THE 100 YEARS OF OUR MOST FAMOUS KITMAN
Charlie O’Leary captured the hearts of a nation during the Jack Charlton years and celebrates a centenary today
CHARLIE O’LEARY turns 100 today – and the most famous kitman in Irish history has spent the week receiving visits and taking calls from giants of Irish sport. Tomorrow night, a grand celebration in Clontarf Castle will see many more of them in attendance as the little man who became a national figure for his big part in the Jack
Charlton years takes centre stage. It’s not necessarily where he feels most comfortable, but he is moved by the kindness of people.
‘It’s sort of coming at me with people ringing and calling in. I’m not being disrespectful when I say that, but I don’t know what day it is!’ he chuckled yesterday.
‘I think tomorrow will never come – and pass as quick as it can. It’s not every day you get all these people calling but they want to be kind!’
O’Leary was the man put in charge of the Irish team’s playing kit in the glory years masterminded by Charlton, and he had a front-row seat for the remarkable adventures at Euro ’88 and the unforgettable victory over England, and at Italia ’90 two years later.
It was a meeting off the pitch at that tournament that provides one of the enduring images of O’Leary’s part in a golden age. He stood alongside Pope John Paul II when the Irish team had an audience with the pontiff in the Vatican.
His faith remains important and today will start with a Mass for him in his local church, Our Lady of Mercy in Artane, ‘then after that a little bit of a birthday cake and a cup of tea’, he says.
‘Then after that I’ll have the family around, and on Friday we have the reception in Clontarf Castle.
‘I’ve had nothing to do with this by the way, it’s my family that organised it,’ he says with a modesty that those who know him say is characteristic of this dignified man.
Foremost among his birthday duties is a visit to the grave of his wife Kathleen, who passed away in 2009.
‘Very importantly, if not before Mass, certainly after Mass I’ll go to my wife’s grave,’ he says. He never misses a weekly visit to the woman to whom he was married for 58 years. ‘I never miss a Saturday, and sometimes I go Saturday and Sunday.’
The FAI, the organisation that O’Leary served with such distinction as a player, a referee and an administrator before joining the national setup under Charlton, is rarely out of the headlines, and it has been back in the news this week after a board meeting that heard the search for a manager for the men’s team is ongoing.
Central to that search is Packie Bonner, the much-loved goalkeeper throughout the Charlton years and now part of the hunt for a replacement for Stephen Kenny. Bonner is on the FAI board and was en route to Tuesday’s meeting when he diverted to visit O’Leary and wish him happy birthday.
‘Packie’s father-in-law has the same birthday as I have, so he was hurrying back to Scotland for that, and he called in to explain,’ says O’Leary of the goalkeeper’s absence from tomorrow night’s celebrations. Paul McGrath was another caller this week.
‘Paul is a regular visitor to the house here,’ says O’Leary. ‘He was only here a couple of weeks ago.’
These enduring relations attest to the bonds that sport can, at its best, forge between people. The closeness of those involved in the Charlton years is down to the leadership of Big Jack, insists O’Leary.
‘That was one thing you have to say
about Jack, he built the bond that was there. There was no such thing as being the kit-man, the captain, or the star. Everyone was the same – Jack made it like that,’ he insists, before giving an example of a simple change Charlton made to the players’ schedule that helped to bring them closer together.
‘Before his time, the team would be announced and stay in a hotel. The Dublin-born players would arrive, leave their gear in the hotel and go and stay in their parents’ house.
‘The lads whose parents were born in England would stay in the hotel. But Jack said, “No, the Dublin-born players report to the hotel, go home to your parents and say hello, but make sure you’re back in the hotel and stay with us.” From then on, we were always together.’
That O’Leary was a part of the greatest story in Irish sporting history is down to a twist of fate. In the early 1980s, he worked in a voluntary capacity for the FAI as a liaison officer for international teams visiting Dublin.
Before Charlton’s first match, against Wales in 1986, O’Leary was looking after the needs of the Welsh. Before the game, he visited the Irish camp, looking to borrow a pump from Mick Byrne, another famous figure from those years.
Charlton recognised O’Leary, with the latter confirming that he had once refereed him. When O’Leary left, Charlton asked Byrne about him and what he did, and decided that he needed O’Leary working for Ireland, not the opposition.
So began a 14-year involvement that saw him work under Charlton and Mick McCarthy.
Tributes from some of the biggest names in the history of Irish soccer have soundtracked his week, and there will be more tomorrow night. A life-long teetotaller, O’Leary’s good health is easy to understand when he talks about his morning routine.
‘My routine is I get Mass on the computer,’ he says. ‘Then I have a walking frame and I go for a walk around the block here. I never miss a morning, whether it’s cold or not. I go for 15 minutes or half an hour.’
Then he reads the newspaper, which he consumes avidly, while he is also still involved in the Leinster Football League.
There have been taller men and bigger names involved in the national team, but few who have devoted as much time or love to the game as Charlie O’Leary.
The attention he receives in the coming days may seem like a fuss to him, but there is nothing he can do about that. He commands too much respect and love for this milestone to pass quietly.
Happy birthday to a legend of Irish sport.