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Title: Sean Fallon: Celtic’s Iron Man
Author: Stephen Sullivan (authorised biography)
Published: 9 Aug 2013
Player Homepage: Sean Fallon
Synopsis
Sean Fallon is one of British football s great untold stories. For the first time, the Celtic legend speaks candidly about his time as right-hand man to Jock Stein and how together they ruled Scottish football and conquered Europe with the Lisbon Lions.
We learn how the Irishman shaped Celtic’s glory era of the 1960s and 70s by signing not only the majority of the Lions, but also players such as Kenny Dalglish, Danny McGrain, Lou Macari, George Connelly, Davie Hay, Pat Bonner and Paul McStay.
Fallon also reflects on his stellar playing career including the 7-1 League Cup final win over Rangers in 1957, the lean years of the early 1960s and the uneasy final stages of his and Stein’s tenure at Celtic.
His own, oft-underestimated role is illuminated by revealing interviews with the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson, current Celtic boss Neil Lennon, chief executive Peter Lawwell, Stein’s son, George, Sean’s family and former colleagues.
Review
(by TheHumanTorpedo)
I last saw Sean Fallon at a Celtic Graves Society commemoration in March 2012. A few months short of his 90th birthday his mere presence underlined a most remarkable devotion to the club and support he had served and loved for decades. He looked typically unassuming, but he retained an aura few possess. The aura of a genuine football legend.
Sean’s passing in January 2013 highlighted the immense respect this humble man was held by football. Sean Fallon’s life was celebrated by all those with a love for the game. Alex Ferguson would say the best way to pay tribute to Sean would be to simply tell the story of his life. Thankfully that story has now finally been told.
In ‘Sean Fallon: Celtic’s Iron Man’ author Stephen Sullivan tells Sean’s story with an obvious respect and deep affection. The trust of his subject and the Fallon family, coupled with meticulous research, allows Sullivan to reward the reader with a colourful insight into both Sean’s life and career. While plenty of the characters and events in the Fallon story may be familiar, a page rarely passes without fresh light being cast on some of the most memorable personalities and moments in Celtic history.
Fallon’s own character is captured perfectly by the warmth and honesty which permeates the book. His personality seeps into every chapter. It’s almost impossible to read Sean’s words without hearing his distinctive and reassuring Sligo tones. The book has plenty of surprises. You can’t help but raise a smile at the revelation the man described by Billy McNeill as “..the toughest player I’ve ever played with or against..” was not only a “mammy’s boy” but also a fine decorator of cakes.
There’s a sense of fatalism to Fallon’s journey from Sligo to Glasgow’s east end. How fortunate then for the Parkhead faithful that destiny delivered them such a dedicated and capable servant – although “fortunate” was probably not the first feeling that came to the mind of those supporters who witnessed the Irishman net an own goal on his first team debut!
As a player and assistant manager at Fallon would play his part in many of Celtic’s greatest triumphs. From the joy of Celtic finding seventh heaven at Hampden in 1957 to being crowned Kings of Europe a decade later, Fallon and Sullivan provide a unique insight to these immortal triumphs and many others. But there were struggles and disappointment too. His account of the dysfunctional Celtic of the early 1950s makes for fascinating reading. Fallon’s disgusting treatment by the board when he was demoted from his role as Stein’s assistant is met by a more muted response than the then custodians of the club deserve.
The cast list for the Sean Fallon story makes for remarkable reading – Charlie Tully, Jimmy Hogan, Bertie Peacock, Pope Pious XII, Danny Kaye, Jimmy McGrory, Bing Crosby, Bob Kelly, Sean Connery, Alex Ferguson, the Lisbon Lions and, of course, Jock Stein. And that’s just scratching the surface.
Then there’s the time he traveled to Dublin to speak to the IRA about a threat to blow up the main stand at Parkhead….!
Of course when he wasn’t rubbing shoulders with stars he was uncovering them. Sean’s unrivaled eye for talent – and persuasive manner – was a crucial ingredient in the success of Stein’s Celtic. The author’s comparison of the Parkhead management to the famed Clough/Taylor partnership is a valid one. Fallon’s relationship with Jock – like all long-term close relationships – was not without it’s strains but their’s was a truly unique bond. It was a friendship forged as self-proclaimed “ordinary” players in the Parkhead dressing room. But there was certainly nothing ordinary about what the pair would go on to achieve. With typical honesty Fallon is not uncritical about Stein. Jock would not have expected anything else. But more than anything Fallon’s reverence, respect and love for the man from Burnbank shines through.
Although hugely passionate about Celtic and football Sean was a man of devout faith who never lost sight of the fact that there were more important things in life than sport. His account of the Ibrox disaster is deeply moving. Fallon would take to the pitch to aid stricken and distraught supporters. His actions would save a life. But his memories are haunted by those who went to a game of football and never returned home. Even decades on his grief palatable:- “That was the worst day of my life….it broke your heart”.
Without the Sean Fallon story the jigsaw of Celtic history was missing a vital piece. Stephen Sullivan’s wonderful book means that piece is now firmly in place. ‘Celtic’s Iron Man’ is a much welcome celebration of a Celtic legend. It is a fitting tribute to the remarkable life and career of Sean Fallon. There can be no stronger recommendation than that.
Review
By St Anthony
Many years ago I recall some friends and I discussing the merits of Sean Fallon and we all harboured a great regret that Sean did not write a book and have his life story told. It may have taken a long while to come to fruition but Stephen Sullivan can be justly proud of his affectionate biography of one of Celtic’s greatest sons.
The good news is this book is not only well written but is also easy to read. The author paints the picture of each stage of Sean’s life and Sean then gives a passage of narrative to inform the reader in Sean’s own words. I don’t know if it’s just me but reading Sean’s narrative I couldn’t help but hear his voice in my own mind with that distinctive, gentle Sligo brogue of his which we were all so familiar with.
The legendary stories of Sean’s life are all well told. Of how Jimmy McMenemy’s son saved Sean’s sister’s life in Lough Gill; the infamous clash with Rangers’ renowned hard man Sammy Baird; how Sean selected Jock Stein as Celtic captain and set Stein on the road to stardom; of how he persuaded Kenny Dalglish’s father to allow his son to sign for Celtic as his wife and family sat in the car in the street below; and of how Sean refused an enormous offer of £30,000 from the Sunday Mail in 1978 to dish the dirt on his days at Celtic.
These are all stories I was familiar with but it’s good to see them confirmed in print and there is plenty of material in the book which even the most ardent Celtic fan from the period will enjoy reading for the first time.
Growing up in his native Sligo, Sean Fallon believed it was his destiny to play for Celtic and he was able to realise that ambition. The early days of Sean’s life are revealed in great detail and he had an idyllic life in Sligo and it was a wretch for him to leave to advance his football career but he persevered in the hope that one day Celtic would come calling.
A man of great faith, he held on to a deep conviction that he would achieve his ambition to play for the Celts. And when the chance came to go to Glasgow he was to grab the opportunity with both hands. He served Celtic tremendously as player and coach but it’s when he becomes assistant manger to Jock Stein that success comes to him. In droves.
This book also gives a remarkable insight into Jock Stein, both as a man and a manager as Sean, being his assistant, knew him best of all. Stein is painted as a hard task master but he also had a sensitive side to him but he always managed to avoid showing any emotion in front of his players as if it was a weakness to hide from them. The two men shared a close bond and eventually became near neighbours. Sean’s kids refer to Stein as ‘Uncle Jock’ and the families obviously still have a tremendous affection for each other.
When I was a boy my father would point to the Celtic bench with admiration. ‘See they guys there son ?….they are the most knowledgeable men in British football.’ And he was spot on. Stein couldn’t have wished for a more loyal and trustworthy team under him than Sean, Neilly Mochan, Bob Rooney and Jimmy Steele, all of whom are held in the highest regard by Celtic fans to this day.
Stephen Sullivan makes the comparison between Stein and Fallon’s relationship and that of Brian Clough and Peter Taylor. Perhaps a better example would have been to compare them to Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley at Liverpool. Shankly created the Anfield boot room and there’s no doubt a similar system operated at Parkhead during Stein‘s reign as Celtic manager.
Paisley replaced Shankly at Anfield in 1974 and went on to surpass anything that Shankly had achieved and had Jock Stein been seduced by the lure of Manchester United in 1971 then it would have been fascinating to consider if Sean would have taken over at Celtic and how successful he would have been as Celtic manager in his own right. Particularly as the ‘Quality Street Gang’ generation of young players were breaking through at that time and they had all been spotted and reared by Fallon.
By 1971 Celtic Park was the Camelot of Scottish football with Celtic reigning supreme in Scotland and also a tremendous force in European football. The villain of the peace then becomes new Celtic chairman Desmond White. Beforehand the old chairman, Sir Robert Kelly, had been revered by both Stein and Fallon. Celtic had resisted big offers from big English and continental clubs for their star players as Kelly sought to have Celtic continue to compete at the highest level. That ended with Kelly’s sad passing in September 1971 with Celtic being ‘in the unhealthy situation of having Desmond White as chairman, secretary and treasurer.’ The power within Parkhead had now switched from the manager to the chairman.
Fallon is typically gentle in his criticism of White but you can read between the lines. We are told that when Sean joined Celtic from Glenavon that he took a pay cut to join and when he joined Dumbarton after leaving Celtic he was placed on a higher salary at Boghead. As Stein and Fallon sought to consolidate their Parkhead empire, White seemed determined to dismantle it by allowing Macari, Hay and Dalglish to depart with indecent haste. Celtic should have been the team of the 70’s, competing with Ajax and Bayern Munich at the highest level. Instead by 1978 they were competing in the Anglo Scottish Cup. Fallon also remained convinced that Dalglish would have stayed with Celtic in 1977 had the financial conditions been right.
Sean Fallon’s departure from Celtic makes for painful reading. He was betrayed by the parsimonious Celtic board after having been promised a job for life and a testimonial by Desmond White. Despite the hurt he must have suffered he steadfastly refused to denigrate White or Celtic in his later years and Sean Fallon remained a true Celt to the very end. There is also the disappointment of discovering that Jock Stein did not fight to retain Sean’s services as his assistant when Stein must have known that it was his very own authority which was now being called into question upon Sean’s release from the club.
Fallon gives a harrowing account of the Ibrox disaster in 1971. It is described as being like a scene from ‘Belsen’ and Fallon reveals that he saved the life of a young fan by giving him the kiss of life, something he had learned as a life guard in his native Sligo many years previously. He only revealed this story shortly before his death and had no wish to seek any publicity or acclamation for assisting in the most desperate of situations.
There are only two regrets that I have about this book. Firstly the wish that Sean had brought his story out years ago and secondly that he did not live to see this book published. The Celtic players loved Sean Fallon dearly, as did the supporters. In conversations older fans always referred to him simply and reverently as Sean and never by his surname.
This book is a tale well told, lovingly so, about the most hard working, humble and modest man who ever served Celtic and their supporters. It is thoroughly recommended. Every Celtic household should have a copy.
Product Details
- Hardcover: 300 pages
- Publisher: BackPage Press; First edition (9 Aug 2013)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1909430013
- ISBN-13: 978-1909430013
Links
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Other Reviews
Sean Fallon – Celtic’s Iron Man by Stephen Sullivan
Review here (with pics): http://theshamrockglasgow.wordpress.com/2014/02/26/celtic-book-review-sean-fallon-celtics-iron-man-by-stephen-sullivan/
Fallon, the strong, who undismayed,
Fronted the hostile roar,
Staunch as the rugged rocks that guard,
His native Sligo’s shore
Time shall not dim your lustre,
And none your right gainsay,
To measure your feat with the brightest page
In Celtic’s history.
Of all the things remembered about Sean Fallon, his role in Celtic’s historic 7-1 Cup Final victory over Rangers is sometimes overlooked. The above poem, from the 1958 Celtic Supporters Association Handbook and republished in Stephen Sullivan’s long-awaited biography of Celtic’s other famous Sligoman, highlighted the support’s gratitude for a solid appearance not just at Hampden In the Sun but throughout the 1950s. Fallon helped provide the much-needed backbone for a team resplendent with individual talent – and the platform for winning silverware which had become an unfamiliar visitor to the Celtic Park boardroom.
‘The Iron Man’ was how Fallon came to be known among the Celtic support of the day. Yet the impact this one individual had on the course of the club’s history went far beyond being a purveyor of bone-shaking tackles. One of the difficulties which the author faced was condensing Sean Fallon’s story into a single book as his day-to-day connection with Celtic spanned three triumphant and tumultuous decades in the most amazing phase in the club’s history. Another was the reticence of a man who preferred instead to extol the virtues of colleagues and who had long resisted overtures to tell his own, unique Celtic Story. In this regard we have a young generation of Fallons to be grateful for as they proved the spur for Sean to decide to work with Stephen Sullivan to “put something down for the grandkids.”
It is a decision which all Celtic fans should be grateful for because this is one of the most interesting and important Celtic books published. Here is the inside track on what it was like to play for Celtic in the 1950s and to be part of the management team during the club’s darkest and brightest periods from the early 1960s through to the late 1970s. It also the tale of a football talent-spotter supreme. The story is told in a refreshingly honest manner as would be expected of Sean Fallon and it is clear that his focus was not on dishing any dirt but simply setting the record straight – and adding to that public record.
He fills some of the blanks about things left largely unspoken in the club’s history. He tells of his working relationship with club chairman Bob Kelly who seized control of team affairs and wouldn’t let them go; the difficulties he faced after being appointed first-team coach by Kelly under his old manager Jimmy McGrory who was suspicious and resentful of the move (on which Kelly had not conferred with the manager); how Jock Stein came to be appointed manager rather than him yet the two former playing colleagues went on to forge a working partnership that drove Celtic to massive success; and how it all came apart at the hands of unscrupulous directors who ignored a previous pledge of a job for life at Celtic Park.
And then there are the various stories of how Sean’s famous eye for a player and wonderful manner led him to entice a generation of great footballers to Celtic Park, from Bertie Auld to Kenny Dalglish, Ronnie Simpson to Pat Bonner, Tommy Burns to Paul McStay – and many others in between. Typical of the man he instead praises the work of others involved in bringing players to his attention, including a publican (Danny McGrain), a priest (Davie Hay) and a car dealer (Tommy Burns)! The Quality Street Kids, Celtic’s famed reserve team of the 1960s, were invariably known as “Sean’s Boys” and in this book we have Sean’s take on the success of Lisbon in ’67 as well as the despair of Milan in ’70 and the reasons for both.
Some of the most intriguing parts of the book concern the family and private life of Sean Fallon which he freely reveals as he considers these often necessary to understand how his professional life played out the way it did. To this end, while much of the book is based on detailed interviews with the man himself, it also benefits from input from a range of observers and participants along the way (including Sean’s wife Myra and children) so that the author wasn’t left to rely entirely on his subject’s recollections. On occasions the former players and colleagues interviewed challenge Sean’s position on certain matters, giving this football book an unusually open and critical approach is welcomed.
We come to understand how his life-long commitment to Celtic was inherited from his father, who lived for a while in Glasgow as a young man and caught the Celtic ‘bug’ then. His father was a former British soldier whose decision to enter local politics in Sligo and run for Mayor despite challenges from Republicans provides an interesting slant on the ‘poppy’ remembrance issue which continues to generate controversy around Celtic and its support. His son went on to represent Ireland at international level but became embroiled in controversy of his own when he decided to play for the northern Irish League against the Republic-based League of Ireland whilst a Glenavon player. This appearance, however, opened the door to a move to Celtic – as did Sean’s decision to shave almost six years off his actual age to persuade the club they were securing the services of an enthusiastic 22 year old as opposed to an experienced 28 year old! The lie was maintained for a number of years and it proved to be in Celtic’s best interests as ‘The Iron Man’ played in the first team through until his mid-30s despite a series of bad knocks and injuries which would have been the ruin of lesser men.
Personally, the most fascinating aspect of the book was the illumination it brought to the key period of the late 1950s through to the mid-1960s. From the experimental Kelly Kids (effectively the Busby Babes without the significant Busby input and guidance) to a series of debilitating and high-profile cup defeats before the return of Jock Stein to the club, here we have an insider’s account on what was going so badly wrong behind the scenes at Celtic Park. In the eyes of the players, Sean Fallon was the man to turn their fortunes around – yet when given the opportunity to do, he appeared not to take it. This was largely down to his complicated relationships with Jimmy McGrory and Bob Kelly¬ and, crucially, the absence of effective leadership at the club. While Sean Fallon never lost faith in his own ability to manage he was equally convinced that acting as assistant to his good friend Stein was an appropriate and rewarding way for him to maintain his key professional aim – to serve Celtic Football Club to the best of his abilities and in its best interests.
There is so much of value in this book that it’s unlikely any Celtic supporter, no matter how much they know about the club, will not learn something new from Sean Fallon’s story and the entirely engaging way it has been told here.
Sean’s dedication to the cause of Celtic was illustrated late in his life on 20th March 2012. That was the occasion on which the Celtic Graves Society organised a commemoration in honour of Michael Dolan, Celtic’s first ever goalkeeper, at a Lanarkshire cemetery which formed part of that year’s Coatbridge St. Patrick’s Festival. Despite being just four months short of his 90th birthday Sean delighted every Celtic supporter present by taking the time and effort to attend and speak at the event. Fortunately the whole Celtic support had the opportunity to remind Sean he had a place in their hearts a few months later when, before a packed Celtic Park, he unfurled the league championship flag on August 4 2012, to a magnificent roar around the stadium. It was to be a final public hurrah in the service of the club he followed devoutly, with Sean passing away on January 18th the following year.
The Iron Man legend lives on however. After sustaining a double-fracture to his arm in an accidental collision with the Celtic great Jimmy Delaney in the first-half of a game against Falkirk in December 1952, Sean’s decision to play on drew admiration from Delaney who felt compelled to write to the Sligoman after the incident: “The fact that you played right through the rest of the game proves you have the old Celtic spirit.” It is that wonderful Celtic spirit, something that Jimmy Delaney knew all about, which infused Sean Fallon’s life and which the author has done a magnificent job in capturing here. For those grandkids he has certainly put something special down and this book represents a true appreciation of a great, humble and honest man – whose life was dedicated to his family and Celtic.
This excellent biography will help ensure that Sean Fallon long remains a shining star in the Celtic galaxy. The 1958 poet was right in his prediction: time has not dimmed in his lustre.
The Shamrock rating: 9/10