HE is still recognisable after all these years. This is Billy McNeill, former Celtic player and manager, doing a bit of sunbathing in his back-garden in Glasgow’s Simshill in 1969 -– two years after Celtic won the European Cup.
Billy was back in the news this week as his family talked about the dementia he is now suffering from, at the age of 77.
With him in the picture is his wife Liz and the first three of their five children, Susan, and twins Libby and Carol.
Back then scans were less common and Liz only realised she was having twins when after Carol was delivered, the midwife said: “There’s another one.”
His wife Liz was, and is, a striking-looking woman, and was a dancer on television with Andy Stewart’s White Heather Club when they met. In fact because of her TV appearance money, Liz was actually earning more money then than Billy did with Celtic. Think it’s changed a bit since then.
Anyway, Billy now no longer speaks, but still seems to comprehend much of what is going on around him.
When the 50th anniversary of winning the European Cup is celebrated later this year, Celtic fans will spare a thought for Billy, still the greatest captain the club ever had.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel