The 1930 World Cup, held in Uruguay, had been an open invitation affair. Indeed, so keen were the organisers to get nations to participate that they offered to pay for travel expenses for competing teams. Despite their generosity only four European teams could be coaxed into making the long voyage to South America and ultimately thirteen teams overall would compete in the tournament which saw the hosts crowned as victors.

Fast forward four years and things were a bit different. 32 nations expressed an interest in taking part in the 1934 World Cup which was to be held in Italy, with Ireland among them. Though, holders Uruguay, feeling snubbed by the lack of European participating in the 1930 tournament did not enter. It was decided that to whittle down numbers to a more manageable 16 teams at the tournament some form of qualifying matches had to take place.

Somewhat uneven groups were drawn, some featuring three teams, some with only two, some teams (such as Bulgaria or Turkey) withdrew from qualification or did not complete their fixtures. Even hosts Italy had to play a qualifying game – the Italians won 4-0 at San Siro, with two goals coming from Guiseppe Meazza in a stadium that would one day bare his name. The Greeks declined to play the second leg which secured Italy’s qualification.

Ireland were drawn in a group alongside Belgium and the Netherlands with the simple qualification formula that each team played against each other once and then the group winners and runners-up would qualify. The Irish must have been optimistic, they had played Belgium three times before 1934 and won all three encounters. They had only faced the Dutch once before, in 1932 in Amsterdam, but that game had ended with a 2-0 victory to the Irish.

The opening game against Belgium took place on February 25th 1934 in Dalymount Park. The new competition and qualifying format had obviously captured the imagination of the public as over 35,000 spectators crammed into the Phibsborough venue. While they may have been disappointed with the scoreline they can’t have been let down for a lack of drama. The crowd that day saw an eight goal thriller, and witnessed one of the greatest individual performances by an Irish player as Paddy Moore, then of Aberdeen, scored all four goals in in a 4-4 draw with the Belgians. After an hour of play, Ireland had been trailing 4-3 but with 15 minutes remaining Moore had grabbed the equaliser.

While Ireland may have been disappointed not to win against Belgium they knew that a victory in Amsterdam against the Dutch would secure World Cup qualification. The Dutch FA certainly weren’t taking any chances in their preparation, going so far as to ask the FAI for photos and fact-files on their main players under the premise of using this information for promotional material ahead of the game. The FAI duly obliged, with photos and details of Ireland’s star striker Paddy Moore appearing in Dutch newspapers ahead of the game.

Ireland fielded a mostly domestic based XI with Cork City’s Jim “Fox” Foley kept goal, he had just won the FAI Cup with Cork and was about to make a move to Celtic. Bohemians, who had just been on tour in the Netherlands had two players in the squad – Billy Jordan who started the game but was injured in the first half and was replaced by his club-mate Horlacher just before half-time. This meant that Horlacher made history by becoming the first substitute used by the FAI in an international match.

Just before half time Johnny Squires of Shelbourne had equalised for Ireland after Kick Smit had opened the scoring just minutes earlier. In the second half with the sides tied at 1-1, Paddy Moore scored a controversial goal just before the hour mark when he pushed the Dutch keeper Adri van Male over the goal line when he had the ball in his hands. This tactic of barging the keeper was not uncommon in Irish or British football at the time but it was not something the amateur Dutch players had experienced before. The goal was awarded much to the dismay of the record crowd of almost 40,000 packed into the Olympic stadium in Amsterdam. Ireland were now 2-1 up with just over half an hour to play. A win would have sent them to their first ever World Cup.

But it wasn’t to be. The controversial goal spurred the talented Dutch side into action, they scored four unanswered goals in 23 minutes to claim a 5-2 victory and qualify for the 1934 World Cup. Ireland’s World Cup dream was over.

This first appeared in a 2021 Irish match programme