Belfast, as capital city of Northern Ireland, has for centuries been plagued with tensions between the Protestant Unionist and the Catholic Republicans. Such a tricky cohabitation has seen the city become theatre of plenty of violent incidents, political unrest and deeply rooted hatred between the two factions, creating a similar environment to that of Glasgow, which has seen Celtic and Rangers grow into one of the most notable pair of rivals on the planet. As it does to this day in Glasgow, football also played a role in Belfast, partly taking inspiration from its Scottish counterpart. In 1891, four years after the founding of Celtic FC, the Catholics in Northern Ireland founded a club of their own and named it Belfast Celtic, adopting the same name and colours of the Scottish side. The Celtic mural in Belfast [sky.com] Quickly becoming a pillar of the Catholic communities of west Belfast, the club started achieving success at the turn of the century, winning its first league title in...
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