“Out of seeming nothing;

Out of shadow and gloom;

Out of a hollowed vacuum

Came something to keep us in tune.

Something to interest and please us;

Something we call our own;

Something we almost worship;

Loving beyond control.

Boys by practice and training;

Diligently keeping fit;

Men by planning and scheming

Built it bit by bit.

Loyally working together;

Faithful to their scheme;

Out of little or nothing

Came the champion Celtic team.”

In Episode Sixty of the Blizzard Podcast we revisit ‘Before the Shopping Centre’ by Conor Heffernan from Issue Seventeen, first published in June 2015.

Founded in 1891, at a time of political upheaval in both the North and South of Ireland, Belfast Celtic, the ‘Grand Old Team’, were far more than a football club for the people of the Falls Road. Ultimately, though, the sectarianism that they tried to combat by bringing together both Protestants and Catholics was their ultimate undoing.

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Issue Seventeen, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while a print versions are available from £6 + postage. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.