From almost the very beginning of Scottish football history, the seemingly everlasting rivalry between the two Glaswegian sites of Rangers and Celtic prevailed. There were six First Division/Premier League teams in Glasgow - none of them, theoretically at least, enjoying a proportionate population advantage over the other “big” Scottish cities. Why have Partick Thistle, Clyde, Queen´s Park never taken a minor share of the “Old Firm´s” success?

The answer must be “religion”. Rangers and Celtic very quickly became more than just football clubs. Exactly when the religious rift between the two clubs occurred is strangely obscure. Certainly Celtic, founded in 1887 by Brother Walfried of the catholic teaching order of the Marist Brothers, had religious influences from the very first. Celtic Football and Athletic Club was formed principally to raise money for food for needy children in the missions of the St. Mary, Sacred Heart and St. Michael´s in the impoverished east end of the city.

Rangers have no such deep-rooted affinity with Protestantism, although Ibrox Park, their wide-open stadium just south of the Clyde, has come to mean to Glasgow´s Protestants almost what the Vatican means to the world´s Catholics.

Rangers were founded 1872/73 by a group of enthuisiastic rowers who used to “kick the ball” after their strenuous work-outs on the Clyde. In fact, Ranger´s first ground was at Glasgow Green, to this day the centre for rowing enthusiasts in the city. A Catholic is known to have played for Rangers in the twenties, and although they had since made “mistakes” and signed one or two others (who were quickly released) it was only in 1976 that the religious discrimination  - against “left-footers” to use the Glasgow vernacular - was actually formally admitted and abolished.
 

Celtic for their part had many great Protestant players. But for all that, Celtic  supporters are 99 percent Catholic. Much more to that point, they are Irish Catholic - or of Irish extraction. Those “needy” children for whom the club was founded were largely the offspring of the droves of Irish workers  who came to Glasgow at the end of the nineteenth century looking for work and enough to live on.