Celtic's finest hour was recorded in 1967, when a group of men born no further than ten miles from Celtic Park won the European Cup.
Fifty years on, the deeds of those men and others are still felt across the world, and a new movie, Celtic Soul, probes to the heart of an obsession that feeds on fantasies all the way from Canada.
The movie follows two Celtic fans, Irish football journalist and Fox Soccer presenter Eoin O'Callaghan and Canadian comedian and actor Jay Baruchel (Tropic Thunder, Knocked Up, How to Train Your Dragon) as they journey to a game at Celtic Park, with a stop off in the West of Ireland as Baruchel traces his Irish heritage. Think of Who Do You Think You Are in a world more used to cries of 'Who Are Ya?'.
The two themes meld into one another, as O'Callaghan explains:
His ancestry and his identity is effectively the same as Celtic's. His family left Westport in the 1840s because of the famine, and they ended up on a ship bound for nowhere, and ended up in Canada.
Obviously there was a large proportion of people who jumped on ships bound for nowhere and ended up in Glasgow. Fast forward four decades or so and that's really how Celtic came to be.
Baruchel has always followed Celtic passionately and nigh on inexplicably from Canada, and this movie, says O'Callaghan, helps him understand the seeds of that affinity.
The genesis for the movie is indelibly Irish. O'Callaghan was followed on twitter by Baruchel, who spent too many free nights watching European football highlights on Fox Soccer Report, fronted by O'Callaghan. They struck a friendship, and eventually, with the aid of what O'Callaghan admits was some Dutch Courage after a night out, he pinged the documentary pitch to Baruchel with a direct message.
O'Callaghan admits that he expected to be blocked. Instead, he received a reply with Baruchel's email address and phone number, and soon, they were on the road.
The journey takes in the cultural mores of the West of Ireland before ending up at Celtic Park; an odyssey which reminds O'Callaghan of why they got involved in football in the first place.
When you are involved in sport, sport makes you such a cynical bastard, but this re-awakend the power of sport in many ways. Making it to Celtic Park, and walking through the tunnel suddenly took on a lot more significance.
Jay is kind of like a child throughout the film, and we see that childlike enthuiasm in the film, and it's something we shouldn't forget, as it's why we got into sport in the first place.
There's an entire sequence in the West of Ireland that's quite powerful, really, that taps into him following his ancestors and figuring out stuff of the overall journey.
The film challenges one of the bigger perceptions surrounding the divide between local fans, and those from around the world.
While much of British football has lost some of its soul through spiraling ticket prices and the influx of one-trip-a-year tourists forcing regular, local fans out, there is a benefit to even the most loyal of local fans from fans coming from across the world, as Celtic Soul explores:
A Celtic fan who has been a Celtic fan for 40 years may look forward to the European nights most, which is very understandable. But at the same time, when you watch Celtic Soul, watching somebody's experience of Celtic Park for the first time re-ignites the everyday supporter's passion for the everyday. You're watching it again through someone else's eyes, it's almost lighting that spark again.
The game [we attend] is amost irrelevant: it's the experience. It's a bit like Christmas morning: you don't care about the presents anymore, it's about the atmosphere. It's about a feeling, an energy that's there, and that's what the reaction to what this movie has been.
Celtic Soul premieres in Ireland across four different locations this weekend: Dundrum, Swords, Gorey and Dungarvan. For ticket information, you can visit the film's official website & follow Celtic Soul across social media for more updates.
