Celtic Park – Our very own Paradise

That spelled the end, and the writing was well and truly on the wall for the very first place we used to call home. The arena which was the setting for our first ever game, and a ground that had not long hosted a British home championship match between Scotland and Ireland.

The club decided to act fast and secure a plot for new lodgings and it was a site based just 200 yards down the road in an old disused brickworks in Janefield Street that was chosen as the new home of Celtic football club.

Work began and the new stadium was constructed, and it’s where we are situated to this very day, albeit in a completely altered picturesque setting, but for the better all the same.

There’s been many great days and nights in the famous stadium throughout the 133 years of its existence. Generations of supporters have been entertained, and felt the highs and lows that football brings in the famous old stadia in its ever so changing structure throughout the years.

From the construction of an enclosed windowed stand in 1899, the rebuilding of stands due to a fire in 1904, and the construction of a single tier main stand in 1929. The instillation of floodlights in 1957, the birth of the Jungle in 1966, and the complete overhaul and modernisation of the impressive all seater stadia we have today, its been the place many have had the privilege to call home, its our very own Paradise.

Paradise is an apt name for our fairytale surroundings, and there’s a few tales as to why we call it so. Legend has it a reporter quipped that the move from the nearby graveyard to the new ground was like leaving hell to go to Paradise and hence the term stuck, and it’s one that’s proved to be very fitting indeed.