John Cairney - The Sevenpenny Gate: A Lifelong Love Affair with Celtic FC

John Cairney

This eBook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licenced or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the authors and publishers rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

Epub ISBN: 9781780571607

Version 1.0

www.mainstreampublishing.com

Copyright John Cairney, 2011

All rights reserved

The moral right of the author has been asserted

First published in Great Britain in 2011 by

MAINSTREAM PUBLISHING COMPANY

(EDINBURGH) LTD

7 Albany Street

Edinburgh EH1 3UG

ISBN 9781845967772

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any other means without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for insertion in a magazine, newspaper or broadcast

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Contents

Acknowledgements

Thank you to Bill Campbell of Mainstream Publishing for the idea for this volume and to Mainstream partner Peter MacKenzie for agreeing with him. Graeme Blaikie, editorial coordinator, has been a great help from the start and thanks are also due to Claire Rose, senior editor, for her rigorous attention to the text and to Kate McLelland for her imaginative cover.

Any book about Celtic can only benefit by being submitted for their comments on accuracy and content to those twin pillars of Celtic research and scholarship Pat Woods and Tom Campbell. I have done so, and I thank these fine gentlemen profusely, especially for the help Ive had from their seminal book The Glory and the Dream. In the same vein, I am especially indebted to my old friend Archie Macpherson for his wonderful biography of Jock Stein. I must also thank my fellow Celtic author Gerard McDade for his helpful comments, David Potter for his various Celtic books, the late Bob Crampsey for all his excellent football writing and Graham McColl for Celtic: The Official Illustrated History 18881995.

Acknowledgement must be made of valuable quotations given by Russell Leadbetter of The Herald and by my actor friend Bill Paterson from Tales from the Back Green. Thanks as well to Janette McGinn for allowing me to reprint the lyrics to the song The Ibrox Disaster, taken from McGinn of the Calton: The Life and Works of Matt McGinn, 192877, published by Glasgow City Libraries in 1987.

Gratitude is also due to other good friends, such as Richard McBrearty of the Scottish Football Museum, Lisbon Lions Jim Craig and Billy McNeill for their words of wisdom from the inside, and their teammates John Fallon and Charlie Gallagher for their valuable asides. I have also to thank Dr Bill Murray for his erudite comment, schoolfriends Frank McGuire and Dr Gerald McGrath, my cousins Philip Cairney and Liz Donaldson for the cover photo, my hairdresser Tommy Fleming for his reminiscences, Bob Adams for his wit, Irene McDade for her calm good sense, Jim Brown for his hospitality, Danny Dickson for his memories, writer Dean Parker for his Celtic passion, IT guru Ray Neale for his brain, Angus Morton for his football enthusiasm (even though he supports Chelsea), Jordan Cleary for supporting my team, James McGrory for the photo of his father and last but by no means least young Thomas Doherty for his liking for Jimmy McGrory and his foreword to the following pages. He obviously has a future as a sports journalist as well as as a footballer.

I also wish to acknowledge the help I have had with this book from the anonymous army of Celtic friends who have stood beside me, behind me and before me on the terracings of so many football grounds around Scotland and from those who have sat beside me in the stands. They have contributed their humour, good sense and wit to my enjoyment of every football occasion I have known, even when the result did not go our way. I only hope that something of what I have learned from these admirable and stoic companions on my march will find its way into these pages.

Finally, all my love and thanks to my wife, Alannah, for her patience and forbearance while I lived with Celticia, for her timely computer rescues that saved the day, for her comments on the first draft and, most of all, for being Alannah.

By the way, the various Celtic players mentioned in my little verses at the head of each chapter are, in my personal opinion, the pick of the footballers I have seen play during my own active supporting years, when I lived my life according to Celtic.

John Cairney
August 2011

To the memory of
TOMMY BURNS
19562008

He lived his life the Celtic way
Through all its twists and turns,
Supporter, player, manager,
Immortal Tommy Burns.

Its the good memories keep you warm on a cold night.
Tommy Burns

Extra Time

Paddy McCourt, Inside Forward

Ive got to play Paddy, hes my ideal
Of a Celtic player, however you feel.
Hell make you laugh, hell make you cry
But his natural talent will make you sigh.

Alannah and I came back to live in Scotland in 2008. My coming home was almost as casual as my going away had been in 1991. After nearly 20 years away, I had returned for no other reason than it had come up my back, as my mother might have said, but I did find that when the sun sets in New Zealand it rises in Scotland. I needed to feel again that pale imitation of solar heat after the splendid warmth of the Shaky Isles, that Land of the Long White Cloud.

We live in a lovely flat that is only a loud shout from Hampden and a reasonable taxi ride from Celtic Park. While Id been living in New Zealand, Id kept up with Celtic affairs via the Celtic Supporters Club in Auckland and through continued monitoring of the sports results on the Internet. I also watched every game shown on Sky television. It was through a connection with Celtic TV that I was invited to attend a game in Celtic Park soon after my return. Despite having seen the development of the ground over the years on occasional return trips, I was startled by its finished appearance. It resembled more the Museum of Modern Art in New York than the old Celtic Park.

I remember walking down from where we left the car, somewhere near Parkhead Cross. We entered the ground at Janefield Street. I used to roller-skate on its smooth, tarmacadam surface, but it is now virtually covered with stalls selling everything from flags to fanzines, plus a van selling second-hand Celtic books. I looked in vain for my own McGrory story but the man in the hat only said, Aye, we had wan wance. Instead, I bought Graham McColls official history of Celtic, with a foreword by Paul McStay. Have you a bag? I asked the hat. Nae bags, he said with a grin. I had to lug the book around with me all afternoon.

We walked towards the stadium. I felt I was approaching a forbidden city. The great concrete edifice soared above my head. I was overawed. This was a far cry from my old wooden sevenpenny gate, but the excitement was just the same. I could feel my heart pounding in the same old way as I took in the banter again, and the pleasure of being part of that big, grinning swirl once more. I must admit, though, I was a little taken aback when I was handed a leather strap and told to put it round my neck. It looked like a baggage label, but this was my ticket. It had been bought by my host, a young executive from Gourock, that town thats aw tae wan side on the Clyde.