Month: July 2022

From The Sash I Never Wore to the Boys From Brazil – the Derek Dougan story

Posted on by gerrytastic

By Fergus Dowd

Between 1864 and 1961 seventeen men were hung in Crumlin Road jail, the first four executions were carried out in a specially-built gallows in the front courtyard. On September 17th 1972 Private Frank Bell from the Wirrall, aged 18, was wounded by a single sniper shot on patrol in Ballymurphy a district of West Belfast, three days later he passed away in the Royal Victoria Hopital he was the 100th British soldier to die in the war in Ireland. In the spring of 1973 Liam Holden, also 18, became the last person in the United Kingdom to be sentenced to hang for the killing of Private Bell, ‘”You will suffer death in the manner authorised by law” were the judges words. Handcuffed to a prison officer Holden was escorted along the underground tunnel that led to Crumlin Road jail on the opposite side of the road. There he was taken straight to C wing – to the condemned man’s cell. A fortnight previous William Whitelaw, the first Secretary of State of Northern Ireland, had pardoned Albert Browne a UDA member from hanging following the shooting of an RUC officer in October 1972. Liam Holden didn’t hang his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, and shortly after capital punishment was abolished in Northern Ireland bringing it in line with the rest of the United Kingdom – Holden would have his murder conviction quashed four decades later by the court of appeal in Belfast.

That same spring 1973 a tall sparse figure stood at the door of a London hotel room heart beating, palms sweating, full of nervous tension as he knocked on the door. Alexander Derek Dougan from the staunchly Protestant heartland of Newtownards in East Belfast, was born at 41 Susan Street in the shadow of Harland and Wolf where his father worked as a boilermaker; he was capped 43 times and captain of his country Northern Ireland.

He had been the youngest member of the 1958 World Cup squad and was presented with a gold watch as Ulstermen descended on Sweden for the teams first finals. The Doog though stood for more than simple ball-kicking, he was the proud owner of human sentience, a majestic temper, venomous tongue and a fearless spirit – that same year of ’73 he had instigated the PFA awards. Dougan had never respected convention, he was Britain’s first football mod skinhead; he had walked into a Blackburn hairdressers in 1959 and had his head fully shaved. As Dougan entered the hotel room in England’s capital his body language was palpable history in the making was in the air, across the room sat two men Harry Cavan IFA President and Secretary Billy Drennan. Dougan took a seat and outlined to the blazers about two phone calls and the idea of an All-Ireland XI to face world champions Brazil in Dublin… speaking about leadership, healing divisions and building bridges he was faced with deathly silence…

Harry Cavan informed Dougan tersely that he would put the matter to the IFA. Billy Drennan, much more enthusiastic, told his captain that he would keep him posted about developments. Neither would ever speak to Dougan again.

The Northern Ireland team were gathered in London en route to play Cyprus for a World Cup qualifier;

Dougan was plying his trade with Wolverhampton Wanderers in the top division in England – John Giles and Liam Touhy felt he was the man to help knit things together between Northern and Southern players. Giles still then the general of Don Revie’s midfield at Leeds United was soon to take over as manager of the Republic of Ireland – he would pick up his phone in Yorkshire and speak candidly and passionately about the idea to Dougan. The second phone call came from Giles brother-in-law Louis Kilcoyne who had lobbied Jao Havelange, Brazil’s FA President, a man ambitously interested in unseating England’s Stanley Rous as head of FIFA. With elections coming in 1974 Kilcoyne felt he could deliver an FAI vote for Havelange,if he could deliver the lustre of Jairzinho and Rivelino to Lansdowne Road. That spring 1973 while Liam Holden faced the uncertainty of the gallows in Crumlin Road jail the boys from Brazil were on a 1973 European tour helping them acclimatise for the 1974 World Cup which was to be held in Germany. Havalange had agreed to the game but Brazil had two requests: firstly the game had to be played for charity and the secondly the team had to be 32-county in make up, this is why Dougan was contacted.

On the 3rd of July 1973 nine days before the local Newtownards District LOL marched on the streets of East Belfast Alexander Derek Dougan set foot on the hallowed turf of Lansdowne Road in front of 35,000 spectators. As the two teams emerged alongside the Doog was Allan Hunter, Martin O’Neill and Pat Jennings on the bench sat future Northern Ireland manager Bryan Hamilton and Brian Clough’s future right hand man at Notts Forest Liam O’Kane all had travelled south. That day the St. Patrick’s brass and reed band would strike up a nation once again.

Brazil would win out 4-3 but the Irish would hold their heads high coming back from a 4-1 deficit to narrowly lose out – Dougan would net the third with Dublin Northsiders Terry Conroy and Mick Martin also scoring. Mick Martin was the son of the great Con Martin a brilliant sportsman who had won a Leinster Senior Championship medal back in 1942 given his preference for soccer he would not receive his medal until 1972. Mick’s father was involved in the last team to be made up of Northerners and Southerners a World Cup qualifier against Wales in Wrexham for the IFA’s Ireland team, five months earlier he had scored for the FAI’s Ireland team – the year was 1950 and as attitudes hardened and FIFA’s new criteria kicked in there would be no more dual Irish internationals. Four years earlier Cornelius Joseph Martin had moved from Drumcondra to Dougan’s local club Glentoran the pride of East Belfast; CJ Martin would find digs in Ballysillan near the top of the Shankill mixing daily with both Protestant and Catholic.

Brazil v Ireland 1973

On that day in July as the game was beamed out live in Irish homes; the team that took on the best team in the world was called “Shamrock Rovers XI” there was no mention of ‘Ireland’ or ‘All-Ireland’. Harry Cavan had been busy behind the scenes speaking with Stanley Rous making sure there would be no ‘Ireland’ in the title. That evening after the game Dougan, Hunter and Craig all northern Protestants drank in Dublin’s fair city with Mick Martin, Don Givens and Terry Conroy all southern Catholics. The idea had been a great success and Dougan wrote afterwards: ‘They didn’t say it couldn’t be done, they said it shouldn’t be done. It was done and afterwards they couldn’t find any fault with it, so they said nothing.’

Ireland side of 1973 in their “Shamrock Rovers XI” jerseys

Within three months of the match taking place the two associations sat across from each other in Belfast the meeting was described as ‘lengthy and amicable’; another meeting was held in 1974. Four years later both associations went further issuing a joint statement following discussions in Dundalk about ‘the possibility of an All-Ireland Football Federation which would be responsible for football on the island’. However, the European Championships draw for 1980 would be the ruination of all the progress made the two Ireland’s would be drawn in Group One alongside England. In North London at Highbury stadium after the groups were made six Irishmen messers Brady, Jennings, Rice, O’Leary, Stapleton and Nelson sat down and faced up to a sickening and depressing reality.

For the vision he showed Derek Dougan would never play for Northern Ireland again, Cavan advised then manager Terry Neill not to pick him. There would be no second gold watch for being capped 50 times to go with the one received in 1958.

In 1997 after a near fatal heart attack Dougan ran for parliament in his local East Belfast ward running on a ticket which proposed integrated education, a referendum on the province’s political future, and peace through appreciation of difference. Among the bureaucracy and the blazers Alexander Derek Dougan nearly broke the mould.

League of Ireland v Welsh League, 1924 – old friends, new relations

Posted on by gerrytastic

The split from the IFA and the formation of the FAI in 1921 was an acrimonious one, and the bad blood seeped beyond our own island as the English, Scottish and Welsh football associations roundly supported their colleagues in Belfast. This placed the nascent FAI in a difficult position, it had to look further afield for opponents leading to them joining FIFA, entering a team in the 1924 Olympics and inviting clubs from the Continent to visit Ireland. They knew however that the bigger draw for the sporting public were always going to be for teams from the British associations and if a full international match couldn’t be secured, then the next best thing would be an inter-league game. With an improvement in relations with the other associations after a conference in Liverpool in 1923, this was something that for the first time seemed achieveable.

In February 1924, almost three years since the split from the FAI, an inter-league match was scheduled against the Welsh League, with the match due to take place in Dalymount Park. This was the first time since the creation of the FAI that they would have any sort of representative game.
All that would be needed now was to select a team…

There was much discussion about the make-up of the team and not all Irish football supporters were happy. The newspaper letter pages at the time we’re deluged with criticisms and alternative XIs (they had to do something without Twitter) but ultimately side was picked by a Free State league selection committee and was made up of players from Bohemians, Shelbourne, Jacobs, St. James’s Gate and Shamrock Rovers. The Welsh, for their part selected four Cardiff players, three from Llanelli Town and one each from Swansea, Newport, Mid Rhondda and Pontypridd. Neither the League of Ireland team nor the Welsh side limited themselves to Irish or Welsh players only. For the Welsh League the likes of Cardiff’s English goalkeeper Herbert Kneeshaw or forward Jack Nock were selected. Similarly, the League of Ireland side featured English players, the Bohs’ forwards Harry Willitts and Dave Roberts were both born in England. Roberts had even had a brief career in the English league with the likes of Shrewsbury and Walsall.

It was quite an eclectic League of Ireland side, completing the Irish forward line alongside Willitts and Roberts were Hugh (Jimmy) Harvey, Jack (Kruger) Fagan and Christy Robinson. Harvey was a winger for Jacobs who, like Willitts had served in the British Army in World War I, he would later go on to have a career as a music hall performer and comedy actor. Robinson and Fagan, two of the younger players in the side, from Bohemians and Shamrock Rovers respectively, had both been involved with the IRA during the War of Independence.

The side was captained by Shelbourne’s Mick “Boxer” Foley (they loved a nickname back then) who was among the more experienced players on the side having been on the books of the now defunct Leeds City for almost ten years either side of the War. One player who was picked but who would have to be replaced late-on was Val Harris, at almost 40 Harris was back with Shelbourne after a distinguished career in England with Everton, however a late withdrawal saw his place taken by Bohs’ Johnny McIlroy. On the bench was Charlie Harris, the Bohemian FC trainer who also moonlighted as a trainer/physio for O’Toole’s GAC and occassionally the Dublin County GAA side, including on the infamous occassion of a match against Tipperary in Croke Park on Bloody Sunday 1920.

Teamsheet from the match programme.

The night before the game the Welsh delegation were treated to tea in Clery’s department store tearooms followed by a show across the river at the Theatre Royal.

The match itself was a success, a sizeable crowd of 15,000 generated gate receipts of £850, a record soon broken when Glasgow Celtic visited Dalymount to play the League selection later that month. The St. James Brass & Reed band provided entertainment and English referee T.G. Bryan (who would go on to referee the 1928 FA Cup final) was brought to Dublin specially for the match. The crowd were given the best possible start to proceedings when Ernie McKay of St. James’s Gate, and a worker in the GPO for his day job, open the scoring early on, McKay earned special praise for his performance in the game and was complimented for rising to the occasssion and showing leadership in midfield. For the Welsh side Jack Nock quickly equalised before Jimmy Jones of Cardiff put them in front.

Deep in the second half the Welsh did well to preserve their lead but with just 12 minutes to go Bohs striker Roberts who had been having a quiet game scored twice in quick succession to briefly give the Irish the lead. Jones however scored his second of the day which meant that this first ever representative game organised under the auspices of the FAI would end 3-3 and history was made.

Bios of the players involved:

Frank Collins: Collins had two spells with Jacobs, either side of a a short spell at Glasgow Celtic where he saw little first team action, he was restricted to just two first team appearances due to the primacy of regular Celtic custodian Charlie Shaw. While at Celtic he was capped by the IFA in a game against Scotland. He returned to Jacobs in 1922 and continued to play with them for a further ten years. The fact that Collins had played professionally in Scotland probably meant that he missed out on an appearance at the 1924 Olympics, however, he was capped by the FAI in a 3-0 win against the USA in Dalymount directly after the Olympics as well as the 1927 game against Italy.

Stephen Boyne: Boyne and his brother Eddie were both regulars for Jacobs around this time. They were from Bride Street and Stephen worked as a van driver for the Jacobs factory. He had received a significant ban in 1920 after altercations that took place during a game against Olympia.

Herbert (Bert) Kerr: Beginning as a a youth player with Drumcondra, Kerr later joined Bohemians when Drums disbanded during the First World War. Kerr represented Ireland at the 1924 Olympics and won three caps in total. He later became a club captain and a prominent member of the Bohemian FC management committee. A younger brother, Kevin Kerr, also later captained Bohemians. In 1920 he set up his own insurance and bloodstock agency. Bertie had a love of horses and Kerr and Company remain in business to this day. He purchased and sold on four horses that later won the Aintree Grand National as well as a Kentucky Derby winner. He passed away in 1973 aged 77.

Mick (Boxer) Foley: Born in Dublin in 1892 Foley made his name at Shelbourne from where he was purchased by Leeds City along with two of his teammates in 1910. Foley made more than 120 appearances over the next ten, war-interrupted years, for Leeds before the club dissolved in 1919 due to financial irregularities. Foley quickly re-signed for Shelbourne winning the IFA Cup on his return. His grandson Paul played in the League of Ireland and in Australia.

Johnny McIlroy: Another one of the veteran players in the team, McIlroy had made his name with Belfast Celtic, appearing in both the 1917 and 1918 IFA Cup finals. He featured for the Falls League XI in a friendly match against Bohemians in 1921 and was soon signed by the Dublin club for whom he would have great success, winning league titles in 1924 and 1928 as well as the 1928 FAI Cup.

Ernie McKay: The son of a Scottish soldier, McKay was born in Richmond Barracks in Templemore, Tipperary, now the Garda training college. McKay played for St. James’s Gate but did not work for Guinness, instead he spent decades working in the GPO on O’Connell Street, as a teenager he was working there as a telegram boy when the Easter Rising broke out. It was around this time that he first became involved with St. James’s Gate as a footballer. Like other members of this XI he also featured in the 1924 Olympics. McKay won the double with the Gate in the first season of the Laegue of Ireland and formed an imposing half-back line alongside Frank Heaney and Bob Carter. He later retired to Essex and was one of last surviving members of the team, passing away in his later 90s.

John (Kruger) Fagan: “Kruger” as he was known in tribute to one of the heroes of the Boer War, grew up around the Markets area of Dublin. During the 1916 Rising he assisted rebels in the Four Courts in getting to safety and arranging for a safe house. A diminutive forward at just 5’2″ Fagan became part of Shamrock Rovers famed “Four Fs” forward line alongside Bob Fullam, Billy “Juicy” Farrell and John Joe Flood. He was capped by Ireland in the 1926 game against Italy in Turin and made history when his son Fionan, who starred for Manchester City was also capped by Ireland, making them the first father and son to achieve this honour. A talented all round sportsman he won a Leinster title in handball and later worked as an assistant to the first Dáil librarian before moving to the Werburgh Street offices of the Department of social welfare.

Harry Willits: Harry Willits was born in Middlesborough in 1889 and already made a strong impression as a footballer in his teens, when he played for Middlesbrough Old Boys, Cambridge House and the famous South Bank club where a team-mate was later English international George Elliott. He moved to Ireland in 1908 to work in the Civil Service and began playing for Bohemians around this time.

He joined the British Army in late 1915 and was seriously wounded in the leg in 1916. Despite this he returned to football and was an intergral part of the Bohemian side that won the league in 1924. Even before his playing days with Bohemians finally ended, Willits became involved with the club’s Management Committee, also later the Selection Committee, and he served as Vice-President.

Dave Roberts: From the English midlands Roberts had spells at both Walsall and Shrewsbury before moving to Bohemians. He had also served briefly in the British army before his footballing career in Ireland. He was top scorer in the 1923-24 season as Bohs won the league, later moving onto Fordsons in Cork. Roberts had a wife and two children living in Birmingham at this time and in 1925 while playing in Cork he was sentenced to a month in prison for child neglect for failing to pay the Birmingham Guardians £172 for the care of the children. At the time Roberts claimed his salary was only £3 and ten shillings a week. Roberts continued with Fordsons until 1927.

Christy Robinson: Born around the markets area on Arran Street in 1902, Robinson was a skillful inside left and one of the stars of a Bohemian side which won the league in 1924 and a clean sweep of trophies in 1928. He also had spells at both Bendigo and Shelbourne. Prior to his involvement with football he had been an member of Na Fianna Éireann and later a member of the First Battalion of the Dublin Brigade during the War of Independence. During this time he was involved in the raid on Monk’s Bakery where Kevin Barry was captured. He would later name one of his son’s Kevin in his honour. He was a Captain in the Free State army until his departure from it in 1924. Robinson was another player who travelled to the 1924 Olympics and featured in a friendly match against Estonia directly after Ireland’s exit from that competition. His brother Jeremiah (Sam) would also play for Ireland and would have a successful club career alongside his brother at Bohemians before moving onto Dolphin. Christy Robinson passed away in 1954 in Dover, England. He is incorrectly listed as S. Robinson on the match programme pictured above.

Hugh James Harvey: Hugh James Harvey, was better known as Jimmy Harvey and was born in Dublin in 1897. He had been a physical instructor in the British Army during World War I and had played for Shelbourne on his return to Dublin, featuring in the 1923 FAI Cup final where Shels had surprisingly lost to Belfast side Alton United, Harvey had the unlucky distiction of being the first player to ever miss a penalty in a FAI Cup final in that game. Harvey was useful in several positions across the forward line but found a new lease of life after his sporting career. During his time as a Jacob’s player records list him as a labourer. However, his father (also Hugh) was a “Variety artist” and the younger Hugh, decided to follow his father into show businesses. He excelled as a comedian as part of a comedy troupe known as the “Happy Gang” who performed in many theatres around Dublin and was also an accomplished singer, dancer and actor.

Jimmy Delaney – Cup King

Posted on by gerrytastic

Name a footballer who has won a cup winners medal in three different countries across three separate decades? Quite the pub quiz brain teaser but if you answered – Jimmy Delaney award yourself 5 points.
Delaney the scintillating and pacey Scottish international winger, won a Scottish Cup with Celtic in 1937, the FA Cup with Manchester United in 1948 and the IFA Cup with Derry City in a twice replayed final against Glentoran in 1954. Delaney came within 12 minutes of winning a fourth cup medal, in 1956 with Cork Athletic, but fate, and Paddy Coad intervened.

With Cork leading 2-0 with 12 minutes to go (Delaney then aged 41 had put Cork ahead after 34 minutes) a tactical change by Shamrock Rovers player-manager Paddy Coad helped get them a late lifeline through Tommy Hamilton and two more goals followed between then and the final whistle to deliver the cup to Rovers. The Cork players, including their veteran player-coach Delaney were left in a state shock. Such had been their confidence one of the Cork directors had left Dalymount early to buy bottles of champagne!
Delaney had his own theories as to why Cork Athletic lost the cup – mainly around the team diet. As quoted by Seán Ryan he stated that “Soup, spuds, cabbage, meat was their usual diet while I had a poached egg or something light. They ate too much but they were a grand bunch.”

Despite that down-note at the end of his career Delaney, born in Cleland near Motherwell to Patrick and Bridget in an area populated mostly by generations of Irish immigrants, enjoyed great success on the biggest stages. Signed by the legendary Celtic manager Willie Maley, Jimmy made his Celtic debut as a 19-year-old as part of a squad that included the likes of Celtic’s record goalscorer Jimmy McGrory.
Delaney was a key component of a Celtic revival in the late 1930s winning two league titles and the aforementioned Scottish Cup, while thrilling crowds with his skill, pace and workrate down the touchline. A severe injury to his arm in 1939 would put him out of the game for a time but would also have likely have exempted him from military service as the Second World War broke out soon after. He did however, work in the mining industry to support the war effort while continuing to line out for Celtic in war time games.

After the hardship of War the opportunity to join fellow Scot Matt Busby at Old Trafford proved too good even for a die-hard Celt like Jimmy to resist and in 1946 he joined Manchester United and became an integral part of Busby’s first great post war team. He played an important role in the 1948 Cup Final as Manchester United, captained by Irishman Johnny Carey, defeated Blackpool. Jimmy set up the opening goal for Jack Rowley with one of his pinpoint crosses.

Just after his move to United he enjoyed one of his finest moments in a Scotland shirt, when in April 1946 he scored the only goal as Scotland defeated England in a post-war “Victory International” in front of a crowd of over 130,000 in Hampden Park. He finished his War-interrupted international career with 15 caps and six goals for Scotland, often playing in front of record-breaking crowds. He was posthumously inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame in 2009

After finishing up at United aged 38 further spells with Aberdeen and Falkirk were followed by Jimmy’s Irish adventure in Derry and Cork. Football also continued in his family, his grandson was Celtic centre back John Kennedy whose career was curtailed by injury but who has since successful moved into coaching with Celtic FC.

This piece first appeared in the 2022 Ireland v Scotland match programme.