There is a lovely picture on the back page of the Good Weekend magazine in a recent Melbourne Age. I’ll bet nearly all of the readers glancing or really looking at it are focusing on the Hungarian Parliament building on the left and its stunning architecture. Meanwhile I am peering at the Szechenyi Bridge, almost shadowed out of existence by the Buda mountain beyond. The modern chain bridge was rebuilt after the Second World War, but it replaced an earlier and almost identical structure that was built between 1839 and 1849. The original bridge was designed by an English engineer named William Tierney Clark, but built by the Scottish engineer Adam Clark.
Budapest and its bridge today
My interest stems from the fact that my grandfather walked across the bridge in 1909(?) when he accompanied Celtic Football Club, where he was the team captain, on a European tour at the end of the season. He remarked on the difficulty that his compatriot Jimmy Quinn was having in crossing as he passed each of the saints in the niches on either side of the bridge as they did so. Today the niches exist but they are empty! Or they were in 1982 when I followed in his footsteps across the bridge.
The 1909 tour was one of several that Celtic made before and after the First World War. The players had to forgo their wages but were fed and watered by the club from the money they were making on the tours.
Willie Maley has lots of stories about these excursions, one of which relates to a tour to Vienna and Prague. It was on the way from Scotland that Sunny Jim Young got lost but regained contact with the team thanks, he said, to ‘his command of language(s)’. He spoke broad Ayrshire! He may well have sounded German to his listeners.
On that or another tour, the players were presented with medals ‘as big as dinner plates’ by their opposition. As mentioned, they had to forgo their wages to take part in the tours, but the club looked after their accommodation, food and travel.
Tours today, even though they span the world, are by air and the players are often confined to their hotels between games. So the ‘It’s Tuesday, it must be Belgium!’ syndrome may need to be rewritten to encompass the globe!
More stories by Roy Hay can be read Here.
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Hi Roy, I’m assuming Jimmy Hay is the grandfather you refer to. I checked him out on the Net, what an impressive career he had, you must be extremely proud of his accomplishments. I think you need to post a story on the site about him – I’m sure it will be a cracking read. All the best. Col.