The backbone of one of the greatest ever Celtic teams was goalkeeper Charlie Shaw, left back Joe Dodds and right back Alec McNair. The defensive trio were dubbed ‘The Holy Trinity’ by Celtic manager Willie Maley and between them they made almost 1,500 first-team appearances for the Hoops and amassed 37 honours – in an era when teams only played in the Scottish League and the Scottish Cup over the course of a season.
Looking back in 1936, manager Maley said of the trio: ‘Shaw, McNair and Dodds understood one another so well that they developed the pass-back into a scientific move of which there have been many imitators but none to equal the originators. It was indeed a spectacle to see either McNair or Dodds passing, with unerring accuracy and cheeky coolness, the ball to Shaw two yards away, with the opposing forwards almost on top of them. That was their method of getting out of a corner, which in all probability would otherwise have been fatal.’
They mastered the pass-back to such an expert degree that the Celtic fans would regularly shout ‘Pass it to Cherlie!’ to encourage the trio to keep the ball. The shout gained a fame all of its own:
Its fame extended even away from Celtic Park to the golf course:
After Celtic’s success over Hibernian in the 1914 Scottish Cup Final, the Glasgow Observer newspaper published these lines in honour of Celtic’s Holy Trinity:
𝑯𝒆𝒓𝒆’𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑪𝒆𝒍𝒕𝒊𝒄, 𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒖𝒎𝒑𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐𝒅𝒂𝒚
𝑯𝒆𝒓𝒆’𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒚, 𝒔𝒌𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒇𝒂𝒊𝒓-𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒚
𝑯𝒆𝒓𝒆’𝒔 𝒕𝒐 ‘𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒊𝒆’, 𝒐𝒇 𝒌𝒆𝒆𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒔𝒕
𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆’𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝑱𝒐𝒆 𝑫𝒐𝒅𝒅𝒔, 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒐𝒅 𝑯𝒂𝒎𝒑𝒅𝒆𝒏’𝒔 𝒕𝒆𝒔𝒕
𝑯𝒆𝒓𝒆’𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒐𝒖𝒓 ‘𝑰𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒈’, 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒔 𝒂 𝒎𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓
𝑾𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒐𝒍𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒐𝒇𝒕 𝒔𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒔 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒄𝒍𝒖𝒃 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓
To read about more Celtic songs and chants of heroes and villains of the dim and not so distant past, click here.
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