Melbourne Celtic Club

The Celtic Club is Australia's oldest surviving Irish Club. It is non-political and secular, catering for those of Irish and Irish/Australian heritage and anyone else with an interest in Irish culture, the Irish contribution to Australia and the wider Celtic family. The Club is also aware of its Australian heritage and acknowledges that it stands on the traditional land of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation.

Founded on 26 September 1887, the Club was originally a semi-political association, supportive of Irish Home Rule amongst Melbourne's sizeable Irish population; and championing the rights of Irish Australians in an establishment otherwise dominated by the Anglo-Saxon, (largely Protestant) traditions of Great Britain and its colonies. Reflecting this political background, the original name of the club was the 'Celtic Home Rule Club'.

Though politicised, the club nevertheless sought to avoid domination by the clergy, both to avoid offending Protestant Irish members and to preserve the institution as a contributor to the secular life and culture of Melbourne.

The Club had its formal opening in 1888. Meetings of the Club were originally held at the Imperial Hotel, before the first club rooms were opened at 82 Collins Street. This makes the club the second-oldest Irish organisation in Australia, after the Sydney-based Hibernian Society (founded 1880); and the popularity of such an association is evident from the membership increasing from only 70 to 400 within its first year. The dominant figure of the club from its foundation to the early 20th century, was Morgan Jaguers, who also headed Melbourne's Irish Land League, Irish National League, United Irish League and Melbourne Irish Pipers' Club. A mason and enthusiast for Celtic art forms (then becoming popular in Ireland), Jaguers is also famous for the introduction of the traditional Celtic Cross to the Irish-Catholic areas of Melbourne's cemeteries: a monumental feature which largely dominated from the 1890s to the present day.

Disagreements within the club over political crises back in Ireland almost destroyed it as a viable entity. The Parnell divorce scandal (1890–1891) caused a split in the club between continued supporters of Parnell and his detractors. Such was the turmoil wrought by the Parnell case, the club was refounded at the corner of Collins Street and Swanston Street, in 1891.

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