The Last Word With Paul Chuddihy

I FIRST met Billy McNeill in 1992 when I interviewed him about a game he had played in many years beforehand.

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I was a young reporter, working for the Scottish Catholic Observer, eager to get the story but also very nervous at meeting a Celtic legend.

The game in question had taken place in 1957 between Our Lady’s High, Motherwell, and Holyrood Secondary School, Glasgow, in the final of the Scottish Schools Senior Shield.

Billy, who would join Celtic just months later, was captaining Our Lady’s High. My Dad was captain of Holyrood.

The teams had drawn the first game at Hampden but the replay was moved to Blantyre Vics’ ground. Both schools objected, arguing that a match of such importance deserved a fitting stage, even for the replay. In a united front, both Our Lady’s High and Holyrood said they would refuse to play the game again if there wasn’t a change of venue

The governing body remained impervious to their argument and withheld the trophy, suspending both schools from the following season’s competition.

It was a story which, at the time, made the national newspapers, as representatives of both schools – the head teachers and respective captains – appeared before a hearing. My Dad still has the newspaper cuttings.