PLACE: Point Saint Charles
DETAILS: A neighbourhood in Montreal, Quebec
DISTANCE FROM CELTIC PARK: Approx 3,000 miles
CELTIC CONNECTION: Birthplace of former Celtic goalkeeper, Joe Kennaway

Celtic's links with Canada are as plentiful as you might imagine, and given that Canada is the second largest country on Earth, it is hardly surprising that a club of our size has links there.

Indeed, there will likely be future editions of Celtic Connections that shine a light on our other links to Canada, but, this week, we are focusing on the birthplace of our former keeper James ‘Joe’ Kennaway.

Kennaway was born on January 25, 1907, in Point Saint Charles, a neighbourhood in Montreal.

His mother and father were from Dundee, but, like many Scots already had, and would over the coming years, they emigrated and began a new life in Canada.

At the time of Kennaway’s birth, Point Saint Charles was a diverse, industrial area, with immigrants from Scotland, Ireland, Poland, Ukraine and Lithuania living and working side-by-side.

Nowadays, the area is widely considered to be the historical heart of the Irish community in Montreal, though it is an entirely different world to the one in which Joe Kennaway and his family lived, with the ever-expanding effects of gentrification altering the area almost beyond recognition.

Kennaway had a keen interest in football from a young age, which is unsurprising given that he was born into a Scottish family and, at the time, Scotland was effectively the epicentre of the sport.

Before his 20th birthday, the man from Montreal, whose talents between the sticks were becoming apparent, was awarded his first international cap, representing Canada in a 6-2 defeat to the USA.

The conceding of six goals may have been a disappointing debut, but in the years to follow, he would go on to show exactly what he was capable of.

Kennaway moved to the USA soon after his international debut and moved into the world of professional football, signing for Rhode Island side, Providence Gold Bugs.

Interestingly, the Gold Bugs played their matches at Kinsley Park, a multi-sports venue in Providence which hosted the first nighttime NFL match, pioneering the use of floodlights.

As if that wasn’t enough, in 1927, just two days after winning the World Series, the iconic New York Yankees baseball stars, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig held a sold-out exhibition match there.

Sadly, the stadium was demolished in the early 1930s, and a car park now marks the spot where this iconic venue once stood.

In 1931, the Providence Gold Bugs were purchased, and their name was changed to Fall River FC after the name of the town they relocated to in Massachusetts.

It was whilst playing for Fall River that Celtic and Joe Kennaway’s paths crossed for the first time, with the Hoops facing the United States side during the 1931 North America tour, Celtic’s first journey across the Atlantic.

Fall River defeated Willie Maley’s Celtic side 1-0, with Joe Kennaway putting in an excellent performance between the sticks.

After the game, the Canadian conversed with Celtic keeper, John Thomson and Willie Maley even promised him that if any Scottish club was looking for a good goalkeeper, he would recommend Kennaway to them.

Nobody was to know that just a few months later, Joe Kennaway would indeed be heading to Scotland, not to join another Scottish side following a glowing report from Maley, but to sign for Celtic following the tragic death of John Thomson after the game at Ibrox on September 5, 1931.

The ship carrying Kennaway and his wife to Glasgow docked on October 30, 1931, and, less than 24 hours later, he made his Celtic debut at Fir Park.

It would be the first of almost 300 appearances for the Canadian, and, by the time he left Celtic in 1939, he had two league titles, two Scottish Cups and the Empire Exhibition trophy to his name.

Joe Kennaway returned to the States at the beginning of the second World War and went on to coach the Brown University soccer team in Providence.

He passed away at the age of 62 in 1969, and is buried in the Highland Memorial Park cemetery, just a short drive from where his professional football career began with the Providence Gold Bugs.

For this feature and many more in Celtic's Flag Night matchday programme, including the first of our 19 special covers to mark the 60th anniversary of the club's greatest achievement, lifting the European Cup in Lisbon in 1967, make sure you pick up a copy of Monday's Dundee programme featuring the great Billy McNeill. For more info on the Lisbon 60th anniversary series, see below.

Dundee match programme feature: Celtic Connections