A Bohemian Sporting Life

Not afraid of a Rowe – the Joss Rowe story

This is the story of Jocelyn Rowe, Joss to his friends, a man born in India, raised on the outskirts of the great Metropolis of London, who became a boy soldier, ended up in Dublin, joined the Bohemian Football Club, got poached by Manchester United sparking a controversy, defied death on numerous occasions on the battlefields of France and Belgium during World War I, only to return to football, becoming a mentor to younger players, holding his own with the best but never giving up his status as an amateur.

Jocelyn Rowe was born in Prayagraj (then more commonly referred to as Allahabad) in North East India in 1886. He was the son of Henry Smith Sutley Rowe and Elizabeth Rowe (neé Burt), Henry was a Sergeant in the 1st East Surrey regiment and Joss would have been born in the barracks where the family lived. The Naval Military Record noted that “Even as a small boy he was a keen football player”, and he was still a boy when he enlisted, following in his father’s footsteps joining the East Surrey regiment as a member of the band just two days after his 14th birthday.

The East Surrey regiment was an infantry regiment and the 1st Battalion, of which Joss was a member, remained in India until 1903 with their last posting being at Lucknow. They were then recalled to England and were posted to Aldershot, before moving to Jersey in 1905 and to Plymouth in 1909. During his time at Plymouth, Joss was able to indulge his love of sports, playing hockey for Devon against Navy teams while also lining out on occasion as a footballer for Plymouth Argyle.

By late 1912 the Easy Surrey’s were on their way to Dublin, there was a vibrant football scene already established in Dublin at this time, the top clubs such as Bohemian FC and Shelbourne were represented in the Irish League which was dominated, by and large, by the bigger Belfast sides, but there was also the Leinster Senior League which featured representation by Shelbourne and Bohemians as well as numerous other clubs from Dublin and the surrounding area including several of the better regimental teams.

A Saturday Herald image of the 1st East Surrey football team from December 1912. Jocelyn Rowe is the tall man with the moustache, centre in the back row, he has the rank of Sergeant and is listed as the team captain.

The East Surrey’s were too late to register a side for the Leinster Senior League but did immediately play some Army Cup matches as well as a number of friendlies against civilian sides, the only game they lost in those early months in Dublin was against Bohemians and Joss Rowe was the regiment’s star full back.

By the time the photo above was printed in December 1912, Joss Rowe was already lining out for Bohemians as well as his regiment. In a report on 26th October 1912 in the Saturday Herald, Rowe featured in a 3-0 win over Shelbourne, scoring a goal in an Irish League game. Bohemians were without several stars such as Harry Willitts, Battie Brennan and Bill McConnell but were “strengthened by the inclusion of such celebrated internationals as Smith and Rowe” – this was a reference to Jocelyn Rowe and Alfred Smith who had already at that stage made representative apprearances in Army internationals.

The praise of Rowe throughout his time at Bohemians, and indeed throughout his career is fullsome and effusive, described as “a giant of a man, standing over six feet and magnificently built”, and as any casual view of the Surrey team photo shows, Rowe was indeed a well-built man and in some cases a head taller than his teammates, however match reports do not describe a bruiser full-back but point to a player noted for the timing of his tackling as well as the speed and precision of his passing to create counter-attacks from full-back.

Within a year of first appearing for Bohemians, Joss had been selected by the Irish League for a representative game against the Southern League which was played in Dalymount and won by the visitors. The Southern League were those clubs in the south of England who were outside the Football league, for that match in Dalymount this included representatives of clubs like Norwich, Brighton, Millwall, Crystal Palace, QPR and in the case of Bertie Bowler, a former teammate of Joss from Plymouth Argyle.

In 1913 Rowe was a member of the Bohemian side that appeared in the inaugural football match at Shelbourne Park, the new home of cross-city rivals, Shelbourne, that game ended in a 1-1 draw but was most famous for the events around the stadium which formed part of the wider 1913 Lock-out labour dispute. This game and the surrounding incidents are covered in more detail elsewhere on this site, but it is worth noting that among the Shelbourne team was Oscar Linkson, a defender signed that season from Manchester United. Linkson had been born in New Barnet and had made over 50 appearances for United over the previous five seasons, he had also recently married and his teenage wife Olive and a young son Eric came to Dublin with him. Just three years later Oscar would go missing during the Battle of the Somme, his body was never recovered.

This was not to be Joss Rowe’s last connection with Manchester United however, the English club would recruit the Bohemian solider to their starting XI on 5th March 1914, with Rowe, appearing under an assumed name as “Howe” featuring as a full-back in United’s 4-2 defeat to Preston North End. Despite the result the match reports were universal in their praise for the mysterious new United full-back and he was expected to retain his place in the side for United’s next match against Aston Villa. Some reports went so far as to say “Sergeant Rowe, East Surreys and Bohemians… is quite on the cards that a new right full has been unearthed for England for her closing internationals. We can also mention that Rowe is equally at home at left full, or in any position in the middle line”. Despite playing under an assumed name against Preston, Rowe was spotted by a soldier of his acquaintance and his true identity quickly became known by the pressmen in Britain and Ireland and his performance was widely remarked upon. Even that talk of an international call-up!

*Headline from the Evening Herald on March 6th, 1914*

Despite the expectation that Rowe would line out again for Manchester United and his seeming enthusiasm to continue playing for them, quickly there were signs that this was not likely to happen. The Evening Despatch in the day before the scheduled game between Manchester United and Aston Villa mentioned that there was “interference by another association” that was preventing Rowe from taking his place in the team.

Rather than play for United on March 14th there were reports in the Westmeath Independent promoting the St. Patrick’s Day friendly match between Bohemians and Athlone Town in Athlone. Rowe was mentioned by name as the player who “created a sensation some days ago in English League football”. By the end of the month Manchester United were playing their first game in Dublin, beating Shelbourne 1-0 at in a friendly at Shelbourne Park on March 28th, but once again without Joss in their ranks. A couple of days later news came that Manchester United had been fined £20 by the FA for selecting Rowe for the match against Preston without giving notice to Rowe’s commanding officer, it was hoped that the heavy fine would deter other such approaches by clubs for the playing services of soldiers and sailors. Other football associations it was noted were also asked to play their part and prevent players from the armed services being selected without permission. Nottingham’s Football News went so far as to allege that Rowe’s true identity was leaked by a Dublin journalist who was on the same boat and who had attended the United game as a spectator, noting that “the identity of a good footballer is easily ascertained”.

Joss finished out the 1913-14 season with Bohemians while Manchester United had to look elsewhere for solutions having finished the season 14th in the top flight, they signed a new player from Hull that summer, Patrick O’Connell, a Dubliner from Drumcondra, although they continued to struggle the following season, but by the 1914-15 season’s close and in controversial circumstances football may have been of a secondary concern for the Manchester United players, they certainly were for Joss Rowe.

Britain’s entry into World War I was confirmed at midnight on August 4th, 1914. Immediatedly the 1st battalion of the East Surrey Regiment, Jocelyn Rowe included were mobilised, and by August 13th they had landed in Le Harve as part of the British Expeditionary Force. The British experienced some quick reverses on the battlefield which prompted what became known as the “Great retreat” or the “Retreat from Mons” named after the Battle of Mons which ended in a victory for the German forces. It was later reported that Rowe was injured during the retreat and his regiment the East Surreys were involved in heavy fighting throughout this period.

Joss recovered from his initial injuries and in December 1915, while on furlough back in Surbiton, Kingston upon Thames he managed to find time to marry his fiancé Margaret Thompson, both giving their addresses as 11 Cleaveland Road, Surbiton, a turn of the century terrace home that survives to this day. There was little chance for a honeymoon for the couple however as Joss was granted just eight days leave before he was back to the front and was severely wounded on New Year’s Eve of 1915, his regimental record listing a gun shot wound to the head, back, right leg and left hand. Amazingly Joss survived! The clipping below from an issue of the Irish Independent from March of 1916 details that Joss had received an astounding 83 wounds during his service, mostly from shrapnel, but not only had he survived, that “He hopes to play football again.”

*Irish Independent from 30th March 1916*

Joss did indeed play football again, although it was some time before he lined out again for Bohemians, returning in March 1917 in an Irish Cup semi-final against Belfast Celtic in the Oval, Belfast. Sadly, Bohemians lost 4-0 in the game, with the opening goal deflecting off Joss and passed Con Drumm in the Bohs goal to give Celtic the lead. This would seem to be one of the last games that Joss played for Bohemians. In an August 1919 edition of the Athletic News there was discussion about Bohs fortunes for the coming season and hope was expressed that the return to demobbed soldiers such as Harry Willits would boost Bohs chances for success and Joss was among those mentioned as being expected to return to the club.

Much was changing in Joss’s personal life, finally away from the battlefield in May 1918 Joss and Margaret had welcomed a son, Anthony into the world, followed by a daughter, Margaret, in September of 1921. After the end of the War the 1st regiment continued in active service around the world, but Joss seems to have found himself back at barracks in Kingston upon Thames and from October 1920 was found playing for Kingstonian F.C. in the Athenian league having spent the previous year playing only Army football for the East Surrey depot.

*Image from the Sunday Express, February 4th, 1923*

While at Kingstonian he continued to excel, and played in several locations around the pitch, including in the forward line despite the fact that he was by now in his mid 30s. Josh continued on playing with Kingstonian until the 1923-24 season when the club made it as far as the London Senior Cup final, reports at the time stated that he was still playing at a good level but preferred to play in the reserves rather than deny a first team place to a younger player.

One late career highlight for Joss was captaining Kingstonian in a friendly match against FA Cup holders Huddersfield Town in 1922. Kingstonian had just purchased their Richmond Road ground and set about building a new stand that season, and among the club’s star performers was young striker Len Marlow who was snapped up by Huddersfield Town, then under the stewardship of revolutionary manager Herbert Chapman. As part of the transfer a friendly was to be played and Huddersfield also brought the FA Cup trophy to display before the game. In front of a record crowd of 8,000 Joss Rowe’s non-league Kingstonian defeated the FA Cup holders Huddersfield 1-0.

*Opening of the new Richmond Road stand in 1922, source Kingstonianhistory.co.uk*

While he finally stepped away from football in 1924 Joss remained with the East Surrey regiment, only retiring in 1934 after 34 years of service. He continued living in the Kingston upon Thames until his death in May 1956, aged 70. During his sporting career, despite playing at the highest level in both England and Ireland he had remained strictly an amateur, though his selection for an Irish League XI and the enthusiastic pursuit of his services by Manchester United demonstrate that he certainly could have pursued a professional career if he had chosen to. The fact, that he lived to the age of 70, and played football at a good level into his late 30s is somewhat amazing considering the injuries he had suffered during the First World War, with varying reports describing either 83 or 86 bullet and shrapnel wounds.

*Cartoon of Joss Rowe from his time at Kingstonian*

Dalymount before Bohemians

Posted on January 15 by gerrytastic

1847 – the height of the Great Famine and in Dublin the Ordnance Survey were engaged in the first major survey of Dublin since John Roque produced his famous map in 1756. On the plan one can clearly see the North Circular Road intersecting Phibsborough Road as it headed towards St. Peter’s Church. On the right a short row of five houses bearing the name Daly Mount. But who precisely was the eponymous Daly of the mount? This brings us to Peter Daly, a prosperous businessman involved in shipping and also Chairman of the Orange Lodges of Dublin. He owned a tavern in Werburgh Street that bore his name and was described as a ‘Temple of Orangeism’. Indeed in 1823 a group of Orangemen had met in his tavern before staging a riot in a nearby theatre intended to intimidate Richard Wellesley, the Lord Lieutenant including chants of “No Popery!”, due to his support for Catholic emancipation.

A 1834 report in the Dublin Evening Packet recounts the funeral of Peter Daly, when his body was borne from his home at Dalymount through the city down Sackville Street as far as Werburgh Street Church to his family crypt, with many businesses closing along the route for the funeral procession. His eldest son Samuel Allen Daly, also living in Daly Mount became a church warden in Grangegorman the year after and in 1836 became a barrister. By 1844 he had been elected to the Poor Law Union board of guardians for the Glasnevin area. It it reasonable to surmise that it was this family who first developed the houses along the north circular road that appear in the survey map of 1847.

Around this time the area now occupied by Dalymount Park was depicted as being grassland or farmland while the area now occupied by the tram sheds between the stadium and shopping centre looks like it may have been a garden or orchard. Further research shows that the lands occupied under long term leases by the Daly family and which included areas now occupied by the shopping centre, were ultimately the property of the Monck family and this likely included Dalymount. The Monck family were members of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy and their name is still visible in the area in street names like Monck Place just off the Phibsborough Road.

The Monck family came to own their Phibsborough estates through marriage, George Monck, was created 1st Duke of Albemarle in 1660 by Charles II arising from his services to the monarchy in bringing about the Restoration of the English monarchy. The Irish connection of the Monck family dates from 1627 when Charles Monck was appointed Joint Surveyor General of Customs in Ireland. He purchased an estate in county Westmeath and also represented Coleraine in the English parliament. Their son, Henry Monck, married Sarah, the daughter and heiress of Sir Thomas Stanley of Grangegorman, whose sizeable estates (including Dalymount and the surrounding streets) became vested in the second son of the marriage, Charles Monck. Overall, at the peak of their influence the Monck estate owned over 14,000 acres across five counties.

Samuel Allen Daly began lease arrangements with Henry Monck on these lands starting in 1835, however by the 1850s it seems that Samuel’s financial situation had worsened significantly and by 1855 his various leases around the Dalymount site and surrounding area were up for sale.

But let us talk briefly of Bohemians…

The Bohemian Football Club, founded in the North Circular Road gate-lodge of the Phoenix Park in 1890 had endured a peripatetic existence in their first decade, playing in the likes of the Phoenix Park, then in the Jones’s Road sports grounds, now site of Croke Park from 1893-96, and then in an area known as Whitehall, close to Glasnevin cemetery and the Finglas Road as we know it today. It was this wandering existance that some have suggested gave Bohemians their nickname of the “Gypsies”.

That was all to change however in 1901, when according to his own account, the club’s Honorary Treasurer William Sanderson, when visiting a friend in Connaught Street, looked over a back wall at what was known at the time as “Pisser Dignam’s field”, and got the idea that it might be a suitable home for the Bohemian Football Club. Though who Pisser Dignam was and how he got such a moniker remains unclear!

As for Sanderson, he was a tailor born in Belfast but a long-time resident in Dublin. He had been involved with the early YMCA and Tritonville football teams before getting involved with Bohemians in the 1890s eventually becaming Treasurer in 1900. Sanderson was clearly a man with a head for finances and could spot the opportunity that a well placed sporting ground could offer. He recalled that a cup tie against Linfield in 1900 had generated a Dublin record of £39 in gate money at the old Whitehall ground. Imagine what a better situated ground, adjacent to a busy tram line could generate!

The land itself was used for small scale allotments growing vegetables and fruit trees, horse grazing and also as something of a rubbish tip. The early Dalymount Park groundsman, Dinny Quinn would keep shotguns in the ground which he used to get rid of hares and rabbits that might be found digging up the pitch. On the plus side, it was a central location, only a twenty minute walk from the centre of the city, situated in a rapidly developing suburb and adjacent to a tram line which added to ease of access for both players and spectators. But to take a lease on the ground the club would have to contact the property owners.

This brings us from the Monck estates to the Taylor family. In one version of the story, by the late football historian Tony Reid, it was Sanderson and the Bohemian FC committee negotiating with the Reverend Henry Taylor who was acting on behalf of the Monck estate over the leasehold of what would become Dalymount Park. However, some subsequent research would suggest that Taylor was acting not on behalf of the Monck estate but on behalf of his own familial interests.

Henry Taylor was the son of Thomas and Sophia Taylor and was also the chaplain to the the Female Orphan House, more commonly known as Kirwan House which is one of Ireland’s oldest charities, founded in the 1790 at 42 Prussia Street to look after orphaned girls and to train them to be domestic servants and in the manufacture of clothing, and built on lands of the Monck estate.

The girls of the home received the following training and treatment at the “Orphan House, near Dublin, for the support of destitute female children, it is proposed that they shall be received from the age of five to ten years; that they shall be lodged, clothed and taught reading, writing, and common accounts; carefully instructed in the Christian Religion; and habituated to cleanliness and industry, in proportion to their age and strength; to spin, knit and when able, to make their own clothes. They are to take in plain work as the Charity advances; the profits arising from which are to be applied towards the support of the House”

It is named Kirwan House after Dean Kirwan who used to preach on behalf of the charity and raise funds for it annually in St. Peter’s Church in Aungier Street.

A description of the average day for one of the orphaned children in the 19th Century is detailed below on the History Eye website – “The orphans rose at 6 in the morning and retired to bed at 10pm. Their day was divided into three segments. Eight hours for work and instruction, eight hours for play and worship, eight hours for sleep. There was meat provided three times a week and dinner was served at 2pm. Each orphan’s upkeep was set at 3 pence a week or 10 shillings a year. Porter was also provided in the children’s diet for health reasons.”

Returning to Rev. Henry Taylor and the connection with Bohemian FC. Taylor would combine his role as Chaplain at Kirwan House with a position on as a Vice President of Bohemians (there were several club Vice Presidents, numbering between eight and fourteen at various stages) between 1901 and 1920. One suggestion proposed was that Taylor may also have represented the Monck estate in matters related to the lease of Dalymount Park and as such would have been their placeman on the board to make sure that they were happy with the use and development of Dalymount as a sporting venue. However, it seems that Henry’s father, Thomas had already purchased Dalymount Park long before William Sanderson had the bright idea to use it as a football ground.

As far back as September 1869 The Freeman’s Journal, in an article discussing the revision of boundaries in Dublin mentioned “Thomas Taylor, of Prussia Street, described as a 50l [pound] freeholder out of houses in Dalymount and Fassaugh Lane”. We know that Thomas Taylor was part of the same Grangegorman religious congregation as Viscount Monck and that in the early 1870s both men served it as Vestrymen. Taylor also lived on Prussia Street for much of his life, before eventually moving the short distance to Cumberland Place on the North Circular Road, right next to Kirwan House.

We can see how, given the congrational aspect and the close physical proximity that connections with the likes of the Monck family, the Daly family and others could have developed. We know that Thomas Taylor (who was born around 1805) was well established in the area, by 1862 he is mentioned in The Freeman’s Journal, along with his Prussia Street neighbour John Jameson of whiskey fame, as two property owners that Dublin Corporation were intending to buy lands from in order to develop the Cattle Market site.

In later life, when appearing on offical civic documents such on his daughter’s marriage certificate or even on his death certificate, his profession is listed simply as “Gentleman” showing that he had sources of income primarily from his various property holdings, though as far back as his son Henry’s birth in 1851 he is referred to as a “Retired Government officer”. It is likely that Thomas purchased the land when it was put up for sale by Samuel Allen Daly in the 1850s when he was experiencing financial difficulties. Thomas would pass away at the age of 84 in 1889, while his wife Sophia would follow him in 1895. Her son, Henry was by her bedside when she passed away.

It would them seem that Henry, rather than acting on behalf of the Monck estate was acting in his own family’s interest when an annual rent of £48 was agreed with Bohemians. William Sanderson would pay the first three months out of his own pocket. Whether a role as a club vice-president was offered to Taylor as part of this negotiation, or requested by him is unclear, however is was a position he served with Bohemians for almost twenty years, leaving in 1920 as he approached his seventieth birthday.

Throughout his busy life Henry Taylor had held many roles, he had been a student in Trinity College, though his time there would have been before the foundation of their Association Football Club in 1883, he was Chaplain not only in the Kirwan House orphanage but also at the Royal Hospital in Donnybrook (The Royal Hospital of the Incurables), was private chaplain to the Lord Lieutenant and from 1908 until 1932, was honorary Clerical Vicar to Christ Church Cathedral. In later life he went in retirement to live with his daughter Dr. Eleanor Taylor-Pengelly in Orpington, Kent where he passed away aged 85 in 1937.

Henry Taylor would have been around eighty, and more than a decade removed from his role as one of the vice-presidents of Bohemians when the renewal of the lease was up for discussion again in 1931. By this stage Bohemians were making ambitious plans to further improve Dalymount and make it the best Association Football ground in the country, bringing in the famous stadium architect Archibald Leitch to develop the main stand and the Tramway end terracing in 1931. Dalymount was by this stage the unquestioned home of Irish football and the venue for Cup finals and international matches.

Negotiating this lease on behalf of Bohemians were Charles Heron, Henry Mitchell and Patrick Hedigan, all local businessmen and supporters of the club. Heron ran a butcher’s shop on the North Circular Road with family members running similar shops on Dorset Street, Mitchell ran a printing business on Capel Street (his family still operate on the street, from Mitchell’s Auto Shop) and counted Oscar Traynor as a former employee of his. Traynor had surreptitiously printed nationalist propaganda posters and newspapers during his time there. Finally, Patrick Hedigan, a Limerick man, was the owner of Hedigan’s – The Brian Boru public house since 1904, the pub is still in the ownership of the Hedigan family to this day and they continue to be a sponsor of the club.

Representing the Taylor estate wasn’t Henry however, the family trust’s solicitor was George Herbert Parkes, a maternal grandson of John West Elvery of Elvery Sports fame. George practiced from offices on Fleet Street in the city centre – incidentally a solicitor named Parkes, former player Warren Parkes, represented Bohemians against a winding up order in 2011, any relation? There were two other trustees were named, Dr. Euphan Maxwell and Winifred Allen. Maxwell was was an Irish ophthalmologist and the first woman ophthalmic surgeon in Ireland at the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital, Dublin, however, she also lived for a time while a medical student with Henry Taylor and his sister Eleanor at the Kirwan House orphanage. Winifred Allen also lived on the North Circular Road and seems to have been a friend of Edith Parkes, sister of George Herbert Parkes. It seems that it was they who negotiated the new lease on Dalymount where Bohemians remain to this day.

Football for a cause – the 1969 Portuguese Cup final

Posted on December 31 by gerrytastic

In August of 1968 the Portuguese dictator, António de Oliveira Salazar fell in the bath. He was 79 years old and had been Portugal’s political leader for thirty-six years by that stage. After his fall the dictator’s health continued to worsen and he slipped into a coma and with his imminent death expected, Marcelo Caetano was proclaimed his successor of the Estado Novo, the so-called conservative and autocratic, New State. When Salazar unexpectedly awoke from his coma, and lived for a further two years, none of his Ministers or advisors had the heart to tell him that he was no longer in charge and he continued to believe he was “ruling” Portugal from the comfort of his personal residence.

If the declining political health of Portugal was evident in the commensurate decline of its political leaders, then it was also becoming surprisingly evident on the football pitches. The 1960s had been an era of huge progress for Portuguese football, Benfica had won back-to-back European Cups at the beginning of the decade and the national team had finished third in the 1966 World Cup. Despite a lack of interest from Salazar in football the regime wouldn’t fail to capitalise on the success of their star sides, Football became one of the defining “Three Fs” of Portuguese culture, the others being Fado, the traditional music of Portugal, and Fatima, the religious shine dedicated to the Virgin Mary and central to Salazar’s conservative, Catholic ideology.

These emerging tensions between the state and football came into sharp focus less then a year after Salazar’s incapacitation and it happened in the most pronounced of ways, at the Portuguese Cup final. Held in the Estádio Nacional in Lisbon, where Celtic had won their European Cup in 1967, the Taça de Portugal final pitted the might of Benfica, complete with Eusébio and captained by Mário Coluna against Académica de Coimbra.

Académica de Coimbra were the university team of the city of Coimbra, an ancient and beautiful city that has housed a prestigious university since the 14th Century. Their football team, while not often challenging the big three of Benfica, Sporting and Porto still were able to recruit many talented young players who were also looking to further their educations. In fact, the Benfica midfielder Toni, who played in that final had begun his career with Académica.

The students of Coimbra, in both the college campuses and the football dressing rooms were becoming ever more radicalised, tiring of a dictatorship that stretched back decades before their birth and inspired by the student protests of 1968 that had erupted across European universities, including in Coimbra, and showing solidarity with the youth of Portugal who resented being sent in their thousands to fight brutal colonial wars in Angola and Mozambique. They decided that their Cup run and the final would be a chance for protest.

While Académica usually wore all black, with a dramatic flourish, in their semi-final win over Sporting they wore white with a black armband as a sign of mourning for the state of the country. With the final they had even more in mind, they wore long, black graduation robes as they walked onto the pitch, the pace of their gate much slower to give the impression of a funeral cortege in protest. The Benfica players, through Toni, were aware of this planned entrance and similarly walked out slowly.

The regime, nervous after prolonged student protests at Coimbra University and aware of the armband stunt in the semi-final, decided not to cover the game on TV, but could not drown out the tens of thousands of student supporters chanting against the regime on the radio broadcast of the match. The cheers were deafening as Académica took an early lead through Manuel António. They defended that lead for over 80 minutes before a goalkeeping error allowed António Simões to equalise and bring the game into extra-time. The students who had competed so bravely for so long began to wilt in the June heat and with 109 minutes on the clock Eusébio headed home the winner.

Académica had planned to bring the cup into the crowd and celebrate with the people had they won, tiredness and the quality of the opposition denied them of this, but the Benfica players still celebrated with their opponents on the pitch, understanding the significance of their actions.

The story of the Académica team lives on in the documentary film Futebol de Causas (Football for a cause) by Ricardo Martins who also provided the image for this article, while it also features in the book The Defiant: A History of Football Against Fascism by Chris Lee, I am indebted to them for their research on this game.

An original version of this article featured in the November 2025 match programme for Ireland v Portugal.

Patrick Sex from the Freemans Journal 1921

The Death of Sex

Posted on November 27 by gerrytastic

It started in somewhat unusual fashion, a Whatsapp chat with some fellow historians, a screenshot from the Irish Newspaper archive with the unusual headline “Replay for Sex Memorial Gold Medals”, which of course provoked a bit of schoolboy humour but also planted a seed of curiosity. From the short clipping I could see that it was a replayed football match between Bohemians and a Leinster football XI, the Bohemian teamsheet was shown and I could tell that this was a game from the early 1920s with several high profile players featuring, including future internationals like Joe Grace, Jack McCarthy, John Thomas and Johnny Murray as well as South African centre-half Billy Otto.

But who or what was “Sex” referring to? Memorial games or charity matches for sets of gold medals were not uncommon in the era but I could find nobody with the surname Sex as having been associated with Bohemian FC in their first thirty or so years, and as the opposition were a selection of other Leinster based players then there was no specific opponent club who might have been arranging a memorial. A quick look at the 1911 Census suggested a possible answer, as it displayed 22 people with the surname “Sex” living in Dublin.

Having ascertained that there indeed may be a “Sex” living in Dublin, deserving of a memorial game, but unsure of any footballing connections I started searching the Irish newspaper archives for the early 1920s and quickly discovered a likely candidate for the “Sex Memorial Gold medal match”, namely Patrick Sex of Dominick Street in Dublin’s north inner city with the memorial match and replay taking place for him in May 1921.

Patrick Sex was born in Dublin in 1880 and by the time of his marriage to Mary Kenna – a dressmaker living in Mary’s Abbey off Capel Street – in September 1901, he was living in Coles Lane, a busy market street off Henry Street and working as a butcher. Coles Lane, which now leads into the Ilac Centre but once ran all the way to Parnell Street, was full of stalls and shops selling everything from clothing to meat, fish and vegetables and formed part of a warren of streets and lanes feeding off the busy shopping areas of Henry Street and Moore Street. The area was a booming spot for a butcher to find work, it is likely that Patrick was raised and apprenticed in the trade as “butcher” is listed as his father James’s trade on Patrick’s marriage certificate.

Patrick and Mary, welcomed a son, James in August 1902 and they moved around the same small footprint of this section of north inner city Dublin in the coming years, with addresses on Jervis Street, Great Britain Street (now Parnell Street) and Dominick Street. It is on Dominick Street where we found the Sex family living in the 1911 Census, by which point they have five children, with one-year-old Esther being the youngest and Patrick was still working in the same trade, being listed as a Butcher’s Porter.

Moving forward ten years to 1921, the year of Patrick’s violent and untimely death, and the family had a total of ten children and were still living at 72 Dominick Street. Patrick was still working in the butchery trade in McInnally’s butchers at 63 Parnell Street, close to the junction with Moore Lane, roughly where the Leonardo (formerly Jury’s) hotel is today and would have been close to Devlin’s Pub, owned by Liam Devlin and a popular meeting spot for the IRA during the War of Independence.

*Parnell Street as it appears on the Goad Insurance maps from 1895*

By this stage in his life, as well as his place of work and large family we know that Patrick was active in the trade union movement, being Chairman of the No. 3 branch of the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union (ITGWU), this branch featured many from the butchers’ trade and was known as the Victuallers’ Union. Living and working where he did, no doubt Patrick would have clear memories of the Lock-out in 1913 and the infamous baton charge by the Dublin Metropolitan Police on Sackville Street in August of that year when two workers were mortally wounded.

Parnell Street 2025 — Parnell Street as it appears today – the Point A hotel is built on the site of the former Devlin’s Pub, McInnally’s butcher shop would have been within the footprint of the current Leonardo Hotel and Moore Street Mall

On March 26th 1921, Patrick Sex was, as usual, working at McInnally’s butcher’s shop on Parnell Street, it was owned by Hugh McInnally, originally from Scotland he had set up a number of butcher’s shops in Dublin and by the 1920s was entering his 70s and living in some comfort near Howth. The city and country more broadly were far less comfortable – more than two years into the violent period of the War of Independence, Dublin had seen the city placed under curfew in February 1920, there had been wide scale arrests, November 1920 had seen Bloody Sunday when fourteen people were killed in Croke Park by Crown Forces in reprisal for the wave of assassinations earlier that morning by the “Squad” and the Active Service Unit of the IRA. Croke Park was just a few minutes walk from Patrick’s home and place of work, he likely knew many who had attended the match, or perhaps some of those arrested in the wide scale arrests across the city by Crown Forces that followed. As mentioned, McInnally’s butcher’s was just doors away from an IRA safe house and meeting place in Devlin’s Pub, while Vaughan’s Hotel was just around the corner on Parnell Square.

This was the backdrop against which Patrick Sex and his family lived and worked in Dublin. On that fateful day of the 26th just before 3pm a lorry, carrying Crown Forces was attacked by members of “B” company of the 1st Dublin Brigade of the IRA as they journeyed up Parnell Street. The brigade report, taken from the Richard Mulcahy papers reads as follows;

“8 men… attacked a lorry containing 16 enemy at Parnell Street and Moore Street. 3 grenades exploded in lorry followed by revolver fire. Enemy casualties believed to be heavy. The lorry drove into O’Connell Street and was again attacked by a further squad of this coy. [company] numbering 18 men. They attacked another lorry at Findlater Place but were counter-attacked by lorry coming from the direction of Nelson’s Pillar. 3 of our grenades failed to explode so we retired. One of our men was slightly wounded”.

The Freeman’s Journal, reporting on the attacks a couple of days later goes into more detail on the impact of the grenade and gun attacks as they affected the public caught in the melee;

“the first bomb was thrown and exploded with a great crash in the channel opposite MacInally’s (sic) victualling establishment, 63 Parnell Street. The explosion was followed by a wild stampede of pedestrians.”

They continued: “The glass and woodwork of the houses from 63 to 66 Parnell Street were damaged by the flying fragments of the bombs. Mr. Patrick Sex, an assistant in the victualling establishment of Mr. MacInally was wounded in the hip and leg… and others in the shop had narrow escapes from the contents of the bomb, which in the words of Mr. O’Doherty ‘came through the shop like a shower of hail’.”

John O’Doherty the butcher in McInnally’s, mentioned above, would give a statement to a subsequent court of inquiry at Jervis Street Hospital, stating that he heard “two explosions and three or four shots”, before adding that “several fragments of the bombs came into the shop, and Patrick Sex who was attending a customer at the time said ‘I am struck’ , I saw that he had a wound in his left thigh and hurried him off to hospital.”

Another of those to give testimony at the court of inquiry (inquests into deaths had been suspended during the War of Independence) was Charles Smith of the RAF, he was in one of the Crossley Tender lorries, with two other RAF men in the driver’s cab as it made its way up Parnell Street, when he recalled that a man armed with a revolver stepped into the street and shouted “Hands up” and “Stop” at which point “3 or 4 other civilians fired at us, the driver was immediately hit and collapsed in his seat. Several bombs were thrown at us, as far as I know three or four.”

The driver who was hit was Alfred Walter Browning, a nineteen year old RAF recruit from Islington. He was taken to the King George V Hospital (later St Bricin’s Military Hospital) at Arbour Hill where he died later that evening. The other passenger was David Hayden from the Shankill in Belfast, he was badly injured but survived. All three men were based at the airfield in Baldonnell which was in use then as a RAF base. There was another fatality related to the attack on the lorry at Findlater Place, just off O’Connell Street, when 15 year old Anne Seville was struck by a ricocheting fragment of a bullet as she watched the fighting below from her bedroom window. Despite an operation in an attempt to save her life she passed away two days later.

But what of Patrick Sex? His wound was deemed to be not particularly serious, he was brought to Jervis Street hospital and initially it seemed that everything would be alright. Patrick was seen by Dr. L.F. Wallace who also testified before the inquiry and he stated that there was a wound to Patrick’s left thigh, with no corresponding exit wound. Despite being admitted on the 26th March, Patrick was not thought in need of emergency surgery and was not operated on until April 4th when an “irregular piece of metal” about half an inch long was removed from his thigh. However, despite all seeming to have gone well Patrick contracted tetanus and his condition immediately worsened, he only survived until April 6th. His death notice read “cardiac failure following on tetanus caused by a wound from a fragment of a bomb”.

This left Mary, widowed with a family of ten children to support, and while it may not even have been known yet by Mary and Patrick, she was pregnant with their eleventh child, who would be born in November of that year and would be christened, Vincent Patrick by his mother.

Mary hired prominent solicitor John Scallan who had offices on Suffolk Street in the city centre to pursue a claim for compensation from the Corporation of Dublin and the Provisional Government in January, 1922. Scallan’s letters to the military inquiry requested information on the outcome of the inquiry and a list of any witnesses that they could call, the letter also incorrectly states that Patrick Sex was wounded by a bullet and not a bomb fragment. These claims were reported on in May, 1922 with it being stated in the Freeman’s Journal that a claim for £5,000 had been lodged by Mary Sex “in respect of the murder of her husband, Patrick Sex”. The article describes the compensation claims as those “alleged to have been committed by any of the several units of the British forces in Ireland”. While Patrick was an innocent bystander from the medical reports it would seem a bomb fragment from a grenade thrown by members of the Dublin Brigade, rather than a British bullet was the ultimate cause of his death. It was reported that by November 1922 over 10,000 claims for compensation had been made.

While Mary lodged that claim in January 1922, after the ceasing of hostilities and the signing of the Anglo-Irish treaty, she still had to provide for her large, and growing family. The tragic case of Patrick’s death had clearly struck a particular chord among the Dublin public, despite the amount of violence and death they had witnessed over the previous two years. Perhaps it was the fact that he left a widow and ten children, his role as a prominent trade union organiser, or perhaps it was also the fact that several newspapers, including Sport, The Freeman’s Journal and The Dublin Evening Telegraph had reported that Patrick had sustained his injuries while protecting others leant even greater emphasis to his harrowing story.

The mention that Patrick had protected others is hard to confirm but from piecing together accounts in various newspaper reports it seems that Patrick may have shielded a child who was in the shop from the blast, possibly the child of an Annie Flynn who was mentioned as also being injured by the grenade blast, (see header image) though this is not specifically mentioned by John O’Doherty, the one witness at the inquiry who had seen Patrick get hit by the bomb fragment.

Funeral of Patrick Sex on Marlborough Street — *Clipping of Patrick Sex’s funeral from the Freeman’s Journal*

Patrick’s funeral took place on the 11th of April in St. Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, just a couple of minutes walk from his place of work. There was a huge crowd in attendance, estimated by the Evening Herald as numbering as high as two thousand with the funeral described as “one of the largest witnessed in Dublin for a considerable period”. As well as family mourners there was a strong representation of Patrick’s trade union colleagues, they presented a large floral wreath in the shape of a celtic cross. His funeral cortege passed through a Parnell Street which shut all its shops in a sign of mourning and was then met by more of the ITGWU branch members at Cross Guns bridge where they took the coffin from the hearse and carried it to Glasnevin cemetery for burial.

Grave of the Sex family — *The grave of Patrick Sex in Glasnevin cemetery*

The burial itself was somewhat unusual as the gravediggers at Glasnevin cemetery were on strike, which they would not break, even for a fellow union man, so Patrick’s grave was dug and closed by friends and family members. Gravediggers’ strikes were not uncommon at the time, they had taken place in 1916, 1919, and again in 1920. The one exception made by the gravediggers during their strike did take place a couple of days before Patrick’s burial, for the internment of Dublin’s Archbishop, William Walsh.

*By contrast, the elaborate grave of Archbishop William Walsh*

The outpouring of public support for the Sex family was evident not only in the strong turnout for Patrick’s funeral but also in the sporting world. A memorial committee had been established and a month after Patrick’s funeral there was to be an end-of season benefit match staged in Dalymount Park between Bohemians and a Best of Leinster XI, a set of high-quality gold medals were to be presented to the winning team while the proceeds from the game would go to help Mary Sex and her children.

*The selection to face Bohemians in the charity match which included future Ireland internationals Alec Kirkland and Paddy Duncan – from the Evening Herald* *16th May 1921*

The game was played on the 18th May, 1921 and a crowd of around 4,000 was in attendance to witness an entertaining 2-2 draw. With no extra-time and no penalty shoot-outs a replay to decide the winner of the gold medals was set, which also guaranteed a second opportunity to fundraise for the Sex family. After some back and forth around a replay date, the 26th May was chosen and Dalymount Park was once again the venue, this time Bohemians were the victors, triumphing 1-0 over the best of Leinster selection, thanks to a goal by Billy Otto. It was said that the game was played “before a good attendance” and this hopefully translated into funds for Patrick’s family.

It had been suggested in a Dublin Evening Telegraph report that Laurence O’Neill, the Lord Mayor of Dublin might ceremonially kick off the game, but this did not happen due to his having to travel to the USA where O’Neill was working with the “White Cross” who were providing aid in Ireland during the War of Independence. It was suggested in O’Neill’s absence that W.T. Cosgrave, then an Alderman on Dublin City Council, might take over that role but it is not clear from reports whether this happened.

The same report stated that “this is the first time the Dublin footballers and supporters have come forward to do something the alleviate the sorrow of at least one household in these unsettled days” while also encouraging those who did not attend football matches to “rid themselves of all petty prejudices and bring all their friends and associates for the once to Dalymount”. Which would appear to be a not so subtle appeal to supporters of the GAA codes to ignore “the Ban” and attend a soccer match due to the good cause that it was supporting.

One final question that arises, considering the level and scale of violence witnessed over the previous two years, why was Patrick Sex the first victim of the violence in the War of Independence to receive a benefit match? While Patrick Sex may have been a football fan, though it is not specifically mentioned in any reports, he doesn’t seem to have been mentioned in any role in connection with any club or with the Leinster Football Association (LFA). As previously discussed the size of Patrick’s family, his role in the Trade Union movement, and being well known in the local area having worked for many years for McInnally’s butchers all contributed to the prominence given to his funeral, but he was sadly far from unique. Many people with large families, who were well known within their communities lost their lives during the War of Independence, so why a football benefit for Patrick if we can’t find any specific connection of Bohemians, the LFA or any other football club?

I would suggest the answer lies in the timing of Patrick’s death in April 1921, with the benefit match and its replay being held the following month. For context, long-standing issues within the Belfast-based Irish Football Association and its relationship with the LFA and its member clubs were coming to a head against the backdrop of internal bureaucratic strife and the ongoing violence of the War of Independence. In February 1921 there are been consternation among the IFA officials at the displaying of an Irish tricolour at an amateur international against France in Paris, those involved were arrested and there were charges within Dublin football and local media of bias on the part of the IFA. The IFA had also made the decision to not play that season’s Junior Cup and move Intermediate Cup matches which had been scheduled for Dublin to Belfast. The final straw arrived in March 1921 when the venue for a replay of the drawn Cup game between Glenavon and Shelbourne came to be decided. The original match had taken place in Belfast so custom would suggest that the replay should take place in Dublin. However, the IFA ruled that the replay should also take place in Belfast.

On June 1st, less than a week after the Sex memorial match replay, at the annual meeting of the LFA in Molesworth Hall in Dublin, an overwhelming majority of committee members voted to break away from the IFA. The LFA had been polling its member clubs on the subject since April before passing the motion at the beginning of June and by September of that year the Football Association of Ireland had been established, and surprisingly quickly new League of Ireland cup and league competition had also been formed.

As Neal Garnham notes “by mid-May the LFA was effectively operating independently of the IFA”. Somewhat bizarrely the IFA held a Council meeting on June 7th, seemingly blissfully unaware that the LFA had voted to remove itself from IFA jurisdiction, among the items voted on and approved at the meeting was a motion by Bohemians to play a benefit match for Patrick Sex. It perhaps, shows the sporting and communications division between Belfast and Dublin, that the IFA were unaware that the LFA was no longer affiliated, or that two benefit matches for Patrick Sex had already been played. The organising of the game by Bohemians, the LFA and the role of the memorial committee which seems to have included prominent Republican politicians like Laurence O’Neill and W.T. Cosgrave, seems to suggest that the Patrick Sex memorial match was part of a larger, ongoing process of Dublin football moving away from Belfast control and taking charge of its own affairs, this coupled with the specific nature of Sex’s death and his background suggests why he, and not some other innocent victim was the first to receive such a benefit game.

With special thanks to Aaron Ó’Maonigh, Sam McGrath and Gerry Shannon for their help with elements of the research, and for Aaron for sending on the original “Sex memorial” clipping.

Leaving your Markarov

Posted on November 12 by gerrytastic

Ireland and Armenia, as nations that share long and often tragic histories, also share the fact that emigration, often forced and not chosen, has become a defining characteristic of their national stories. This has meant that you can often spot a member of the Irish or Armenian diaspora finding sporting success with other nations many miles from Dublin or Yerevan.

Armenia are justifiably proud of the success of athletes like tennis player Andre Agassi, World Cup winners Youri Djorkaeff and Alain Boghossian, or legendary basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian, all from Armenian backgrounds. However, one of the greatest figures in Armenian football was born on the shore of the Caspian Sea in Baku, capital of Azerbaijan and moved the other direction, finding fame and success in Yerevan.

Eduard Markarov, from a family of ethnic Armenians, was born in Baku in 1942 when it was part of the Soviet Union, at a time when they were engaged in fierce fighting after a massive German offensive in World War Two. Eduard’s father, Artyom had been a footballer and coach and often brought his young son to the local stadium to watch training.

Eduard developed as a skilful forward, first for Torpedo Armavir in what is now Krasnodar Krai in modern Russia, before a return to Azerbaijan with Neftchi Baku in 1961. This was a time of significant success for Neftchi, who competed in the highly competitive Soviet Top League against the footballing powerhouses of Moscow and Kyiv, finishing as high as third in 1966. Even by his second season with the club Markarov was one of the stars of the Top League, scoring sixteen goals for Neftchi and finishing as the league’s second top scorer.

He’d also made the Soviet Union national team and featured as part of the squad that reached the semi-finals at the 1966 World Cup, although such was the competition for places that he only won three caps in total.

1971 was to be a pivotal year for Eduard, approaching thirty he had endured a poor season for Neftchi and made the momentous move to his ancestral lands when he signed for Ararat Yerevan. The fans of Neftchi were outraged, even going so far as to throw stones at his house, but the move gave Eduard’s career a second wind. He was paired with some great talents like Arkady Andriasyan as well as Sergey Bondarenko, a player beloved and famous for his powerful shot and array of spectacular long-range goals.

Ararat were coached by the legendary Nikita Simonyan, who was also of Armenian heritage. Simonyan had been a star striker for Spartak Moscow and had moved into coaching and led them to further success. He repeated the trick with Ararat, winning an amazing Soviet League and Cup double in 1973 and winning the cup again in 1975, altering his coaching methods to better indulge the skilful and more individualistic traits of his Armenian players. Markarov played a decisive role in these victories, including scoring the decisive winning goal in the 75 cup final as well as finishing the 1974-75 European Cup campaign as the competition’s joint top-scorer alongside Gerd Muller, with Ararat reaching the quarter final stage of the competition.

1975 was his last season as a player but Markarov swiftly moved into management, taking the helm at Ararat Yerevan. When the Soviet Union collapsed and amid the turmoil the newly independent Armenia came into existence and set about the business of creating an international side there was only one man to turn to as their first head coach, Eduard Markarov despite the new Football Association only being able to offer him a small salary. Markarov stayed involved in football even after leaving the national team job in 1994, coaching in both Armenia as well as Lebanon.

Originally published in the Ireland v Armenia match programme in October 2025

Forever Young

Posted on July 25 by gerrytastic

I can’t say that I’m in any real way qualified to talk about Billy Young, the man, the player, the manager, the Bohemian. His managerial spell had finished a few years before I started going to Dalymount, my knowledge of Billy the talented League of Ireland full back was limited to the stories told by my Dad, a brief, erstwhile teammate of his who always singled out Billy and centre-half Willie Browne as the two great players of a difficult Bohemian era.

However, I did get to spend a few hours in Billy’s company on different occasions to interview him for various projects, to hear his amazing recall or games, events, characters. Most importantly, as recently as March this year at our home game against Drogheda United I saw the love and esteem in which Billy was held by many of his former players. There was a half-time presentation at the game to honour Billy and the players of the League winning 1974-75 team, and in the Jackie Jameson Bar beforehand (of course it was Billy who brought Jackie to Dalymount) it was like a celebrity had walked in when Billy arrived with his son Paul.

So many former players, men who won so much in the game, who had been capped at international level, were straight out of their seats to shake his hand, to ask after his health, to share old memories and stories. Walking down in front of the Jodi stand at half-time was a slow process given the amount of well-wishers seeking to stop and chat. Roddy Collins, raced down the steps to embrace his former manager at the halfway line.

Billy was a man who encapsulated so much of Bohemian Football Club’s history, one of the best fullbacks in the League, he stayed loyal to an amateur club through the 1960s knowing there was little chance of silverware. A thoughtful and forward-thinking coach, he replaced the great Seán Thomas in 1973, by which stage Bohemians had abandoned the club’s famed amateur status and would remain at the helm for an unbelievable sixteen years.

During that time he assembled several exciting teams, built around his unerring eye for talent. The 70s witnessed Bohemians win a fist league title since the 1930s a feat achieved again in the 1977-78 season as well as Niall Shelly’s famous winner in the 1976 FAI Cup final. There were numerous other minor trophies as well as many famous European nights. Billy was in change when Bohemians made the last 16 of the European Cup despite having to play home games away from Dalymount, he was the man at the helm when Rangers were beaten in Dalymount in 1984.

The list of players he brought through cannot be done justice in the space available but suffice to say that through the 1970s and 80s it was not unusual for there to be senior Irish internationals in the Dalymount dressing room, or for players to make the step of transferring straight into the first teams of topflight clubs in Britain.

Billy told great stories of transfer dealings with Tommy Docherty, or calling Bob Paisley for advice on European opponents. He was selected as coach for numerous League of Ireland sides, travelling to Libya when under the rule of Muammar Gaddafi or bringing the first side to face the Basque national team in the famous San Mames since the death of Franco. He was a modern, progressive coach in a league with dwindling attendances, aging infrastructure and in time when transfer fees for top players were a pittance and European football often ended up diminishing club coffers.

One wonders, what a man of his talents could achieve in the game were he coming through today. By 1989 some in the club were losing patience with his tenure in charge, a decade of near misses, runner up finishes, a decade that promised much but delivered only occasionally. A group of members tried to force an EGM to have a change in manager but it never got that quite far. After almost 25 years as player of manager Billy’s time with Bohemians came to end. But thankfully, not his involvement in the club, he has still been a regular sight at games, has returned in previous seasons to speak to new players an instil the Bohemian values, and with the benefit of hindsight the scale of his achievements is all the more impressive.

Beyond all this Billy was a gentleman, great company, a wonderful storyteller with a fine eye for humour. I can only imagine how much he will be missed by his family and those close to him. With an association with the club that goes back to 1962, and a winning personality and footballing CV sure we can say that Billy Young is one of the greatest ever Bohemians.

This article originally featured as a tribute to Billy Young in the Bohemian FC match programme in April 2025, the display shown in the photo is the work of the NBB and was unveiled in July 2025

“There is no way anyone can win out here” – but nobody told Gary McKay

Posted on July 1 by gerrytastic

The reaction of Irish fans to being drawn in a group that included Bulgaria for the Euro ’88 qualifiers must have been one of dread. Twice in recent campaigns Ireland had been drawn against the Bulgarians, for the World Cup in 1978 and for the 1980 Euros – the games that followed had featured disallowed goals, brawls, red cards, a horrific injury to Ireland’s Jimmy Holmes and a crowd atmosphere in Sofia described as a “Cauldron of hate”.

This was a tough group for Jack Charlton’s opening qualifying campaign, Bulgaria, Belgium, Scotland and Luxembourg were the opposition with only the winner progressing. Bulgaria were a talented side to boot, having qualified for the 1986 World Cup level on points in their group with European Champions, France. And even though they didn’t make it out of a tough group featuring Italy and eventual winners Argentina there was plenty of skill and ability in their ranks.

When Ireland faced Bulgaria away in the first of the game on 1st April 1987 they were buoyed by a somewhat unexpected away win over Scotland that February thanks to a famous Mark Lawrenson goal. Ireland were unbeaten at this stage having drawn at home to Scotland and also drawn against Belgium in Brussels thanks to a late Liam Brady penalty.

Two of the main protagonists in Sofia that night were goalkeeper Boris Mikhailov and striker Nasko Sirakov, stars for Levski Sofia who had both returned from bans after their part in the infamous brawl that marred the 1985 Bulgarian Cup final against their great rivals CSKA Sofia. Mikhailov was impressive in the Bulgarian goal denying efforts from Stapleton, Brady and Ronnie Whelan while Sirakov was won the crucial penalty with just minutes remaining the second half. Latchezar Tanev scored the resulting spot kick to give Bulgaria a 2-1 win but there were significant protests from the Irish. Much of the commentary from Irish observers felt that Kevin Moran made contact with Sirakov outside the box and that it was a “soft penalty”, while there were similar shouts for a first half penalty for Ireland that fell on the deaf ears of Portuguese referee Carlos Silva Valente. It was Ireland though who were ultimately April fools and an angry Jack Charlton blustered to the Press “there is no way anyone can win out here” – though he remained proud of a performance he felt had warranted at least a draw, stating “anyone who thinks that Ireland have no chance of qualifying for the finals must be crackers after such a marvellous display”!

Ireland would meet Bulgaria again in October as the final game of qualifying. It perhaps says something for the lack of optimism among Irish fans that only 26,000 showed up to Lansdowne Road for the game, some twenty thousand less than for the home fixtures against Scotland or Belgium. Ireland turned in one of the best performances of the campaign, with goals coming from a pair of Manchester United defenders in the shape of Kevin Moran and Paul McGrath. The only downside was the dismissal of Liam Brady who received a second yellow for elbowing Ayan Sadakov in retaliation.

Brady was originally to face a four-match ban, and when Gary McKay’s unlikely winner in Sofia a month later guaranteed Irish qualification there was a concerted effort by the FAI to appeal the severity of the suspension. The four-match ban was eventually reduced to two after the FAI’s Des Casey gave a memorable speech, declaring “To Irish football, Liam Brady is what Michel Platini is to French football and what Diego Maradona is to Brazilian football”! Sadly, injury would prevent Brady from playing in the Euros but so much of that first European Championship qualification had hinged on Brady and indeed on results (both Irish and Scottish) against Bulgaria.

This originally appeared in the Ireland v Bulgaria match programme in March 2025

United Ireland v England and the token Welshman

Posted on December 23, 2024 by gerrytastic

In May 1951 as part of the Festival of Britain, the ten League of Ireland clubs ventured across the Irish Sea to join the festivities and take part in a series of exhibition matches against teams drawn from the Third Division (North) of the Football League. Of the opening round of fixtures involving the Irish sides only Bohemians would emerge with a victory, defeating Accrington Stanley (who are they?) 1-0, although the Bohs would lose their following two games against Oldham and Rochdale respectively.

This invitation was not limited to teams from the League of Ireland, Irish League sides also took part as well as teams from the Netherlands, Austria, Luxembourg, Belgium, Denmark and Yugoslavia. The Festival itself was held on the 100th anniversary of the Great Exhibition and was designed as a measure to showcase the best of British industry, art and design and perhaps most importantly to give a sense of hope and optimism to a nation still witness to the devastation of World War Two and still experiencing rationing, while hoping to rebuild. There was of course a footballing element and as well as the exhibition games played by visiting sides there were various other tournaments contested.

The Festival itself was hugely successful and it was estimated that as much as half the overall population of Britain visited a festival event during the summer of 1951. One man especially impressed was Juan Trippe, the Chairman of US Airline Pan Am who was apparently responsible for suggesting that Ireland might consider a similar festival event. Trippe and men like him were keen to increase trans-Atlantic passenger numbers on their airlines while the struggling Irish economy and Minister for Industry and Commerce, Seán Lemass were keen to elongate the short tourist season and increase visitor numbers. A plan was quickly put into action with An Tóstal (Ireland at home) being announced in 1952 with the aim of showcasing the country to foreign visitors, tapping into the dispora and beginning the tourist season earlier in Spring of 1953 rather than just in the traditional summer months. It was hoped that over 3,000 American tourists might visit for the festival as well as larger numbers travelling from Britain.

*Tranmere v Dundalk match programme from the Festival of Britain, courtesy Gary Spain*

Sport played a key role from the outset with cycling, athletics, rugby, hockey, greyhound racing, tennis, shooting, badminton, chess and even roller hockey tournaments and exhibitions being held. Association football was not to be found wanting, for the first year of An Tóstal in 1953 the FAI arranged an Irish XI to take on a visiting Celtic side in Dalymount. The FAI selection defeating their Glasgow visitors 3-2, while there was also an Inter-League game arranged against the Irish League a few days later. This was the first meeting of the representative league sides in three years and it was hoped the match might ease relations between the FAI and IFA which had been strained yet again during qualifying for the 1950 World Cup with the IFA trying to select players born outside the six counties. It was only the intervention of FIFA that finally ended the practice of players representing both “Irelands” that had persisted for over twenty years.

An Tóstal would return again in subsequent years and it was in 1955 that an intriguing fixture was announced featuring and “All Ireland” side who would take on and England XI. This match was the brainchild of Sam Prole, an FAI official and owner of Drumcondra FC, who had also previously had a long involvement with Dundalk FC. The game was to play the dual role of being a focal point for football during a busy end of season period and part of the An Tóstal events and it was also to act as a fundraising event for investment into Tolka Park, home of Drumcondra FC.

The Prole family had taken over Tolka Park just a couple of years earlier and had seen almost immediate success with an FAI Cup win, they had also invested in the first set of permanent floodlights at a League of Ireland ground and had introduced other stadium innovations such as pitch side advertising boards as well as purchasing the house at the Ballybough end of the ground with a view to increasing stadium capacity. However, in 1954 Drumcondra and the North Strand suffered extreme flooding with the Tolka River bursting its banks and causing significant damage to the stadium. The Proles had ambitious plans for the club but also knew that an insurance settlement from the flood only covered a portion of the costs of repair and they need to generate additional revenue.

Dalymount Park, the largest football ground in the city, was chosen as the venue for this high-profile fundraising game and Prole went about putting together a pair of squads designed to appeal to the interests of the Dublin football public. The match programme for the game referred to the team as the “England International XI” and the “All Ireland International XI” however in various sections of the Press the teams were variously referred to as All Star XIs an “Old England XI” and also, trading on the name recognition of their star, the “Stanley Matthews Old England XI”. As the names suggest it was something of a veteran side brought over, the side being up of players the wrong side of thirty, while Matthews himself had just turned 40, though he was still a current English international. Nor were the England international side all English! In the side at centre-forward was Cardiff City’s Welsh international striker Trevor Ford.

The All-Ireland side was more mixed in ages, though several veterans still featured in the ranks, including one of the biggest draws Peter Doherty, the manager of Doncaster Rovers . Doherty had been a League winner with Manchester City before the War and a Cup winner with Derby County after it. He’d also been capped sixteen times by the IFA and was considered on of the greatest inside forwards of the 1930s and 40s. The advertising material in the run-up to the game focused on the presence of “Peter the Great” and “Stanley the Wizard” in the opposing sides.

*Programme cover from 1955, courtesy of Gary Spain*

As often happened with these games there were some last minute changes, the team named as travelling to Dalymount, and listed in the match programme was as follows; Ted Ditchburn, Alf Ramsey (both Tottenham Hotspur), Tom Garrett , Harry Johnston (both Blackpool), Neil Franklin (Hull City), Allenby Chilton (Grimsby Town), Stanley Matthews (Blackpool), Wilf Mannion (Hull City), Tommy Lawton (Arsenal), Jimmy Hagan (Sheffield United), Jack Rowley (Plymouth).

However, Mannion, Lawton and Hagan had to cry off for various reasons and at short notice they were replaced by Charlie Mitten of Fulham, Bobby Langton of Blackburn Rovers, a former England international. Replacing Lawton at centre forward was Trevor Ford of Cardiff City. As mentioned Ford was also the Welsh international centre-forward and as such this “England” side’s attack was led by a man from Swansea. While the side was on the older end of the age spectrum for professional footballers the entire XI apart from Mitten had been capped, and Ditchburn, Matthews and Ford were still current internationals.

Several of the Blackpool team who had won the FA Cup in 1953, famously dubbed the Matthews final, also appeared. Alf Ramsey, Spurs reliable full-back had won 32 caps for England but would find his greatest fame as a manager, first leading unfancied Ipswich to their only league title and then taking England to World Cup victory. The “England” side also featured several players who were somewhat infamous, both Mitten and Franklin were part of the “Bogota bandits” who left their club contracts in England and went to Colombia to play in the non-FIFA recognised league there due to the high wages on offer.

At the time the maximum wage which capped players salaries was still very much in force. Franklin, one of the greatest centre-halves of his generation never won another cap after his Colombian soujourn, while Mitten, who missed out on much of his early due to World War Two was never capped despite being a successful and popular winger for Manchester United and Fulham. A year after the game in Dalymount Trevor Ford would reveal in his autobiography that during his time at Sunderland he had been in receipt of under the counter payments to circumvent the maximum wage. He wasn subsequently suspended and announced his retirement, however changed his mind and moved to the Netherland where his ban could not be enforced and joined PSV Eindhoven.

*From the Irish Press, Trevor Ford scores for “England” in Dalymount Park.*

In the Irish side there was a breakdown of six players born south of the border and five from the north, although like the English side there were late changes, Aston Villa’s Peter McPartland being unavailable he was replaced by his club and international teammate Norman Lockhart. The Irish stating XI read as Tommy Godwin (Bournemouth), Len Graham (Doncaster Rovers), Robin Lawlor (Fulham), Eddie Gannon (Shelbourne), Con Martin (Aston Villa), Des Glynn (Drumcondra), Johnny McKenna (Blackpool), Eddie McMorran (Doncaster Rovers) Shay Gibbons (St. Patrick’s Athletic), Peter Doherty (Doncaster Rovers), Norman Lockhart (Aston Villa).

Sam Prole obviously could rely on the services of his own players like Des Glynn, as well as former Drumcondra men like Con Martin and Robin Lawlor. As mentioned the connection with Doncaster Rovers through manager Peter Doherty, who was also manager of Northern Ireland likely helped secure the services of several other players.

The match proved to be a success in terms of the turnout and entertainment value, 24,000 turned up in Dalymount Park on the 9th of May 1955 for a goal-fest. The main plaudits were rained on Stanley Matthews for his exhibition of wing play, but the entire “England” forward line drew praise from the media reports, Trevor Ford being referred to as the “Welsh wizard among the Saxons” while he scored twice for England. In defence Neil Franklin and keeper Ted Ditchburn were also complimented. Ditchburn was lauded as the best keeper in England despite the fact that he conceded five on the day, Tommy Godwin in the Irish goal came off on worse as the hosts lost 6-5.

There was also praise for several of the Irish performers, despite having hung up his boots two years earlier the technique of Peter Doherty was still remarked upon, however it was Doncaster’s Eddie McMorran who drew the most praise and scoring two of the Irish goals. The press raved about the game, the Evening Herald declaring, in terms of exhibition matches “one of the finest ever seen at Dalymount Park” and again praising Matthews who it described as “being in peak form”. The Irish Press was similarly effusive, leading with the headline “Exhibition Treat Thrills Crowd – Stars Give a Soccer Lesson”. The healthy gate who turned up to see the star names no doubt helped the Prole family in the repair and upgrading work being carried out a short distance away at Tolka Park.

This marked a busy time for Dalymount, as days later there was another large attendance for An Tóstal events, with 15,000 turning up for a fireworks display which climaxed with “glittering reproduction of the Tostal harp in fiery gold. Underneath were the words : ” Beannacht De libh.” The young crowd left delighted although there were complaints from residents who were unaware of the event and were frightened by the unexpected noise.

Bouyed by the success of the 1955 match Sam Prole set about organising another All-Ireland v England match for the following year, though this time without the fundraising for Tolka tagline. Once again there was a high-profile selection of English veteran stars recruited and once again there was a cross border make-up to the Irish side. Though for 1956 it was much more weighted to the north with ten of the starting eleven being IFA internationals with only Pat Johnston, a Dubliner then plying his trade for Grimsby Town, coming from south of the border.

Several faces from the previous year’s game returned, including Peter Doherty and his Doncaster Rovers contingent which now included a young goalkeeper named Harry Gregg who would find fame at Manchester United, both on the pitch, and off it as one of the heros of the Munich air disaster. Once again Aston Villa’s Peter McParland was slated to appear but had to cry off, with once again his clubmate Norman Lockhart replacing him. There was also the considerable draw of two stars of Glasgow Celtic, Charlie Tully and Bertie Peacock. Tully, especially was a crowd favourite known for his amazing ball control, on-field trickery and cheeky personality. Such was his popularity among the Celtic faithful there were descriptions of “Tullymania” and his fame spawned an entire trade in Tully products and souveniers.

There were also returning stars from the “England” side that had played in the first game in Dalymount such as Tom Garrett of Blackpool and the “Welsh wizard” Trevor Ford, both late call-ups after Joe Mercer and Stan Mortenson were forced to pull out. The full teams were as follows:

“All-Ireland” – Harry Gregg (Doncaster Rovers), William Cunningham (Leicester City), Len Graham (Doncaster Rovers), Eddie Crossan (Blackburn Rovers), Pat Johnston (Grimsby Town), Bertie Peacock (Celtic), Johnny McKenna (Blackpool), Charlie Tully (Celtic), Jimmy Walker (Doncaster Rovers), Peter Doherty (Doncaster Rovers), Norman Lockhart (Aston Villa)

“England” – Sam Bartram (York City), George Hardwick (Oldham Athletic), Bill Eckersley (Blackburn Rovers), George Eastham Snr. (Ards), Malcolm Barass (Bolton Wanderers), Tom Garrett (Blackpool), George Eastham Jnr (Ards), Ernie Taylor (Blackpool), Trevor Ford (Cardiff City), Jackie Sewell (Aston Villa), Jimmy Hagan (Sheffield United).

While there were well known veterans in the England team, Hagan was 38 and Sam Bartram, a Charlton legend and one of the most popular goalkeepers in football, was over 40 and had moved into management at York, were in the side there were also several younger players such as Johnny Wheeler and Ronnie Allen who were under the age of 30 and were due to feature but they both pulled out and were replaced by the father and son duo of George Eastham Senior and Junior. In the build up to the game much was made of the value of the team to be put on the pitch with the figure of £250,000 mentioned. In fact, in Jackie Sewell and Trevor Ford, there were two players who had broken the British transfer record over the past six years.

It seems the crowd wasn’t as strong as the one from the previous year, attendance figures not being shared, but newspaper reports variously describing it as a “good” or “medium” crowd, it was also noted that the quality of the display was at a lower lever than the 1955 game, with this match having a more prounounced “end of season friendly” feel to it. The Irish Press called the game an “end of season frolic” while most reports did note the slower pace of the game and the lack of hard tackling, they were quick to praise the style and technique of the players on display. Once again the crowd were treated to a glut of goals, though the score wasn’t a close as the match a year earlier, Ireland lost 5-3 though reports state that this wasn’t a true reflection of the visitors superiority. Once again Trevor Ford was one of the stars while Villa’s Jackie Sewell also earned rave reviews. For the Irish side it was much more the Charlie Tully show, with him seeming to be the one player who was fully committed to the game, being described as a ball of energy and entertaining the crowd with his skills which prompted cries of “Give it to Charlie” from the terraces when Ireland were in possession.

*Cover for the 1957 game*, *courtesy of Gary Spain*

The younger George Eastham was also impressive for the English side, still only 19 Eastham had been a stand out player in the Irish League for Ards where his then 42 year old father was player-manager, before the year was out Eastham Jnr would sign for Newcastle United, and later his subsequent, protracted transfer to Arsenal, and court case would win significant change for players rights in English football, doing away with the old “retain and transfer” system clubs still held player’s registrations, even when the player in question was out of contract. He would enjoy a long and successful career and was a squad member of the England side which would win the World Cup in 1966.

Eastham Jnr. would open the scoring for England after Ireland took an unexpected lead through Walker, braces from Ford and Sewell rounded off the scoring for the English side, while the veteran Doherty with a penalty and Norman Lockhart scored Ireland’s other two goals. While the match was not as much of a success as the 55 game there was still praise for Sam Prole for taking the initiative to organise the game and for contributing on behalf of the footballing community to the Tóstal festival.

One possible reason for a smaller crowd in 1956 was not just the different line-ups, late withdrawals, or absence of Stanley Matthews, but also the sheer volume of other exhibition matches, often involving the same players, taking place at the time. Within days of the “All Ireland” v “England” game in May of 1956 there was an Irish youth international against West Germany, followed the next day by a combined Ireland – Wales XI against an England-Scotland XI, both taking place in Dalymount Park. Trevor Ford would feature for the Ireland/Wales side alongside Ivor Allchurch and local Cabra lad Liam Whelan, then making his name at Manchester United.

These games came just days after a Bohemian Select XI took on a side of Football League managers in an entertaining 3-3 draw in aid of the National Association for Cerebal Palsy. Among the Managers XI were players familiar to those who had attended the “All Ireland” games, such as Charlie Mitten, Trevor Ford (again), Peter Doherty (again!) as well as the likes of Bill Shankley and Raich Carter. There was perhaps a law of diminishing returns as despite the reports claiming the game was a highly entertaining spectacle and the associated good cause receiving the benefit, the crowd was descirbed as “disappointing”.

While the Shamrock Rovers XI match against Brazil in 1973, essentially a United Ireland side in all but name, is well known, and its 50th anniversary was marked last year in several quarters, these games in the 1950s are less well remembered. There are perhaps a number of reasons for this, for example, up until 1950 it was common practice for both the IFA and FAI to select players from either side of the borders and more than forty players were capped by both Associations. In this situation “All Ireland” representative sides were not all that uncommon, even if this did occasionally lead to tensions and even threats against players.

In the 1950s, Sam Prole, a key figure in the League of Ireland and the FAI was the driving force behind the matches, similar to the role played by Louis Kilcoyne in the 1973 game against Brazil, and similarly again there was the involvement of a national team manager, Peter Doherty in the 1950s and John Giles in the 1973 game. However, it seems that while the games in 1955 and 1956 used the title Ireland or All Ireland and the 1973 game was compelled to go under the Shamrock Rovers banner, the political situations were quite different. The 1973 game was played against the backdrop of one of the worst years of violence during the troubles, at the time the IFA were playing “home” matches in various grounds around England while a year earlier the 1972 Five nations rugby championship could not be completed as Scotland and Wales had refused to travel to Dublin, highlighting safety concerns.

There seemed to be a concerted effort by players involved in the 73 game to offer a counter narrative and most spoke of being in favour of a 32 county Irish international side. The games in 1955 and 56 lacked this political backdrop, the ill-fated IRA border campaign wouldn’t begin until the winter of 1956, and the stated aim seemed to be a novelty factor and curiousity element as can be seen with the other types of exhibition matches played at the time. There was no sense in any reportage that the games in 55 and 56 were trying to make a political point, they were fundraisers for Tolka Park initially, and a contribution by Irish football to fill a programme for the An Tóstal festival.

Though less than 20 years apart the football landscape was very different between 1955 and 1973. By 1973 European club competition was the norm, when it was only in its earliest phase in 1955 and lacked Irish or English participants. By 1973 colour TV had arrived and there was a massive increase in television set ownership in Ireland through the late 1960s. Where once stars of British football could only be seen in international or exhibition matches, or in snippets on newsreels, now they could be watched every Saturday night on Match of the Day.

While vestiges of An Tóstal live on today, it’s still celebrated in Drumshambo, Co. Leitrim for example, and we can credit it with the genesis of the likes of The Rose of Tralee, The Tidy Towns competition, the Cork Film Festival and Dublin Theatre Festival, one legacy it didn’t leave is a united, 32 county, Irish football team. Perhaps when Ireland is next on our uppers, and we have to reinvent a reason to convincea tourist diaspora to flock home to the old sod, we’ll hold some matches in Dalymount and unite the nation again?

With thanks to Gary Spain for sharing images of the match programmes for the 1955 and 1956 games.

Finn margins in World Cup qualifying 1950

Posted on November 26, 2024 by gerrytastic

The 1950 World Cup would enter popular memory for the wonder of the Maracanã, the vast and noisy crowds that turned up to follow their Brazilian heroes, and of course the shock result in the “final” which saw Uruguay win their second World Cup by defeating the hosts in what became known as the Maracanzo – A result which seemed to traumatise the Brazilian nation like few others.

It was also the first World Cup to be held in twelve years due to the savagery of the Second World War, and slowly a decimated Europe returned to the football fields and to World Cup qualifying groups. Most groups were two team affairs, simple home and away fixtures with the winner progressing, however Ireland were drawn in a group of three, alongside Sweden and Finland. It was to be Ireland’s first meeting with both nations.

The Swedes would have been strong favourites for the group, they had triumphed in the football tournament at the 1948 Olympics in London and featured stars like Nils Liedholm and Gunnar Gren who would find greater fame in Italy with AC Milan. The Finns, however, were something of an unknown quantity with Irish newspaper previews detailing the struggle faced by Finish football due to the harshness of the climate and the ongoing recovery from the ravages of the Second World War.

For the visit of Finland to Dublin in September of 1949, the Republic of Ireland opted for experimentation. Having been well-beaten by a strong Spanish side in a recent friendly, there was a more youthful look to the Irish team against Finland with several debutants, especially in the attack. A brand-new front five was named, with Johnny Gavin, Arthur Fitzsimons, Jim Higgins, Peter Desmond and Tommy O’Connor all listed to start. Higgins had enjoyed a blistering start to the season with Dundalk, scoring six times before August was out but had to cry off with an injury, his place being taken by Shelbourne’s Brendan Carroll.

It was to be a further changed front line as Carroll had to go off injured after 25 minutes and Paddy Daly being the only outfield player (the 12th man) available as his replacement. This prompted another reshuffle, with the ever-versatile Con Martin moving from centre-half to the centre forward role and Daly taking Martin’s place. Despite the disruption to the team there seemed to be no ill-effects on the pitch. Johnny Gavin opened proceedings with a goal direct from a corner, 21-year-old Gavin was just beginning to make his name at Norwich but he would go on to become the Norfolk club’s record goal-scorer, a distinction still held to this day.

Two more goals followed, Peter Desmond was fouled which drew a penalty and was dispatched by Con Martin before victory was sealed, this time Martin again proving his worth as a striker flicking in a header in the 68th minute from an Ireland corner. A relatively comfortable 3-0 win in front of 23,000 in Dalymount.

The return leg in October was to be a different affair, Finland’s football season was coming to a close and the harsher winter weather was already in force, Ireland were playing in a biting wind with temperatures hovering just above freezing. The FAI had spared no expense, paying over £1,000 to fly an Aer Lingus charter flight to Helsinki and despite the conditions the Irish team must have been optimistic, they had just beaten England in Goodison Park a month earlier and regular centre forward Davy Walsh was back in the starting XI.

Walsh looked to have scored early on but Dutch referee Jan Bronkhorst disallowed it for a supposed foul on the Finish keeper. Ireland did however take the lead through Everton’s Peter Farrell, slipped in by Drums’ Tim Coffey, Farrell beat his man before unleashing a fierce shot into the Finnish net on 65 minutes. Ireland remained in the lead until the last minute when Jorma Vaihela managed to bundle the ball, and a number of Irish players, into the net. The Irish team quickly protested to the referee that the Finns had fouled in the lead up to the equaliser but their laments fell on deaf ears.

Finland decided to withdraw from qualifying after the game and never faced Sweden in the group. Ireland knew they would have to beat the Swedes to force a play-off but these narrow hopes were dashed by a Calle Palmér hat-trick in Dalymount. The Swedes would go to Brazil where they would finish third behind Uruguay and the hosts while it would be another 40 years before Ireland would grace World football’s greatest stage.

This article originally featured in the match programme for Ireland v Finland in November 2024. Banner photo from the Irish Press showing Con Martin bearing down on Finnish keeper Thure Sarnola in the September 1949 game.

Keep the green flag flying – 50 years on from defeating the Soviet Union

Posted on November 26, 2024 by gerrytastic

John Giles was enthusiastic that the aligning of Ireland’s European Championship qualifying fixtures with that of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland would have a beneficial effect on securing the release of players from their clubs for the upcoming match against Turkey. He made this point just after his Ireland side, playing in their first competitive game under his management had shocked European football by defeating the Soviet Union 3-0 on October 30th 1974.

Giles waxed lyrical about wanting the opportunity to work with the international team players on a weekly, even daily basis and hoped to have extra days for another opportunity for additional training ahead of the game against Turkey. Even things like the release of players and a day or two to work through set pieces wasn’t guaranteed in 1974.

The hero in that game, Don Givens, who celebrated his 25th cap with a hat-trick recalled being unable to get back to the team bus such were the crowds and didn’t know how to get to the team hotel in Booterstown so he hailed down a car in his muddy kit with a match ball under his arm. He was greeted with the inquiry as to whether he’d been “at the match?” by the driver.

Liam Brady, then an 18-year-old debutant remembered the flaking panelling in the Dalymount dressing room and the smell of liniment mixed with a waft of beer from the nearby club bar. The anxiety, and perhaps the odour meant that he recalled getting sick in the dressing room toilet prior to kick-off.

All of this perhaps sounds a far cry from modern international football but it was something of a dawning of a new era for Ireland. Giles had taken charge mere months earlier, had impressed in a series of friendlies, and was now player-manager leading the bid for Euro 76 qualification in a group featuring the Soviet Union, Switzerland and Turkey. Almost exactly 15 years earlier a teenaged Giles had scored on his debut in a victory over Sweden, now he was in charge on and off the pitch as Ireland took on the world’s largest nation featuring such stars as Oleg Blokhin who would win the Ballon D’Or just months later.

One of the Irish centre-backs that day, Terry Mancini, had praised Giles for his training techniques and the “tremendously professional atmosphere and attitude – as good as any team in the world”. As chance would have it, the Arsenal defender wouldn’t get to experience much more of the Ireland dressing room, a sending off for retaliating against Soviet defender Volodymyr Kaplychnyi saw his international career ended by a four-match ban.

During the game itself the 35,000 spectators were treated to scintillating, confident football by the Irish, with one commentator describing the interplay between Giles and Brady, master and student, as almost arrogant! It was claimed in reports that this was the game that brought Irish football in from the cold and gave Dalymount back its roar.

The crowd had just 23 minutes to wait for the first goal, a delightful ball in from Joe Kinnear, who excelled in marshalling Blokhin as well as joining the attack, which found the head of Givens who powered it home. Five quick passes cutting open the Soviets to give Ireland the lead. The second arrived on the half hour courtesy of the indefatigable Ray Treacy, who’s cross was flicked on by Steve Heighway to present Givens with a simple finish.

However, there was some concern two minutes later when Mancini and Kaplychnyi were sent off. Could Ireland’s 4-3-3 formation adapt to being down a centre half? Mick Martin, filled in ably, switching from midfield to defence, and Ireland managed to weather a Soviet storm in the first period of the second-half and any fears of a comeback were allayed on 70 minutes as Giles’s precise and quickly taken free found the Soviet defence asleep and Don Givens secured his hat-trick.

Through the late 60s and early 70s Irish fans had little reason to be cheerful, 50 years ago a new manager, and a shock result helped the Green army to find their voice and hope again.

This article originally appeared in the Ireland v Finland match programme in November 2024

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