Well-known figure in Glasgow’s Irish community dies

Died: May 23, 2026

On a Sunday afternoon in May 2006, Charlie Devlin rendered an act of kindness to me and my family that defined his character.

I’d taken my friend, an East Coast man down to his monogrammed socks, to his first ever Celtic versus Rangers Glasgow derby. Afterwards, seeking to give him the full-fat Celtic experience, we popped in to the basement of the Admiral Bar on Waterloo Street, where we came upon Charlie entertaining the troops with a robust medley of old Irish songs.

I’d not seen Charlie for a few years, but he’d somehow known that my dad had died the previous week. And so, having spotted me in the throng, he rounded off his set with Danny Boy, my dad’s favourite song. “This is for Joe McKenna, a good Celtic man and a true son of Ireland, who passed away last week,” he announced to his audience

It meant everything to me and spoke of this man’s big heart and a generosity of spirit which had lent him a legendary status throughout Glasgow and especially in the Irish communities south of the river.

It made me recall another occasion in MJ Heraghty’s pub on the Pollokshaws Road where Charlie was adding some zest to a quiet Saturday afternoon in music and tale. Also there was an older mutual friend of ours whose personal circumstances had recently become reduced and who had borrowed £20 from an unpleasant regular who was now loudly demanding repayment.

Up stepped Charlie. “There’s that £20 I borrowed from you the other week, John.” Little more needed to be said. In the wake of his recent death, the south side has thrummed with similar tales of this man’s kindness and compassion. It’s why, for the first time in many years, Holy Cross Church in Crosshill was rammed to its large capacity for his funeral.

Charles Joseph Devlin was born in the St Francis nursing home in Govan in 1956 to Bill and May Devlin: a brother to Eileen, Liam, Charles and Noreen. The family had risen in Ireland and would return there often for holidays and community celebrations. His grandad was from County Donegal and his grandmother from Hilltown in County Down.

From a young age, Charlie was enchanted by the Irish folk music tradition. Inspired by this, he became an accomplished musician and sometime song-writer whose gifts were in constant demand whenever money needed to be raised for a worthy cause in Scotland and beyond.

Unsurprisingly, most of his professional career proceeded in the educational additional needs sector, initially at St Mary’s Residential and Secure school and later in family social work.

Charlie’s care for children and young people with additional support needs didn’t begin and end with his professional postings. He worked at Leverndale hospital in the school summer holidays as a volunteer and devoted more than 30 years with the Scout group for young people with disabilities. Several of his nieces and nephews embraced volunteering, inspired by their uncle’s encouragement and example.

He was also a regular helper on parish trips with the sick to Lourdes for more than 35 years. He was often a guest of the Baku Celtic Supporters Club in Azerbaijan where he played concerts to raise funds for local orphanages.

AWARE, the Irish-based organisation which provides support and education for people experiencing depression, anxiety and other mental health challenges, also benefitted from Charlie Devlin’s generosity of the spirit.

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A senior member of the AWARE team, on learning of his death, paid this tribute: “Charlie was just an amazing man. He helped me and AWARE so much over the years. He did so much for the young people we support, whether that was through his kindness, his advice, or the donations he made to help us keep doing what we do.

“Last year in Aviemore we created an award in Charlie’s name for a young person who showed the most kindness throughout the weekend. We’ll continue doing that on every Aviemore trip going forward to remember him, because he really was such a special man and someone who meant a lot to all of us.”

Many people across Glasgow’s south side have their own personal anecdotes about Charlie: most of them involve small acts of kindness or are told with laughter about encounters in several of that neighbourhood’s taverns and restaurants that were like pop-up cabarets.

A friend recalls a moment in a Chinese restaurant where Charlie (‘Peas’ to his friends: ‘Peas and Barley’: Charlie) was holding court, telling one hilarious story after another. Customers who’d arrived in the adjoining area to collect takeaways chose to stick around for the free show.

The manager eventually came out and asked them to clear the area as their food was getting cold. “No chance, mate; not until the big man’s finished his stories.”

On another occasion, back in Heraghty’s, a diminutive chap, howling with the bevvy, gained ingress to the bar and began making a nuisance of himself to the tavern’s equally renowned former proprietor, Micky Joe of that ilk.

The redoubtable licensee grasped the delinquent by his collar, opened the door and shouted “Oot!” Mr Devlin, schooled in Latin by the Jesuits at St Aloysius College, was seated adjacent to the door and immediately added: “… followed by the subjunctive”.

Charlie was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in the last two years of his life, which he spent in a nursing home. It’s customary to say that people who contract this pitiless disease are “struck down” by it. For a while, it seemed the MND was taking a helluva seeing-to from Charlie. Visitors would often leave his bedside feeling more positive and upbeat than they’d been on arrival.

On discovering that there was some money left over from fundraisers to help pay for his care costs, he spent what time had been granted to him by giving it away to other good causes connected to his friends and family.

And so, right up until his last breath this man lived his life in the manner he’d always approached it: making those around him feel a bit better about themselves.

He is survived by his children Derek, Shannon and Stuart.

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