northern Irish league. Enjoy!

Nice piece of research.

The history of the two clubs mirrors Celtic and Rangers in Scotland - although the establishment has't managed to get rid of Celtic yet!!

Guimy.

That was a very enjoyable read. i live on the falls road, just a few hundred yards from where Belfast Celtic were based. My grandfather even played a few games for them too...

The sad thing is, that the ParkCentre shopping centre which stands on the grounds now is an absolute dump. Very very sad.

There is another West Belfast club that recently gained promotion to the top flight in the Irish league called Donegal Celtic. The name might throw you off a bit as the Donegal part is a reference to the fact that most of the streets in the surrounding area are named after places in Donegal. Anyways, Donegal celtic are struggling a bit and were hopeful they'll stay up.

Sorry for rambling a bit.

p.s. there has been talk of a Belfast Celtic revival (by possibly using Donegal Celtic), although it's far from being reality at this moment.

Thanks guys. I was intrigued by the name, knowing a bit about sectarianism in Ireland and N-Ireland, so I was wondering why the club was taken out of the league. I was pretty amazed when these stories came up.