The Herald gives the game away over Dermot Desmond’s Celtic role

An article in The Herald has described Dermot Desmond as the non-executive Chairman of Celtic.

The Irish businessman is nothing of the sort, officially. The man with a 34.7% shareholding in the club is a Non Executive Director, a role he has had since May 2025.

On his profile on the Celtic website it notes:

Dermot is a member of the Nomination Committee and the Audit and Risk Committee.

Josh McCafferty was invited to the Celtic media conference specially arranged for daily newspapers.

While fans are kept in the dark Communications Manager Iain Jamieson panders to newspapers.

The Herald sells around 9,000 paper copies a day with around 50,000 online subscribers gaining access to the premium content behind a paywall.

DESMOND- THE CELTIC DECISION MAKER

Jonny McFarlane is the mastermind behind digital sport at the Newsquest Group covering titles such as The Herald, Glasgow Times, Rangers Review and the Celtic Way.

McCafferty concentrates his work on The Celtic Way but also contributes to other Newsquest sites.

The Fixture is in your @heraldscotland tomorrow ???????

With an investigation from @mcgowan_stephen and @LiamBryce_ into the future of VAR for Scottish football, plus interviews with Barney Stewart and Nathan Hines.

It’s 24 pages, it’s Scottish and you won’t get it anywhere else ?? pic.twitter.com/4lSFzjaqX3

— Matthew Johnston (@MtthwJhnstn) April 3, 2026

Presumably McCafferty would have re-read his copy before finalising it. Titles and job descriptions are kind of important.

These days there is barely a sub-editor in the ‘newspaper’ industry but presumably someone inside Newsquest has read over the article on O’Neill’s interview.

In the good old days when the Herald was selling over 100,000 copies a day any spelling mistake would be fished out and corrected. It was a badge of honour to have each edition error free.

These days a quick edit on line will instantly correct a mistake.

It seems that no-one at Newsquest can be bothered with the most simple of checks.

Most Celtic fans believe that Desmond has the final call on any significant decision but technically he is only a Non Executive Director.

Long term Herald columnist Brian Unity Wilson has been the Interim Chairman of Celtic since January 1.

The previous Chairman resigned soon after ending the 2025 AGM due to a petted lip.