Brother Walfrid

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Brother Walfrid

Brother Walfrid (May 18, 1840 - April 17, 1915) is the religious name of Andrew Kerins, an Irish Marist Brother and founder of Celtic Football Club.

Walfrid was born of John Kerins and Elizabeth Flynn in Ballymote, a village in south County Sligo in north west Ireland. He studied teaching and in 1864 joined The Marist Brothers Teaching Order. He moved to Scotland in the 1870's and taught at St. Marys School and the Sacred Heart School where he was appointed headmaster in 1874. He also helped found St. Joseph's College, Dumfries.

In 1887, 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 of Bethnal 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.

1 Commemoration
2 See also
3 External links
4 References

[edit] Commemoration

A commemorative sculpture of Walfrid was erected outside Celtic Park on 5 November 2005.

Brother Walfrid sculpture at Celtic Park.

The 3.2 metre high sculpture was constructed in bronze and granite. 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.^[1] 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 by Sense 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 the Archbishop of Glasgow the Most Reverend Mario Conti who blessed the statue, several thousand fans and former Celtic and Rangers captains Billy McNeil and John 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 the Archdiocese 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.