Charlie Harris

Charlie Harris – A Sporting Life

Posted on by gerrytastic

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.

An advertisement for Charlie Harris’ race against a horse

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!

Harris can be seen on the far right with the Dublin GAA team on Bloody Sunday

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.

Harris can be seen on the left in his trademark white coat.

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.

The cover of the testimonial game against Manchester United for Charlie Harris

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.

Bohs and Bloody Sunday

Posted on by gerrytastic

The FAI Cup quarter final versus Dundalk fell just a day shy of the 100th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, a day remembered in Irish history for actions that morning when Michael Collins’ “Squad”, supported by members of the Dublin Brigade carried out a series of assassinations across Dublin which helped to cripple the British Intelligence network in the city. It is also remembered for the brutal reprisal that took place in Croke Park later that day when a combined force of RIC, including the Black and Tans and Auxillaries along with British Army troops opened fire at a Gaelic Football match between Dublin & Tipperary in Croke Park, causing the deaths of thirteen spectators and Tipperary player Michael Hogan.

Though Dalymount Park sits only a short walk away from Croker any connections with Bohemians and the events of that day would appear remote or non-existent, though that is certainly not the case. Both in the streets of Dublin that morning and in Croke Park that afternoon there were men who were, or would become, players, coaches, administrators and supporters of Bohemians.

We’ll begin early that morning on the streets of the south inner city, Charlie Dalton the 17 year old Drumcondra native and IRA intelligence officer has been preparing the attack on 28 Pembroke Street, making arrangements with Maudie, a maid who worked in the house to gather intelligence on the six suspected British intelligence operatives residing there. At the appointed hour of 9am Dalton and several other Volunteers burst into the house. Dalton’s job was to ransack the house for documents and intelligence files. His colleagues were tasked with the other work. Lieutenant Dowling and Captain Price were shot to death in their beds. Four other British officers were also shot in a volley of bullets in the hallway, Colonel Montgomery was killed and though the other officers were badly wounded they survived. Dalton was a member of Bohemians and an occasional player for the lower Bohs sides. His older brother Emmet, a British military veteran had also joined the IRA by this stage and was also a member of Bohemians, playing for the first team as an inside-forward and becoming club President in 1924. Be the end of the War of Independence Emmet had become the IRA’s head of training.

Emmet and Charles Dalton in their National Army uniforms

Teenaged Jeremiah “Sam” Robinson was acting was out that morning as a lookout for was his friend Vinny Byrne, one of Collins’ famed “12 Apostles”. Their destination was 28 Upper Mount Street, their targets British Lieutenants Aimes and Bennett. This was a late change to the plans due to a recent piece of intelligence received Charlie Dalton. Byrne and fellow Squad member Tom Ennis led the party and in Byrne’s witness statement he mentioned that they were a party of about ten men and that the operation did not go as smoothly as hoped. The sound of shooting aroused the attention of other British military personnel in the area and the men keeping an eye on the entrance to Mount Street came under fire. Most of the party fled to the river and rather than risk crossing any of the city bridges back to the north side where they could be intercepted. They crossed by a ferry and Sam and the others disappeared into the maze of streets and safe-houses of the north inner city. Robinson would later become a member of the “Squad” when it was reinforced in 1921.

While Sam, along with his brother Christy (another IRA Volunteer) would go on to enjoy a stellar career with Bohemians as part of the all-conquering 1927-28 side and would be capped twice by Ireland. His cousin William “Perry” Robinson would not escape Bloody Sunday unscathed. He was the second youngest victim in Croke Park, perched in a tree near the Canal end of Croke Park, he was struck by a bullet through the chest and would die in Jervis hospital. He was 11 years old.

The all-conquering 1927-28 Bohemian FC team. Sam Robinson is in the front row immediately to the right of goalkeeper Harry Cannon

On Ranelagh Road was Christopher “Todd” Andrews, a Bohemian fanatic, who would later become a senior civil servant and begin a political dynasty. His younger brother Paddy would enjoy success with Bohs in the 1930s, becoming club captain and would be capped for Ireland. However, for Todd his thoughts were with the headache caused by a clash of heads during a match for UCD the previous day as well as his duty that morning, the shooting of Lt. William Noble. As he later recalled:


“I had increasing fears we might be surprised by the Tans. If that happened and we were captured, we would have been shot or hanged. It is not an agreeable prospect for a nineteen-year-old psychologically unattuned to assassination.”

C.S. “Todd” Andrews – Dublin Made Me

In the end Andrews didn’t have to fire a shot, their target had escaped, Noble had left at 7am that morning. Andrews’ home was raided later than night, and his father, also Christopher, was lifted by the Black and Tans. Todd was forced into hiding, searching for a safe house in the south Dublin suburbs.

That afternoon in Croke Park, strange as it may seem, there was also a strong Bohs connection. Many of the Dublin side were taken from the O’Toole’s club from Seville Place in the North inner city, they would become the dominant club side of the 1920s in Dublin, winning seven county football championships over the course of the decade. Their trainer was Charlie Harris and he was also assisting the Dubs that day from the Croke Park touchline. A former athletics champion, Croke Park was familiar terrain for Harris, he had even raced against a horse there in 1912 (narrowly losing)! Harris had also been the trainer of Bohemians since 1916 and was involved with the club for over 30 years as an integral part of many successful Bohemians teams. He even coached the Irish national side on a number of occasions, including at the 1924 Olympics. Harris, like most of the Dublin team was likely among the group that was rounded up by the RIC and detained in the Croke Park dressing rooms before finally being released later that day.

One other Bohs connection was a steward at that day’s game, Joe Stynes. Already an IRA member Stynes was also an exceptional all round athlete, be it Gaelic Football, hurling or as a goal-scoring winger for Bohemians. Stynes would star for Bohs in the 1925-26 season (and would receive the first of a number of bans from the GAA for it) but back in 1920 he helped dispose of guns belonging to the Volunteers before escaping the ground, according to an account provided by his grand-nephew, the Aussie Rules footballer Jim Stynes.

A version of this piece appeared in the 2020 match programme for the Bohemian F.C. v Dundalk FAI Cup game.