Faith, Community and Football: The Life of Brother Walfrid

Abstract

This thesis critically explores the life of Brother Walfrid (Andrew Kerins), one of the most significant Irish immigrants to Britain, in relation to his contribution to Catholic education and charity, as well as organised sport in Scotland in the late nineteenth century. Despite knowledge around him as a prime founder of Celtic FC, Walfrid’s story remains largely untold. This research investigates the ‘real’ Brother Walfrid - the man separated from myth - along with his legacy among the multi-generational Irish Catholic community in Scotland, and elsewhere. This study analyses the origins of Andrew Kerins beginning with his Sligo birth and departure for Glasgow. Drawing on surviving historical and archived documents, the effects of An Gorta Mor (the Great Hunger in Irish) on Kerins and his family are reflected upon. Further, new information drawn from contemporaneous publications and interviews provided the source material on this epochal figure for the Irish Catholic diaspora. The socio-economic circumstances that provided the conditions for the emergence of Celtic FC - a unique representation of the Irish diaspora in world sport - are explicated through this biography of Brother Walfrid’s lived experience. Critically, it also seeks to understand and explore Walfrid’s role, motivations and achievements as a Marist Brother: especially with respect to his importance to Catholic religious, educational, charitable and cultural identities in Scotland. Walfrid’s integral role in the creation of Celtic FC is critically reappraised along with his faith and charity work amongst the poor and marginalised in Glasgow. By producing a full account of the life of Brother Walfrid, what emerges is a more substantive insight into a figure of totemic historical significance for the Irish Catholic diaspora, in Scotland and beyond. Through the combination of faith, charity and football, Walfrid’s life illustrates a historic contribution to Irish Catholicism in nineteenth century Britain.