Walfrid & The Bould Bhoys: Celtic's Founding Fathers, First Season & Early Stars

There can surely be no other football club in the world whose history is devoured, cherished then handed down through family, enabling our children and grandchildren to recite the great names and events of the past with the same feeling and passion as for those they witnessed first-hand. It is a rite of passage. A gift which is uniquely Celtic. In Walfrid & The Bould Bhoys, authors from three generations of that Celtic family take you on a magical journey through the early days of the new football club which was springing to life in Glasgow’s impoverished east end. Through Liam Kelly, we meet the founding fathers, whose compassion, vision and energy created Celtic Football Club for the most wonderful of reasons, to help those struggling to survive. Those of our forefathers and mothers who had nothing. Origins and principles which set us apart as so much more than a football club, even to this day. We walk game-by-game through an incredible debut season with Matt Corr, as players are recruited to form a team which will become a cause, a reason for living the other six days in the week. Challenging the established order and creating joy in the communities of the east end by reaching the prestigious Scottish Cup Final from a standing start, then delivering silverware, all within that thrilling first year of existence. We hear the thoughts of a Celtic supporter, Dan Drake, who lived through that first season and who attended the original Celtic Park with his own father on the day it all began, with a 5-2 victory over Rangers back in May 1888. David Potter shares his thoughts on the heroes in white and green who would thrill Dan and the other Celtic fans of the early years, playing their way into our hearts and the opening chapters of The Celtic Story. Men like Kelly, McMenemy and Quinn, whose names still roll of the tongue more than a century later. If you want to know your history, you will love Walfrid & The Bould Bhoys.