`I'm just here to laugh and cheer," grinned Gregor Fischer, better known as his alter-ego, Rab C. Nesbitt, at the opening night of The Celtic Story in aid of the Scottish-Irish Omagh Fund at the Gaiety on Tuesday. It was not a very Rab moment - nor was his confession that he had never been to a football game in his life - but then, as he said to one autographhunter looking for Rab's signature, "I'll give you mine because he doesn't exist. I made him up."
Gregor came to Dublin to support the performance as did former Celtic players, Billy McNeil and Murdo MacLeod, who now does TV commentary for the BBC.
The gala performance hooplah included the presentation of a cheque by an Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, on behalf of the fund to three youngsters, who looked as if they'd rather not be there. They were Sean O'Connor, the young Celtic fan who was seen in the amateur footage after the Omagh bomb; Warren Warnock, a young Rangers fan, and Aisling Doherty, the sister of young Oran Doherty from Buncrana, who died in the tragedy. "Sean's so quiet normally, but he's bearing up very well," remarked his mother Bernie O'Connor.
The Celtic Story is a show slightly dogged by controversy as Celtic F.C. have distanced themselves from the production and it is now in the hands of Peter MacDougall of Balcony Productions, and financed by Glaswegian businessman Brian Dempsey. Brian is trying to put together a consortium to take charge of the club when the current managing director, Fergus McCann, sells his majority shareholding next year. Notable in his absence on Tuesday night was Dermot Desmond, who of course, owns a number of shares in Celtic F.C.