Introducing Celtic in the Fifties and some rather special correspondence | OneFootball

I spent a large chunk of the last week browsing through and organising a large bundle of old Celtic-related correspondence, kindly sent to The Celtic Star Editor recently by Dave Galloway, an Aberdeen supporter and collector of football memorabilia…

Matt Corr, author of Celtic in the Thirties, at Celtic Park. Photo AJ (The Celtic Star)

Dave thought it might be of interest given the work we do on sharing Celtic’s history. He wasn’t wrong!

It’s an Aladdin’s Cave of nostalgia, mainly letters from Celtic players dating from the 1930s to Cesar’s wonderful Centenary team, many familiar names and some perhaps less so.

First task was to establish the connection and context for what appeared to be such a random selection. A bit of digging provided the answer. The letters are mainly from former players to respected Celtic writers Eugene MacBride, Frank Glencross or George Sheridan and most are in response to requests for information from those gents regarding their Parkhead careers.

An Alphabet of the Celts and Talking With Celtic. Photo The Celtic Star

The earlier ones were straightforward, as they relate to a book called An Alphabet of the Celts, written by Eugene, George and Martin O’Connor and published in 1994. Some of the paperwork was in the exact format presented in that book, a brilliant source of reference which sits permanently on my desk beside my computer. It contains information on players from the early days until publication and is a great starting point for lesser-known Celts.

Sean Fallon representing Republic of Ireland. Photo The Celtic Wiki

The Foreword for An Alphabet of the Celts was written by Sean Fallon, who is also the author of several of the enclosed letters, and I’ve just noticed that it is signed off using a scan from one of those, as the ‘Yours in Sport’ comment is in Sean’s own handwriting. Pretty cool.

More puzzling were the letters sent after Alphabet was published, but a bit of digging online threw up another book written by Eugene which I had never heard of, ‘Talking With Celtic,’ issued in 2001. Curiosity got the better of me, so I managed to order a copy online, and when it arrived yesterday, hey presto, it consists of a series of scripted interviews between Eugene and Celts from every era from Willie Buchan in the 1930s to Billy Stark in the late eighties, many of whom are the authors of the letters in the pack.

And the Foreword is written by George Sheridan, who with Eugene was involved in editing The Celt fanzine from the 1980s. Some of the correspondence is actually thanking the guys for sending copies of the fanzine.

Another wonderful Celtic author, our late and much-missed friend and colleague David Potter, paid tribute to their work in the summer of 2018 when news broke that The Celt would soon be ceasing publication. The link to that article in The Celtic Star is HERE.

Sadly, Eugene passed away a few years after his ‘Talking With Celtic’ book was published, and some of the letters are messages of condolences sent to Frank or George at that time. Frank is also no longer with us but we’ve now reached out and made contact with George, which I‘m delighted about. That should be a huge help moving forward.

Some of the content is quite private in nature and we will, of course, respect that privacy and use our discretion in what is shared but there is much that we believe the families and wider Celtic support might enjoy seeing, perhaps for the first time. One such item is a letter relating to Sean Fallon, who is the subject of one of Eugene’s chapters in Talking With Celtic.

Celtic manager Jimmy McGrory. Photo The Celtic Wiki

The letter is typewritten on SFA-headed notepaper and was sent by their infamous secretary George Graham to Celtic manager Jimmy McGrory in September 1950 regarding the sending off of ‘J. Fallon’ against Queen of the South. It includes the referee’s report outlining his view of the proceedings. ‘J. Fallon’ is better known to us as Sean, a true Celtic legend.

I’ve been lucky enough to befriend Sean’s son of the same name in recent years and to see at first-hand some very special memorabilia from his career, so that would be interesting enough in its own right but it was also of particular help to me at this time.

Celtic in the Thirties, Published by Celtic Star Books, 4/11/24. Image: The Celtic Star

Now would be as good a time as any, I suppose, to share some exclusive news with The Celtic Star readers.

Since the beginning of last year, I have been working away on the story of Celtic in the Fifties, a follow-up to the two-volume Celtic in the Thirties series published in 2024 by Celtic Star Books.

As part of my research, I came across an SFA Referee’s Committee finding on Sean, but details were vague, the fixture mentioned was not part of Celtic’s schedule and his dismissal did not seem to have been reported in any of the newspapers around that time.

As far as I can see, it was not even included in Sean’s own excellent biography, Celtic’s Iron Man, although I’m happy to stand corrected on that. In any case, the additional info on the letter prompted a further search yesterday and helped me finally identify the match involved, which was a non-first-team fixture where only the scoreline had appeared in the Press as a one-liner. No more spoilers!

Sean Fallon, Celtic FC. Photo The Celtic Wiki

So more than 75 years after that SFA letter was written, it has inadvertently helped me add another tiny piece to the jigsaw that is the Celtic Story, with information I suspect even Sean’s family were unaware of. That is the real beauty of all of this.

We’ll continue to have a look through the correspondence and share some items which we feel will be of interest to the families and the wider Celtic support.

And with regard to the book, the first volume of Celtic in the Fifties is now almost complete and all things being equal will be published later this year. It’s an incredible Celtic story, full of magical players, heartbreak, controversy and glorious triumph, which I hope you will love.

So to recap Celtic in the Fifties Vol 1 will be published by Celtic Star Books in the early autumn of 2026.

Hail, Hail!

Matt Corr

Follow Matt on X @Boola_vogue

Order Celtic in the Thirties by clicking on the image below and for addresses in Britain and the six counties you can get both volumes for just £24.50 INCLUDING P&P!

Celtic in the Thirties by Matt Corr. Click on image to order