“You have to always back the boys,” says one Glaswegan-turned-Montrealer who supports both.
Did you hear the one about a guy who walks into an Irish bar looking to talk about the Habs with fans and ends up deep in discussion with a couple of Celtic fans from Glasgow?
I strolled into Maison Publique McLean’s — that’s the newer McLean’s on Peel St. just above Ste-Catherine St. — and the first thing I saw was a big Celtic banner draped across the bar celebrating Scotland’s most legendary soccer team. When I asked the barman why it was there, Brian — an Irishman from County Cork — told me they’d pulled the banner out in honour of a couple of members of the Celtic Supporters Club Montreal.
But I thought if these Celtic supporters are also Habs fans, it would be an amazing opportunity to talk about these two teams who in some fundamental ways have so much in common. Celtic was founded in 1887 by an Irish priest, Brother Walfrid (Andrew Kerins), who had moved from Ireland to Glasgow in the 1870s. The team was created for the Scottish city’s Irish community, more specifically for the poorest Irish Glaswegians who lived in the city’s East End.
Celtic has always worn its Irish roots proudly, notably with its green and white jerseys, and it’s a team with a remarkable amount of support throughout Ireland and Northern Ireland. On holiday in Ireland two years ago, I’ll never forget stopping by a pub in the tiny town of Falcarragh in Donegal — where my mother’s family comes from — and suddenly realizing that all of the walls in the place were covered from top to bottom with Glasgow Celtic memorabilia.
The Canadiens, as most know, were also created for a specific community, francophone Montrealers. The delicious irony of course is that the team was founded in 1909 by an anglophone businessman from Ontario, Ambrose O’Brien, who simply saw a business opportunity, but in its earliest days it was openly nationalist and the fact is over a century later, those roots in franco Quebec are still very much a part of les Canadiens (even if the team has so many fewer Québécois players on the roster).
“The teams were founded by minority communities to try to give those communities a voice,” said Sean Howie, who was at Maison Publique McLean’s Wednesday with his buddy Michael Diamond.
Howie moved here from Glasgow in February and is working as a cook in an Old Montreal restaurant. Diamond came to Montreal a few years ago to work in the finance biz. Both are from Glasgow and are Habs and Celtic fans.
“With Celtic you had the Irish Catholic community in Glasgow and here you had the French-speaking community in Montreal,” said Howie. “And the teams can be like a religious sort of thing. I can’t see the Canadiens moving from Montreal because it’s ingrained into the city’s identity.”
Even before he arrived here, a friend of his, who’d lived in Montreal, told Howie you have to get into “ice hockey” to fit in here.
“On game day, you can feel the energy walking around downtown,” said Howie. “Everyone’s wearing Habs jerseys and the métro will be packed with people going to the game. And it gives me that feeling of what I’m used to in Glasgow. If either Celtic or (their crosstown rival) Rangers were playing in Glasgow, you could tell everyone was up for the game.”
Diamond says sports play a bigger role in society than people give it credit for.
“Celtic Club was formed out of oppression and famine and sought to give help to those who needed it,” said Diamond. “And the Habs came out of a place of cultural difference and had to play a role and continues to play a role in today’s society. I think that’s why they continue to be important clubs in their own respective societies and why they attract so much global and local attention.”
The other thing that ties the two teams together is success. Montreal has its 24 Stanley Cups while Celtic has won the Scottish league championship 54 times (!!!!) including this past season.
“That’s why you continue to support them,” said Diamond. “The Habs are going through a very hard time just now and Celtic has gone through very hard times for us as well in Scotland. But the important thing is that the club endures, and that is about more than just football for us with Celtic, and it’s more than just hockey with the Habs. You have to always back the boys, support the team, and good times will come before the end.”
Times have been much tougher for the Habs in recent years compared to Celtic, but the rink is still full, the jerseys still sell, and the fans remarkably enough keep the flame alive 31 years after the last championship.