THE story behind this picture is a very sad one. It seems innocuous enough, with workmen taking sledgehammers to a collapsed brick wall at Clyde's then football ground at Shawfield in Glasgow. However they are clearing up after a tragedy. This is December, 1957, and the ground was packed for a Clyde Celtic game. Schoolboys jumped over the wall to sit in front of it in order to avoid the crush of the crowd. It was a fatal decision. Within seven minutes Celtic scored, and the crowd surged forward. The wall collapsed on top of the young boys, killing a nine-year-old boy from Bridgeton who had only been put over the wall seconds earlier by his uncle, fearing for his safety. A further 11 boys, none older than 15, were admitted to hospital.
A Fatal Accident Inquiry ruled that the wall had in fact been well built, and the accident was the result of unruly behaviour by sections of the crowd.
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