A significant milestone in the history of leading Mayo football club
Remarkable team spirit central to Castlebar Celtic's longevity
Castlebar Celtic started with nothing in 1924.
Not even a name.
It took almost eight years before the club adopted the name of the great Scottish club, Celtic FC, founded by Irish Marist Brother Malfrid, built by Irish emigrants and loved across the Republic of Ireland.
Today, Castlebar Celtic is firmly established as a major sporting force across the county, province and nation, the image above telling so much about the club’s history over the past century and how far it has come from humble beginnings.
From 1924 to 2024 has been a long and challenging journey and one punctuated by no little success, setbacks and a fair degree of heartache.
A huge impediment hanging over the club's early development was the infamous Rule 27 of the GAA, a rule in force from 1905 to 1971 that banned good footballers who were members of the GAA from playing or watching other sports such as soccer.
The club was born into a deeply divided Ireland, the Civil War having ended the previous summer.
A general election had been held on August 27, 1923, which Cumann na nGaedheal, the pro-Free State party, won with about 40% of the first-preference vote.
The Republicans, represented by Sinn Féin, won about 27% of the vote. Many of their candidates and supporters were still imprisoned before, during and after the election.
Like the nation itself, Castlebar's first soccer club, or team to be more exact, was facing into uncertain times, unsure of its future in a society in which poverty and division abounded.
Against this background, to reach 100 years of unbroken service is an achievement to be admired, a triumph for dedication, perseverance and the commitment and courage of so many people.
Those qualities are as important today as when a group of men met in a room in Market Square in 1924 to form a soccer club in Castlebar for the first time.
The triumph is that it survived in the face of adversity.
There is evidence that soccer was played in Castlebar on a somewhat organised basis prior to 1924.
When I wrote the history of Mayo football, 'Boots, Rules and Fantasy Free' in 1996, the earliest reference I found of soccer being played in a formal manner was in 1896 when a team representing the county town played a Sligo selection at Swinford.
It included such names as John McGough, Mattie Flannery, Myles Queeney and John Munnelly.
While it is a fact that Castlebar Celtic was set up in 1924, it’s an accepted fact that it did not play under the name of Castlebar Celtic until 1932. A photograph which holds pride of place in the Celtic clubhouse at Pavilion Road supports this theory.
The photograph was in the possession of the late Larry Burke, Springfield Terrace, Castlebar, father of Frank and Joey, both of whom have a close association with the club. When I spoke to him about it many years ago, he was certain it was the first team to play under the name Castlebar Celtic.
The photograph includes such faces as Hughie McGartland, Joe Kilroy, Connie Gannon, Christy McHale, the club's first player to win international recognition, Tommy Leonard, Paddy McGough, Tommy Ketterick, John Burke, 'Buzzer' Clarke and Jimmy Killeen.
Two of those men, Tommy Ketterick and Omagh-native Hughie McGartland, were to play central roles over the coming decades in putting the club on a solid foundation.
They were helped in no small way by people of the calibre of Charlie Hanley, who became the club's first secretary, Tommy McDonald, Tommy Kilfeather, Tommy Leonard, Peter O'Malley, Robert Kilkelly, Joe McCormack, Michael Heverin, Chas. Guthrie, Paddy Gilligan and many others.
When I interviewed Tommy Ketterick back in 1995, he told me the game of soccer never took off in Castlebar until 1928 or 1929 when men like the aforementioned McDonald, Leonard, McGartland, Hanley and Kilfeather 'introduced a bit of organisation to the game,' as he put it.
“We played our first matches at the Fairgreen (now the site of Scoil Raifteírí) and also on a ground at the back of the Bacon Factory.
“I remember going to the manager of the factory asking him for the use of the ground. He told me I was an awful chancer to be involved in soccer when the GAA’s ban on foreign sports was so influential,” explained Tommy, his home at Springfield often being used as a dressing room when Celtic played matches on the Fairgreen.
Celtic then moved on to Niland’s Field which, according to Tommy, ‘was on the other side of Bacon Factory’, before establishing their base at Maryland, close to the former Castlebar Airport, in the Forties.
By 1954 the club had purchased Flannery’s Field, located within a short distance of the Mall. It took almost four years to get the field ready as a playing pitch, named Celtic Park. While it was a major progressive move, Celtic Park was the cause of endless problems over a number of decades due to the fact it was prone to serious flooding.
A move was even made to sell it off as the site for the new Sacred Heart Hospital in the late 1960s but it never materialised.
Articles written for this supplement by Frank Burke, a former club secretary, and Edwin McGreal, a grandson of Hughie McGartland, make references to issues with the pitch, including legal ones. Those problems, like many others in Celtic’s history, were overcome due to the resilience and unyielding spirit of officials and club members inspired by the work of the club’s early pioneers.
For example, the clubhouse was built and officially opened in 1990 without a main contractor being appointed in order to cut down on costs.
Under the chairmanship of Philip Cresham, committee members and others gave of their time to build the facility, brick by brick, with the help of sub-contractors, Tom McDaniel exercising a key role in identifying and appointing the relevant tradesmen through his close contacts in the building trade.
Tradesmen, including club member Eamon Callan, gave long hours to the success of the project while Padraig O’Malley and Pat Jordan were also very generous with their time. Others like Andy Redmond, Ray Quinn and Jeff Redmond were not found wanting when it came to pulling off such a mammoth project.
At the same time, people including Mattie Togher, Paul Byrne, Peter Killeen, Fergie McEllin, Frank Foy, Michael ‘Scobie’ Moran, Pat Griffin, Pat Neary, Brian Ainsworth, Gerry Shiels, Damian Bourke, Kevin Ryan and Ger Whyte were involved in fundraising and supporting roles, as was the club’s hard-working ladies committee. This was a testimony to the level of community spirit that is central to the club’s longevity.
The same level of commitment was displayed some years later when the club built a full-sided FIFA approved AstroTurf pitch which, apart from an early controversy relating to its use for certain fixtures, has been an essential development for coaching and development of young boys and girls, as well as taking pressure off the main pitch.
Those who played integral roles in this and other recent projects included Gerry Walsh, Pat Gavin, Colm Hynes, Sean Gavin, Pat Naughton, Noel Coll, with the backing over subsequent years by people in the calibre of Mattie Togher, Marian Robinson, Michael Dywer, Pat Ludden, Paddy Moylette, Frank Ludden, Charlie Davis, Greg Whyte, Fergie McEllin, Joe McDonald and Aiden Nevin, to mention a few.
There has also been immense strides made on the coaching side, Paddy Halpin, Tony Kelly, Noel Jennings, Greg Earls, Fergie McEllin and others encouraged Celtic’s style of attacking football during their time as first team managers.
Those to have followed in their footsteps included Michael McDonagh, Ivan Mohan, Gavin Dykes, Declan Kilkelly, Michael McNicholas and Steve Gavin, all supported by strong backroom teams.
The establishment of soccer academies for young boys and girls was another significant step in the club’s development. Joey Burke and Ger Staunton started the boys academy which grew immensely with the evolution of AstroTurf pitches.
Other coaches involved over the years have included Gabby Downes, Barry Redmond, Ashley Stephenson, Greg Whyte, Michael Forry, Stuart Doyle, Colm Murphy and Mick Wallace. Noel Coll and Richie Berkeley initiated the girls academy.
The club also has a director of football in Jonathon Heffernan, another progressive step.
Today, another AstroTurf facility is being put in place on the County Library end, replacing an old amenity which had served its purpose over an extended period.
So what lies ahead for Castlebar Celtic in the decades ahead?
A spectator stand and, of course, extra pitches to cater for unprecedented playing numbers stand out as top priorities and perhaps the club will get some help with the latter thanks to Mayo County Council’s plans for the development of sports amenities on a former HSE owned site at Knockaphunta.
Hopefully?