Charlie Harris spent the early 1910s collecting an array of titles on the Irish athletics scene, excelling over a variety of events; four miles, five miles, steeplechase, cross country. He beat the best, including John J. Daly an American-based, Irish runner who had won a silver at the 1904 Olympics. Harris even faced off against competitors of the non-human variety, when in 1912, he raced a trotting pony over 10 miles around Jones’s Road (later Croke Park). Harris had a 20-minute head-start over his equine foe, named Kathleen H. and narrowly lost out over the final 100 yards but setting an Irish (human) record for 10 miles in the process.

Eight years later Harris was once again on that touchline where he had once raced a pony, this time trainer of the Dublin Gaelic football team when British Crown Forces opened fire into Croke Park causing murder and panic. No doubt, he feared the worst when he and the other Dublin players and officials were crowded into the dressing rooms in the aftermath of the outrage. Quite the sporting life, and we haven’t even mentioned the football!

From around 1916 onwards Harris was trainer to Bohemian FC, a role which was part physio, part coach, part cheerleader. His role in various teams over the years puts one in mind of Mick Byrne and the impact he had under Jack Charlton and Mick McCarthy.

Charlie quickly developed a reputation as the best in the business and despite a background of having worked as a sales assistant and carpenter during his running career it was as a sports trainer and physio that he became increasingly sought out, with players from outside of Bohemians and across a variety of sports seeking his assistance.

At international level Charlie was asked by the IFA to accompany its amateur team to France for a match in Paris in 1921. This match caused some controversy when Irish tricolours were displayed by fans in the Parc de Princes which was not well-received by the IFA and added to existing tensions with the Leinster FA just months before an eventual split.

After the split in September 1921 and the formation of the FAI it was inevitable that Charlie Harris would be the go-to man for the new association’s international programme. This meant another trip to Paris for Charlie in 1924 for the Olympic games as a one-man coaching team. Charlie would remain on the touchlines for Ireland, for Bohemians and for the League of Ireland representative sides for more than twenty years to come, travelling Europe in his customary white coat and carrying his faithful leather satchel full of cures, ointments and health salts.

In 1940 Charlie was given a benefit match by Bohemians to acknowledge his 25 years service with the club, Belfast Celtic were the guests on that occasion in Dalymount. Some nine years later with Charlie now in his 60s and his health beginning to fail there was another game to honour one of the most popular figures in Irish football. In June of 1949 Manchester United were Bohemians guests in Dalymount as over 40,000 turned up to see United defeat a Bohemian Select XI 3-1 and to pay tribute to Charlie.

Charlie would pass away just three months later in September 1949, the Evening Herald recalling him as “witty and genial and of a very likeable personality and he will be keenly missed by his legion of friends”. His funeral was attended his wife of 41 years, Kathleen, his children and wider family and by senior representatives of the Army, Gardaí the wider football world but also from the fields of athletics, rugby and boxing showing the esteem in which he was held and the impact he had on the Irish sporting landscape.

A version was first published in the Ireland v Hungary match programme in June 2024. Images of Charlie’s kitbag, watch, pistol and whistle are shared by his family.