Memorializing the Great Hunger with Celtic FC

In the years of the potato blight, 1845-52, mass starvation forced millions of people to flee Ireland. Most of these people went to America - so many dying on the journey across the Atlantic that the ships carrying them were described as “coffin ships” - but a significant number set sail for the British mainland.

Of all the Scottish cities, Glasgow received the highest number of emigrants. Hardship followed them, and nearly half a century later, in 1888, a Marist priest named Brother Walfrid (christened Eindreas Ó Céirín), who could recall the Great Hunger from his years growing up in the County Sligo village of Ballymote in the 1840s and 1850s, founded Celtic Football Club to combat the poverty, unemployment, and homelessness afflicting Glasgow’s Irish Catholic community in the East End.

Today, Celtic easily has the largest Irish fan base of any football club outside Ireland. Every year, in the final month of the season, it has become customary for Celtic to play a match in jerseys featuring a special badge for National Famine Memorial Day. We’re incredibly proud to be working with Celtic to make all of the match-worn and signed jerseys from this year’s match available to fans around the world, with a large portion of the proceeds going to its foundation to support disadvantaged children and young people in Ireland.

This match will be the first Celtic has played since its dramatic 5-0 victory over Kilmarnock on Wednesday night, a result that clinched the 2023-24 Scottish Premiership title. When Brendan Rodgers’ team emerges from the tunnel and onto the field at Celtic Park tomorrow, they will be greeted as homecoming heroes by their fans in the stands.

You can check out our exclusive live auction here for these limited-edition Celtic jerseys!