Olympic gains

As part of his his ongoing project to bolster the Club’s archives, Cliftonville’s Heritage Development Officer, Paul Treanor, extends thanks to Liam Murray, Robert Deignan and John Rooney for some recent assistance.

He was particularly intrigued to take receipt of a never-before-seen photo of the Cliftonville Olympic side that won the Reserve League title in 1953/54 – and not just because the Wilton Cup represented a rare trophy during a particularly barren era for the Club.

Just as crucially, the image allowed Paul to obtain individual pictures of some players for whom he previously had no photographic record, while the team itself contained a number of players who went on to enjoy regular action for the first team during the 1950s, including goalkeeper Ossie Baillie.

Likewise Kenny McKeague, who scored 48 goals in 200 games for the Reds. He later became a coach at Solitude and was Assistant Manager to Kevin McGarry, taking over the lead role for several months when Kevin took seriously ill.

Paul remains grateful to everyone who has helped grow the Club’s Official archive in recent years and if you, or someone you know, has any Cliftonville related items – photos, reports, records, minute books, ledgers, or scrapbooks – he would be delighted to hear from you.

While donations are very acceptable, he is just as happy to receive items on loan to be digitally recorded and returned.