Description

In Walfrid: A Life of Faith, Community and Football, author Michael Connolly explores the extraordinary life of Andrew Kerins—better known as Brother Walfrid—the Marist Brother born in Ballymote who went on to change sporting history. The biography traces his journey from the rural landscapes of the West of Ireland to the impoverished immigrant slums of late 19th-century Glasgow, where he sought a practical solution to rampant poverty, starvation, and social exclusion among the Irish diaspora. Connolly details how Walfrid envisioned and established Celtic Football Club in 1887 not merely as an athletic endeavor, but as a charitable vehicle to raise vital funds for poor children’s dinner tables. The text offers a deep analysis of how faith, sport, and community organizing intersected to forge a powerful cultural identity that bridged Scotland and Ireland, making this volume a crucial reference for sports historians, researchers of the Irish diaspora, and general readers fascinated by the human stories behind global football institutions.