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Note: Some articles have spelt his name as “Gallacher” (Scottish spelling) others as “Gallagher” (Irish Spelling). He himself is said to have signed his documents as “Gallagher”.
Personal
Fullname: Charles Gallagher
aka: Charlie Gallagher, Charlie Gallacher, Charles Gallacher
Born: 3 November 1940
Died: 11 July 2021
Birthplace: Gorbals
Signed: 20 September 1958 (prov); 6 March 1959 (full)
Left: 1 May 1970 (free to Dumbarton)
Position: Inside-Forward
Debut: Celtic 1-0 Raith Rovers, League Cup, 22 Aug 1959
Internationals: Republic of Ireland
International Caps: 2
International Goals: 0
Biog
| “For years it galled me that the only thing people remembered me for was two corner kicks. Then my wife said: Your name is in history for that’.” Charlie Gallagher |
Gorbals Bhoy Charlie Gallagher signed for his beloved Celtic from Yoker Athletic in September 1958.
He is regarded by ex-Celt, Joe Logan, as being alongside him the first of the two Kelly’s Kids to be signed up to help be reared and spearhead a revitalisation of the first team via youth players, with Billy McNeill the third. Joe Logan didn’t make it through himself, but Charlie Gallagher went on to have a long great career at Celtic.
The inside-forward made his Hoops debut in a 1-0 League Cup victory at home to Raith Rovers in August 1959 and he went on to make 171 appearances in the major competitions and net 32 goals in a 12 year Parkhead career.
An assured if unspectacular player Charlie Gallagher – the cousin of Paddy Crerand they both attended Holyrood Secondary in the South Side of Glasgow – may have lacked pace and aggression but he was a wonderful passer of the ball and possessed a thunderous shot. He was also always willing to work for his team-mates and throughout his Celtic career he remained a popular figure with fans and players alike.
The problem with Charlie Gallagher, in the eyes of a number of supporters, was that he lacked a little bit of devilment, some dig. He wasn’t a ball-winner, but still made it up with other qualities. He himself has admitted that he felt that Jock Stein never favoured him, possibly as he was from the Kelly’s Kids and so was more favoured by the Celtic Chairman Bob Kelly. Possibly this might have been down to insecurity too, there’s only ever 11 opening slots and there was a lot of strong competition.
He was unfortunate that during his time at Celtic he had to compete with the magnificent Bertie Auld for a starting berth but when he did turn out for the first team Charlie Gallagher often showed his ample ability. Charlie Gallagher’s first notable game for the club was probably the 3-1 Parkhead win over Rangers in September 1964 when a much unfancied Celtic triumphed by 3-1 in heavy conditions.
Charlie Gallagher suffered from inconsistency in his early years and was tried in several positions when Jimmy McGrory was manager without really settling into a set role. However the arrival of Jock Stein as manager brought out the best in him and Jock Stein always played him in a modern 2 man midfield system. He had a fine game in the 1965 Scottish Cup final victory against Dunfermline when Billy McNeill scored the winner from a glorious corner from Charlie Gallagher. He also took the corner from which Billy McNeill again scored the winner against Vojvodina in the European Cup quarter final tie of March 1967 and Charlie Gallagher could count himself unlucky not to have played in Lisbon.
He had a wonderful shot with both feet and put it to good effect in January 1966 against Rangers with a magnificent effort in Celtic’s stunning 5-1 victory. Charlie Gallagher was capable of playing on both sides of the field as he was also comfortable playing on the left which made him the ideal replacement for Bertie Auld on occasions.
After an injury to Bertie Auld in February 1968, Charlie Gallagher had a fine run of form in the tight championship race between Celtic and Rangers which Celtic won narrowly and he was instrumental in this success with some great performances. Basically season 1967-78 was “Gallagher’s season” where he helped to control the midfield, win the ball and supply ball to the more attacking players.
Charlie Gallagher was a real footballer, appreciated by the purists amongst the Celtic support but was not a keen tackler preferring to leave those chores to the likes of Brogan and Murdoch.
He moved to Dumbarton in 1970 and gave great service to the Sons, especially in the 1970 League Cup semi final and replay when Dumbarton, inspired by Charlie Gallagher ran Celtic close, narrowly losing 4-3. The Celtic fans gave him a rapturous reception in both matches.
The son of Donegal parents, Charlie Gallagher was a Republic of Ireland international, and was the first Scots born player to play for the Republic of Ireland when he travelled to Ankara on 22 February 1967 to represent Ireland against Turkey.
He retired from playing in April 1973.
He may not have been in Lisbon but as he humorously put it, in the bigger picture he was still part of something special:
“For years it galled me that the only thing people remembered me for was two corner kicks. Then my wife said: ‘Your name is in history for that’.”
Post-Playing
He worked as a scout for Celtic from April 1976 to April 1978 and later as a taxi driver in Glasgow. The earnings of today’s football players, where annual salaries are often talked of in millions, must now seem like a different world. His wages were £45 per week at the beginning of his professional career.
Although Charlie Gallagher was not always a regular in the Celtic line-up he was a reliable man to call upon and he played a great part in Celtic’s early success during Jock Stein’s reign and was enormously popular with the Celtic fans.
He passed away in July 2021, same day as the final of Euro 2020 (played in 2021 due to Covid). He will be fondly remembered by all.
Quotes
“You’re too fond of Charlie Gallagher and Harry Hood. You wouldn’t win a league with 11 Charlie Gallaghers or Harry Hoods.“
Jock Stein
“For years it galled me that the only thing people remembered me for was two corner kicks. Then my wife said: ‘Your name is in history for that’.”
Charlie Gallagher
Playing Career
| APPEARANCES (goals) |
LEAGUE | SCOTTISH CUP | LEAGUE CUP | EUROPE | TOTAL |
| 1958-70 | 106 | 23 | 29 | 13 | 171 |
| Goals | 17 | 4 | 11 | 0 | 32 |
Honours with Celtic
European Cup
Scottish League
Scottish Cup
Scottish League Cup
Pictures
Articles
Books
- Charlie Gallacher, What a Player by David Potter (2016)
Articles
Charlie Gallagher: a bhoy’s own story
Joe Sullivan (CelticFC.net)
AS part of a series taken from the Celtic View, we have been taking a trip down memory lane with a host of past Celtic favourites to get their own personal take on what it was like to pull on the Hoops. Next up is Charlie Gallagher.
HE’S the man who kick-started a decade of dominance for the Hoops that led to the creation of the modern-day Celtic Football Club we all know and love today.
It was Charlie Gallagher who delivered the corner met by the head of Billy McNeill to score the crucial winner in the 1965 Scottish Cup final 3-2 win over Dunfermline and from then on in – the club simply didn’t look back.
Two years later, another vital corner kick played a major part in the club’s history as, in the dying seconds of the European Cup quarter-final against Vojvodina with the tie heading for a play-off in Rotterdam, Gallagher again swung over a dead-eye ball that Cesar met once more to propel the Celts to Lisbon glory.
A year after Lisbon, Charlie also took delight in watching his cousin and former Celtic team-mate, Paddy Crerand, also lift the European Cup with Manchester United.
Today we take a walk down memory lane with a man who played a remarkable part in Celtic’s history.
My earliest substantial memory of Celtic is a very easy one. I was actually playing schools football with Holyrood at the time and the guy who did the announcements at Celtic was John Murphy and he was one of our schoolteachers. He always had me kind of lined up to go to Celtic and when Celtic played Manchester United in a benefit game for Cheshire Homes in April of 1956, I was a ballboy. I was 15-years-old at the time and the game finished 2-2 in what was the early days of the Busby Babes. That was the first time I really remember going to Celtic Park as I had always played football on a Saturday and the ground was a bit of a trek from the Gorbals. If there was time, I would go to Clyde or Third Lanark games as they were a lot nearer home. So that was my first real experience of Celtic Park and it was such a buzz being a ballboy behind the goals and watching my heroes, as well as Man United players like Duncan Edwards, just yards away.
There have been a few highlights in my career and I realise an obvious one would be just being part of the squad that won the European up in 1967 but that possibly a kind of trite answer that most of the Lions would give you. But I think there is no bigger highlight than making your debut for Celtic – high points just don’t come any better than that. Mine’s was actually a League Cup game on August 22, 1959 against Raith Rovers and it’s a game that I’ll always remember to my dying day. There wasn’t a big crowd there (24,000) and we won 1-0 thanks to an own goal. There was a poor crowd because the team was having a bad, bad time. In fact in the late ‘50s we were having a terrible time but I remember that Celtic heroes like Bobby Evans and Bertie Peacock were playing alongside me and wee Bertie Auld in his first period with Celtic so that, I think, would be one of my highlights.
As I said earlier, making my debut for Celtic was a memorable highlight of my time at the club but the highlight of my career apart from the Celtic was being capped for the Republic of Ireland. Because I was brought up in an Irish household, my mum and dad were Irish as were all my relatives so, although I was born in Glasgow and brought up as a Glaswegian, most of my summers were spent in Ireland. It was a source of immense pride that I was the first Scots-born player to play for the Republic. I was actually the second player born outwith Ireland to play for the country. The first was a guy called John Dempsey who played with Chelsea but I was the first Scot. The first game was out in Turkey and it was a nightmare while the second was in Dublin against Czechoslovakia and it was tremendous. We lost both games, though, as Irish football at that time was only starting out compared to recent years although all the players were well-known names from English clubs. Czechoslovakia were one of the top teams in the world at the time with players like Masopust and other top names in their ranks and the Irish set-up was a bit haphazard. We would just meet up a couple of days before the game, not like now when there is about a week’s training, but I played two games for Ireland and I’m always going to be remembered for that. And Big Jock made me captain for the next Celtic game in celebration.
The biggest disappointment for me, and I would it would probably be the same for the majority of players that played in the game, was our European Cup-Winners’ Cup semi-final in 1964 against MTK Budapest. It was in April and we beat them 3-0 at Celtic Park so to score three goals at home and go away to Budapest and get beat 4-0 was ridiculous. When you go away from home you’re supposed to play defensively but our chairman at the time wasn’t interested in us playing defensively. So we played all-out attack and you know the rest. When you look at the team from that game, the vast majority of them were still there in 1967. So we had the makings of a good side ready to come through and that side, obviously with one or two additions to it, made it to Lisbon. So 1964 could well have witnessed our first European trophy (Sporting Lisbon beat MTK 1-0 after a 3-3 draw) when you think about it so I think that was a real major disappointment.
My other favourite ground, away from Celtic Park, was, believe it or not, Kilmarnock. It may be a strange choice but Rugby Park always had a great playing surface. I played there with Kilmarnock Amateurs for two or three years and I actually trained on that ground and it has been well quoted as the best playing surface in Scotland. While games were being called off all over the place, the match always seemed to go ahead there because it was a good sandy surface. It was also a big wide open pitch and I absolutely loved that park. Even though I was training with Celtic, I was also training with Kilmarnock amateurs when Celtic legend Malky MacDonald was the manager just before Willie Waddell and we trained with the part-timers on a Tuesday night so I got used to that pitch. It was a magnificent surface for playing on as it held the rain and the water disappeared from it. Joe McBride played with Kilmarnock Amateurs a year ahead of me and we always talked about how brilliant the training was and how fabulous the surface was. That’s all you want as a footballer, a good ground to play on.
Although I got to know him in later years, when I started out playing Bobby Shearer of Rangers was my toughest opponent. When I made my derby debut against Rangers at Ibrox away back in 1962 he came up to me and said, ‘All the best Charlie, have a good game – but the first time you run by me I’ll break your legs!’ I said, ‘Ya wee fat so-and-so, you’ll have to catch me first!’ Later on in life when I got to know him a wee bit better through meeting at Old Crock games, I reminded him about that and he said that he used to say that to all the young right-wingers to try and frighten them but I don’t know if it worked or not.
Although I never played very much in the same Celtic team as my cousin Paddy Crerand, we used to always be on holiday in the same part of Ireland at the same time and we were always playing football there together so playing at Celtic Park was just a continuation of what we did on our holidays in Ireland together. We played a lot of football over in Ireland when we shouldn’t have been playing! There were a lot of summer cup competitions and we shouldn’t have been playing in them because, of course, we were registered over here but we were none the wiser and didn’t realise we were doing anything wrong. In fact, I remember playing in the semi-final of a summer cup competition one year for the local team and we had about eight Scottish professionals against a side from Coleraine – their captain was none other than Celtic team-mate Bertie Peacock who had all his Irish pals playing for them. But Paddy was a very good player, in fact we used to go to training together every day form the Gorbals because he lived in Crown Street and I lived in Cumberland Street just around the corner so we’d walk down and get a lift from Alec Byrne or jump in the tramcar. So I didn’t play alongside Paddy that much but when I first went to see Celtic I was watching guys like Bobby Evans, Bertie Peacock and Neilly Mochan and I felt immense pride that I was able to play in the same team alongside such Hoops legends. In recent years it would be like a youngster coming in to play with the likes of Neil Lennon after watching them from the sidelines.
I have to admit that it’s a bit of a sore point and quite sad that people only seem to remember those two corners against Dunfermline and Vojvodina. I remember scoring a couple of good goals myself but people always bring this up whenever Big Billy and I are together but, I suppose, it is nice to be remembered for that. It’s something that will never fade from people’s memories as long as they live as, for people who were at the games, they were like ‘Kennedy moments’. I still watch them on television. I think the cup final goal was the most important as it was probably the most important game for the club because Lisbon may never have happened if we had lost the cup final. Everything changed all round after that with nine-in-a-row and all that went with it. That was the thing that set us off.
I honestly do not know what career I would have taken up if I hadn’t been involved in football. I was actually reasonably clever at school but I surmised that I was going to be a footballer from an early age. When I left school I went for an interview and got an apprenticeship as an electrical engineer up in London Road near Celtic Park – but come the Monday morning I thought ‘No’ and never turned up for it. I had no inclinations to be anything at all other than a footballer. Even at school, I felt at an early age that I was being pushed towards football. In fact Alex Ferguson mentioned this at the Joe McBride Dinner the other week. I played against Alex when I was at Holyrood and we were both 15-years-old playing with the Under-18s so at an early age when you are being pushed into an older team, you feel as if you’ve got something. I was training with Kilmarnock on a Tuesday night and Celtic on a Thursday so at that time I was hoping to be a professional.
If I had to give some advice to a youngster who wants to be a Celtic player I would have to say that it is a lot harder to be footballer that it was in my day. I don’t know if they are fitter but they appear to be fitter and the game is played at a much faster pace. So kids would have to look to the likes of Aiden McGeady, who has got himself super-fit to the level that you need to be nowadays. I think we played a bit slower in our day and moved the ball about a bit more but it’s a lot quicker now. In our day, players tended to get apprenticeships over and done with, like Jim Craig did, but when you want to be a professional footballer you’ve just got to get down to it and fitness is of utmost importance these days. That’s something that was only introduced at Celtic when Jock Stein arrived, as before that the training was a joke at Celtic Park as we were never as fit as the other teams. So get your head down, get fit as fiddle and if you’re a good player you’ll get there.
(Official site)
Mark Henderson
IT was 70 years ago today (Wednesday) that Charlie Gallagher was born into the Irish stronghold of the Gorbals. Like many brought up in that area of Glasgow, he dreamed of one day wearing the Hoops.
When the chance came, not even the persuasive powers of Willie Waddell at Kilmarnock could change his mind, and he was soon being put through his paces at night under the dim Paradise lights.
Supporters who watched him performthere for the next 12 years would be thankful for his single-mindedness.
“When I first joined Celtic, I actually started training with them when I was 16 or 17,” he told this week’s Celtic View. “I was training with Kilmarnock as well, as I played with Kilmarnock Amateurs too.
So I was training two nights a week, once at Celtic and once at Kilmarnock. But I think Celtic heard about me through John Murphy, who was the announcer at the start of the game and also my PE teacher at Holyrood.
“He realised I was down at Kilmarnock as there were a couple of other Holyrood boys down there as well and he was desperate to get me up to Celtic, so he got me up training.
“Although I was at Celtic, I was still at Kilmarnock and they were trying to sign me as well. Willie Waddell was the manager there at the time, and I told him I had an offer from Celtic and he couldn’t make me change my mind.
“He realised it himself and said he was the same himself when he was a young guy when Rangers were after him and to be fair he never pursued it. He just said on you go and all the best to you.And that’s what I remember.
“I went up to Celtic and we just trained at night. I’m sure you’ve heard the story often that there was only a wee light at each corner of the stand and we were training in that. And when I went full-time, I signed on my 18th birthday in 1958, and that’s when it really started.”
Gallagher would remain at Celtic for over a decade as the club was transformed from perennial underachievers into one of best teams in the world under Jock Stein.
During that era, the silky midfielder would make a massive contribution to those achievements, making over 200 appearances in the greatest Hoops side ever assembled, and narrowly missing out on a place in the European Cup final in Lisbon.
He also scored 32 goals for Celtic, including one on his birthday in 1962. Although unable to remember that particular strike, summoning up the memory of his most prized Hoops goal is certainly an easier matter. Supporters who were there when it happened, though, may have greater difficulty in their recollections.
“My favourite was obviously the one against Rangers, in the 5-1 victory in 1965,” said Gallagher.
“They scored first and then we hammered them. It was a bad, foggy day and I don’t think half the supporters saw the goals. They all went into the Celtic End, so they would have seen them but I am not sure about those who were in The Jungle.”
His outstanding performances for Celtic also saw him being the first Scottish-born player to represent Ireland, a record he remains proud of.
“It wasn’t the highlight of my life but it was one the top moments in my life, particularly my second cap which was in Dublin against the team that was running riot in Europe, Czechoslovakia,” he said.
“They were one of the top teams in the world at the time. To do that and be reminded every time I get introduced that I was the first Scots-born player to play for the Republic is something I am quite happy with. Both my parents were Irish and everyone in my family were Irish, so I was quite happy with that.”
Talented trailblazer who failed to fit in
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/sport/football/scotland/article4469071.ece?shareToken=ad70b34964c3f8dd781e0c63e45618ea
Graham Spiers
Last updated at 12:01AM, June 13 2015
Charlie Gallagher was the first Scot to play for Ireland — ‘but it never really worked out’, Graham Spiers reports
People have almost forgotten about Charlie Gallagher. Now 74, the former Celtic playmaker of the 1960s was the first Scots-born player to play for Ireland, though it proved a brief flirtation.
Gallagher’s parents, Daniel and Annie, were Irish born and bred, from Donegal. Daniel Gallagher was a “navvy” who took any work he could get, eventually relocating with his young wife to Glasgow and the febrile congestion of the Gorbals. “We were all there — me, my family, aunts and uncles, all of them Irish,” recalled Gallagher yesterday. “The place was steeped in Ireland.”
Gallagher was thus born in the heart of Glasgow, and as an 18-year-old was spotted as a promising footballer by Celtic. He played for the club throughout the 1960s, remembered as a fine passer and “a player with intelligence”, though a difficult relationship with Jock Stein meant it took Gallagher 11 seasons to muster 171 appearances for the club. But it was on the international stage — and for Ireland, not Scotland — that Gallagher made his historic impact, in February 1967, after a significant rule change in international football.
“Sean Fallon, who was Jock Stein’s assistant, came up to me one day and said, ‘Charlie, I need to have a word’,” Gallagher recalls. “I said, ‘aye, sure, what is it?’ I thought Sean had some transfer news for me, good or bad. Sean says, ‘how would you like to play for Ireland?’ I said, ‘I can’t, Sean, I’m Scottish.’ He said, ‘no, no, they’ve changed the rules . . . your parents are Irish, you can play for them.’ I told Sean that, in that case, I’d be delighted to play for Ireland.”
Two fateful games became the beginning and the end of Gallagher’s international career. He played for Ireland on a chaotic night against Turkey in Ankara on February 22 1967, and then against the former Czechoslovakia three months later at Dalymount Park.
“The whole thing never really worked out for me,” he says. “I’d flown to London to meet my new Ireland team-mates, and found the guys gathered in a bar. I couldn’t believe it — I came from a football background where Jock Stein would kill you if he saw you in a bar. I went up and introduced myself and they said, ‘what are you having to drink?’ I told them I wasn’t drinking anything, because that’s just how it was at Celtic.
“There was a young lad in that squad — like me, a newcomer — called Al Finucane and he took me aside. He said, ‘look, Charlie, you might find this a bit difficult . . . the Dublin boys are very clannish, they all stick together.’ So it proved quite a tough experience for me.”
Gallagher’s Ireland career was over before it had scarcely got started. Looking back, he says, there was good and bad in his history-making experience.
“The truth is, I wasn’t much help to them on the pitch. Maybe they thought I’d be a fantastic player, coming from Celtic, but I didn’t offer much in my two games. And it just fizzled out after that. I went long periods not getting into the Celtic team — this was the Lisbon Lions era — and Ireland just seemed to forget about me.
“But one thing it did do was make the Celtic support take me to their hearts all the more. They loved the fact that I’d played for Ireland — many of them were of Irish descent themselves. They loved me for it.”
Back in Glasgow, Gallagher had one more battle to do — with Jock Stein. No matter how well he played, he says, Stein was cool towards him.
“In terms of football management, Stein was one of the best ever. I have no argument with that at all. But I didn’t care for his attitude to me.
“I was a ‘Kelly Kid’, one of the lads signed for Celtic by Bob Kelly. I don’t know if Stein objected to this — me not being one of his signings — and whether it made him dislike me a wee bit. He tried to move me out of Celtic a few times, and finally did after season 1967-68, which had been my best-ever season for Celtic, a great championship-winning season, after which I hardly kicked a ball again for Celtic. All I can say is, Stein made me feel very frustrated.”
Today Gallagher lives quietly in Glasgow. Who will he support this evening? “Oh, Ireland,” he says hesitantly. “Though I don’t want Scotland to get any doing.”
Celtic great, Charlie Gallagher, passes away By Paul Cuddihy, Celtic View Editor
Everyone at Celtic Football Club is extremely sad to hear of the death of Charlie Gallagher, who has passed away at the age of 80, and the thoughts and prayers of the whole Celtic Family are with Charlie’s wife, Mary, his children and grandchildren, and all his family and friends.
Charlie’s contribution to his beloved Celtic over 12 years was immense, and having joined the club in 1958, he would become an integral part of the squad which achieved great things both in Scotland and in Europe under the stewardship of Jock Stein.
He made his debut on August 22, 1958 in a League Cup tie against Raith Rovers, a match that Celtic won 1-0, and it would be the first of 171 appearances he would make for the Hoops, scoring 32 goals in the process before he left in 1970.
During that time, Charlie made a massive contribution to the club’s achievements, and also made international football history as the first Scottish-born player to represent the Republic of Ireland.
He played a key part in two pivotal moments for Celtic – delivering the corner which Billy McNeill headed home to win the 1965 Scottish Cup, a triumph which set Jock Stein’s Celtic on the road to unprecedented success.
Two years later, the same duo combined to see off Vojvodina in the quarter-final of the European Cup and take the Hoops a closer to European glory, and Charlie was one of those who narrowly missed out on a place in the starting XI for the final in Lisbon. Yet, he celebrated that triumph with his team-mates and has always been rightly acknowledged as part of the Lisbon Lions squad.
That Vojvodina game was just one of many European nights that Charlie experienced, going all the way back to Celtic’s first ever European tie against Valencia in 1962.
Domestically, he won the clean sweep of Scottish honours – league, Scottish Cup and League Cup while, in February 1967, Jock Stein made him captain for a Scottish Cup tie against Elgin City in recognition of his achievement in playing for the Republic of Ireland.
Charlie was a great Celt who was also a great Celtic supporter, willing the team on to further success and always humble about his achievements.
Charlie Gallagher was a hugely popular figure amongst the Celtic support, who always recognised him as one of their own. His many achievements for Celtic Football Club will always be remembered.
The Celtic players will wear black armbands on Wednesday night when they play Bristol City as a mark of respect for the Celtic great.
CHARLIE GALLAGHER – A TRIBUTE
-http://celticunderground.net/charlie-gallagher-a-tribute/
Posted by St Anthony | Jul 11, 2021 | Season 2020-2021 | 0 |
CHARLIE GALLAGHER – A TRIBUTE
It was with great sadness that Celtic fans learned today of the passing of Celtic legend, Charlie Gallagher. Charlie represented Celtic for 11 years between 1959 and 1970 and was an important figure during the early days of Jock Stein’s managerial reign which led to such enormous success in the mid to late 1960’s. Although Charlie was to enjoy the glory days, it should always be recalled that success did not come easily. He, like many of his contemporaries such as Bobby Murdoch, Bobby Lennox and Jimmy Johnstone, had to endure a particularly miserable time and suffer a lot of setbacks before Scottish football was turned on its axis by Stein’s arrival as Celtic’s new manager in March 1965.
Charlie will always be recalled in Celtic’s history for three particular reasons. Firstly, he floated a perfect corner on to the head of Billy McNeill for the winning goal in the 1965 Scottish Cup final against Dunfermline in front of a packed Hampden crowd, a goal which changed Celtic’s fortunes in every respect. Secondly, there was another pinpoint corner, on to McNeill’s head once again, against Vojvodina in the 1967 European Cup tie, for the most dramatic ending to a game ever played at Celtic Park. Without that last gasp winning goal then Lisbon may not have been possible. Lastly, Charlie was hugely influential in the run in to the league title in 1968 when he was given a long run in the team following an injury to Bertie Auld, and he responded with some great displays as Celtic embarked on a long unbeaten run to pip Rangers to the title.
An old fashioned inside forward who was converted to a midfield man, Charlie was a wonderful striker of the ball with both his right and left foot. There were two particular instances of this, the first in the 1965 Scottish Cup final against Dunfermline when he crashed a shot against the crossbar from 30 yards which resulted in a goal for Bertie Auld. The second example was in January 1966 when Charlie scored with a glorious shot on a misty January day at Parkhead when Celtic beat Rangers 5-1 in a game which would long stay in the memory.
In his last few seasons he experienced a difficult relationship with Jock Stein, as a number of his colleagues, the players from the Lisbon era, have testified in later years. He was used more sparingly and was an enormous help to the wonderful Celtic reserve players of that period, collectively referred to as the Quality Street Gang. In one of his last Celtic appearances, in 1968, he was replaced against Hamilton in a League Cup tie by a very youthful Kenny Dalglish as competition for places in the Celtic first team intensified.
Stein became angered by Charlie’s refusal to move from Parkhead. In 1969 Stein sent Charlie to Manchester on the train to meet a representative of a Lancashire club who were interested in signing him. In later years Charlie could not recall whether it was Bury, Blackburn or Oldham, but their representative to meet him at Manchester Piccadilly did not show, leaving Charlie to report to a frustrated Stein, happy in the knowledge he didn’t have to leave his beloved Celtic and uproot his young family. He eventually moved to Dumbarton in 1970 and enjoyed an Indian summer as The Sons of the rock were promoted to Scottish football’s top flight and he had several good games against Celtic where the Parkhead crowd were always guaranteed to give him a fine reception.
Charlie was proud to become the first Scottish born player to represent the Republic of Ireland under the parentage rule in 1968. As someone who was immensely proud of his Irish heritage, this was a great honour but he commented in later years that there was a clique of London based Ireland players who were not very welcoming to new faces.
I was privileged to do a podcast with Charlie in his Bishopbriggs home a few years ago. He told me that it used to frustrate him that people generally remembered him for those two great corner kicks from which Billy McNeill scored such memorable goals. However, in later years, he grew to be proud of his contribution to Celtic’s history from those two corners. They were small but hugely important factors which shaped Celtic’s history enormously. That podcast will now be online for posterity and I hope that the Gallagher family will look back on that wee interview as a source of pride in the years to come.
In his later years, Charlie Gallagher could always be seen before Celtic home games, standing outside the ground, resplendent in his Lisbon Lions blazer, happy to stand and talk to fans, old and young, about his career and share his memories. Although he did not play in Lisbon he was an influential player in the earlier rounds leading to the final and he played a huge part in the overall success which Jock Stein’s Celtic enjoyed during the glory years between 1965 and 1970. For that reason, he will always be fondly remembered.
Charlie Gallagher was a Celt to his very core. May God rest him and may he rest in peace.
Scotsman Obituaries: Charlie Gallagher, Celtic legend
Charlie Gallagher, Celtic footballer. Born: 3 November 1940 in Glasgow. Died: 11 July 2021, aged 80
By Jack Davidson
Monday, 19th July 2021, 7:00 am
https://www.scotsman.com/news/people/scotsman-obituaries-charlie-gallagher-celtic-legend-3311666
Charlie Gallagher was a highly valued squad member of Celtic’s “Lisbon Lions” who made history in 1967 by becoming the first British team to win the European Cup, now the Champions’ League.
Although not in the team which triumphed in the Portuguese capital against the highly fancied Inter Milan, the club always recognised his part in the success. His teammates also fully considered Gallagher a Lion and he was a regular and welcome presence at commemorative functions.
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Gallagher played in two games en route to the Final, the home tie in the 2nd round against Nantes and the home quarter final tie against Vojvodina, in which he played a crucial role.
With Celtic 1-0 down from the away leg and having pulled a goal back to reach level terms, it seemed inevitable as full time loomed that a third game would be necessary to decide the stalemate.
However, in the final minute Celtic were awarded a corner which Gallagher expertly floated high into the penalty area with radar-like precision to be met powerfully by the head of onrushing skipper Billy McNeill, sending the home fans into raptures and Celtic into the semi-finals.
He also made history as the first Scottish-born player to be capped for the Republic of Ireland, through Donegal-born parents, winning caps against Turkey and Czechoslovakia in 1967.
Gallagher was an old-fashioned inside forward, a midfielder in today’s parlance, a skilful player, comfortable on the ball, who could create space for his forwards, to whom he would spray inch-perfect passes with either foot.
Gallagher also possessed a thunderous shot, and these qualities compensated for a relative lack of pace and physicality.
He spent 12 years at Celtic, winning three League Championship medals – in 1966, 1967 and 1968 – plus one Scottish Cup medal in 1965 and a League Cup one, also in 1965.
After his recent death, the club issued a statement: “Charlie made an immense contribution to his beloved Celtic over 12 years, having joined the club in 1958, he was an integral part of the squad which achieved great things in Scotland and Europe under the stewardship of Jock Stein. Charlie was a hugely popular figure with the Celtic support, who always recognised him as one of their own.”
Lisbon Lion and friend Jim Craig was quoted: ”He was a lovely man, Charlie, he was very quiet and he made himself a friend of everybody, there were never any bad moments with him.”
Gallagher first played for St John’s [Gorbals] Boys’ Guild and then for Holyrood Senior Secondary School before joining Kilmarnock Amateurs.
In 1958 he signed for junior club Yoker Athletic and in September that year became a “provisional” signing for Celtic, having been recommended by John Murphy, his former school PE teacher and an announcer at Parkhead on match days.
Gallagher made his full professional debut as an 18-year-old on 22 August 1959 at Parkhead, in the League Cup against Raith Rovers. A report highlighted his potential: “Gallagher played his first match for the first team and he may develop into a very fine player. Not for many a day have I seen a player make so many accurate long passes, and he gave Rovers’ defence a most harrowing afternoon.”
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At this time success was thin on the ground for Celtic, although promising individuals were coming through, well-known names such as McNeill, Bertie Auld, Pat Crerand and others known collectively as the “Kelly Kids”, a nod to the influence of chairman Robert Kelly.
The 1961 Scottish Cup Final against Dunfermline Athletic offered the club the chance of redemption but after two games in front of a total crowd of 200,000, the Fifers prevailed, with Gallagher playing in both.
Success in the Glasgow Cup the following season, when he scored twice in the final, offered a crumb of comfort, while later in 1962 Celtic and Gallagher made their debut in European competition against Valencia in the Fairs Cup, the first of a total 13 European appearances.
In April 1965 shortly after the appointment of Jock Stein, Celtic brought their barren spell to an end by winning the Scottish Cup against Dunfermline, with Gallagher providing a pinpoint corner for the crucial winning headed goal by McNeill, having earlier laid on the team’s first goal in the 3-2 success.
And six months later Gallagher won a League Cup medal against perennial rivals Rangers as Celtic’s fortunes improved greatly under Stein, with the first of nine consecutive League titles being secured later that season, the first of three for Gallagher.
Reportedly, tension grew between the manager and Gallagher, who played little towards the end of the decade, and in 1970 he joined Dumbarton, for whom he played 95 games and scored 41 goals.
He was an important member of the team which won the old 2nd Division title in 1972, bringing top tier football to the club for the first time in 50 years.
After retiring in 1973 he had a spell as a scout for Celtic and later worked as a taxi driver. He and his family lived in Bishopbriggs and he is survived by wife Mary, children Paul, Kieron and Claire, and several grandchildren.
Charlie Gallagher Funeral Arrangements
Funeral Mass 10.00am Wednesday 21st July St.Dominic’s Bishopbriggs – The PP is still restricting the numbers to 50. The family are making arrangements for the service to be viewable online.
Cortege will come into Celtic Park via Jock Stein Stand Car Park and go down the Celtic Way – Estimated time 11.15am.
Then 11.45am Daldowie Crematorium.