- Brother Walfrid
Brother Walfrid (
May 18 ,1840 -April 17 1915 ) is the religious name of Andrew Kerins, an IrishMarist Brother and founder ofCeltic Football Club .Walfrid was born of John Kerins and Elizabeth Flynn in
Ballymote , a village in southCounty Sligo in north west Ireland. He studied teaching and in 1864 joined The Marist Brothers Teaching Order. He moved toScotland in the 1870's and taught at St. Marys School and theSacred Heart School where he was appointed headmaster in 1874. He also helped foundSt. Joseph's College, Dumfries .In 1888, he founded The Celtic Football Club as a means of raising funds for the poor and deprived in the east end of
Glasgow . In 1893 Walfrid was sent by his religious order to London's East End. Here he continued his work, organizing football matches for the barefoot children in the districts ofBethnal Green and Bow. The charity established by Walfrid was named "The Poor Children's Dinner Table".He died on
April 17 ,1915 , leaving a surviving brother, Bernard, in Cloghboley, County Sligo. Walfrid is buried in the Mount St. Michael Cemetery in Dumfries.Commemoration
A commemorative sculpture of Walfrid was erected outside
Celtic Park on5 November ,2005 . The 3.2 metre high sculpture was constructed inbronze andgranite . The statue cost ₤30,000 which was funded entirely by donations organised by the Brother Walfrid Committee, including ₤5,000 from then chairman of the club,Brian Quinn . [MacDonald, Hugh. [http://www.theherald.co.uk/sport/headlines/display.var.1723494.0.0.php I’ve travelled half a million miles in my years here... It’s time to go] , "The Herald", September 29, 2007.] The sculpture was made by Kate Robinson. The veil for then unveiling ceremony was made through workshops in fourteen schools and community centres throughout Glasgow. Funded bySense Over Sectarianism , artists worked with young people to create drawings of footballers and football strips which were digitally printed onto the veil itself. The Veil was removed by Sean Fallon. The unveiling ceremony was attended by theArchbishop of Glasgow the Most Reverend Mario Conti who blessed the statue, several thousand fans and former Celtic and Rangers captainsBilly McNeil andJohn Greig .New music for the ceremony was composed by relative James MacMillan called "Walfrid at the Gates of Paradise". Archbishop Conti presented club officials with a Celtic cross from the church where Celtic were established, Saint Mary's,
Calton the second oldest church in theArchdiocese of Glasgow . After the ceremony, the Celtic Charity Fund presented a cheque of ₤5,000 for St Mary's, to help the restoration fund for the church and to recognise the important link between club and community.A further sculpture of Brother Walfrid, commemorating his links with his home town of Ballymote, was unveiled in the public park there in 2005.
ee also
*
Marist Brothers
*History of Celtic F.C. External links
*" [http://www.walfrid-og.net/brotherwalfrid.htm Biography of Brother Walfrid] "
References
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