Bernard Michael "Benny" Gaughran (29 September 1915 – 20 September 1977) was an Irish

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

player during the 1930s. Gaughran won the

League of Ireland The League of Ireland is a national association football Sports league, league consisting of professional clubs in the Republic of Ireland and Derry, Derry City in Northern Ireland. It is governed by the Football Association of Ireland. It was ...

title with

Bohemians Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to: *Anything of or relating to Bohemia Culture and arts * Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, originally practised by 19th–20th century European and American artists and writers. * Bohemian style, a f ...

in 1935–36. Gaughran later went on to play professionally for

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 Foot ...

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

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Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England, and the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. In the United Kingdom 2021 Census, 2021 Census, the town had a population of 111,261, compared to 223,773 for the wid ...

and

Dundalk Dundalk ( ; ) is the county town of County Louth, Ireland. The town is situated on the Castletown River, which flows into Dundalk Bay on the north-east coast of Ireland, and is halfway between Dublin and Belfast, close to and south of the bor ...

Playing career

Early career

When Gaughran was young, he played

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

for St. Laurence O'Tooles and subsequently took up

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with O'Connell Schools,''Glasgow Celtic Grab Gaughran'', Irish Press, 16 November 1936 where he had great possibilities as a full back.''Gaughran Gone to Glasgow: Celtic Club'', Irish Independent, 16 November 1936 Gaughran's main sport was

until he was 18, when he played his first game of

Association Football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

. While with O'Connell Schools, he played for Leinster against Connacht in a schools' junior interprovincial. He later joined Clontarf, where he played a few games for them. Before his time with the Bohemians, he played six matches for a junior team in the Phoenix Park, scoring 36 goals for them. Charlie Harris, the Bohemians' trainer succeeded in inducing him to take up Association Football. Gaughran believed that his rugby training gave him a good grounding for

and that "if one could kick an oval ball accurately there should be no great difficulty in learning how to control a round one." After a few games with Bohemians' Leinster League team, he made his debut for their Free State team against Waterford at Kilcohan Park and very soon attracted the attention of a number of cross-channel clubs. His Bohemian teammates included Harry Cannon, Plev Ellis, Fred Horlacher and Billy Jordan that season, and Gaughran was the top scorer with 15 goals in 21 league games. In his 39 appearances that season in all competitions, he netted 32 times. In 1936, Gaughran was part of the team who broke a record by winning the fifth league title of the free State League Championship by defeating Cork 4–1. Gaughran scored the third and fourth goals of the game.''Bohemians In Sight of F.S. League Honours'', Irish, Independent, 10 April 1936

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

were very keen to sign him towards the close of the 1935–36 season, and sent their chief scout to sign him, but were unsuccessful.

Interest from UK clubs

At the start of the 1936–37 season, there was interest in Gaughran from several UK football clubs, including

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club ( ), commonly referred to as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league s ...

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,''Four Clubs Want Him: Gaughran Should Await Biggest Offer'', Irish Independent, 11 November 1936

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

and Manchester United. Scouts from Manchester United arrived to vet Gaughran, and were satisfied enough to make arrangements to sign him. Louis Rocca, United's Chief Scout, travelled to Bray in November 1936 to complete the deal. Rocca was disappointed to arrive in Dublin only to discover that Glasgow Celtic's representative, Johnny Paton, had stepped in and topped United's offer, bringing Benny Gaughran to Glasgow after tentative terms were agreed.''United Fight for Dear Life: Celtic Grab Gaughran - but Manchester Grab Carey'', Evening Herald, 18 June 1968 In fact, Celtic were watching Gaughran's progress for 13 months and when news began to filter through of other clubs' interest, Celtic acted promptly.''Celtic's Dash To Sign Irish Star: After Wait of 13 Months'', The Daily Mail, 26 November 1936

Career after Bohemians

Gaughran joined

in November 1936 as a centre-forward at 20 years of age.''Celts Had to Jump to It'', Weekly News, 21 November 1936 In June 1937, he moved to England to join

, where he stayed for five months before joining

in November. After six months with Sunderland, he moved on to join

and then returned to Ireland in 1939 to join

. At Southampton, Gaughran had seven league appearances and four goals, giving him an average strike rate of one goal every 1.75 games

Personal life

Education and work outside of sports

When he started his football career, he was a salesman. Later on in life, in the 1960s and 1970s, he worked as a

beekeeper A beekeeper is a person who keeps honey bees, a profession known as beekeeping. The term beekeeper refers to a person who keeps honey bees in beehives, boxes, or other receptacles. The beekeeper does not control the creatures. The beekeeper ow ...

Family

Bernard Gaughran was married with three children, two boys and a girl—Benny, Ken, and Laraine. His father, Bernard Gaughran, was a well known hurler for Meath. His brother Charlie played

for Dublin and his brother John had a career in Gaelic football, rugby and soccer. His son, Benny Gaughran, was a Gaelic footballer and won an All-Ireland Club medal with UCD (Dublin), three Dublin Championship club medals (one with UCD and two with Civil Service), an inter-county National League medal (with Louth), an inter-Provincial Railway Cup medal (Leinster) and a Sigerson's medal (as captain).

Honours

Bohemians *

champions: 1935–36

References

External links

Sunderland profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gaughran, Benny 1915 births Association footballers from County Dublin 1977 deaths League of Ireland players Bohemian F.C. players Celtic F.C. players Southampton F.C. players Sunderland A.F.C. players Rochdale A.F.C. players Dundalk F.C. players Men's association football forwards Republic of Ireland men's association footballers 20th-century Irish sportsmen