Labour of love for Jinky fans
Lockdownmakeoverformemorialgarden
Green-fingered Celtic fans got to work tidying up a Lanarkshire garden built in memory of the man voted Celtic’s greatest ever player.
Members of the Jinky Connelly Johnstone Celtic Supporters
Club in Uddingston turned out to reinvigorate the Jimmy Johnstone memorial garden on Old Edinburgh Road, Viewpark.
The garden includes the famous ‘Jinky’ statue which was unveiled back in 2011 in memory of the Celtic legend.
The memorial garden is also in the grounds of the former St Columba’s Primary, 100 yards from the house in Old Edinburgh Road where he grew up.
And now thanks to Jinky’s fans the area has been given a complete restoration – including the monoblock being powerwashed, the grass cut, fence painted and area weeded out.
A spokesperson for the supporters’ club said:
“Some of the boys from our supporters club saw the memorial garden was in need of some maintenance.
“With lockdown in place a few of them decided to volunteer to tidy the place up and give it a bit of a renovation.
“So whilst maintaining social distance measures and working in shifts they cut grass, painted the fence, pulled out the weeds and pressurewashed the entire memorial garden. “It looks amazing now and when Jinky’s daughter Eileen heard of the work being done she even popped along with some flowers and a card to say thank you to them.”
A group of Jinky’s life-long pals came up with the idea of erecting the statue to him following his death on March 13, 2006, after a long battle with Motor Neurone Disease.
The area was chosen as pals say the statue sits on the piece of ground where the icon used to play football when he was just a boy.