A YOUNG Celtic fan from Armagh is kicking off 2015 in style after a whirlwind 12 months.
11-year-old Jay Beatty, who has Down’s Syndrome, took the world by storm when he became well known for his love of Glasgow Celtic football club last year.
He plans to start this year as he means to go on, with his first Celtic match of the year on Saturday when his favourite team take on Hamilton, on the invitation of the Hamilton FC directors.
The past 12 months have passed in a bit of a whirlwind, according to Jay’s father, Martin.
“Jay is Celtic’s number one fan,” Martin explains. “He loves everything about the club and is the mascot of the Lurgan Glasgow Celtic Supporters Club in our home town and became known to the Celtic supporters through social media posts that I would have put up of him celebrating when Celtic scored.”
Social media fame did not faze Wee Jay, as the Lurgan native is known, and he took it all in his stride. So much was the level of his fame that Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg personally selected a clip of Wee Jay celebrating a Celtic goal in his Facebook review of 2014.
While his star grew, Wee Jay gained more and more attention for being completely fanatical about football.
Wee Jay on stage at the Greek Sports Personality of the Year awardsIt all began about three years ago, when his beloved Celtic came to Belfast for a game against Cliftonville and Wee Jay struck up an acquaintance with Neil Lennon, who managed Celtic at the time.
“At the end of the season last year as Celtic were doing the lap of honour when they won the league, Neil spotted him in the crowd and presented him with his league medal,” said Martin, who works with an Irish construction company in London. “At the same time, Samaras picked Jay out from the crowd and took him on the lap of honour.”
Jay’s lap of the pitch with his hero Georgios Samaras was broadcast live on Sky Sports – the clip went on to get two million views on YouTube.
Samaras’ homeland of Greece went crazy for the Irish star, offering to fly the Beatty family to Rio for the World Cup last summer.
“Unfortunately when we got offered the trip we had actually just boarded the flight to Boston on a family holiday and had to turn it down,” said Martin.
At Christmas, Greece held the 61st Sports Personality of the Year awards and Wee Jay was flown to Athens and presented with an award.
To top off his phenomenal year, Jay met with President Michael D. Higgins just before Christmas, as well as meeting the North’s First and Deputy First Ministers.
This Saturday will be another day to remember for Wee Jay, after Hamilton FC directors invited him to his first away game of 2015 where, once again, he will be on hand to celebrate with his favourite football stars.
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