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Term: The Five Sorrowful Mysteries
Others: The Bhoys, The Irishmen
Period: 1940’s-early 1960’s
Reference: The misfiring and underperforming Celtic Frontline
The Five Sorrowful Mysteries
Celtic has had quite an illustrious history of forwards. Quinn, McGrory, McBride, Lennox, Dalglish and Larsson were exceptional strikers in the history of the club who lit up matches. However, it’s not always been so perfect at Celtic and there have been some very poor spells.
Back in the 1940’s, Celtic hit a very dark period with poor sides, poor management, poor results and even poorer performances all too often. In season 1947-48, the first team even just staved off relegation, it was way too close for comfort.
One thing that never changed was the blessed humour of the support, and in reflection of the poor state of the first team, the supporters during those dark days christened the front line as ‘The Five Sorrowful Mysteries‘.
The tag has various references, the first obvious being the religious connections to the Catholic faith. The ‘five‘ is in reference to the number of forwards as in those days the front line had five forwards as standard (in 3-5-2 or W-M formations) unlike in the modern day where the forward line is now down to only one or two players. The ‘sorrowful‘ is in reflection of the poor state of the side and the woeful return and performances of the Celtic attack. They misfired too often and left Celtic languishing.
In fairness, there were some very good players too in those forward lines, so the tag is mostly tongue-in-cheek. Yet it is also reflective of just how low the side had sunk at its worst. The supporters were brought up with the tradition of great acting players who won matches ‘The Celtic Way‘.
The ‘Five Sorrowful Mysteries‘ was also reflective of that whilst Celtic’s attack was a shambles, post-war Hibs were to be lauded for their front five, tagged as ‘The Famous Five‘, regarded by some as amongst the finest forward lines ever in British football. So maybe the Celtic tag was a satirical counterpart.
Over time, the tag kept popping up, and was still used even up to the early 1960s when again Celtic endured a barren time after some brief successes during the 1950’s.
Since Jock Stein’s arrival in 1965, the tag has been mostly forgotten and buried, but it’s an interesting note and a humorous reflection of the support from years gone by. We just hope an adapted tag does not ever need to be resuscitated again for Celtic’s first team.