Jerry Harris who died last week aged 81, was a true legend of Cork soccer.
part from his own playing career, which saw him feature for an unprecedented five decades (1950s to 1990s) in the Munster Senior League, he also found time to help keep the League of Ireland scene alive in the Rebel City.
It was a great consolation to Jerry’s family that, after suffering dementia for the last three years, he died peacefully in his sleep, with his family around his bedside.
It was the result he deserved, for no one had a bad word to say about Jerry, who was renowned for his kindness and his willingness to help others.
Helping out became second nature to him early on, for he was only 17 when his father died and he had to leave school and start working in the family haulage business and help rear his two younger brothers Michael and Kieran.
When his mother died eight years later, he became a father figure to the two boys.
Michael (12 years younger) recalled those days: “He loved soccer and he brought us to all the big matches in the early ‘60s in Dublin, the FAI Cup finals, and we never missed an international.”
Jerry played in two FAI Youth Cup finals with Glasheen, winning in 1957, and losing out to a Shelbourne team that included Tony Dunne, Eric Barber and Jackie Hennessy in 1959.
While he became a regular in the second-tier Munster Senior League, he never felt he was good enough for the League of Ireland and, as a result, he only featured there once, coming on as a sub for Albert Rovers against Home Farm in 1976.
However, Noel O’Mahony, who brought him to Cork City in 1986, had a high regard for Jerry’s talent-spotting ability.
As O’Mahony put it: “Not only was he bringing in good players, but he was keeping bad players away.”
Jerry was especially proud of the City team that won the League in 1993, after a novel three-way play-off, because he was very friendly with all of them.
Damien Delaney, Alan Bennett and Joe Gamble were among the players he signed for that team — and all of them went on to play for Ireland.
Before his time at Cork City, Jerry had served a tough apprenticeship in administration with Albert Rovers, when they joined the League in place of Cork Hibernians.
They later became Cork Alberts, and finally Cork United in an effort to attract a bigger following before returning to their original amateur status in the AUL.
That experience served him well when he joined Noel O’Mahony in Cork City and he even went full-time as club secretary and kitman when he retired from his haulage business at 65. For three years before that, he had been combining all three jobs.
Lean years are no stranger to League of Ireland clubs, and Jerry experienced his share of them.
On more than one occasion, he dipped into his own pocket to pay the players, as he couldn’t see them going without their wages.
But that was typical of Jerry: he believed in treating everyone fairly, and never said a bad word about anyone. As an employer he was regarded as the best, and he carried that empathy for his workforce into his soccer administration.
His last resting place, after a private funeral last Thursday, is appropriate: St Joseph’s graveyard is just around the corner from the Turner’s Cross pitch he graced so often in his lifetime.
A guard of honour was formed at Turner’s Cross last week in a fitting farewell to the soccer legend and afterwards the funeral proceeded to St Joseph’s Cemetery.
Jerry is survived by his wife Rose (née Deasy), daughter Audrey, son Tony and partner Sheyla, and grandchildren Caen, Damien and Maximo.
