Pilgrimage to Paradise: connection, complexity and community on an Irish pilgrimage to Celtic

In the past 40 years Billy Melville estimates he has missed a total of four Celtic games. He welcomes us into his Glasgow home for gracious servings of square sausage sandwiches, Irn-Bru and Border Biscuits. He brings us to Dalbeth Cemetery to visit the grave of Celtic’s founding fathers and his own.

Melville is a friend of Dublin-based Naomh Padraig Celtic Supporters’ Club. They organise a bus to every home game. For the Glasgow derby they gather in Dublin city at midnight on Friday night to board, they cross on the boat from Belfast to Cairnryan at 3.30am, they land in Glasgow at 8.00am and we arrive at his grave an hour later.

This plot is poignant. He picked it specifically. Standing on the soil he can point left and pick out paradise, Celtic Park. He asks simply, where else would you want to be? Where else would you want to rest?

Faith is a living; it keeps them coming. Naomh Padraig CSC is a broad church. The chariot transport has been running since 1988. It charges towards the port, veering off at periodic exits to collect more supporters along the way.

The people sing, they wait patiently at the side of motorway exits with flashing lights to distinguish them, they reunite, they sleep, they pass around a fundraising beanie for a signed Billy McNeill poster, a gift for a member who has just started chemotherapy. One of the rules is no alcohol allowed and they wouldn’t miss it. Whatever juice is flowing through the veins of these diehards has them merry enough.

Celtic vs Rangers is not a complete reflection of this community. Do the Dundee fixture, they repeatedly stress. Or Hearts. Or Motherwell. It is not about the occasion or opponent. They travel for Celtic. The deeply complex circus of a derby shouldn’t