A former Gaelic footballer, goalkeeper Kevin McAlinden spent most of his football career at Belfast Celtic. He hailed from a famous Belfast bookmaking family and joined Celtic in 1934. He spent 15 years at the club but with brief spells at Cork United, Dundalk, Sherbourne and Coleriane in between. Selected for the Great Britain 1948 Olympic squad, he was one of two goalkeepers and played in the 1-0 win over France and 3-1 semi-final defeat by Yugoslavia. He was in goal during Belfast Celtic’s infamous match against Linfield on Boxing Day 1948. Several Celtic players received threats before the game, including McAlinden and after the match he was one of the players targeted by rampaging opposition fans and he was seriously injured and was out of action for several months. The troubles of that day caused Belfast Celtic to quit the Irish League at the end of that season and they were never to play a competitive game again.
Great Britain