Rodgers is now invincible but he will always be a Carnlough Bhoy
ON A wet Bank Holiday Monday in the Northern Irish fishing village of Carnlough, even the gulls are taking shelter. Tourists grope for umbrellas as they leave the Londonderry Arms Hotel once owned by Sir Winston Churchill. Some grab snatched photos of the picturesque harbour where scenes from Game
of Thrones were filmed. The local Spar is doing brisk trade.
But the beating heart of this quiet outpost is to be found off the main road. In the Waterfall Bar where, since 5pm on Saturday, the friends and relatives of Brendan Rodgers have transformed Carnlough from a sleepy hollow to a place of raucous celebration.
‘It was fabulous here on Saturday,’ reports Gary Morgan, a member of the Waterfall’s resident Celtic Travel Club and an old primary school friend of the Parkhead boss.
‘There was an impromptu party in the village with 40 or 50 people out on the streets stopping cars and parading behind a Carnlough Bhoys flag.
‘They left the pubs and marched down the main street stopping buses. They marched as far as the harbour and draped the flag over the Carnlough Arch as they did the Huddle in the middle of the street.
‘Listen, this is the kind of stuff Celtic supporters do in cities and towns across the world now.
‘But it never happened in Carnlough before. This was something else.’
Sportsmail leaves Morgan to take refuge from the brutal conditions in the Waterfall Bar where manager Johnny Mulholland is playing host to regulars Kieran McMullan and Pat O’Reilly.
The two travelled to Glasgow for the Scottish Cup final before returning home on Sunday night. Heading straight for the local Celtic pub, they have been there pretty much ever since.
From under the bar, O’Reilly reaches for an old photocopied picture from an edition of the
Larne Times, circa 1987. ‘Jesus, I haven’t seen this picture in years,’ says his drinking buddy McMullan.
The old image of Carnlough United’s amateur team has seen better days. The edges are dog-eared,« the names written on felt-tip pen across the shirts — just to be sure.
‘That’s Paddy there,’ says McMullan pointing to a figure on the top row. ‘And that’s me two from the end on the back row.’
Eventually the finger settles on a crouching kid with a thick head of curls in the front row.
‘That’s Brendan,’ he adds. ‘He can’t be any older than 14 there. But my God, he was a player.’
Everyone in Carnlough — a village of just over 2,000 people in County Antrim — knows of Brendan Rodgers the footballer.
Reared by painter and decorator dad Malachy and mother Christine, the third manager in Celtic’s history to secure the Treble had just one regret after Saturday’s Scottish Cup final. That his parents weren’t at Hampden to see it.
‘Brendan’s father went everywhere with him when he was young,’ recalls Morgan. ‘They were always going to all sorts of football trials. Up and down the country.
‘He played up in Ballymena for a youth team and he eventually joined Ballymena United.
‘He was playing for Northern Ireland schoolboys from a young age, as well. I remember watching him playing for the Under-15 team against Italy up at Solitude, Cliftonville’s ground in Belfast.
‘They lost 1-0 and he played left midfield. But his dad took him everywhere.
‘His mum Christine wasn’t as into football maybe, but his brothers and relatives were Celtic men. His uncle, Kevin (McCloy), still goes regularly to Parkhead.’
By way of proof, cousin Kieran rests his pint on the bar and ushers through to a snug in the Waterfall.
Pointing proudly to a picture on the wall of himself arm in arm in a Parkhead stand with uncle Kevin and Derek Rodgers, another uncle, he says: ‘That’s from the day Brendan was unveiled as manager. We were all there, the whole family.
‘My uncle on the right-hand side is Kevin McCloy, he got me involved in Celtic.
‘Kevin goes to most of the games. In the middle there is Brendan’s uncle Derek. That was an amazing day. You can’t imagine what it was like for us — Brendan Rodgers signing for Celtic.’
It’s said in a way which leaves little room for doubt. Within the confines of this hostelry on Carnlough High Street, managing Scotland’s champions is regarded as the ultimate job. As good as it gets.
When some in Scotland found it hard to believe a former manager of Liverpool would consider moving to the SPFL, last summer his pals and relatives in Northern Ireland found it hard to conceive why he wouldn’t.
Yet, as Morgan confirms, the talents of the Rodgers brothers extend beyond professional football.
‘One of Brendan’s four brothers, Malachy, starred in a BBC Northern Ireland country talent show presented by a guy called Hugo Duncan.
‘He performed in Nashville and did quite well, making a few records. He was successful.
‘The whole family had a very good work ethic. Strong morals were driven into them from when they were young.
‘His dad Malachy was a painter and decorator, and his brother Gabriel still does the painting and decorating now.’
To get to the Waterfall and the Harbour area, it’s necessary to drive past St John’s Primary School, a small 1960s building overlooking the Irish Sea. Morgan has no real recollection of Rodgers in an academic sense. Yet his talent on the football pitch was obvious from an early age.
‘We called Brendan ‘Fudgie’ at school,’ he says. ‘No one knows where that came from and he doesn’t seem to know himself.
‘You’d think he must have liked Fudge bars or something, but no. I genuinely can’t remember anything like that.
‘He had a mop of blond curly hair back then and he was a fantastic footballer at a young age.
‘Two housing estates used to come up against each other and we used to play matches. He
lived in Beachlands, I lived in Croft. There was a stand-off every time when we would say: “We’ll only play you if Fudgie doesn’t play”.
‘If he did play, we would get an extra player. He was so good no one could get the ball off him.
‘His injury happened when he was young and so many guys would have finished up back here again.’
His playing career curtailed by a serious knee injury at Reading, Rodgers was encouraged in his burgeoning coaching career by Celtic legend Tommy Burns.
‘Someone saw something in him to give him that opportunity,’ adds Morgan. ‘They saw his work ethic. They saw his willingness to learn.’
Morgan’s mother still lives across the road from Declan Rodgers, one of the brothers. Carnlough is a small, tight-knit community where people tend to know each other. They keep in touch because it’s hard to avoid it.
‘Brendan was back here on Easter Monday,’ adds Morgan, matter-of-fact. ‘He was going to meet up with the guys in the pub.
‘Declan arranged it and it was all set. But I think he thought better of spending all day on Easter Monday with the boys in the Carnlough Celtic pub. He would have been swamped.
‘We met up, but it was all quite cloak and dagger in the end. When Brendan comes over, he goes to see his parents’ graves and we arranged to meet up behind the church at the graveyard.
‘Declan told us what time to be there. About a dozen of us were sitting talking and he signed some pictures and autographs.
‘The thing with Brendan is he doesn’t forget his roots and doesn’t forget his people. He says to us all: “If you’re ever over, ask at reception and I’ll show you round”.
‘He’s good that way. He donated money to the local football team and does a lot of things for cancer charities because of his father.’
Mother Christine died in 2010. Dad Malachy passed away a short time later.
‘His mother and father were ordinary working-class folk,’ recalls cousin Kieran, working off the effects of a weekend in Glasgow with a hair of the dog. Or two.
‘They were very proud of him, all the family are. He has brothers spread all over the place. There are a couple in America.
‘But Declan was in here for the celebrations on Saturday night. I’m his cousin and I can tell you Brendan was always a Celtic fan.
‘He never had an English team like a lot of folk round here. He was a massive Paul McStay fan. Massive. Tommy Burns, as well.
‘Tommy was a big influence on him. When he went to Reading, Tommy was the manager, Peter Grant was a coach and big Packie Bonner was there as well.
‘You have to remember, there was no English football on telly here in the ’80s. We’re only nine miles from Campbeltown here in Carnlough, so we got a better reception from Scottish TV than we did from Ulster TV. We grew up watching Scotsport.’
The Rodgers clan, then, were always solid Celtic types. Yet the same couldn’t necessarily be said of Carnlough as a village.
‘There’s a bit of a Man United and Liverpool thing going on here,’ admits Morgan with an air of mild distaste. ‘There was always Celtic, of course. If they weren’t people’s first team, they were their second.
‘There’s a lot more interest in Celtic now from people who wouldn’t traditionally have followed them. That’s because of Brendan.
‘Back in the day, winning the big games with O’Neill, Strachan or Lennon in charge was great.
‘But when it comes from a guy we grew up with, who is managing the team, there is a sense of belonging. He’s one of ours.’
Sitting quietly in the corner, sipping a pint as all this goes on, is a thick-set figure. Watching the highlights of Hampden on the screen, he’s no Celtic fan. Nor does he follow any of the usual suspects like Manchester United, Liverpool or Arsenal.
‘That’s Danny the Rangers fan,’ laughs bar manager Mulholland. ‘He almost lives here. He used to go to Ibrox during the nine-in-arow era.’
‘Aye,’ pipes up Danny, deadpan. ‘And that was a long time ago...’
In Carnlough, the hometown of Brendan Rodgers, they rather like it that way.