'Amid the poverty, neglect & intolerance of Victorian Glasgow one man had a dream. That dream flourished and now countless thousands share Brother Walfrid's vision of a football club that opens its doors to everyone.
Born Andrew Kerins in Ballymote, County Sligo, he ventured on the divine path taking up the oath of the Marist Brotherhood.
And as thousands of Irish took flight from the deprivation in their homeland by sailing to Glasgow, Walfrid was assigned to the Sacred Heart School in the city's East End to cater for both their spiritual and educational needs.
He had already taught at nearby St. Mary's before moving to Sacred Heart in 1874 but by the time he switched to London's Spitafields in 1892 the first rays of his ambitious vision had started to unfold.
The immigrants from Ireland quickly realised the streets of Glasgow were not paved with gold and, not for the first time in Scottish history, the ogre of religious intolerance raised its ugly head.
Walfrid had two main aims; feeding the newcomers who were finding employment difficult to attain AND integrating them into the mainstream of Scottish life where two religions where at loggerheads.
Feeding the poor was a problem with a relatively straightforward answer - a charity drive. Knocking down the walls of religious intolerance was a rather more thorny issue and one that was to present pitfalls on both sides of the divide.
Walfrid's money raising idea was to enter the embryonic world of football by forming a club to attract paying customers and either by accident or design, the club would be utilised to alleviate the other dilemma.
Although formed to raise money for the needy of the East End, who were mainly Catholic and Irish, the new club would be neither exclusively Catholic nor Irish.
Many Irish clubs emerged in the 1880s and the names instantly signified their origin - Hibernian, Shamrock, Emmett, Harp, Erin, Emerald - but Walfrid was keen to build an ecumenical and cultural bridge between Ireland and Scotland so the most likely name, Hibernian, was dropped.
He had earlier established a minor football club named Columba and was intent on using something similarly meaningful to both the Scots and Irish.
Thus, Celtic Football Club was born kicking and screaming into uncertain surroundings in football and culture.
The name was intrinsic to the values and aims of the club in establishing an unquantifiable link between the indigenous Scots and the newcomers whose descendants would be born Scootish.

SINCE THEN THE CLUB HAS ALWAYS OPENED ITS DOORS TO ONE AND ALL NO MATTER THE FAITH, COLOUR, CREED OR RACE. THAT HAS BEEN THE CASE SINCE ITS FOUNDATION AND THAT WILL ALWAYS CONTINUE TO BE THE CASE.

One man's vision and a meeting at St. Mary's Hall in Abercromby Street on November 6, 1887 grew far beyond the cobbled streets of the Calton. Now this dream lives on in the heart of Celtic supporters of every faith anf colour, creed and race on every corner of the globe.'