St Oliver Plunkett Celtic Supporters Club
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This article is taken from the website of the Celtic Graves Society and we encourage all our members and friends to join this Society. Thanks to all concerned for their excellent work in honouring those who helped make our great club what it is today.
They never die who live in the hearts they leave behind.
The Celtic Graves Society was formed this summer by Celtic supporters who aim to cherish the memory of those whose contribution, large or small, has been the cornerstone of Celtic's remarkable story.
As Celtic supporters, we believe that maintaining the memorials of Celtic players and important figures from our past is a real part of "knowing your history."
We will put the wishes of families first and with those families of the former Celts our aim is to identify, locate and honour the final resting places of their loved ones.
We have already found the resting places of the first ever Celtic team which beat Rangers 5-2 on 28th May 1888 thanks to the efforts of Celtic fans across the globe. Legendary figures such as Jimmy McGrory, Jimmy Quinn, Patsy Gallacher, Willie Maley, Jimmy Delaney, Dan Doyle, Sandy McMahon as well as the club's Founding Fathers have all had their graves located - visit our forum at www.celticgraves.com
Join today and become part of an amazing and rewarding project which brings The Celtic Story to life. The more supporters who are involved, the easier it will be to achieve our objectives. We need funds to make that happen and the best way you can help is to join and get involved or make a donation in the form of membership.
Annual Membership costs only £10. Here's how you join up:
1) Go to www.Paypal.co.uk and log in to your account.
2) Click on the "Send Money" tab...
3) Fill out the payment form:
Send money to: donate@celticgraves.com
Amount: £10.00
Set currency to: GBP - British Pounds
Click on: Goods button
Click: Continue
4) Review your payment before sending:
Please enter "Annual Membership" in the Subject box
Please enter your "Username" on Celtic Graves Society or any other Forum (and the other forum's name) in the Message box.
If you require any further help, please post a message on one of the threads on the Celtic Graves Society website thread or PM an Admin.
If you would like to join the group but do not use Paypal please send a pm to any moderator on the forum for details of other forms of payment.
Thanks to the support of everyone who has joined the Celtic Graves Society and to those groups who have made donations since our formation, we are now in a position to announce plans to undertake a series of initiatives that will see a number of ex players' and Founding fathers' final resting places marked.
The first ex player to have his grave marked will be Dan Doyle, the original "Wild Rover", who lies in an unmarked grave in Dalbeth Cemetery, a stone's throw from Celtic Park.
Dan played for Hibs against Cowlairs in the very first match played to open the original Celtic Park in 1888 before moving to Celtic via Everton, a move that shocked the football world as he left the professionals to join the newly founded amatuers.
He went on to win 4 League Titles and 1 Scottish Cup in 8 seasons at Celtic Park where he was a fans favourite.
"In Dan Doyle the Celtic Faithful had a man who was the embodiment of their own hopes of the time in rising above the mundane whilst remaining independent of soul."
The group's members will then choose in what order we will mark the graves of the other nine Celts who we have discovered lying in unmarked graves thus far, as soon as any remaining family are found.
We will also undertake to restore appropriate gravestones to their former glory, beginning with ex player Barney Battles, who died in 1905 at the tender age of 30. 40,000 lined the route from Sacred Heart chapel in Bridgeton to Dalbeth Cemetery as a cortege of 2000 followed Barney's coffin to his Place of Rest.
We are also in the privileged position of being able to announce Lisbon Lion, Jim Craig as the group's Patron and we are deeply honoured and humbled that Jim has accepted our invitation.
In the longer term we aim to repair and restore the headstone of John Glass one of our club's main Founding Fathers before the end of the season, an endeavour which will require your support. John Glass is often referred to as "Brother Walfrid's right hand man" and when he passed away in 1906 Willie Maley's tribute to John included the immortal line "The man to whom Celtic FC owes it's very existence".
We are planning also to mark John Thomson's 80th anniversary next year by re-enacting the pilgrimages to Bowhill Cemetery from all over Scotland when thousands walked to John's funeral in Cardenden in September 1931.
Further details on dates for the small ceremonies to mark the selected graves with tablets of stone will be given in due course.
