Supporters – Charles Quin (Man in the Know)

Miscellaneous | Supporters

Details

Name: Charle Quin
aka: ‘Man in the Know’
Born: c1867
Died: May 1933
Occupation: Journalist at the Glasgow Observer

DetailsMan in the Know - Pic

Blogs are ten a penny nowadays. The web has democratised the whole process of fan journalism, be it in whatever genre you can think of. Many seem to time this back to the advent of the fanzines, especially those like Not The View from the 80s and 90s.

However, partisan fan oriented writing is no new matter, and what one could deem as the first Celtic blogger arose back in the early years of the club. The old Glasgow Observer newspaper was an Irish Catholic community focused newspaper, and paid due attention to the effort and topics relevant to them. With the rise of Celtic, this provided an outlet for the Irish Catholic community and a new focus with a thirst for reports and stories on the club.

To assist the community in updates of this new entity with the soaring reputation, the paper ran a column dedicated to football reports. This was manned by a journalist utilising the pseudonym of ‘The Man in the Know‘. The writer delighted in regaling the readers with an unashamedly partisan view on the Celtic world, and was not slow to chastise anything or anyone against the club. Saying that, there are plenty of examples of the ‘author’ targeting the support or players too for any indiscretions. So his ire was not necessarily for outsiders alone.

Here is a famous (or at least popular) example of his work:

On Rangers fans
“On the Rangers terracing on Saturday there was congregated a gang, thousands strong, including the dregs and scourings of filthy slumdom, unwashed yahoos, jailbirds nighthawks, won’t works, burro-barnacles and pavement pirates, all, or nearly all, in the scarecrow stage of verminous trampdom. This ragged army of insanitary pests was lavishly provided with orange and blue remnants…. Practically without cessation, the vagabond scum kept up a strident howl of the “Boyne Water” chorus. Nothing so bestially ignorant has ever been witnessed, even in the wildest exhibitions of Glasgow Orange bigotry……”

The reporter went on to describe the assembled throng of Celtic fans.
“These complaints do not apply to the Celtic brake-clubs (supporters’ clubs) whose members, reasonable sentient human beings, are models of decorum and possess official testimonials to their blameless behaviour…..They are fond of singing, and to this no-one can reasonably object. On Saturday, the boys sang to their heart’s content. They gave us so many rousing choruses. “Hail Glorious St. Patrick”, “God Save Ireland”, “Slievenamon” “The Soldier’s Song”…. When Cassidy’s goal made victory sure, it was fine to hear the massed thousands at the western end of the Ibrox oval chanting thunderously “On Erin’s Green Valleys’..”
‘Man in the Know‘ from the 1920’s Glasgow Observer in one of his reports relating to an Old Firm game in 1924

On Queen’s Park fans
The Glasgow Observer does not hold back talking about a “motley gang of freaks, lunatics, roughs and rowdy maniacs. They should be fenced in with bars…the public could be charged to see this wild beast show…ignorant, bestial howling… give us the moulders of Cathkin, the riveters of Ibrox, the navvies of Parkhead any day! Their linen is neither as immaculate or extensive as that of the Crosshill dudes, but they are sportsmen!”
‘Man in the Know‘ from Glasgow Observer in one of his reports after 2-1 defeat in October 1902

There is a certain importance to this character. In the early days of football, there were no large football pullouts or back page exclusives as there are now, let alone front page sensations. There weren’t actually many, if any, dedicated sports journalists. The sports page could be as little as a column with little expansion or analysis, therefore historical information could be scant.

For the budding Celtic historian, this means a difficulty in amassing information or reactions to what happened during certain events or matches. ‘Man in the Know‘ is therefore a useful resource. Despite the bias, historians can use the columns as a back of the hand gauge of the feelings of the club or support, although it should never be used as the de facto view. Without these columns, historians are generally then left with either just the succinct sterile newspaper reports or the generally gentlemanly official reports. Not very exhilarating stuff and usually quite dry.

Thus the ‘Man in the Know’ has been entertaining and informative as an alternative perspective on the past. Definitely can be attributed as a long forerunner to the modern spate of online blogs.

So who was this ‘Man in the Know‘? The truth is that nobody really knew. It was never revealed. Apocryphal stories spread that it was either ex-player Tom Maley or manager Willie Maley, but this was surely highly unlikely taking in the context of the opinions and even the style of the writing which never matches that of writing that has been verified as having been done by their hand.

Many have been curious over the identity of the writer, and a find by the ‘Celtic Graves Society‘ in 2013 revealed that this mysterious journalist was Charles Quin, a news-editor for the Glasgow Observer and its sister publications. He came to Glasgow from Ireland as a young boy (from Pomeroy), and in time had laid his roots here. Celtic were to become a love for him as can be seen from his writings, and in his own way he left a deep mark on the club, and entertained and informed us along the way (and set a high benchmark for the rest of us writers too).

Hiding behind the name gave the writer scope to freely say what he wished with greater immunity from personal attacks. Sporting emotions have always run high.

Man in the Know‘ may never be taken as the reference for a one-stop historical retrospective on the club’s history, but nevertheless he played his role in informing, entertaining and fuelling the emotions of the reading supporters. In that way, he has paved his way into Celtic folklore, and we would recommend all interested Celtic historians to have a trawl through his numerous wonderful columns.

Charles Quin

Charles Quin - Pic

Links

Death of Charlie Quin, Man In The Know on 27th May 1933 in his home town of Pomeroy, Ireland.
Man in the Know - Pic

Man in the Know - Pic

Man in the Know - Pic

Charlie Quin, Man In The Know’s last article.

Man in the Know - Pic

Man in the Know - Pic

Celtic’s legendary `Man in the Know’ turned out to hail from Tyrone

http://www.irishnews.com/sport/footballsoccer/2017/04/19/news/celtic-s-legendary-man-in-the-know-turned-out-to-hail-from-tyrone-1000479/

LEGENDARY is an over-used word in sporting debate, even at a club like Celtic FC which has its own pantheon of legends.

Yet that epithet certainly accurately applies to famed newspaper columnist ‘Man in the Know’, who chronicled many of the early days of Celtic.

His anonymity allowed him to view matches very much through green-and-white-tinted glasses. For example, in one oft-quoted passage he called his club’s fans “models of decorum” while – among a lengthy list of loathsome labels – he called the Rangers supporters “the dregs and scourings of filthy slumdom.”

`M.I.K’ was publicly identified after his death in 1933, aged 66. However, his name then slipped into obscurity again for another 80 years.

Celtic historians and supporters even speculated that ‘M.I.K.’ was actually the club’s first – and longest-serving manager – Willie Maley (who happened to be born in Ulster too, in Newry), or perhaps his brother and former player Tom.

Finally in 2013 a researcher studying in Glasgow’s Mitchell Library re-discovered that the ‘Man in the Know’ was Tyrone native Charles Quin, who was born – and eventually died – in Pomeroy.

Our attention was directed to him by Mrs Margaret Bleakley from Belfast, who found out while researching her family tree that her father was related to Quin.

Her father was Sylvester O’Neill Lynagh, who was born in the Rock but spent most of his childhood/ youth in Pomeroy; his mother was Bridgid Lynagh (nee O’Neill), her mother was a Mitchell.

Charles Quin’s mother was Sarah Anne Mitchell Quin, an aunt of Margaret Bleakley’s paternal grandmother Bridgid Lynagh.

Those surnames may send a few Celtic supporters around the Pomeroy hills scurrying to check out their own family trees for possible links to the ‘Man in the Know’.

Charles Quin moved to Glasgow as a boy and trained then worked as a teacher before becoming a journalist.

In 1893 he joined the `Glasgow Observer’, which had been founded in 1885 and immediately become popular with the Catholic population in Scotland.

That paper had another mid-Ulster connection, having been acquired by Charles Diamond from Maghera in 1887, the year before Celtic FC was founded. The newspaper and the club developed a great affinity,

Quin rose to become Chief News Editor of the ‘Glasgow Observer’ and its associate papers, the `Catholic Herald’ and ‘Glasgow Star’; on occasions he was even temporary editor.

Although described as ‘slight of stature’, he was apparently `an enthusiastic athlete in his younger time’ and had varied sporting interests. He was secretary of his college football club, captain of a cricket club which he founded in Glasgow, and captain of Victoria Golf Club. He played football for Loyola FC in the Garnethill district.

Quin had poems published, and even a novel, ‘The Sword of O’Malley’, the latter under a pseudonym that reflected his mother’s family name, `Justin Mitchell’.

It’s unclear when Quin began writing about Celtic Football Club in his weekly ‘Man in the Know’ columns but they quickly became hugely popular.

Over four decades ‘M.I.K.’ established himself as the authority on Celtic, a partisan voice echoing the thoughts of the club’s supporters. Diamond recalled one aspect of that approach:

“I always chaffed him on his pronunciation of the ‘Seltic’, instead of Keltic. But the difference as to the hard or soft ‘C’ never led to more than ‘Oh, if you said Keltic here in Scotland the people would not know what you were talking about’.”

After Quin’s sudden death in 1933 due to a brain haemorrhage, while back ‘home’ on holiday in Pomeroy, Diamond paid warm tribute to his columnist, stating:

“Readers of our sports pages must have formed a strong affection for the `Man In The Know’, who week after week described sympathetically and often with brilliance the doings of the Celtic Football Club.

“The ‘Man In The Know’ was really CQ, who identified himself with the Celtic from its earliest days when it began as a philanthropic sports organisation to raise funds for various charities, an ideal from which in later years it has fallen away.

“But even when it became a purely commercial undertaking out for dividends, the ‘Man in the Know’ had a keen eye for the merits of the Club and of individual players.

“He always gave praise where possible and turned a more or less blind eye to faults and defects, whether in individuals in control or individual players.

“He had indeed a great share in making the name and fame of the Celtic, and in far off lands his articles, sounding the virtues of his favourite club, were eagerly sought for week by week.

“The appreciation of the followers of the club was manifested in many ways, and no want of it in any quarter could diminish the affection which the ‘Man in the Know’ felt for the famous football combination.

“He had the soul of a poet, the mind of a philosopher, and better than all, the heart of a child and a sense of humour unfailing and without acidity.”

Although as noted above Quin was indeed a published poet, some may quibble about an absence of acidity in his columns, certainly when it came to commenting on Celtic’s great rivals Rangers.

In his famous/ infamous description of an Old Firm game from 1924, Quin did as Diamond described and `gave praise where possible and turned a more or less blind eye to faults and defects’ in relation to the Celtic support – but quite the opposite for the Rangers followers, writing:

“On the Rangers terracing on Sat, there was congregated a gang of thousands strong, including the dregs and scourings of filthy slumdom, unwashed yahoos, jailbirds’ nighthawks, won’t works, burro barnacles, and pavement pirates, all or nearly all, in the scarecrow stage of verminous trampdom.

“This ragged crowd of insanitary pests was lavishly provided with orange and blue remnants.

“Practically without cessation, the vagabond scum kept up a strident howl of ‘The Boyne Water’ chorus. Nothing so bestially ignorant has ever been witnessed, even in the wildest exhibitions of Glasgow Orange bigotry.

“These complaints do not apply to the Celtic brake clubs [supporters’ clubs] whose members, reasonably sentient human beings, are models of decorum and possess official testimonials to their blameless behaviour.

“They are fond of singing and to this no one can reasonably object.

On Saturday the boys sang to their hearts’ content. They gave us many rousing choruses. ‘Hail Glorious St Patrick’, ‘God Save Ireland’, ‘Slievenamon’, ‘The Soldier’s Song’.

“When Cassidy’s goal made victory sure, it was fine to hear the massed thousands at the western end of the Ibrox oval chanting thunderously ‘On Erin’s Green Valleys’.

As Margaret Bleakley drily commented, “it is difficult to reconcile this article with some of the lovely poetry written by Charles.”

‘A Landmark’ recalled his boyhood in Pomeroy, beginning as follows:

Yes; ’tis the spot where once I ranged,

The dear, quaint, sleepy Ulster town,

But, oh! machree! how sadly changed ,

All weather-worn and tumble-down!

Prone lies the elm, my boyhood’s pride,

Forlorn and silent stands the mill.

Charles Quin ended up back in Pomeroy. During his time in Glasgow it was reported that ‘his professional duties brought him into contact with most of the Catholic hierarchy and clergy in Scotland, whose friendship and confidence he enjoyed’.

Forgotten for many decades, at last in recent years Celtic supporters have been seeking out more of his work.

With his name now known, his fame will surely endure, if not quite to the high levels it reached during his lifetime.

* Thanks to Margaret Bleakley for her great assistance with this article and for supplying the image of Charles Quin.

Examples of his columns

[…Need to get some…]]