It also housed Edinburgh’s Irish immigrants, who lived in deplorable conditions in some of Europe’s worst slums. Celtic FC, Scotland’s other great football club for Irish immigrants, has world-renowned roots.

However, Hibs had worn green and white hoops for many years before Celtic did, a quarter of a century later.

By this point, Celtic had also signed half a dozen of Hibs’ top players, aided by the rise of professionalism and their greater economic clout.

Celtic’s origins in Glasgow’s East End, where it provided relief for the city’s poor Catholic Irish, are still celebrated today, but Hibs’ connection to Leith and its surrounding neighbourhoods is just as strong and tangible. Only after walking along the Cowgate and down into Leith does the full extent of this connection become clear.

My guide on this mini-pilgrimage among Hibs’ hallowed tombstones is Simon Pia, a journalist and academic who has written several books about the club and its legendary players.

He and his brothers, along with a group of lifelong school friends, have sat in the same two rows at Easter Road for many years.

On the Cowgate, we enter St Patrick’s Church, where Hibernians began their journey over one and a half centuries. Mr Pia recalls coming here in 1972, when Hibernian defeated Celtic in the League Cup final, winning their first trophy in 20 years.

This Hibs team featured some of Scotland’s best players, including Pat Stanton, Jimmy O’Rourke, Alex Gordon, John Brownlie, and Arthur Duncan.

Mr Pia points out depictions of James Connolly on the Cowgate’s walls above the Underbelly festival venue.

Edinburgh has never felt at ease with Connolly, one of its most influential sons and, arguably, one of the UK’s most important socialist thinkers and trade union pioneers.

The well-known activist James Slaven is leading the campaign to raise Connolly’s profile in the city where he was born.

Some of Connolly’s wisdom is displayed alongside the mini-portraits, as well as a bronze plaque.

In other cities, however, statues and streets would be named after him. “When James Connolly lived in America, his letters home would reference Hibs and requests for updates on their progress,” Mr. Pia recalls.

Later, in the Hibs Social Club near Easter Road Stadium, two lifelong supporters will tell me that Connolly attended Hibs games.

“Hibs supporters have always been regarded as the city’s social underdogs, and this was also true for Leith’s relationship with Edinburgh.

“The supporters have always regarded ourselves as separate and this extends back to our roots were in the Cowgate before we came to Leith.”

He discusses how the club lost some of its originality in the postwar era, when some directors appeared embarrassed by the club’s Irish roots. Then, in 1990, Wallace Mercer, owner of their fierce rivals Hearts, attempted to take over the club.

Around this time, two significant cultural events rekindled Hibs’ historic identity. The Proclaimers’ seminal album Sunshine on Leith was released in 1988, and Irvine Welsh wrote Trainspotting.

They contributed to the supporters’ opposition to the takeover and later strengthened the club’s identity with Leith.

“There was a famous Saturday afternoon when The Proclaimers, Craig and Charlie Reid came on to the park and sang Sunshine on Leith and then again at a rally in the Usher Hall,” Mr. Pia recounts.

So the most haunting and powerful anthem in world football was born. When my team, Celtic, was defeated here a few years ago, the sight of this community phenomenon aided the healing process.

“The Proclaimers gave us a song that made us pride and conviction when we were facing our darkest hours,” Mr. Pia recalls. “Irvine Welsh and Trainspotting was another defining moment for Leith and for Hibs,” Mr.

Pia says. “Trainspotting is an example of true literary greatness. Irvine Welsh captured the identity of Leith and its working-class residents. Previously, it was almost as if Edinburgh had no working-class areas.

“For the first time, the world heard Edinburgh’s authentic working-class voices. He accurately captured how the people here spoke. “It was the Leith of the Port, the foot of Leith Walk, and the old pubs.

Even in the midst of gentrification efforts, Leith retains a distinct multi-cultural energy that extends beyond the festival.” I’m curious, though, if Hibs haven’t been hesitant to embrace their Irish identity, perhaps fearing being drawn into the sectarian narrative that surrounds Celtic and Rangers.

Mr Pia agrees, but notes that in recent decades, supporters have begun to reclaim their Irish identity.

“For a time, the board of directors may have gone too corporate by removing the Irish harp emblem from the badge.

The supporters, however, wanted it restored, and the crest now depicts the Port of Leith with the sailing ship, the harp, and Edinburgh Castle.

“Some of our competitors make jokes about us being junkies, and there are references to AIDS. They’d sing ‘Oh, the Hibees are Gay’. But we wore them proudly.

I believe this is also part of the movement to reclaim our Irish roots. Hibs, like Celtic, emerged from radical, working-class politics, and some of our younger supporters are rediscovering it.”

When I worked with Mr Pia at Scotsman Publications, I promised him that if Hibs won the Scottish Cup again, I’d go to Leith to celebrate with him.

Hibs hadn’t won the cup since 1902, and the celebrations for their next win promised to be the party to end all parties.

Unfortunately, I was working in the Western Isles when the big moment occurred on May 21, 2016. “I always said that I would die a happy Hibee if I saw them lift the Scottish Cup,” according to him.

“Edinburgh and Leith have never seen anything like what I witnessed that evening on Leith Walk, Duke Street, and Easter Road, as tens of thousands of us celebrated that victory.

It felt magical to be a part of it.” In the Hibs Social Club, David Hill and Keith Haggart are telling me stories about former Hibs players and their heroic exploits.

Mr Hill has a rather fetching tattoo on his left arm of David Grey lifting the Scottish Cup in 2016. “We regard ourselves as Leithers first,” according to him.

The attempted takeover resembled an attack on Leith’s identity. Mr Haggart says: “I can’t understand why anyone who stays in Leith could support any other club” .

We soon get to talking about Pat Stanton, who celebrated his 80th birthday on these premises last year. “He is a Hibs deity,” explains Mr Hill.

“That was a mighty team we had in the early 70s, though my dad told me that only Pat Stanton would have made the post-war Hibs team.” Between 1948 and 1952, this team won three league titles, led by the Famous Five forward line of Smith, Johnstone, Reilly, Turnbull, and Ormond.

Bonnie Prince Bob, the video artist and political activist, grew up in Jock’s Lodge and has been a lifelong Hibs fan, but he is concerned about the class factor in the modern Hibs story.

“You have to remember that when gentrification occurred in Leith, many families became part of a diaspora that relocated to places such as Restalrig village and elsewhere.

“There are areas of Leith that now feel completely isolated, such as the Banana Flats and Lochend.

Everyone is talking about Leith’s recent makeover, but I’m seeing old working-man’s pubs transformed into pathetic hipster impersonations of working-class establishments.

“My biggest fear is that there will be no Easter Road stadium in 20 years due to the rate of property development.”But I’m seeing hope among the young Hibs fans who have begun to support James Connolly.

They are the ones who organise food bank drives and volunteer in their own communities, and they are class conscious. They are my hope for Hibs to maintain their presence and identity.”

Later, when I ask Irvine Welsh about his beloved Hibs and Leith, he simply says, “You are formed and defined by where you come from. “I am from Leith and Hibs.”

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