Knowing The History

PhD student’s project will present a fuller picture of Celtic’s Founding Father, Brother Walfrid.

- Tony Connelly

THERE’S no shortage of iconic figures spread throughout the history of Celtic, each of them carrying on one man’s dream, but just like a dream, the story of that man remains vague.

More than 170 years after Brother Walfrid’s birth, lifelong Celtic fan Michael Connolly is in the midst of a PhD which aims to uncover more on the life and work Celtic’s founding father.

For such a legendary figure of the club, relatively little is known about the life of Andrew Kerins, particularly before and after the period of time he was involved in the founding of Celtic.

That is in the process of changing, however. Connolly’s research has already begun to uncover unknown aspects of Brother Walfrid’s life and he admitted it has been an exciting journey so far.

“It’s strange than no one has looked into Brother Walfrid’s life in more depth,” he said. “Without him there would be no Celtic Football Club, yet so little is known about him. Most people only associate Brother Walfrid with Celtic but there are so many other aspects to his life and his personality.

“There hasn’t been any in-depth information published specifically on his life.

“I’ve been spending a lot of my research time in the Mitchell Library in Glasgow. I’ve been speaking with many people who have published work on the Celtic Graves Society website, who have been really helpful. They do a lot of great work in terms of the early days of the club.

“This is the world’s first PhD on him as a figure. It’s an absolute honour to dedicate this time into researching him. It’s been really exciting so far and it’s exciting looking ahead knowing there’s more to uncover.