Willie Maley Was His Name…

Willie Maley Was His Name – A Life In Pictures by Paul McQuade.

Shamrock Books; 100 pages illustrated throughout; paperback; £12.99; available from the-shamrock.net

This entertaining and informative wee book chronicles the Celtic life and times of Willie Maley in a series of meticulously collated photographs. It is a pictorial journey through the first fifty years or so of our beloved Celtic – a Club that was founded by Brother Walfrid and his associates, but lovingly parented, schooled, tutored and graduated by Willie Maley – ‘Mr Celtic’!

There’s no hint of exaggeration in that phrase to describe the man. There could certainly have been no Celtic without him, and a glance at today’s magnificent stadium – an awesome sight when full – will show how much Celtic means to so many people in Glasgow, Scotland and beyond. None of this would have happened had it not been for the vision and energy of Willie Maley.

He was involved as manager for 41 years (just reading that is astonishing) so there is an abundance of material, even if this was a world without TV or video. The photographs stand in their stead and the author provides the voiceover with his captions.

The eventful journey during the formative years of Celtic FC began in Ireland, the birthplace of William Patrick Maley, and his influential father, Thomas Maley, before moving with the Maley family to Scotland – to Cathcart in Glasgow. And, before long, Celtic, and specifically Brother Walfrid, is knocking at the front door of the Maley family home.

Maley began the task of creating Celtic, the football power, with energy, initiative, ingenuity, a business brain and, most importantly, man-management skills, football knowledge and tactical awareness. In the years to come, there were glories galore and silverware aplenty, as Willie Maley guided Celtic to numerous successes and trophies – Scottish Cups, Charity Cups, Glasgow Cups and, of course, League Championships, in particular the famous Celtic side of 1904-10 and six-in-a-row.

Maley’s story is intertwined with the social and political unrest in Ireland and Scotland throughout Victorian and Edwardian Britain. The horrors of poverty, squalor and urban deprivation always lurk in the background, as does The Great War. This conflagration profoundly touched Maley. This period of his life was overshadowed by so many personal tragedies, from the death of Peter Johnstone, a Celtic player, in the trenches of Flanders in 1917 to the deaths of Willie Maley’s brothers, Father Charles O’Malley and Tom; from the deaths of Maley’s mother and his wife to the injuries sustained by Maley’s sons during the First World War. He sought sanctuary for these tragedies in the village of Tomintoul and there are pictures of the stained glass window in the chapel there bearing the inscription, “Erected by William Maley, Glasgow, in pround & loving memory of Cpl Joseph Maley, HLI, killed in France 1915 & of Pte Frank Kelly, Scottish Rifles, killed in France 1918. RIP.” Frank Kelly had been a Celtic player and was the eldest son of chairman James Kelly.

Even after the Great War there was more grief to afflict Maley: from the tragic loss of John Thomson, the Celtic goalkeeper killed at Ibrox in 1931, to the equally premature death of the Celtic player, Peter Scarff, from Tuberculosis in 1933. Both were Club and personal tragedies that struck the Celtic father figure, Willie Maley, very hard indeed.

Nevertheless, throughout it all Maley continued to preside over a club that was producing legendary teams and players who are still sung about today – Quinn, Gallacher and McGrory. And there are more, such as Tommy McInally, whose relationships with Maley are there in the book.

As someone who is in awe of McGrory even to this day, it is somewhat jarring to read of Maley’s treatment of the great man, from conniving a move to Arsenal to his churlish reaction when McGrory’s Kilmarnock side knocked Celtic out of the Scottish Cup in 1938.

Maley was indeed a complex individual. Undoubtedly a benevolent father figure, an astute businessman, a born leader, a thoroughly charitable man and a football master-tactician for Celtic (especially for identifying players such as Quinn, Gallacher and McGrory), he also comes across at various times as autocratic and overly concerned with money. He could be obstinate and stubbornas well, secure in the belief that he and only he knew what was best for Celtic, and he would decide.

Indeed, other facets of Maley’s persona will unsettle the Celtic reader, such as his pro-Empire views, his monarchism and his extreme reluctance to allow his liberalism and undoubted sensitivity, charity and philanthropy to become wholly supportive of the common man and the latter’s political struggles during the period. Maley was not a socialist by any manner of means. However, throughout the book, it’s clear that Maley was, then, Celtic, from foundation in 1888 to the end of his tenure in 1940.

It’s not too difficult to project on to some of the photographs in the book what this burden of leadership did to Maley, a man with the weight and responsibility of Celtic on his broad shoulders, as the manager frequently lapsed into periods of depression and melancholy, caused by tragedies, deaths, poor on-field performances, the surrounding poverty, the political upheaval and criticism of Maley’s Celtic team by the supporters, sometimes frustrated by events on the pitch.

Maley’s successes were quite phenomenal. And, one cannot help but draw parallels with another man of such massive importance to our Club – Jock Stein. The following could have been oratory delivered by Jock Stein to The Lisbon Lions, but was, in fact, Maley: ‘It’s an honour and a privilege to wear those green and white jerseys. These people out there (indicating the crowd) have given a lot to see you wearing those stripes (Celtic still wore green and white vertical stripes until 1903). What are you going to give back to them?’

An NTV recommendation.