Maryhill Harp Football Club were a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

football club based in the

Maryhill Maryhill ( gd, Cnoc Màiri) is an area of the City of Glasgow in Scotland. Maryhill is a former burgh. Maryhill stretches over along Maryhill Road. The far north west of the area is served by Maryhill railway station. History Hew Hill ...

area of

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated pop ...

, who played in

Scottish Junior Football Association The Scottish Junior Football Association (SJFA) is an affiliated national association of the Scottish Football Association and is the governing body for the junior grade of football (soccer), football in Scotland. The term "junior" refers to the ...

competitions from 1923 until they went out of business in 1967. Before 1939, the club were known as Maryhill Hibernians. They won the

Scottish Junior Cup The Scottish Junior Cup is an annual football competition organised by the Scottish Junior Football Association. The competition has been held every year since the inception of the SJFA in 1886 and, as of the 2022–23 edition, 108 teams compete ...

once, in 1928.

History

Maryhill Hibernian were formed in 1923 and admitted to the

Scottish Junior League The Scottish Junior Football League (SJL) was a Scottish football competition that, through various incarnations, existed from 1892 to 1947. It was based in the west of Scotland and largely consisted of Junior clubs that were not considered good ...

(SJL), using Kelvinvale Park in Maryhill as their home ground. Their greatest season came in 1927–28 and coincided with the

Intermediate dispute The Intermediate dispute was a major split in Scottish football which lasted from 1925 to 1931 and concerned the compensation that Junior clubs received when one of their players moved to a Senior football league side. Although largely confined t ...

in the Junior game. With several more successful clubs such as

Baillieston Baillieston ( sco, Bailiestoun) is a suburb of Glasgow, Scotland. It is about east of the city centre. It also gives its name to Ward 20 of Glasgow City Council and forms part of the Glasgow East constituency of the UK Parliament. Geograp ...

, Duntocher Hibs and Yoker Athletic defecting from the SJL to the Intermediates, plus no Intermediate representation in the Junior Cup, Hibernians won a league and cup double. Their 6–2 victory over Burnbank Athletic at

Firhill Firhill Stadium is a football and former rugby union, rugby league and greyhound racing stadium located in the Maryhill area of Glasgow, Scotland which has been the home of Partick Thistle since 1909. The stadium is commonly referred to as sim ...

remains the highest scoring

Junior Cup Junior or Juniors may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * ''Junior'' (Junior Mance album), 1959 * ''Junior'' (Röyksopp album), 2009 * ''Junior'' (Kaki King album), 2010 * ''Junior'' (LaFontaines album), 2019 Films * ''Junior'' (1994 ...

final in the competition's history. Willie Gray, who scored four of the goals, was already Hibs first Scotland Junior internationalst, being capped against Ireland in March 1928. He and fellow scorer Joe Riley both joined

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foo ...

the following season along with goalkeeper David Nicol. Hibs added a second SJL championship title in 1932–33 but the dispersed nature of the league, with clubs from towns such as

Dunoon Dunoon (; gd, Dùn Omhain) is the main town on the Cowal peninsula in the south of Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It is located on the western shore of the upper Firth of Clyde, to the south of the Holy Loch and to the north of Innellan. As well a ...

and

Rothesay Rothesay ( ; gd, Baile Bhòid ) is the principal town on the Isle of Bute, in the council area of Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It lies along the coast of the Firth of Clyde. It can be reached by ferry from Wemyss Bay, which offers an onward r ...

, and the ebbing away of local opposition to other leagues, was becoming financially untenable. After a few struggling years, the club submitted their resignation to the league in May 1939 and declared their intention to apply for membership of the

Central League The or is one of the two professional baseball leagues that constitute Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship plays against the winner of the Pacific League in the annual Japan Series. It currently cons ...

. The SJL however, refused to accept the resignation and the incumbent Hibs committee chose to close the club down in early June 1939. Immediately, a new club Maryhill Harp was founded by former Hibernians officials and by the end of June 1939, they had intimated their intention to apply for the Central League using Hibs' former Kelvinvale Park. At the Central League AGM however, the Harp application surprisingly failed at the first ballot and the club were obliged to re-apply to the SJL, who readmitted the club. Within months, the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

affected football activities dramatically. Wartime travel restrictions badly hampered the running of the SJL and by February 1940, the league announced it would close down. A small wartime league was constituted in March 1940 and this ran for a second year in 1940–41 before the SJL went into complete abeyance for the rest of the war. The club were finally admitted to the Central League in 1941–42. Their first season was a relatively successful one, winning their league section only to lose to

Clydebank Clydebank ( gd, Bruach Chluaidh) is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, it borders the village of Old Kilpatrick (with Bowling and Milton beyond) to the west, and the Yoker and Drumchapel areas ...

in the championship play-off. Latterly, Harp enjoyed moderate success, although they reached the final of the

West of Scotland Cup The West of Scotland Cup was an association football cup competition for clubs in Scotland which were barred from the Scottish Football Association which was played in 1877–78 and 1878–79. Format The competition was a single-elimination tou ...

in 1954–55, losing in a replay to Douglas Water Thistle. The end for the club was signalled in January 1967 when

Glasgow Corporation The politics of Glasgow, Scotland's largest city by population, are expressed in the deliberations and decisions of Glasgow City Council, in elections to the council, the Scottish Parliament and the UK Parliament. Local government As one of ...

compulsory purchased Kelvinvale Park for new housing. Harp played their final match on 7 June 1967 against

Greenock Juniors Greenock Juniors Football Club are a Scottish football club based in Greenock, Inverclyde. They compete in and play home matches at Ravenscraig Stadium, on Auchmead Road - a five-minute walk from Branchton railway station. The club were de ...

losing 1–0. Although the area of the ground has been completely redeveloped, Kelvinvale was located around present day Kilmun Street / Ledgowan Place. Hibs/Harp was generally run on a low cost basis and supplied players for wealthier Junior clubs and Senior teams. The club had a fruitful relationship with

who loaned out many youth prospects and picked up the occasional player themselves. As well as the three aforementioned players from Hibernians' Junior Cup winning side, Celtic also signed

Charlie Napier Charles Edward Napier (8 October 1910 – 5 September 1973) was a Scottish footballer who played for Celtic (winning the Scottish Cup in 1931 and 1933), Derby County, Sheffield Wednesday, Falkirk (unofficial wartime competitions only) and Stenh ...

and Peter Scarff the following year with the latter winning one cap for the full

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

team. In the Harp era, players exchanged between the two clubs included

Hugh Long Hugh Bradley Long (3 January 1923 – 6 December 1988) was a Scottish association football, footballer, who played as a midfielder#Winger, left winger for Celtic F.C., Celtic, Clyde F.C., Clyde and Worcester City F.C., Worcester City. Long repre ...

Willie Miller William Ferguson Miller MBE (born 2 May 1955) is a Scottish former professional football player and manager, who made a club record 560 league appearances for Aberdeen. Sir Alex Ferguson described Miller as "the best penalty box defender in t ...

, Duncan MacKay,

Bertie Auld Robert Auld (23 March 1938 – 14 November 2021) was a Scottish football player and manager. He was a member of Celtic's Lisbon Lions, who won the 1967 European Cup Final. As a player, he made more than 200 appearances in the Scottish Leag ...

Frank Haffey Francis Haffey (born 28 November 1938) is a Scottish former footballer who played as a goalkeeper for Celtic and the Scottish national team. Career Remembered as one of Celtic's great and more eccentric keepers, Haffey made 201 appearances fo ...

and Jimmy Quinn with all but Quinn becoming full Scotland internationalists.

Honours

winners: 1927–28 *

winners: 1927–28, 1932–33

References

Sources

Scottish Football Historical Archive
{{Defunct Scottish football clubs Defunct football clubs in Scotland Association football clubs established in 1923 Association football clubs disestablished in 1967 1923 establishments in Scotland 1967 disestablishments in Scotland Scottish Junior Football Association clubs Football clubs in Glasgow Maryhill