The world of Twitter is full of mystique, twists and turns with one Celtic fan shining a deep torch into an account that suddenly became very defensive of the club’s hierarchy on the back of yesterday’s defeat from St Mirren.
Coming the day after Peter Lawwell announced his departure at the end of this season supporter anger was focussed on Neil Lennon with Dermot Desmond and the club directors somewhere in the background.
The background is somewhere that the club’s largest shareholder has remained in, virtually since he first took a stake in the club alongside Fergus McCann in 1995.
When McCann sold up in 1999 Desmond became the biggest single shareholder, with no other significant shareholdings in the club the board has paid respect to the thoughts of the Irish businessman who has mastered the hands-off approach.
It is over a decade since Dermot Desmond attended an AGM in December 2019 his son Ross did sit in at the top table but made no comment or contribution.
Nothing can ever be proved beyond all doubt but Liam O’Hare has put together some impressive detective work, putting the jigsaw together for fans to draw their own conclusion.
Thread: Something I’ve noticed as Celtic spiral from crisis to crisis is that anonymous account have been appearing with seemingly close ties to the Celtic board and have been tweeting with the sole purpose of defending the board. Let’s take one example: @gonzagabd1 pic.twitter.com/mdCml7uvsH
— Liam O’Hare (@Liam_O_Hare) January 31, 2021
The account has only tweeted 30 times. All have been since the defeat to St Mirren. All of them have been defending the board – particularly billionaire majority shareholder Dermot Desmond – with supposed “inside knowledge”. This raised my curiosity so I did a bit of digging. pic.twitter.com/kEIMjX9YF9
— Liam O’Hare (@Liam_O_Hare) January 31, 2021
So who is @gonzagabd1? Well, Gonzaga is a private boys school in Dublin. It’s had a number of notable alumni including Irish international rugby players and Irish cabinet ministers. Oh and it was also attended by at least one of Dermot Desmond’s sons, Brett Desmond. BD. pic.twitter.com/S4MG6XNhxt
— Liam O’Hare (@Liam_O_Hare) January 31, 2021
To shed a bit more light I decided to look at who GonzagaBD follows. They only follow 83 accounts so it didn’t take long. The majority of accounts followed are professional golfers. Fair enough, the Desmonds’ are known to be big golf fans but so are lots of people in Ireland. pic.twitter.com/vg0M5kz1j2
— Liam O’Hare (@Liam_O_Hare) January 31, 2021
More of note are some of the other accounts followed: London City Airport, Greencore Group, Daon, Barchester Healthcare, Sandy Lane Resort, Five Guys. What do these have in common? They’re all businesses owned or previously owned by the Desmond family. pic.twitter.com/ii3zsQvjz4
— Liam O’Hare (@Liam_O_Hare) January 31, 2021
It has to be said that golfers aside, the account doesn’t seem to be that interested in following many people from pop culture. With the exception of the Corrs of course. Coincidentally, Brett Desmond is married to Andrea Corr. pic.twitter.com/raXYRk0ln4
— Liam O’Hare (@Liam_O_Hare) January 31, 2021
Also among the 83 followed? Zozimus bar which is owned by another Desmond son, Derry. The only footballer followed? Andriy Shevchenko, a good mate of the third son Ross. As for Albert’s private members club in Chelsea. Weirdly that’s not Desmond owned. Well, not yet anyway pic.twitter.com/k40ggh8ZLW
— Liam O’Hare (@Liam_O_Hare) January 31, 2021
What about the likes you ask? Well, there’s not many – only 28 and again mostly golf related. But the very first one dates back to 2012 and involves a bit of support for Dermot himself being re-appointed as Celtic director. Sadly that was the only like that tweet managed to gain. pic.twitter.com/Igjz48xkEV
— Liam O’Hare (@Liam_O_Hare) January 31, 2021
This is a time of crisis at Celtic. The fans are being rinsed for a fortune and served a shambles. We need accountability. Yet these anonymous accounts apparently linked to the powerbrokers in the boardroom are trying to shut down legitimate criticism online.
— Liam O’Hare (@Liam_O_Hare) January 31, 2021
