The Herald - The Herald Magazine
LOCAL HEROES
FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK CELTIC BECAME THE FIRST BRITISH SIDE TO WIN THE MOST PRESTIGIOUS CLUB COMPETITION IN WORLD FOOTBALL. NOW SUCH A FEAT IS ALL BUT IMPOSSIBLE. WHAT MADE THE LISBON LIONS SO SPECIAL?
Kevin McKenna pays tribute to football’s Lisbon Lions
A QUIETLY cherished, 14-year-old story has begun the process of entering the folklore of a Glasgow family. It concerns a veteran of the airlift that took 12,000 Scots to Lisbon in May, 1967, to see Celtic win the European Cup and the desire of his children to get him to another final in Seville 36 years later even as cancer was trying to prevent him. They knew – and so did he – that he wouldn’t be around to see his beloved Celtic participate in another occasion such as this. A ticket was procured, flights and accommodation secretly secured and a taxi ordered to collect Joe and deposit him at Glasgow Airport. The family wasn’t normally given to bursts of unruly sentiment but they all sensed that something sacred might be happening here.
Next Thursday, May 25, marks the 50th anniversary of Celtic’s triumph in Lisbon when they became the first British side to triumph in the biggest and most glamorous club tournament on the planet. Several English teams have since repeated the feat but Celtic’s success will never be equalled. The implacable forces of pure capitalism now ensure that only a handful of football’s richest clubs in four countries can ever win the European Cup. Celtic did it with 10 workingclass men born within a few miles of the east end of Glasgow. The 11th was a foreign import from Ayrshire.
The occasion will be commemorated with a gala evening at the SSE Hydro featuring Sir Rod Stewart and Sir Alex Ferguson while the BBC has produced a Lisbon documentary. Newspapers, including The Herald, will empty their archives of what remains of their Lisbon collection featuring photographs that have become as iconic in their way as those marking the beginning and the ends of wars and the deaths of presidents.
Among thousands of Scottish families and their loved ones scattered abroad memories will be rekindled of men and women who watched this team and bore witness to their achievements unto the next generation. Those who remain impervious to football’s febrile charisma rarely get to understand why so much human emotion can be expended on a game, and this one game in particular, when political events that affect real lives are unfolding rapidly around us. Isn’t it really just a game; another drug for the masses? And aren’t we all being made to remember One Afternoon in Lisbon merely to slake the eternal tendency of Glaswegians to elevate their triumphs on clouds of sentiment?
Willy Maley, professor of English Literature at the University of Glasgow, is a lifelong Celtic supporter and explains why Celtic’s victory in Lisbon and the men who achieved it are still being garlanded 50 years on. “It’s all about family and community,” he says. “Celtic and many other clubs around the world took shape and grew within disadvantaged working-class communities struggling with social exclusion generations ago. The football clubs reflected the fierce pride of that community and
their achievements helped to engender a sense of pride and identity in dark days. When they wore the colours they also bore the aspirations of their towns and villages on their shoulders.
“Celtic was formed to help save the lives of the poor fleeing famine and persecution in Ireland. So, from the outset, they were at the centre of a people’s aspirations to be accepted on equal terms. Their early triumphs built self-confidence in this community and reinforced a sense of pride.”
A mile or so from the professor’s woodpanelled study is the storied western district of Maryhill, a working-class enclave still proud of its identity. When asked where he comes from, a Glaswegian abroad will rarely say Scotland; it has to be Glasgow. A citizen of Maryhill narrows it down further. Bertie Auld, the oldest and best-loved of Celtic’s Lisbon Lions, comes from Maryhill, growing up in Panmure Street behind Partick Thistle’s Firhill stadium. Those who were born and grew up around here are proud of that connection. Peter Grieve and his son Peter Jr are both taxi drivers and citizens of the Republic of Maryhill. Each was reared on stories of Celtic and Peter Sr remembers vividly watching the game on the family’s black-and-white telly. “Bertie is part of the fabric of Maryhill; everyone around here loves him, no matter which club they support. He has always been proud of the place where he was brought up and, like all the Lisbon Lions, he is tireless in helping local causes. None of them ever left the communities that reared them and they were always proud to represent us.”
As in all the other places where those anointed 11 were born and raised the Celtic colours were passed on from mothers and fathers to daughters and sons. Peter Jr mentions the petition that’s been raised in Saltcoats to have a statue made in honour of Bobby Lennox, its own Lisbon Lion. “There should be one in Maryhill of Bertie Auld,” he says. “Don’t forget, he also went on to be a manager of Partick Thistle. There should be statues of each of the Lisbon Lions in the places where they were born. It wouldn’t just be to honour Bertie Auld of Celtic but Bertie Auld from Maryhill.” He is counting down the days until he can take his two daughters to Celtic Park. “I’ll tell them all about Bertie Auld too.”
ADOZEN or so miles east along the M8, where Glasgow’s edgiest enclaves look towards Lanarkshire, lies Viewpark, a neighbourhood originally constructed to house miners and their families. All along the Old Edinburgh Road are the bus stops that once picked up five of the Lisbon Lions as youths and deposited them near Celtic Park. One of them was Jimmy Johnstone, voted the greatest Celtic player of all time.
He was born and raised in the streets of Viewpark and after his death in 2006 a statue was made in his honour. It sits just back from the Old Edinburgh Road in a little memorial garden surrounded by seven stones representing the number 7 jersey he wore. There are three benches in this immaculately-maintained little retreat. The public subscription for it attracted donations from supporters of Rangers, as well as two of their finest players, Willie Henderson and Graeme Souness. After the funding target was reached the organisers found there was enough left to give £5000 for research into motor neurone disease, which claimed Jimmy. The statue now sits on the site of the old St Columba’s Primary School where his skills were first honed. Jimmy Johnstone gave this community pride and a sense of achievement, and when he died they put him at the heart of it. Each rain-soaked child who hurried past us on Tuesday afternoon slowed when approaching the garden and glanced up at the statue. They knew why we were here.
Margot McCuaig, a documentary maker, made a film last year about Jimmy Johnstone. She once worked at Celtic Park and has come to know the Lisbon Lions and their families. “What you soon get to know about these men is that they are a real band of brothers who have remained very close into old age. They have been devoted to each other in sickness and in health and through each other’s triumphs and troubles.
“They have come to know what they represent not just for Celtic fans but also to Scotland and I’ve always felt they have never stopped feeling blessed and privileged at having been chosen for Lisbon. They are all proud men but humble too and, in all the time I have known them, they make every effort to attend supporters’ events all over the country and abroad. The bond they have with the supporters is very moving to witness and is just as strong among
They are a band of brothers who have remained close