In 1891 the landlord raised the ground rent from £50 a year to £450, this upset Brother Walfrid and he set about finding a new site for the club, he found a disused brickyard at Parkhead, and again with his army of helpers set about developing his new stadium, he took a ten-year lease on the property with an option to buy, when the work was complete and just before the first game was played he said to his army of helpers, “This is Paradise” and the word “Paradise” is still used today.
It is 140 years ago this September since Brother Walfid joined The Marist Order, many generations have come and gone and little has been done to honour this great man. In February of this year Celtic supporters around the world began an appeal to erect a memorial outside Celtic Park in his honour. It was decided it would be appropriate to erect a memorial in his native town of Ballymote.
In March a committee was formed in Sligo to set about raising funds for the erection of a memorial. The committee was chaired by Paddy Doherty, and included representatives of local Celtic supporters clubs, I was honoured to join the group and was given the role of P R O. Our first task was to begin fund raising, the estimated cost of the memorial was 40,000 Euro.
Our first fund raiser was a Race Night in Doddy’s Pub in Ballymote. We were pleasantly surprised to clear 4,600 Euro. With various fundraisers planned it was now time to find a sculptor and a suitable site for the memorial.
Paddy Doherty our Chairman had a real stroke of luck, he was having lunch with his staff at Elasto Metall in Manorhamilton, Paddy is the manager of the factory, he was discussing his plans for the memorial, little did he realise that one of his staff was a talented sculptor, his name is Mark Rode and he hails from Australia. The following day Mark had five different sketches made, one of the sketches turned out to be the one we would go along with.
Mark set about designing and making the Bronze Bust of Brother Walfrid, a five-ton limestone plinth was ordered for the bust to stand on. A suitable site was found in The Peoples Park in Ballymote, just opposite The Railway Station, planning permission was granted and one of our committee Tom Currid who is a local building contractor set about preparing the groundwork for the memorial.
The making of the memorial now well in place further fundraisers were held, an auction of sporting memorabilia was held in a Sligo night-club and 6,000 Euro was raised, a concert in Bundoran with Charlie and the Bhoys from Glasgow brought in 7,500 Euro. We had another real stroke of luck, a talented Calligrapher, Glasgow native Denis O’Dochartaigh designed and produced a limited set of calligraphy prints of the memorial and the words of “You’ll Never Walk Alone” This song can be heard regularly on the terraces of Celtic Park.
The final fund raising event commenced on Friday September 17th, it was a charity walk all the way from Brother Walfrid’s homestead near Ballymote to Celtic Park. A well-known Mayo man Garda Eugune Mac Hale who is stationed in Grange and Retired Chief Superintendent Jim Sheridan completed the 196-Mile walk in nine days.
They arrived in Glasgow on Saturday September 25th. Eugene and Jim did a lap of honour round Celtic Park at half time during the game between Celtic and Dunfermline; they received a standing ovation from 60,000 fans. As I write this story there are still sponsorship cards to come in, I am delighted to report the walk has raised in excess of 8,000 Euro so far.
The final push began on Monday October 18th, the plinth was put in place and then on Tuesday the Bronze Bust arrived and was lifted onto the plinth, it was a hectic week with long days in the park and nightly meetings to finalise arrangements for the unveiling and blessing on Sunday 24th Oct. I had the privilege of driving the coach to Belfast Airport on Saturday to pick up the party who were flying in from Glasgow for the weekend.
We were honoured to have Celtic Legend Sean Fallon who hails from Sligo join us, he was accompanied by his lovely Wife Myra, also Stevie Chalmers, Bobby Lennox and John Fallon who were three of “The Lisbon Lions” team, they were accompanied by their wives, also in the party was Eddie Toner Celtic Supporters Assoc., Professor Joe Bradley Celtic Historian, Chairman Brian Quinn and his wife, also Margaret Mc Letchie, Setanta T V was represented by Miss Sharon Gillespie and Craig Coughlan.
On Sunday morning we left our Sligo Hotel and made our way to Ballymote, we attended a special Memorial Mass celebrated by Bishop Thomas Flynn, after mass there was refreshments in the magnificently restored Castle, the guests from Glasgow were overwhelmed by the warm welcome they received from Fr Hannon PP and the community in Ballymote. At 1pm we made our way to the unveiling and blessing ceremony. The unveiling was carried out jointly between Sean Fallon and Brian Quinn, Bishop Flynn blessed the memorial.
There were glowing tributes paid to sculptor and committee by the guest speakers and all the speakers were pleased that a true humanitarian was honoured in such a fitting way.
Sunday night it was time for us all to wind down and enjoy ourselves at a Special Celtic Celebration Dinner in Sligo Southern Hotel, it was a packed house we were honoured to be joined by Rab Douglas who is one of Celtic’s goalkeepers.
After a few hours in bed it was time to set off in the coach for Belfast Airport and bid farewell to our guests from Glasgow.
Finally I would like to thank some people for their tremendous support. Brian Feeney who is Chief Executive of The Sligo Weekender, he gave us free publicity for the past eight months, Micheal O’ Domhaill from Omedia Video and Sharon Gillespie and Craig Coughlan from Setanta T V who filmed the weekend festivities, also Eamonn Hewitt and Miss Maggie Roche from Stena Line who generously sponsored the crossing for the support vehicle for the walkers en route to Glasgow and return, and to all who supported us in any way, many thanks.
Until the next time its Good Bye and God Bless from the Hills of Sligo.