Thomas Morrison (16 December 1874 – 26 March 1940), also known as Ching Morrison, was a

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

for

Glentoran Glentoran Football Club is a professional football club that plays in the NIFL Premiership. The club was founded in 1882. History Early history In 1914, Glentoran won the Vienna Cup, becoming the first United Kingdom team to win a European t ...

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Bru ...

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

and

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

, and for the Ireland national team.Tom "Ching" Morrison
Northern Ireland's Footballing Greats, 26 October 2008

Club career

Morrison made his first appearance for

on 18 April 1891 in a Charity Cup game against

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United King ...

Solitude Solitude is a state of seclusion or isolation, meaning lack of socialisation. Effects can be either positive or negative, depending on the situation. Short-term solitude is often valued as a time when one may work, think, or rest without distu ...

. He scored in that match which was abandoned with the ''Glens'' trailing 4–1. The following season (1891–92) saw Morrison score 11 goals in just nine games, including a hat-trick in the Irish League against Ligoniel. Two seasons later, he was part of Glentoran's Irish-League winning side before moving to English football. Morrison transferred to

in March 1894 and made his debut in a game on 10 March against

Derby County Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Derby, Derbyshire, England. In 2022, it was announced that DCFC was acquired by Clowes Developments (UK) Ltd, a Derbyshire-based property group. Founded in 1884 ...

; he scored one goal in a 3–1 victory. Early the following season he was dismissed by the Burnley committee for misconduct. Morrison had another spell with Glentoran and a largely unsuccessful stint with

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. He is credited by the club's manager

Willie Maley William Patrick Maley (25 April 1868 – 2 April 1958) was an Irish-born Scottish international football player and manager. He was the first manager of Celtic Football Club, and one of the most successful managers in Scottish football histor ...

with being the first native Irishman to play for Celtic, meaning that a Protestant from East Belfast was the first Irish signing for a club with an overwhelmingly Catholic Irish reputation. He won the

Glasgow Merchants Charity Cup The Glasgow Merchants' Charity Cup was a knockout football tournament open to teams from in and around Glasgow and later on in the tournament's history, teams from outwith Glasgow. Invitations were made and sent out by the Glasgow Charity Cup ...

soon after arriving in 1895, scoring in the win over Rangers in the final, and played a small part in helping the ''Bhoys'' win the

1896 Events January–March * January 2 – The Jameson Raid comes to an end, as Jameson surrenders to the Boers. * January 4 – Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state. * January 5 – An Austrian newspaper reports that Wil ...

Scottish Football League The Scottish Football League (SFL) was a league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4 km south ...

championship with five appearances, but made only eight more over the next seven months. Morrison returned to Burnley in February 1897. The following season, he helped them to the Second Division title in

1898 Events January–March * January 1 – New York City annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York as the world's second largest. The city is geographically divided into five boroughs: Manhattan, B ...

. He remained at Burnley until the 1902–03 season when he signed for

. He gained the distinction of being Manchester United's first Irish player, although fellow Ulsterman Jack Peden had spent a season playing for United's predecessors Newton Heath during the previous decade. Morrison spent only one full season at Bank Street in the Second Division but did leave an impression with the fans by scoring the first goal in a memorable 2–1

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

upset of top-division

Notts County Notts County Football Club is a professional association football club based in Nottingham, England. The team participate in the National League (division), National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. Founded on the 2 ...

in February 1904. Morrison remained at Manchester United until the beginning of the 1904–05 season when he signed for

Colne Colne () is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Pendle in Lancashire, England. Located northeast of Nelson, north-east of Burnley, east of Preston and west of Leeds. The town should not be confused with the unrelated Colne Val ...

. He later returned home to

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

to end his career with Glentoran, scoring two goals in 16 appearances in 1906–07.

International career

Morrison made his debut for

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

in March 1895. Ireland lost the game 9–0 to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...

.
Clarets Mad All seven of Morrison's Ireland Cap (sport), caps came in

Home International Championship The British Home Championship * sco, Hame Internaitional Kemp * gd, Farpais lìg eadar-nàiseanta * cy, Pencampwriaeth y Pedair Gwlad, name=lang (historically known as the British International Championship or simply the International Champio ...

games. His last cap came on 22 March 1902 in a 1–0 defeat to England in Belfast.

Personal life

Morrison was the youngest of five sons born to James Morrison and Annie (née McMillan). The first three boys were born in Scotland and the youngest of them,

Bob Bob, BOB, or B.O.B. may refer to: Places * Mount Bob, New York, United States *Bob Island, Palmer Archipelago, Antarctica People, fictional characters, and named animals *Bob (given name), a list of people and fictional characters *Bob (surname ...

, was also an Ireland international who played for Linfield at club level.Bob Morrison
Northern Ireland's Footballing Greats, 26 October 2008Shamrock on Blue
Scots Football Worldwide Another brother, Alex, also played for Glentoran in the 1890s.

References

External links

thecelticwikiTom Morrison at Clarets Mad
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morrison, Tommy 1874 births 1940 deaths Association footballers from Belfast Men's association footballers from Northern Ireland Irish association footballers (before 1923) Irish League representative players Men's association football forwards Glentoran F.C. players Burnley F.C. players Celtic F.C. players Manchester United F.C. players Pre-1950 IFA men's international footballers Scottish Football League players English Football League players People from Northern Ireland of Scottish descent NIFL Premiership players