Patsy was born in Milford Poor House, Co. Donegal, on March 16, 1891, to illiterate parents and immigrated from Donegal to John Knox Street, Clydebank, at the turn of the twentieth century. He spent his first few years in Ramelton, Donegal before his parents decided to join the Irish Diaspora and moved to John Knox Street, Clydebank.
As a school boy he played for his first team, at Holy Redeemer Primary School. Patsy's first trophy was the Yoker Athletic School's Tournament, a trophy that Patsy won as manager, coach, secretary and player of his School team! Patsy had to take on all of these roles because every teacher in his school was female and showed little interest in the sport. Holy Redeemer were the dark horses of the competition and the organisers were unwilling to award the cup to a team without an adult manager!
Patsy quickly moved up the divisions from a boy with Benvue, a team in the Clean Speech League., then moved up to the juvenile side, Renfrew St. James before attracting the interests of senior scouts when playing with Clydebank Juniors. They could see his talent was impressive, but had doubts due to his puny, frail appearance. Patsy stood just 5ft 7in and weighed 9st 10lb when he was spotted by Celtic!
Aged 20, Patsy signed for Celtic in October 25 1911 and made his competitive debut at Parkhead in a 3-1 win over St Mirren. When Willie Maley first brought the shulpit figure of Patsy into the Celtic Park dressing room the legendary player Jimmy Quinn was stated "You can't put that Bhoy on the park boss. If you do it will be manslaughter."
Patsy soon showed Jimmy Quinn and the rest of Scottish Football that you do not need to be well built to survive in the Scottish Game. Gallacher had the ability and steely determination to never be bullied out of a game, no matter how much an opponent tried. This was in an age where any damaging attacker would be seen as a legitimate target for defenders, and in a day when footballers were not afforded the same protection as they are now!
End of Part one