Dan, Dan The Celtic Man

West Allis is green and white thanks to Mayor, Dan Devine’s St Patrick’s Day Celtic tweet

- Mark Henderson

AS Mayor of an American city, Dan Devine is used to being in the public eye, but nothing could prepare him for the remarkable response after he tweeted a picture of himself wearing a Celtic top to work.

With City Hall employees in West Allis, Wisconsin, encouraged to wear green last month on St Patrick’s Day, the Hoops fan decided it was the perfect opportunity to don his Celtic top.

But when he posted a selfie from the council chambers on Twitter, Dan became a social media sensation among the online Celtic community.

As his picture went viral, the 45-year-old received messages of support from all corners of the globe and even made the papers in Scotland.

“On certain holidays at City Hall, we will all wear green on St Patrick’s Day, red on Valentine’s Day or if the Green Bay Packers are in a play-off game, we will wear green and gold,” Dan told the View in an exclusive interview. “And this is probably the greenest shirt that I own.

“On St Patrick’s Day last year, I wore one of the older home shirts, which is about 20 years old. I have a couple of shirts as well, but I got this one in the Celtic Shop in Belfast last October and I hadn’t worn it to City Hall before so I put it on.

“It was a quiet morning and I don’t know what gave me the idea, but I just decided to run into the Common Council Chambers here and take a photo and tweet it to the club. After that it just erupted.

“I had to recharge my phone as my battery was dying with all the Twitter alerts! It was surreal. I was getting responses from Glasgow - obviously Ireland, England, Florida, Philadelphia, Greece and Australia.