Football | A Bohemian Sporting Life

Bohemians of World War I

Posted on June 29, 2016 by gerrytastic

An introduction to just some of the Bohemian F.C. members who swapped the playing fields of Ireland for the killing fields of Europe.

Fred Morrow was only 17 when he took to the pitch for Bohemians at the curtain raiser at their great rivals’ new home, Shelbourne Park. The Bohs v Shels games were known then as the Dublin derby and as with many derbies, passions were inflamed. But this game’s atmosphere was even more heightened and it wasn’t just to do with the 6,000 spectators packed into the ground. Even in just getting to the ground Morrow and his teammates had seen over one hundred Dublin Tramway workers picketing the game.

The 1913 Dublin lock-out was only a few days old and Jim Larkin had declared that there were players selected for the game who were “scabs”: Jack Millar of Bohemians and Jack Lowry of Shelbourne were the names identified during the strike. The striking tramway workers subjected the players and supporters to (in the words of the Irish Times) “coarse insults” and had even tried to storm the gates of the new stadium. Foreshadowing the events of the next day, there were some violent altercations with the officers of the Dublin Metropolitan Police, with 16 arrests made and over 50 people suffering injuries.

This can’t have affected the teenaged Morrow too badly as he scored Bohs’ goal in a one all draw that day. Although less than 5’5” in height, the youngster was shaping up to be quite a prolific centre forward. Fred had started his career early, lining out for his local side Tritonville FC based in Sandymount, and while with the club he had won a Junior cap for Ireland, scoring in a 3-0 victory over Scotland in front of over 8,000 spectators in Belfast. The following season he’d been persuaded north of the river to Dalymount, and he was to enjoy a successful season including scoring a hat-trick in an unexpected 3-1 victory over title holders Linfield.

The Shelbourne side that Bohs faced that day included in their ranks a new signing of their own, Oscar Linkson, who had just been signed from Manchester United. Linkson had made almost 60 appearances for United and had been at the club when they won the FA Cup in 1909 and the League in 1911. Quite the coup, then, for Shels. Oscar moved to Dublin with his 17 year old wife Olive and his son Eric, who would be joined by a baby sister just months later. He faced Fred Morrow that day as part of the Shels defence.

Within a year of this game, War would be declared. Both Fred Morrow and Oscar Linkson volunteered to serve in the British Army, Oscar with the famous “Football Battalion” of the Middlesex Regiment alongside a whole host of star players which included the Irish international John Doran. Neither Fred nor Oscar would return, by the end of 1917 both were dead on the fields of France.

Fred Morrow death penny — *The Memorial plaque or “Death penny” issued to Fred Morrow’s family*

The events that the players had witnessed leading up to that Bohs v Shels game had far-reaching consequences, with the violence in the adjoining Ringsend streets at the game growing worse over the following day, culminating with violent clashes between the Dublin Metropolitan Police and striking workers on Sackville Street (now O’Connell Street). Hundreds were wounded amid baton charges and three striking workers were killed. The dramatic events convinced Union leaders James Connolly, James Larkin and Jack White that the workers needed to be protected, and that an Irish Citizen Army needed to be formed for this purpose. Ireland’s decade of lead had begun.

A year earlier in 1912, in response to the passing of the third Home Rule bill, and the possibility that Home Rule would finally become a reality in Ireland, hundreds of thousands of Irish Unionists signed what was known as the Ulster Covenant, where allegiance was pledged to the King of England. They stated that Home Rule would be resisted by “all means necessary”. This included the very real possibility of armed resistance, as demonstrated by the Ulster Volunteers (formed in 1912) importing thousands of rifles into the port of Larne from Germany in April 1914. In response, the Irish Volunteers, supporters of Home Rule formed in order to guarantee the passage of Home Rule bill, also imported German arms into Howth in July 1914; just days before the outbreak of the First World War. This mini arms-race in Ireland mirrored the greater stockpiling of armour and weaponry by the great European powers in the lead-up to the First World War; the whole Continent was in the grip of militarism. Violence seemed, to many people, to be unavoidable.

O'Connell street 1913 again — Clashes on Sackville Street during the 1913 lock-out

Over 200,000 Irish men fought in the First World War. To put this in perspective, the total male population of Ireland at the 1911 Census was just over 2.1 million. Those who fought did so for many reasons. Some, including many members of the Irish Volunteers, heeded John Redmond, the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party who called on Irishmen to go and fight to help secure Home Rule, as a gesture of fidelity to Britain, in support of Catholic Belgium and in defence of smaller nations.

Redmond asked Irish men to prove “on the field of battle that gallantry and courage which has distinguished our race” in a war that he said was fought “in defence of the highest principles of religion and morality”.

Some men went in search of adventure, unaware then of the horrors that awaited them. Many Dublin men joined up as a way to financially support their families, the city at the time had a population of 304,000, with roughly 63% described as “working class”, the majority of whom lived in tenement houses, almost half with no more than one room per family. The army might offer death but least it offered a steady income.

What we also know is that many Bohemians joined up. Some like Harry Willits or Harold Sloan may have simply joined out of a sense of duty, that this was the “right thing to do”. Most joined in what was known as a “short service attestation”, meaning that they were only joining for the duration of the war, which many mistakenly assumed would be over quickly. In one edition of the Dublin based weekly paper Sport, it was estimated that Bohemians lost forty members to War service, among the highest of any club in the whole country, although we know that there was also significant enlistment from other Dublin clubs such as Shelbourne and Shamrock Rovers, while the loss of players to military service was cited as one of the reasons for the withdrawal from football of the original Drumcondra F.C.

Bohemian F.C. Roll of Honour – Evening Herald, September 1915 source @Cork1914to1924

Some like Harry Willits did return to resume their football career. Several did not return at all. Corporal Fred Morrow, who we met earlier as Bohs centre-forward, was a member of the Royal Field Artillery in France when he died of his wounds in October 1917. His mother had to write formally asking for the death certificate that the armed forces had neglected to send so that she could receive the insurance money for his funeral.

Private Frank Larkin was only 22 when he died just before Christmas 1915. He had been a Bohs player before the war. At this time, due the growing popularity of both the club and football generally in Dublin, Bohs often fielded several teams. Frank featured for the C and D teams, but like many Bohemians, was a fine all-rounder. He played cricket for Sandymount and rowed for the Commercial Rowing Club. He and two of his colleagues from the South Irish Horse were killed by a shell on December 22nd in Armentieres, Belgium. His will left a grand total of £5 14 shillings and 2p to his two married sisters.

T.W.G. Johnson — Thomas Johnson as pictured at Royal Lytham & St. Anne’s Golf Club in his later years

Thomas Johnson, a young Doctor from Palmerstown was just 23 when the War broke out. He had won an amateur international cap for Ireland and was a star of the Bohs forward line, usually playing at outside right. He was a hugely popular player who the Evening Herald described as “always likely to do something sensational”. He was another fine sporting all-rounder with a talent for both cricket and golf. Johnson became a Lieutenant in the 5th Connaught Rangers during the War and later brought his professional talents to the Royal Army Medical Corps. He was awarded the Military Cross for his actions at Gallipoli. He received numerous citations for bravery, for example at the Battle of Lone Pine during the Gallipoli campaign the Battalion history notes “Second-Lieutenant T.W.G. Johnson behaved with great gallantry in holding an advanced trench during one of the counter-attacks. Twice he bound up men’s wounds under heavy fire, thereby saving their lives”.

While his medical skills were a great asset in saving lives Johnson also was a fierce soldier during the most brutal and heavy fighting. He was awarded the Military Cross specifically for his actions around the attack on the infamous Battle of Hill 60 where so many Irishmen perished. The battalion history states that on August 21st 1915

“Lieutenant T.W.G. Johnson went out to the charge, with rifle and bayonet, and killed six Turks. He shot two more and narrowly missed killing another one. Later, although wounded severely, he reported to the commanding officer, and showed exactly where the remaining men of his company were still holding their own, in a small trench on “Hill 60.”

It was by this means that these men eventually were carefully withdrawn, after keeping the Turks at bay for some hours.” . Hill 60 of course was for many years the name by which Dubliners knew the terrace at the Clonliffe Road end of Croke Park, it was only in the 1930’s that it became known as Hill 16 and later the apocryphal story emerged that the terrace had been built from the ruins of O’Connell Street after the Easter Rising.

Bohs with Sloan Crozier — Herbert Charles Crozier – back row far left. Harold Sloan – front row third from the right

Other Bohemians suffered serious wounds but managed to make it through to the armistice. One of the most prominent of these was Herbert Charles “Tod” Crozier. He had joined Bohemians as a 17 year old and took part in the victorious Leinster Senior Cup final of 1899. In 1900 he appeared for Bohs on the losing side in an all-amateur Irish Cup Final, which was won 2-1 by Cliftonville. Crozier was described as one of the most “brilliant half-backs playing association football in Ireland” and he formed a formidable and famous midfield trio of Crozier-Fulton-Caldwell who were still revered for their brilliance decades after their retirement. “Tod” had a long association with Bohemians and was also a prominent member of Wanderers Rugby Club. He grew up on Montpellier Hill, close to the North Circular Road and not far from Dalymount.

His Scottish-born father was a veterinary surgeon but “Tod” became a career military man with the 1st battalion of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. In 1908 he was awarded the Bronze Star by the Royal Humane Society while serving in Sudan for trying to save the drowning Lieutenant Cooper from the River Nile. It was noted that he behaved with great bravery despite knowing of the “dangerous under-current and that crocodiles were present”. He was a Captain at the beginning of the War and was part of the Mediterranean Expedition Force that travelled to Gallipoli. It was here that he was wounded, and as a result of his actions was awarded the Military Cross, and later, after a promotion to the rank of Major, the Military Star. Despite the wounds he received at Gallipoli he returned to Montpelier Hill in Dublin and continued to attend football and rugby games. He was still enough of a well-known figure that he was the first person quoted in a newspaper report about Bohs progression to the 1935 FAI Cup Final. He lived to the age of 80, passing away in 1961 and was buried in Mount Jerome Cemetery.

One man who returned from the War and then joined Bohemian F.C. was the legendary Ernie Crawford. Born in Belfast in 1891 Ernie was perhaps best known for his endeavours on the Rugby pitch. He starred for Malone in Belfast and later Lansdowne Rugby Club and won 30 caps for Ireland, fifteen of them as Captain. He would later be named President of the IRFU. His obituary in the Irish Times listed him as one of the greatest rugby full-backs of all time, he was honoured for his contribution to sport by the French government and even featured on a Tongan stamp celebrating rugby icons.

Crawford collage — Ernie Crawford in uniform, on a Tongan stamp and as an Irish Rugby international

He was, however, a successful football player who turned out for Cliftonville and for Bohemians. Ernie, a chartered accountant by trade, moved to Dublin to take up the role of accountant at the Rathmines Urban Council in 1919, and this facilitated his joining Bohemians. Despite his greater reputation as a rugby player, Ernie, as a footballer for Bohs, was still considered talented enough to be part of the initial national squad selected by the FAIFS (now the FAI) for the 1924 Olympics. In all, six Bohemians were selected (Bertie Kerr, Jack McCarthy, Christy Robinson, John Thomas & Johnny Murray were the others and were trained by Bohs’ Charlie Harris), but when the squad had to be cut to only 16 players Ernie was dropped, though he chose to accompany the squad to France as a reserve. The fact that he was born in Belfast may have led to him being cut due to the tension that existed with the FAIFS and the IFA over player selection.

That he could captain the Irish Rugby Team and be selected for the Olympics is even more impressive when you consider that during the Great War Ernie was shot in the wrist causing him to be invalided from the Army and to lose the power in three of his fingers. He had enlisted in the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons in October 1914 and was commissioned and later posted to the London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), becoming a Lieutenant in August 1917. He was a recipient of the British War and Victory Medals. Ernie later returned to Belfast where he became City Treasurer. It was in Belfast in 1943 that Ernie encountered Bohs again, as he was chosen to present the Gypsies with the Condor Cup after their victory over Linfield in the annual challenge match. He passed away in January 1959.

So who were these men who went to war? From looking through the various records available (very much an ongoing task) it is clear to see that they were of a variety of different backgrounds. Most were from Dublin, though some like Sidney Kingston Gore (born in Wales) were only in Dublin due to Military placement. Some like Harry Willitts came to Dublin as a young man, others like Crozier and Morrow were children to parents from Scotland, Belfast or elsewhere. They were of various religious beliefs with Catholics, Church of Ireland and Presbyterians among their number.

By the outbreak of the War Bohemian F.C. was not yet 25 years old, some of those who had helped to found the club as young men were still very much involved. The employment backgrounds of the men who enlisted seem to have connections back to those early days when young medical students, those attending a civil service college as well as some young men from the Royal Hibernian military school in the Phoenix Park helped found the club. There were a number who are listed as volunteering for the “Pals” battalion of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, in this case more than likely the 7th battalion. This battalion was made up of white collar workers and many civil servants, they were sometimes referred to as the “Toffs among the toughs”.

The 7th Battalion also featured a large number of Trinity College graduates, as well as many Rugby players encouraged to join by President of the Irish Rugby Football Union, F.H. Browning, a number of those who joined would end up dead on the beaches of Gallipoli. Browning later died after encountering the Volunteers on return from maneuvers at Mount Street Bridge during Easter 1916. The medical profession is clearly represented by men such as Thomas Johnson and J.F. Whelan. There were also characters like Alfred Smith and Tod Crozier who were career military men.

We know that like many Bohemians they were great sporting all-rounders, many being talented Rugby players, rowers, tennis players and cricketers in addition to their talents on the football field. In most cases they were young; Fred Morrow was still a teenager when he joined up, Frank Larkin only 21. Even the prematurely bald Harry Willitts looked much older than his 25 years.

Those who did return from the trenches came back to an Ireland that was changed utterly. The events of the Easter Rising, the growth in Republican Nationalist sentiment and the gathering forces that would soon unleash the War of Independence meant that those who returned may well have felt out of step with the Dublin of 1918-19. Those mentioned above are only a small selection of the Bohemians who took part in the First World War, there are many more stories; of Ned Brooks the prolific centre forward posted to Belfast who ended up guesting for Linfield, of Jocelyn Rowe the half-back who had also played for Manchester United who was injured in combat. There are many others forgotten to history. Those men described above often only appear in the records because of their death or serious injury, many more passed without comment. For men like Harry Willits and Tod Crozier, they could return to familiar surroundings of Dalymount Park whether as a player or just as a spectator. Some of those who returned, like Ernie Crawford, were yet to begin their Bohemian adventure. Among this latter group was a dapper Major of the Dublin Fusiliers named Emmet Dalton. He was a man who had won a Military Cross for his bravery in France and trained British soldiers to be snipers in Palestine. On his return to Ireland, he would join Bohemians as a player along with his younger brother Charlie. Both men would also join the IRA. They would play a central role in the War of Independence and the Civil War though they weren’t the only Bohemian brothers with this distinction as I’ll outline in my next piece.

A partial list of Bohemian F.C.members who served in World War I

Captain H.C. Crozier (wounded, recipient of the Military Cross) 1st Royal Dublin Fusiliers. Later promoted to Major.

Lt-Colonel Joseph Francis Whelan Royal Army Medical Corps, recipient of the Distinguished Service Order for his actions in Mesopotamia (Bohemian player, committee member and club vice-president). Later awarded and O.B.E. as well as an Honorary Master of Science degree by the National University.

Surgeon Major George F. Sheehan, Royal Army Medical Corps. Awarded the D.S.O.

Lieutenant Sidney Kingston Gore, 1st Battalion Royal West Kent Regiment (killed in action). He died after being shot in the head on 28th October 1914 near Neuve Chapelle he was a talented centre-forward who was particularly strong with the ball at his feet.

Sgt-Major Jocelyn Rowe, 1st Battalion, East Surreys (wounded in action). Rowe was born in Nottingham and had briefly played for Manchester United. A report in the Irish Independent of 30th March 1916 stated that Rowe had been wounded an astounding 83 times but was still hopeful of playing football again.

Company Sgt-Major Alfred J Smith, Army Service Corps, (amatuer Irish international, wounded in action)

Private Joseph Irons, on guard duty at the Viceregal Lodge during Easter 1916 he later served duty in the Dardanelles campaign. Irons was born in England and was considered one of the best full-backs in Irish football, he worked on the staff of the Viceregal Lodge (now Áras an Uachtaráin) before being called up to the army from the reserve on the outbreak of War.

Lieutenant P.A. Conmee, Royal Navy (a former Rugby player and a goalkeeper for Bohemians)

Sgt-Major B.W. Wilson Inniskilling Dragoons

Lieutenant JRM Wilson, Bedfords (brother of above)

Reverend John Curtis, Royal Army Chaplains’ Department

Lieutenant Thomas William Gerald Johnson, 5th Connaught Rangers and later Royal Army Medical Corps (wounded in action, awarded the Military Cross for his actions in taking the infamous “Hill 60” during the battle for Gallipoli). Also an Irish amateur international player.

Private Frank Kelly, Army Service Corps

Lieutenant Ernie Crawford, Inniskilling Dragoons and Royal Fusiliers

Corporal F. Barry, Black Watch

Second lieutenant Charlie Webb, King’s Royal Rifle Corps. He was captured in March 1918 near Nesle in Northern France and saw out the war from a Prisoner of War camp near Mainz. Webb was an Irish international forward who was born into a military family in the Curragh Camp, Co. Kildare. He played for Bohemians between 1908-09 but is most associated with Brighton & Hove Albion where as a player he scored the winning goal in the 1910 Charity Shield Final. He later became Brighton’s longest serving manager, beginning in 1919 and continuing until 1947, a span that covered over 1,200 matches.

Private James Nesbitt, Black Watch (killed in action 16/07/15) the son of W. H. and Jeannie Nesbitt, of 54, North Strand Road, Dublin. James was a Customs and Excise Officer at Bantry, Co. Cork, at the outbreak of war. Although badly injured he directed medical attention to other wounded men. He walked back to the field hospital but died soon afterwards. Nesbitt was also a member of the Irish Parliamentary Party who sat on Blackrock Urban Council. He was known as the “Battalion Bard” as he amused the other troops by writing and singing “topical songs”. Nesbitt mostly played for the Bohs C and D teams.

Private A. McEwan, Royal Dublin Fusiliers

Private P. O’Connor, Royal Dublin Fusiliers

Private A.P. Hunter, Royal Dublin Fusiliers

Private J. Donovan, Royal Dublin Fusiliers

Sergeant Harry Willitts, Royal Dublin Fusiliers

Sergeant Harrison McCloy, Tank Corps. (Killed in action) McCloy was born 12th December 1883 in Belfast. He continued a common tradition of being a footballer for Clinftonville before joining Bohemians. He was a player for Bohemians from 1902 to 1905 including appearing for the first team in the Irish League. He later moved into an administrative role and was a club Vice President for Bohemians from the 1905-06 season through to 1911-12, He was also mentioned as having been Honorary Secretary of the Irish League in 1911. He had been part of the Young Citizens Volunteers before transferring to the Tank Corps serving as a Quartermaster Sergeant during World War I. His main role was supervision and security of tanks used in battle pre or post engagement. He was killed in Belgium by enemy shellfire on the 21st August 1917 whilst engaged in such duties. He was 33 years old. Buried in the White House Cemetery St-Jean-Les-Ypres. His gratuity was left to four of his siblings.

Corporal Fred Morrow, Royal Field Artillery (formerly of Tritonville F.C. Bohemian F.C. and Shelbourne), killed in action 1917.

Private Angus Auchincloss from Clontarf joined the Army Cycling Corps in 1915 and transferred to the Royal Irish Rifles in 1916. He was discharged in 1919 and died in Eastbourne, England in 1975 at the age of 81.

Lieutenant Harold Sloan, Royal Garrison Artillery killed in action January 1917.

Major Emmet Dalton, Royal Dublin Fusiliers. On returning to Dublin Dalton became IRA Head of Intelligence during the War of Independence and later a Major-General in the Free State Army.

Lieutenant Robert Tighe, 5th Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers

Private G.R. McConnell, Black Watch (wounded)

Trooper Francis Larkin, South Irish Horse (killed in action)

Major Fred Chestnutt-Chesney, 6th Lancashire Fusiliers (former goalkeeper for Bohemians and for Trinity College’s football team). Later a Church of Ireland Reverend. Wounded in combat by a gun shot to his left leg.

Private J.S. Millar, Black Watch

John C. Hehir, the star goalkeeper for Bohemians until January 1915. He was also capped by Ireland in 1910. Hehir played rugby for London-Irish and also won a Dublin Senior Club championship medal with the Keatings GAA club in 1903. He left Bohs to take up an “important role” with the War Office in London

Lieutenant William James Dawson, Royal Flying Corps. Injured in 1917 he returned to action but died in 1918. He was also a member of the Neptune Rowing Club and the Boys Brigade.

Captain J.S Doyle, Royal Army Medical Corps

William Henry (Billy) Otto, South African Infantry

Private F.P. Gosling, Black Watch and later the Machine Gun Corps

Lieutenant L.A. Herbert, Veterinary Corps

Private Bobby Parker, Royal Scots Fusiliers. Parker was the English First Divisions top goalscorer in the 1914-15 season as he helped Everton to the League title. However, after league football was suspended Parker enlisted and was wounded in early 1918. Despite attempts to continue his playing career the bullet lodged in his back essentially meant his time as a player was over at the age of 32 after a brief spell with Nottingham Forest. Parker moved into coaching and in 1927 was appointed coach of Bohemian FC, a position he held until 1933. He led Bohemians to a clean sweep of every major trophy in the 1927-28 season.

Private William Woodman, 7th Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers and his brother Private Albert Woodman, Royal Engineers. After the war Albert returned to his job at the General Post Office, working there until his retirement. During World War II, he worked as a censor and redactor. He bought a home on Rathlin Road, in Glasnevin. Albert passed away in 1969, at the age of 78. For more on the Woodman family see here.

Private Stephen Wright served with the Leicestershire Regiment and the Royal Army Medical Corps during World War I. Born in Leicester he had two spells with Bohemians, before the outreak of the war, and again in the 1919-20 season. He would also appear for Bolton Wanderers, Norwich City and Brighton and Hove Albion. He returned to Ireland as a coach after breaking his leg while at Brighton, taking up a role at Dundalk in 1930 and leading the Louth club to their first ever league title in the 1932-33 season.

Private F. W. Taylor

Corporal H. Thompson, Royal Engineers

Trooper Griffith Mathews, North Irish Horse

Part of a series of posts on the history of Bohemian F.C from 1913-1923. Read about Bohs during Easter 1916 here or about the life and career of Harry Willits here.

Ireland at Euro 1964: First time to the last 8

Posted on June 8, 2016 by gerrytastic

Dublin hosting the European Championships, what once was the sort of thing speculated about during the excess of the Celtic Tiger years, usually as part of some sort of All-Ireland, pan-Celtic bid, will come to pass in 2020. The Irish Capital has been chosen as one of 13 “host cities” for a 60^th anniversary celebration tournament. We will of course have to qualify if there is to be any chance of seeing an Irish team in action on home soil.

However the idea of hosting all tournament matches in the same one or two countries is relatively recent. When the first Euros were held in 1960 in France only the semi-finals, finals and 3rd/4th playoff were played in the host country while only in 1980 did the tournament grow to eight teams. The qualifying was somewhat more straight-forward in those days as UEFA was a much smaller place. The Soviet Union had a single team, the Czech Republic and Slovakia had not separated and Yugoslavia hadn’t splintered into its constituent parts.

In 1964, during the second ever tournament, Ireland even got as far as the quarter-finals which were two-legged affairs, home and away. These quarter-final games took place in March and April of 1964 before the semi-finals and finals took place in the host country of Spain in the middle of June.

Ireland had had an inauspicious start during the first Euros in 1960. With 17 nations entering and a straight knock-out style of qualification without a group format, one pair of nations would have to play a preliminary round to even up the numbers. Ireland were drawn with Czechoslovakia and despite a promising start in the home leg with Ireland winning 2-0 they were eventually eliminated 4-2 on aggregate by an improving Czech side that would make it all the way to the World Cup final only two years later.

Four years later in 1964 there was thankfully no preliminary round for the Irish but the qualifying format continued as a straight knock-out competition. Round one pitched Ireland against Iceland with Ireland drawn at home first with the game starting well with Newcastle’s Liam Touhy getting Ireland off the mark after just 11 minutes and while Ríkharður Jónsson equalised for Iceland Amby Fogarty of Sunderland restored Ireland’s lead before half time. In the second half Noel Cantwell extended Ireland’s lead to 4-1 with two goals before Jónsson grabbed a consolation before the final whistle. Cantwell usually lined out at full back for his club Manchester United but was often employed as a centre forward for Ireland. Tall and well-built Cantwell made a good target man and also had a strong shot, he was Ireland’s usual penalty taker and scored an impressive 14 goals in 36 appearances, a record for Ireland that wasn’t broken until the heyday of Don Givens in the 1970s.

Ireland v Iceland with Noel Cantwell on the programme cover

A weakened Irish team made the journey to Reykvanik for the return leg, the side were without Giles in midfield and Tony Dunne in defence and had to settle for a 1-1 draw, Tuohy again on the scoresheet. This 5-3 aggregate victory set up a meeting with Austria in the second round.

Now Austria have never been Ireland’s easiest opponents, David Alaba’s fantastic strike in qualifying for Brazil 2014 will be fresh in the memories of Irish fans. Many of us will also remember the pair of 3-1 losses late in Jack Charlton’s tenure, including Ireland’s infamous pre-match preparation of a visit to Harry Ramsden’s fish and chip restaurant the day before the home game. Back in 1963 our record was not much healthier, it read played 4, won 1, lost 3, including a 6-0 shellacking way back in 1952. However, things would be different this time round.

Ireland were drawn away in the opening leg and were not at full strength, and there was significant trepidation ahead of the trip to Vienna with certain newspapers suggesting that a weakened Irish side would need a miracle to get a result and that the focus should be one of damaged limitation and preserving national pride. Ireland were without Cantwell and Tony Dunne who were not released by Manchester United and there would be three débutantes for the game, Bohemians’ right back Willie Browne (until Joey Lapira the last amateur capped by Ireland), Ray Brady of QPR in the centre of defence alongside Charlie Hurley and Ronnie Whelan Snr of St. Patrick’s Athletic at inside forward. The conditions however suited Ireland with the game being played in a downpour and Ray Brady in particular impressing. Well, impressing the Irish fans at least, the Austrians were not pleased with what they viewed as Brady’s rough play. His combative style also upset the Austrian players, so much so that he was kicked by one of the Austrian forwards who was luckily quick enough to escape retaliation from a furious Brady before the referee intervened to calm things down. Apart from Brady an inspired performance by Alan Kelly Snr. in goal denied the Austrians on numerous occasions and they were unable to force a goal and the game ended 0-0.

The controversy didn’t end with the away leg, while Ireland would be ultimately successful against Austria in Dalymount Park the game very nearly could have been called off. There are plenty of examples from Ireland’s football history of unjust decisions going against us in games and stories of hotels serving dodgy food or rowdy fans creating so much noise that the Irish players couldn’t sleep before a game. This time however it was the Irish fans who were the ones doing the intimidating. Over the course of the game, which Ireland won 3-2 there were no less than four pitch invasions! The old Phibsboro ground was packed with over 40,000 people, including a number who clambered up the floodlight pylons to get a better view so its not too surprising that there might have been some incursions onto the field. The most controversial was the pitch invasion just before the final whistle. Ireland had been just awarded a penalty when a Joe Haverty cross was handled in box in the 89th minute. The crowd spilled onto the pitch yet again and had to be herded back by Gardaí and stewards just as had happened earlier when they encroached on the pitch at half time and also to celebrate the second Irish goal.

Ireland team v Austria

Duly intimidated by the boisterous Irish crowd the Austrian keeper Gernot Fraydl dived the wrong way and Noel Cantwell’s second goal sealed a famous victory for the Irish. They were through to the quarter-finals of the European Championships. It had not been a pretty game, Ireland had effectively played much of the match with only ten men after Blackburn’s Mick McGrath was kicked in the head early in the first half, McGrath had to get seven stitches in his scalp and although he togged back out for the second half he was pretty much a passenger for the rest of the game, stuck out ineffectively on the right wing. The Irish too, knew how to dish it out and the Irish Times correspondent described their tackling as “verging on the unorthodox”. The Austrians were furious after the game and their Coach Karl Decker threatened to appeal to UEFA to overthrow the result and force a replay due to the pitch invasions. The result stood however, and despite the intimidating atmosphere Ireland had played well with Millwall’s diminutive winger Joe Haverty coming in for special praise, Brady and Hurley had performed well in defence with the result that Alan Kelly in the Ireland goal was not unduly tested apart from Austria’s two strikes. While the central Europeans were perhaps the better footballing side the weather had been against them in the first leg and the Irish had out-competed them in the return fixture. Next up for the Irish were the Spaniards in the last 8.

The Spaniards were hosts of the ’64 semi-finals and finals with games split between Camp Nou in Barcelona and the Bernabeu stadium in Madrid. In 1960 despite boasting some scintillating talents and numerous stars from the all-conquering Real Madrid side the Spaniards had essentially withdrawn from the inaugural European Championships (or nations cup as it was then known) when they had been drawn away to the USSR. Just two days before the game was to be played the Spanish team withdrew and when a furious Alfredo Di Stefano confronted the President of the Spanish Football Federation, Alfonso de la Fuente Chaos as to why they were not travelling to Moscow he was told, “Orders from above,”. Franco himself had intervened. The Soviets, who had militarily backed the Republican side against Franco in the Spanish Civil War would see their side progress. They would eventually become the tournaments inaugural winners, beating Yugoslavia after extra time in the final. It had been a disaster for the reputation of Spanish football and even for Franco himself, they would have to make amends in ’64.

The first leg of the quarter final would take place on 11th March 1964 in the Sanchez Pizjuan stadium, home of Sevilla. The Spanish national team had used this stadium as a home base many time before and since due to the undoubted passion and volume of the local Andalusian crowd. Things did not start well for Ireland, due to the FA Cup sixth round tie between Manchester Utd and Sunderland going to a second replay which was to take place two days before the Spanish game United refused to allow Tony Dunne and Noel Cantwell to travel. It also meant that Charlie Hurley who had been at the heart of the Sunderland defence would have to play his third game in five days.

It would be Hurley’s tired legs that would give away the first goal, he played a square ball which was intercepted by the pacey Real Madrid forward Amancio who easily converted past Kelly in the Irish goal. Josep Maria Fusté of Barcelona then added a second only a few minutes later. Ireland did try to get back in the game, a clever chipped pass from Giles sent Andy McEvoy away and the Blackburn striker converted his chance in the 22nd minute to get his first for Ireland. McEvoy was in the best form of his career at the time, he would finish that season as the 2nd top scorer in England’s top flight just behind Jimmy Greaves, however he had been crowbarred into previous Irish XI’s as a half back.

Amancio of Spain & Real Madrid

The game belonged to Amancio, the Real Madrid right-winger was running rings around the Irish defence which included the exhausted Hurley and debut cap Theo Foley of Northampton Town. He grabbed his second of the evening on the half-hour mark before setting up Zaragoza striker Marcelino for Spain’s fourth on 33 minutes. Marcelino would add a second goal just before the final whistle, a shot deflecting off Tommy Traynor and past Kelly into the Irish goal. The game finished 5-1. The home leg in Dalymount could only be a formality, Ireland were out.

Despite the crushing defeat 40,000 Irish fans turned up in Dalymount the following month perhaps in some mad, deluded hope that a stronger Ireland side with home advantage might make a miraculous comeback. Tony Dunne and Cantwell were made available by Manchester United, there were recalls for Willie Browne of Bohemians and Johnny Fullam of Shamrock Rovers to add steel to the team, and best of all Spain were without the services of Amancio who had caused the Irish defence such difficulty in Seville. It was not to be though, Pedro Zaballa, the Barcelona winger in for Amancio scored two goals in what would be his only senior cap for Spain to secure them passage to the semi-finals. While the Irish had been committed and work hard throughout it says much that the stand-out player was once again Alan Kelly in goal.

The victorious Spain side of 1964

Spain would go on to win the tournament on home soil, defeating the USSR side that they had refused to play four years earlier in the final. The final score was 2-1 with the winner scored by Marcelino, the same striker who had put two past Ireland in Seville. Amancio would end up coming third in the voting for that year’s Ballon D’Or award, his international captain Luis Suarez came second. And Franco had his win against an arch-enemy. Upon their return the USSR coach Konstantin Beskov and team director Andrei Starostin, were summoned to a meeting at the Soviet Football Federation after a furious Nikita Khrushchev had watched the game on TV and seen pictures of a smiling Franco beamed around the Soviet Union. They were both fired from their posts.

As for Ireland they would meet Spain again the following year in qualifying for the 1966 World cup, losing out in a controversial play-off leg in Paris. For the next European Championships qualifying groups had been introduced but the Irish team that had promised so much was now in decline. Players like Joe Havery, Amby Fogarty, Noel Cantwell and Charlie Hurley who had all been so influential were in their 30’s and coming toward the end of their careers. Ireland were also severely restricted compared to other nations, as we’ve seen there were no guarantees that key players would be released by British clubs, the team manager Johnny Carey was little more than a glorified trainer with little power except to give a pep talk to his hastily gathered players before the game. The Irish team was still selected by an FAI committee and it wasn’t until 1969 that this changed with the appointment of Mick Meagan as manager. It wouldn’t be until 1988 that the Republic of Ireland would have a side that would reach the last eight of the European Championships again.

This first appeared on backpagefootball.com in June 2016

Harry Willits – the Darling of Dalymount

Posted on May 19, 2016 by gerrytastic

Co-written with Brian Trench

When Harry Willits finished his first season as Bohemian captain in spring 1916 he had other major responsibilities on his mind. He had joined the Royal Dublin Fusiliers in late 1915 “for the duration of the war” and soon he would be sent to the western front in France during the Battle of the Somme.

He had followed his friends and several Bohemian colleagues in signing up for the army. His choice was the Commercial Battalion of the Dublin Fusiliers, established to cater for young men of the “commercial class” and farmers.

Willits was not the military type, according to his daughter Audrey, still living in the family home aged 93. But English-born and a civil servant, he moved in circles where enlisting for military service would have been regarded as a matter of duty.

He was promoted to corporal in February 1916, three months after enlisting. According to military records he became a sergeant in July 1916, though he was already identified in a June 1916 report of a cricket match between King’s Hospital and 10th Dublin Fusiliers as “Sgt Willetts”, bowled out for a duck.

He had a short period – three months – of active military service, yet he lived all his days with the consequences of it. In October or November 1916 he was wounded in the thigh, and he spent several months in hospital in southern England before returning to Dublin, and to Bohemians. His injury was serious enough for amputation to have been considered.

He missed all of the football season, 1916-17, as he recovered from his injury. The mark of the wound remained visible and the strain of playing in a weakened condition took its toll on his health in later life.

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.

Willits’s father was headmaster of Middlesborough High School when Harry and George were pupils there. But it was apparently in order to get away from his over-bearing father that Harry sat the civil service examinations and then, when he was admitted to the service, chose to take up a post in Dublin. He worked in the Post Office stores and later, over several decades, in the Registry of Deeds.

He joined Bohemians just after the club had captured the Irish Cup for the first time in 1908. He was a regular first-team player over the following years in the forward line, at inside-left or outside-left, alongside internationals Harold Sloan and Johnny McDonnell.

In spring 1916 he played football and cricket for the Dublin Fusiliers as well as captaining Bohemians. When he resumed service with Bohemians in late 1917, he was profiled in the Dublin weekly newspaper, Sport, as The Darling of Dalymount. The writer claimed there were many who came to Dalymount specifically to see Willits play.

A feature on Harry in a 1917 edition of Sport

Tall and prematurely balding, he was a striking figure. He was best-known as a skilful passer and crosser of the ball, but also contributed goals, including some from the penalty spot. Willits and Johnny West were a potent partnership at inside- and outside-left. (West was also a popular baritone singer, who performed at summer evening ‘promenades’ in Dalymount during the war years.)

Willits lived for a time near the Botanic Gardens with his mother, who had moved to Dublin following the death of Willits’s father. In 1919, however, Harry married Annie ‘Cis’ Wilson and with her inheritance they bought a house in Lindsay Road that remains in the family nearly a century later. The furniture includes a large dining-room sideboard that was a wedding gift to Harry and Cis from Bohemians, and a mark of the high esteem in which the club held him.

Willits was Bohemian captain again in 1920-21, when he was reported to have had a “new lease of life” as a footballer. Now in his thirties, he was prominent also in the Bohemian team that won their first League of Ireland title in 1923, and was selected with four other Bohemians for the new league in their first representative match against their Welsh counterparts in 1924. Willits played for club and league alongside Christy Robinson, who had a very different military record as a member of the IRA during the War of Independence.

Harry stars in the first ever inter-league game against the Welsh League

Some newspaper correspondents suggested that, but for his English birth, Willits might have been selected for Ireland. From 1925 onwards, he was playing with Bohemians’ second team and scored in a 4-0 win over Dublin University (Trinity College) in 1929, when he was 40. He featured in a short Bohemian’newsreel’ of 1930 as a “model Bohemian” who was “still going strong” and “a sportsman to the core”. Nearly fifty years old, in April 1938, he lined out for an Old Bohs team in a charity match in Dalymount against an Old Rovers side.

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.

From the 1920s Harry Willits was a keen and competitive tennis player, being club champion in Drumcondra Tennis Club several times over the period 1923-33. He served also as club president and vice-president.

A man of routines, he always had two books on loan – one fiction, one non-fiction – from the Phibsborough Library. He dressed formally, in suit, tie and hat, and walked from his home to the Registry of Deeds in King’s Inns, responding to the frequent greetings of Bohemian fans in the streets. He practised calligraphy and did charcoal drawings.

His daughter Audrey and son Alec were both kicking footballs with their father in the family’s Glasnevin garden from early days. Alec played briefly for Bohemians first and second teams in the 1940s, but could not live up to what was expected of him as his father’s son. He later played for the Nomads.

Audrey applied her kicking skills to keeping goal for Pembroke Wanderers hockey teams for many years, appearing also for Leinster provincial teams and serving many years in the club’s committees.

From 1937, as Audrey recalls, Harry Willits developed asthma due to the strain of living with a war wound and this had a serious impact on his quality of life, also taking a financial toll. Harry had to reduce his work to half-time, which also meant half-pay, and Audrey remembers that the family often struggled to get by.

Despite this, Willits continued his involvement with Bohemians, as club officer and selector, and even – up to the age of 60 – as a coach. He was actively associated with Bohemians in one capacity or another for over forty years. He died in April 1960, aged 70, and is buried with his wife in Mount Jerome Cemetery.

This post originally appeared on the official Bohemian F.C. website in May 2016. Co-written and researched with Brian Trench as part of an ongoing series on Bohemians players from the First World War to the end of the Irish Civil War

College Football Classic – Ireland’s relationship with American Football

Posted on April 7, 2016 by gerrytastic

As many of you will know, this September 3rd Boston College and Georgia Tech will be taking to the Aviva Stadium to compete in the Aer Lingus College Football classic.

There are going to be over 20,000 American football fans crossing the Atlantic for the game and tickets for Irish fans go on sale from April 6th. American football has been growing in popularity here in Ireland in recent years, if you visit any Dublin pub late on Super Bowl Sunday you can see that but there is a longer history connecting Ireland with the Gridiron game. In this post we take at some of those connection…

The Beginnings

The first ever College Football match took place way back in 1869 between Princeton and Rutgers Universities. President of Princeton at the time was the Scottish philosopher James McCosh, his Belfast-born son Andrew James McCosh attended the University in the 1870s and was part of the Princeton College Football teams that were College Football national champions in 1874 and 1875. So even way back at the beginnings there was a bit of an Irish connection to College Football.

American Football Comes to Ireland

There are reports of an American football game taking place in Ravenhill, the home of Ulster Rugby back in 1942 when two teams of American armed forces personnel played each other in front of the reported crowd of 8,000 spectators. The first game to take place in Dublin happened in 1953. Again this was between two teams of American armed forces personnel who were still stationed in England after the end of the Second World War. The two teams were called the Burtonwood Bullets and the Wethersfield Raiders, with the bullets running out easy 27-0 victors on the day. The size of the crowd was estimated at 40,000 and this was one of the first occasions that sports other than those controlled by the GAA were played in Croke Park since it became the organisation’s home.

Seeing as it was the first time that the sport had been in the city the American embassy even organised lessons for the press about the rules of the sport and ran special screenings of football games in the embassy offices. The game was organised as a successful fundraiser for the Red Cross and was even attended by the President of the day Sean T. O’Kelly.

More Games for Dublin

There was quiet a gap between the game of 1953 and other visiting teams coming to the city. The next big game featured one of this year’s competing teams, Boston College, taking on the Army team of West Point Academy in Lansdowne Road in 1988, the year of the Dublin Millennium. There have been four further games since then, including two of the classic encounters between Notre Dame v Navy (in 1996 and 2012) as well as most recent game which took place in Croke Park game 2014 between Penn State and UCF. Croke Park also hosted NFL sides the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Chicago Bears in a pre-season game back in 1997.

The League of Ireland Footballer Who Made a Career in the NFL

Neil O’Donoghue grew up in Clondalkin, Dublin in the 60’s and 70’s and did what many young men did, he kicked a ball around the streets of his home town. At the age of just 18 he was good enough to make his debut for Shamrock Rovers in the 1971-72 season. On the back of his performances he won a soccer scholarship to Saint Bernard College in Alabama, however the school soon closed down it’s scholarship programme and Neil moved to Auburn College, also in Alabama where he started to play football of the American variety. During this time he won “All American” honours as a place kicker in 1976 (this means they were selected by media and as the best players, in a season, for each position) before being drafted into the NFL by the Buffalo Bills in 1977. His spell at the Bills was short-lived and he moved to the struggling Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1978. After two years in Florida Neil moved to the St. Louis Cardinals (now the Arizona Cardinals) for the longest stay of his career. In 1984 he set a Cardinals record by scoring 117 points in a single season and he finished his NFL career the following season having played 110 matches and kicked 576 points. He remains the most recent Irishman to play in the NFL.

Irish Teams Taking Up The Game

In the early 1980s American Football began to get greater coverage in Ireland and interest from Irish people, and American ex-pats in playing the game began to develop. By 1986 such was the interest that the Irish American Football League had been established. The following year the first full season was played with 11 teams participating with the top two teams competing in the annual “Shamrock Bowl”. The league is an All-Ireland affair and the most successful side to date have been the Dublin Rebels who have won 7 titles.

Watching Football

As interest in American Football has grown in recent years so has the demand to see games, especially the Super Bowl each February. Plenty of venues around the city now show the game, and its famous half-time show live, for the recent 2016 edition (Super Bowl 50) some of our favourite places like the Living Room, Harry’s on the Green, the Woolshed, The Boar’s Head, Doyle’s, and Sam’s were all showing the game, often providing American themed food and entertainment.

This first appeared on DublinTown.ie in April 2016

Bohemians during Easter 1916

Posted on March 29, 2016 by gerrytastic

In April 1916 Bohemians were coming to the end of a season disrupted by war, but in which they were rewarded yet again with the Leinster Senior Cup, their fifteenth win in twenty years. It took two attempts to secure the trophy from old rivals, Shelbourne. The first was on St Patrick’s Day, a scoreless draw watched by 6,000 spectators, the second on 1st April.
No Dublin clubs took part in the Irish League that season due to the war and several Bohemian players had enlisted with the army. But the club insisted that football should continue and they managed to maintain Dalymount Park as a playing pitch when some rugby and cricket grounds were taken over for relief works.

Half-back Josh Rowe was with the East Surrey Regiment and was wounded many times. At the end of March he was reported to be returning to duty after convalescence and, it was said, “he hopes to play football again”. Full-back J.J. Doyle had joined the Officer Training Corps in early 1916 but got leave to play for Bohemians in the Irish Cup semi-final, which Bohemians lost to Glentoran in Belfast.

Also involved in that cup campaign was outside-left Harry Willits, who was team captain in 1915-16. An English-born civil servant, he played during 1916 both for the Royal Dublin Fusiliers’ regimental team and for Bohemians. By the start of the next season, however, he was at the war front with the Dublin Fusiliers and in November 1916 was reported as wounded. He survived and was back with Bohemians in 1917-18. Bohemians’ squad in 1916, coached by the everlasting Charlie Harris, included two internationals, Billy McConnell and Johnny McDonnell, whose 1915 Irish shirt hangs today in the JJ Bar at Dalymount Park. Others included regular goal-scorers Ned Brooks and Dinny Hannon, and defender Bert Kerr, who had joined in 1915 and was to have a notable career with Bohemians, including as team captain. He also had a remarkable career as a pioneer in the Irish bloodstock industry.

On Easter Monday 1916, a Bohemian team travelled to Athlone to play an end-of-season friendly, as they had done for several years. So friendly was it that McDonnell and Hannon played for Athlone, in a team that included several army officers. (Hannon later won the Free State Cup with Athlone Town.) Neither team can have been aware of what was happening in Dublin as they played their game in bad weather (3-2 for Bohemians) and were later entertained at the Imperial Hotel and at a dance at the Commercial Quadrille Class. “The Bohemians expressed themselves highly pleased with their visit,” the Westmeath Independent reported. However, the trip was to end less pleasantly for the Bohemian team. Due to the Rising, train services were disrupted from Mullingar, and they had to arrange car transport back to the capital.

Their late return was reported in the Irish Times among the repercussions of the Rising: “Some of the [Bohemian team] members who lived on the south side of the city had to stay in Phibsborough for the [Wednesday] night and, after walking via Islandbridge, Kilmainham, Goldenbridge, Rialto, Crumlin and Dolphin’s Barn, these did not get home until Friday (April 28), at 1.30 p.m.”

While the Bohemian party were concerned about getting back to the city from Athlone the rebels were worried about the arrival of British Army reinforcements from the same location. Many of the sites occupied by the rebels were chosen for their ability to delay the troops coming into the city, most notably the engagement with the Sherwood Foresters at Mount Street bridge.

In Phibsborough members of B Company of the Dublin Brigade built barricades on the railway bridges on the Cabra Road and North Circular Road close to St. Peter’s Church. They even went as far as to try and blow up both bridges with gelignite.
While B Company was able to hold off a number of attacks from small arms and machine gun-fire, the arrival of artillery onto the Cabra Road (outside what is now the Deaf Village) and the use of shrapnel-loaded shells raining down on the bridges just yards from Dalymount Park and as far down as Doyle’s Corner meant that the Volunteers could not hold their positions. A number of civilians were killed by over-shooting shells, while 15-year-old Fianna Éireann scout Sean Healy was shot dead outside his Phibsborough home.
The rebels eventually abandoned their positions hoping to link up with Thomas Ashe in Finglas but by the time they got there he and his men had already left for Meath and the Battle of Ashbourne. Many of B Company found their way back into the city and some joined the garrison in the GPO and then Moore Street.

While there is no record of Bohemians fighting with the 1916 rebels, some Bohemians did work in the British administration during that period. Highest-placed of these was founder member Andrew P. Magill. He was an 18-year-old clerk in the Land Commission when he attended the club’s first meeting, and later a clerk in the office of the Chief Secretary for Ireland. He rose to become private secretary to Chief Secretary Augustine Birrell, who resigned in May 1916 after failing to predict or take preventative action to stop the Rising. Magill later worked in the post-partition civil service of Northern Ireland.
While Magill was serving the Chief Secretary, fellow-Bohemian Joe Irons, an army reserve who was called up when World War 1 broke out, was posted to the Vice-Regal Lodge in Phoenix Park, to what is now Áras an Úachtaráin, to protect the Viceroy.

This article was co-written and researched with Brian Trench for the Bohemian FC website where it appeared in March 2016. In later articles we will look further into the life and career of Harry Willits, report on other Bohemians who fought in World War 1, and tell the stories of some Bohemians who were IRA volunteers in the War of Independence.

League of Ireland International XI

Posted on March 4, 2016 by gerrytastic

A good while back I did up a League of Ireland International XI elsewhere on this blog. It seemed to go down well and provoked a little bit of discussion. My previous version featured those players who had been capped by other nations and had featured in league football in Ireland, it included the likes of George Best, Bobby Charlton, Uwe Seeler and of course Avery John. That post deliberately excluded Irish internationals but I’d like to redress this by compiling my Irish International League of Ireland XI. My criteria are that all players included have to have been capped for Ireland while playing for a club in the League of Ireland. I’ve focused on players from the immediate years after the split with the IFA right up to the modern day. I’ve tried to represent various different eras basing much on pieces of research and reportage and the input of various older football fans. As always this is just a personal selection of players I like or that interest me so this will obviously reflect my own bias and interest but hopefully might create a bit of discussion, hence the sizeable bench! Anyway in goal I’ve gone for….

Goalkeeper – Alan Kelly Sr. (Drumcondra, 47 caps): A man with a strong claim to be one of Ireland’s greatest ever keepers and a founder of somewhat of an Irish goalkeeping dynasty. (Not the only one mind, hello to the Hendersons) Alan Kelly Sr. was a FAI Cup winner and a League champion with Drumcondra during their 1950’s heyday when he made his debut for the Republic of Ireland as they defeated World Champions Germany 3-0 in Dalymount Park. Before long a move to Preston North End beckoned and he spent 14 years as a player at Deepdale making a club record 513 appearances, including an impressive performance in the 1964 FA Cup final where the unfancied Preston were deafeated 3-2 by the West Ham of Bobby Moore and Geoff Hurst. Such was his importance at Preston that in 2001 a redeveloped stand was named after him. Kelly would later manager Preston and would assist John Giles during his managerial reign as well as being caretaker manager for Ireland during a 2-0 win over Switzerland.

Right-back – Paddy Mulligan (Shamrock Rovers, 50 caps, 1 goal): Paddy was already a four-time FAI cup winner and an Irish international by the time he left Shamrock Rovers to head to West London and the glamorous surroundings of one of Chelsea’s pre-Abramovich high-points. While at Chelsea he tasted European glory as Chelsea beat the might of Real Madrid 3-2 on aggregate in the Cup Winners Cup final before moving onto Crystal Palace and later West Bromwich Albion, managed at the time by his international team-mate Johnny Giles. While Paddy finished his career with a very respectable 50 caps he didn’t have the easiest start to his international career, he was a part-timer with Shamrock Rovers while also holding down a job with the Irish National Insurance Company when he was called up to the Irish squad in 1966, his employers weren’t too happy about his decision to travel with the squad to face Austria and Belgium and he was issued with an official warning by the company directors!

Centre Back – Al Finucane (Limerick, 11 caps): An elegant, ball playing centre-half Al Finucane won all of his 11 international caps while on the books of his home-town club Limerick. However his time in the green of his country coincided with a dreadful run of results and his international record reads played 11, won 0, drew 1, lost 10. There was to far most success on the domestic front where he captained Limerick to two FAI Cups (1971 & 1982 when he was 39!) as well as lifting the famous old trophy with Waterford in 1980. Only the second player to achieve this after Johnny Fullam who captained both Shamrock Rovers and Bohemians to victory. Finucane’s longevity was astonishing and along the way he picked up a number of records in his 28 year League of Ireland career including the record number of appearances by any player in the league and also becoming the oldest player ever to play in a UEFA competition. At the age of 43 years 261 days he lined out for Waterford United against Bordeaux in the Cup Winners Cup, breaking a record previously held by Dino Zoff. His final game was at the age of 45 for Newcastlewest.

Centre Back – Con Martin (Drumcondra, 30 caps, 6 goals): Con Martin made his first two international appearances as a Drumcondra player and in somewhat unexpected circumstances as a goalkeeper. His first appearance came as a substitute away to Portugal. With Ireland trailing 3-0, thanks in no small part to the prolific Sporting striker Fernando Peyroteo, the Irish keeper Ned Courtney is forced to go off injured. Courtney kept goal for Cork United and was an officer in the Irish Army, he had also won a Munster title in Gaelic Football with Cork. Brought on in his place was Con Martin, who at the time was in the Irish Air Corps and had also won a provincial GAA football title, with Dublin in 1941, he kept a clean sheet for the remainder of the game and started in goal in the next match, a 1-0 victory over Spain. Martin was a hugely versatile player, he lined out as a centre half for Drumcondra he played almost an entire season in goal later in his career for Aston Villa and also regularly played as a half back or at inside forward. He was a regular penalty taker for Ireland and it was Con Martin who opened the scoring in the ground-breaking 2-0 win over England at Goodison Park.

Left Back – Mick Hoy (Dundalk, 6 caps): While the selection of the likes of James McClean and Marc Wilson has generated some ire with those in the IFA they are certainly not the first men born north of the border to play for an FAI selection. Mick was born in Tandragee, Co. Armagh and began his career at Glenavon before moving south to Dundalk in 1937 the same year he made his international debut in a 3-2 defeat to Nroway. He started that game alongside his fellow Dundalk team-mate Joey Donnelly. Mick won five further caps and his debut was to be the only game where he finished on the losing side. His final match for Ireland was the 1-1 draw away to Germany in 1939, the nation’s final international fixture before the outbreak of War.

Midfield – John Giles (Shamrock Rovers, 59 caps, 5 goals): To celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2004 UEFA asked each of its member associations to select their greatest player of the preceding 50 years. The FAI selected Johnny Giles. While there will always be
differences of opinion regarding the selection of any one player over another there would be a general consensus that Giles was worthy of the accolade. He was a FA Cup winner with Man Utd in 1963 before moving to Leeds where he won two league titles, another FA Cup, a League Cup and two Inter-City Fairs Cups and played in the final of the 1975 European Cup where Leeds finished runners-up to Bayern Munich. Only two years after playing in that final Giles was lining out as player-manager for Shamrock Rovers in the League of Ireland where he was attempting to make Rovers not only a force in Ireland but also in Europe with the introduction of a full-time, professional ethos, the “Milltown project” as it was dubbed by some. While this approach did yield an FAI Cup in 1978 it yielded little else in terms of silverware. During this time however Giles was a very busy man. As well as being player-manager at Rovers he was also the national team player-manager and also spent a summer in 1978 playing in the NASL for Philadelphia Fury! During this time he continued to add to his caps total, his final game coming in 1979 at the age of 38.

Midfield – Frank O’Neill (Shamrock Rovers, 20 caps, 1 goal): Frank O’Neill is the most capped League of Ireland player in history with a total of 20 to his name. All of these came during his time at Shamrock Rovers. Despite treading the well-worn path going from Home Farm schoolboy to England, joining Arsenal aged just 18 it was as one the classiest players in Rovers’ “Cup Kings” sides that he made his name. After only two league appearances for the Gunners, O’Neill, then aged 21 joined Rovers on their Summer 1961 tour of North American where they took part in the grandly titled Bill Cox International Soccer League against the likes of Dukla Prague, Red Star Belgrade and Monaco. O’Neill impressed grabbing six goals in seven games after which he was signed for £3,000. O’Neill would make over 300 appearances for Rovers, winning a league title as well as six consectutive FAI Cups, mostly playing on the right wing. His international career coincided with a downturn in the national team’s fortunes though there were highlights including the scoring of his only international goal against Turkey in a 2-1 victory.

Midfield – Mick Martin (Bohemian FC, 51 caps, 4 goals): The second member of the prolific Martin football family in our team, Mick, son of Con began his career at Dalymount Park with Bohemians. His early international career didn’t get off to a great start as he was selected by new manager Liam Touhy for his début in a 6-0 defeat to Austria. The Irish team that day was comprised of League of Ireland players as the match had been scheduled just a day after a full English league fixture programme. He also made a number of appearances at the Brazil Independence Cup while still of Bohs player, scoring in a 3-2 win over Ecuador. Better was to come for Martin, he got to mark Pelé as part of a Bohs/Drumcondra select that took on Santos and shortly afterwards secured a move to Manchester United and later joining Johnny Giles at West Brom. In his club career he is probably most associated with Newcastle United, who he joined for £100,000 in 1978. He was hugely popular with the St. James’s Park faithful who dubbed him “Zico” and he got to play alongside the likes of Kevin Keegan and a young Chris Waddle during his time there.

Forward – Jimmy Dunne (Shamrock Rovers, 15 caps, 13 goals): Jimmy Dunne began and ended his playing career at Shamrock Rovers. In his first spell at the club the Ringsend native didn’t manage to get much playing time due to the dominance of Rovers’ “Four Fs” forward line of “Juicy” Farrell, Jack “Kruger” Fagan, Bob Fullam and John Joe Flood though when he did get a look in he usually scored. A move to New Brighton (a now defunct club on Merseyside) in the old Third Division North followed, as did the goals. He joined First Division Sheffield United in 1926 though he had to bide his time before getting a prolonged run in the first team. However he exploded into life in the 1929-30 season scoring 42 goals in 43 games and winning his first cap for Ireland (he scored twice in a 3-1 win over Belgium) that year as well. Dunne however wouldn’t be released by United for further fixtures (though he was allowed to play 7 times for the IFA selection) during his prolific scoring exploits over the next few years and he wouldn’t win a second cap until 1936 when he was playing for Arsenal by which stage he had fallen down the pecking order at Highbury due to the arrival of Ted Drake. A season at Southampton followed before Jimmy or “Snowy” as he was known to some returned to Dublin and to Shamrock Rovers in 1937 at the age of 32. It was while on the books of Rovers that Dunne would win nine of his 15 caps and score five of his international goals. Dunne still has by far the best scoring ratio for Ireland of any player who has scored 10+ goals at 0.87 goals per game and one wonders what his stats would have been like had he been made available to play for Ireland during his peak years at Sheffield United.

Forward – Glen Crowe (Bohemian FC, 2 caps): The best striker that I’ve personally witnessed in the League of Ireland and the most recent player to feature on this list. Crowe during the years of his peak was unplayable for opposing defences, he had strength, aerial ability and a cracking shot. He’s Bohs record league goalscorer, FAI Cup scorer and European scorer and was the League’s top scorer three years running. He’s also won 5 league titles (4 with Bohs, 1 with Shels) and two FAI Cups. At international level he featured against Greece under care-taker manager Don Givens and then again early in the reign of Brian Kerr in a cameo appearance against Norway.

Forward – Alfie Hale (Waterford, 14 caps, 2 goals): The Hale’s are one of the great football families in Waterford, a place that has given us plenty of them, including the Coads, the Fitzgeralds and the Hunts. Alfie’s father (Alfie Snr.) had been part of the first Waterford side to compete at League of Ireland level and at one stage formed an entire half back line for the club along with his brothers Tom and John in the 1930’s. Alfie Jnr. was born in 1939 and began his career with his hometown club before a somewhat peripatetic existence brought him to Aston Villa, where he would win his first international cap against Austria, and later to Doncaster Rovers where he would spend the majority of his stay in Britain. After seven years away Hale returned to Waterford where he was joined by Johnny Matthews and a little later by keeper Peter Thomas as part of a team that would dominate the League of Ireland, bringing five titles to the south coast between 1967 and 1973. Alfie’s final game for Ireland was as a Waterford United player in 1973 at the age of 34 when he came on to replace Don Givens in a 1-0 victory over a Polish side that had just finished ahead of England in World Cup qualifying.

Subs: Peter Thomas (Waterford) Tommy McConville (Dundalk & Waterford) Johnny Fullam (Shamrock Rovers) Willie Browne (Bohemians) Shay Brennan (Waterford), Peter Farrell (Shamrock Rovers), Tommy Eglinton (Shamrock Rovers) Joe O’Reilly (Brideville, St. James Gate) Paddy Coad (Shamrock Rovers) Paddy Moore (Shamrock Rovers) Pat Byrne (Shamrock Rovers) Paddy Bradshaw (St. James Gate) Jason Byrne (Shelbourne)

*a note on the layout, I’ve listed players’ Irish clubs when they received their international caps only but have listed their total number of caps won at all of their clubs.

I am the Lord Thy God. Thou shalt have no other Gods before me – From Messi to Messiah

Posted on February 7, 2016 by gerrytastic

The Spanish Conquistadors brought much to South and Central America; a lust for conquest, cannon and Spanish steel, deadly European diseases and indeed Christianity. But there were things that they found in New Spain that were new to these violent colonisers as well. Just picture the scene; a scorching hot day in the glorious Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán, surrounded on all sides by lakes and swamps it is the site of the modern metropolis of Mexico City. In a formal cordoned off rectangular space beneath tiers of grey stone steps populated by the masses of the city, ordered by social rank, a group of men compete fiercely in a ball game. The two teams face off, the purpose of the game is to get the hard, heavy, solid rubber ball through a circular hoop or goal at either end of the field. The players can’t handle the ball but propel it with amazing skill with their hips, knees and buttocks. This is sport but not as we know it today, instead it is part ritual, part religious rite.

Andreas Campomar in his encyclopaedic study, Golazo! on the history of football in Latin America emphasises the sheer importance of these sort of ball games not just to the Aztecs but to the Mayans and other pre-Colombian civilisations. For example thousands of rubber game balls were paid as tribute to kings, the myths of great societies featured stories of ferocious ball games played against gods and monsters, and most frighteningly of all there was a very real connection between these ball games and forms of religious human sacrifice. There are stories of losing sides in games being beheaded in ritual sacrifice in the civilisations of Veracruz. Stories of racks of human skulls being kept pitch-side displaying the chilling fate of previous competitors, and artworks showing fountains of arterial blood bursting forth from the neck of recently decapitated players. The Christian Spaniards saw these ancient ballgames as forms of witchcraft but the Mesoamerican people viewed them with much greater awe and significance, in many cases the ball itself seems to have had an almost spiritual quality, this circular orb flying through the air in games providing a metaphor for the orbit of the sun and the stars. Another view was that their ballgames were a form of proxy war, literally competitions of life or death or of communing with the divine.

An example of a Mesoamerican ballcourt

While the ancient games of the Mayans were part of religious ritual, those who codified the game of football; the British Victorians, also viewed their sport as having a religious element. Sports were part and parcel of the ethos of “muscular Christianity” that found favour in the public school system of 19^th Century Britain. Health and wellbeing, exemplified by the gentlemanly virtues of team sports were seen as an absolute “moral good”, taking inspiration directly from the Bible, for example the passage in Corinthians which noted:

What know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

While the conquering Spaniards saw the ballgames and customs of Latin American as one of many vices to be expunged by colonialization and the introduction of Christianity the Victorians viewed the role of sport in muscular Christianity as a great virtue and to some measure as part and parcel in the manufacture of robust soldiers and sailors for the British military and hence the creation of the British Empire. The competitive nature of team sport, its focus on defence and attack in unison, and its obvious role in physical development helped form a generation of officers for the British military. To take the most critical viewpoint of this movement would be to say it formed a part of an outlook not dissimilar to the American concept of “Manifest Destiny” or the earlier notions of the “virtuous” Crusaders of the 11^th , 12^th and 13^th Centuries, a “Born to rule” mentality. The author James George Cotton Minchin when writing on the influence of the British Public School system was moved to speak of “the Englishman going through the world with rifle in one hand and Bible in the other” and added, “If asked what our muscular Christianity has done, we point to the British Empire.” George Orwell, himself a former Eton schoolboy was highly critical of what he saw as the recent and cultish growth in sport, he wrote the following after the tour of Dynamo Moscow to Britain in 1945 on the topic of “serious sport” and football in particular: “It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence: in other words it is war minus the shooting.” Perhaps closer to the brutal games of Mesoamerica with their emphasis on sport as a proxy war than we might like to admit?

If the role of team sports like football had a part to play in the creation and spread of the British Empire and militarism, and the idea that this had a certain divine authority, then religious organisations were also keen to use football to promote the causes of their Churches and the social causes that they supported. The more appealing side to the notion of “muscular Christianity” would be that these muscular Christians had a duty to protect the weaker and more downtrodden in society.

Students at Charterhouse Public school 1863. Past pupils formed Old Carthusians FC who won the FA Cup in 1881

During the age of industrial upheaval towards the end of the 19^th Century and into the 20^th Century many saw sport as a way to support the working classes who faced terrible living conditions, poor sanitation and were excluded from many areas of society. As Peter Lupson notes in his book Thank God for Football many of the most historic clubs that make up the top divisions in England today were founded as part of Church groups, whether it was Aston Villa, Tottenham Hotspur, Bolton Wanderers or Everton, whose Goodison Park stadium has a church between its famous Gwladys Street End and Goodison Road stand. Manchester City were formed out of St. Mark’s West Gorton FC, founded by the public school educated clergyman Arthur Connell and his proselytising daughter Anna. Concerned about the violence and alcohol abuse that were rampant in the West Gorton area of Manchester, St. Mark’s was established as a way to get the men of the area to focus their energies elsewhere, first in cricket and then later in football. There were many such links with church groups and sports clubs and often with a specific connection to the temperance movement of the late 19^th and early 20^th century.

From the ancient ballgames of Central America and their religious, ritualistic significance, to the Victorian use of football and other team sports to create a notion of the muscular Christian (whether as soldier and imperialist or as a social and sporting evangelists for the disadvantaged in society) we can see how religion and sports were crucially interlinked, however the point would come when football would move beyond religious links. With the rise of Communism in the early part of the 20^th Century there was a move, nominally at least, towards atheistic societies. As Karl Marx famously said:

“Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness”

In some ways the early view of football in Communist nations was not dissimilar, there was an opinion that football was a distraction from the issues that should have been of greater concern to the disenfranchised working classes. That football was another “opiate” just like religion to use the phraseology of Marx and de Sade. We can turn again to George Orwell on this matter and take a quote from his seminal piece of dystopian fiction 1984 in which he described the future of the working classes as; “Heavy physical work, the care of home and children, petty quarrels with neighbour, films, football, beer and above all gambling filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult” [my emphasis]

It was not long however before Communist nations realised the propaganda value of sport. Rather than acting as a distraction to the masses why could football not work as the perfect exemplar of the successful Communist state? An example not of individual dominance but of cooperation, planning, teamwork and self-sacrifice for the greater good. One high profile clash between a supposedly atheist Communist state, Yugoslavia and the Republic of Ireland took place in 1955 in Dublin. Much of the controversy surrounded the Croatian Cardinal Aloysius Stepinac who had been imprisoned by Josip Tito’s government, ostensibly on the basis that he had collaborated with the fascist Ustaše group during World War 2, however critics of Tito’s regime claimed that Stepinac’s trial and imprisonment was a show trial brought about because the Cardinal had been critical of the new Communist post-war regime in Yugoslavia. Although Stepinac was released in 1951 it was viewed that Yugoslavia, and Tito in particular were actively persecuting the Catholic Church.

It should be noted that the Ireland of the 1950’s was not necessarily a bastion of freedom either. The modest economic growth and modernisation that would take place under Sean Lemass’ tenure as Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) were still some years in the future and Ireland of 1955 was an impoverished nation with a high rate of unemployment and mass emigration. The social and intellectual sphere was limited, in literature alone despite there being a glut of talented writers emerging in Ireland at the time many fell afoul of draconian censorships laws (such as Brendan Behan, Liam O’Flaherty and later Edna O’Brien) which meant their works were banned from publication never mind the works of non-Irish writers (Balzac, Huxley, Salinger et al). Furthermore the Irish Constitution of 1937 protected freedom of all religions but made special mention of the Catholic Church:

The State recognises the special position of the Holy Catholic Apostolic and Roman Church as the guardian of the Faith professed by the great majority of the citizens. – Article 44.1.2 of the Irish Constitution (1937)

It was no surprise that the “special position” of the Catholic Church was recognised in the Constitution as Fr. John Charles McQuaid was one of the key advisors on the creation of the document to his old schoolmate, Taoiseach Eamon de Valera. This same Fr. McQuaid would within three years of the Constitution being ratified become Archbishop of Dublin. It was in his role as Archbishop of Dublin that McQuaid helped scupper a modest 1951 proposal from Health Minister Dr. Noel Browne to provide free health care to Mothers and children. He stated that the “Mother & Child scheme” was against the moral teaching of the Catholic Church which led to Browne’s resignation from Government.

It was against this background that in 1952 McQuaid persuaded the FAI to cancel a proposed match with Yugoslavia, however the football association decided to arrange another game against the Yugoslav’s three years later. McQuaid called for a boycott of the game and urged the FAI to cancel the match but the Association persisted with the fixture scheduled for Dublin’s Dalymount Park on Wednesday 19^th October 1955. McQuaid’s view was in contrast to the recent instructions of Pope Pius XII who recommended against the Church or politics taking any stance on sporting events.

This game was never likely to pass without controversy. It was alleged by FAI board member Peadar Halpin that he had agreed to the arrangement of the fixture against the Yugoslavs on the advice that Archbishop McQuaid had been consulted and given his approval. Upon learning that the Archbishop was opposed to the game he still backed the match to proceed but only because to do otherwise would cost the FAI a significant chunk of cash. The call for a boycott of the game had other consequences, the FAI could not secure a band to play the anthems on the day after the Irish Army No. 1 band withdrew so they resorted to playing a recording of both nations’ anthems over a record player in the stadium. The regular trainer for the Irish national side, Dick Hearns of Dublin club Shelbourne also withdrew his services from the team and had to be replaced by Shamrock Rovers trainer Billy Lord. It was ensured by de Valera that President Sean T. O’Kelly (notionally at least the First Citizen of the State) would not attend the game in an official function, nor would de Valera himself or any of his senior Ministers. The voice of football at the time on RTE radio, Philip Greene also made himself unavailable to cover the game. It was suggested that this was in part a direct response to a call from Archbishop McQuaid not to cover the match and lead to the infamous headline “Reds turn Greene Yellow”. The lone political representative of note in the ground that day was Oscar Traynor TD who was also President of the FAI and a noted former footballer with Belfast Celtic. He received a rapturous welcome.

Despite the various organs of the theoretically separate Church and State boycotting the match a decent crowd of 22,000 turned out. Although larger attendances of around 35,000 were recorded at other home matches around this time it is worth noting that the Yugoslavia game was a midweek friendly played in wet and overcast conditions. The FAI were at pains to point out that no tickets were returned on foot of the Bishopric denunciation and it is striking that in a country so under the influence of the Catholic Church that 22,000 football fans ignored the condemnations and calls for boycott of one of the most powerful men in Ireland. In doing so they had to pass a cordon of irate, anti-Communist, placard-carrying Legion of Mary members. Not only were there fans in the ground but newspaper reports state that they gave the Yugoslavs a warm reception and a rousing ovation at the end of the game. The Yugoslavs had put on a fine attacking display and run out easy 4-1 winners against the Irish, a display that had obviously impressed the home crowd.

Shamrock Rovers young forward Liam Touhy who made his debut that day summed up the opinion of the players when he said their only concern about playing Communist Yugoslavia was that the game might be called off and the players might miss out on a cap. Tuohy was also quoted as saying that many of the Yugoslavs blessed themselves upon entering the pitch and that “there were nearly more Catholics on their side than there were on ours”. The Yugoslavs for their part were bemused at the involvement of the Catholic Church having not encountered previous calls for the boycott of matches. North of the border in Belfast, Unionist politicians cited the interference of the Archbishop as another example of the dangers of having Dublin involved with any of the affairs of Northern Ireland due to the strength of influence of the Catholic Church in the Republic.

Headline from The Irish Times the day before the match – October 1955

It would be decades before the scale of the abuses of power perpetuated by the Catholic Church in Ireland would emerge; in the culture of silence that existed the simple act of attending a football match after the Church had called for a boycott was a powerful statement, against the influence of the Church but also in support of the beautiful game. This wasn’t sport in service to religious ritual as in Central America, or sport in the service of Christianity as in Victorian Britain but sport as a form of protest against religious power and hypocrisy. Perhaps the next evolutionary step would be football as religion and footballers as icons or even messianic figures?

Such comparisons between football and religion are as obvious as they are simplistic, the stadium as Cathedral, the chants of fans as psalms or hymns, even collective footballing passion and hysteria could be seen as having religious counterparts whether that is spiritual possession or speaking in tongues. There is also a devotional and messianic aspect, a form of footballer worship, many players have engendered a certain cult around themselves, developed followings convinced of their significance but even of their divinity? The most extreme example is probably that of Diego Maradona, a man who has inspired his own devoted Church and following, the Iglesia Maradoniana. While El Diego is not averse to religious comparisons himself, the Hand of God being the most obvious example, the creation of a religion complete with prayers, ceremonies, works of devotional art and even its own calendar; (we’re in the year 55, the calendar starts in 1960 the year of Maradona’s birth), is another step entirely! While many feel uncomfortable with this worship of a hugely talented but highly flawed human being, some viewing it as blasphemy, others are happy to pass on their Maradona related creed to succeeding generations, to their sons (many named Diego) and their daughters. The “religion” unsurprisingly borrows heavily from the Christian faith and Roman Catholicism in particular, there is an “Our Diego” prayer modelled on the Our Father and there are Ten Commandments to live by. Such syncretism with Judeo-Christian faiths can create further searches for parallels between Maradona’s life and that of Jesus Christ. Would Claudio Caniggia be the apostle John, the favoured disciple? Or could Diego’s infant grandson, the son of Man City star Sergio Aguero, be a “Second Coming” of the divine? While the Iglesia Maradoniana is an extreme example of the footballer as saviour or messianic figure the form of secular devotion and religious comparisons drawn with football are plain to see. That’s without even mentioning ex-footballers who might think themselves as saviours. The ex- Coventry and Hereford United goalkeeper David Icke infamously declared at a 1991 press conference that he was “Son of the Godhead”.

Football; from the ancient ball games of Central America which were part of religious ritual to the 19^th Century role of religious organisations in the early growth and development of the game as social good, the interaction between the game and religion has developed over time. While religious institutions helped to create circumstances for the growth of football they were not necessarily prepared for rejection by the newly popularised game, even in good Catholic Ireland football could become a rare form of resistance against dominant religious interference. Today, at a great remove from the Corinthian, public school, class-orientated view of “muscular Christianity” one would imagine that Thomas Hughes or any of the other propagators of that phrase would struggle to recognise the highly commodified, modern professional game. They would certainly balk at the idea that professional footballers would be idealised, and dare we say worshipped as secular idols well beyond the confines of their mega-stadiums and into the homes of their acolytes around the world. While not every footballer will have his own Church or followers like Diego Maradona, for an increasing number of people the ritual of following their football team is the closest they will come to a religious experience. Now altogether

Our Diego, who is on the pitches,
Hallowed be thy left hand….

This article first appeared in issue 10 of The Football Pink with some original artwork from Kevin McGivern the new issue 11 is out now which also features one of my articles.

Puskás, Di Stefano…Prati – the career of a Milan legend

Posted on January 24, 2016 by gerrytastic

Only three players have ever scored a hat-trick in a European Cup or Champions League final. Alfredo Di Stefano scored three in the famous Hampden Park final of 1960 when Real Madrid defeated Eintract Frankfurt 7-3, his team-mate Ferenc Puskás scored the other four in that game. Puskás would score a hat trick two years later but it was all to no avail as a Eusébio inspired Benfica retained the Cup beating Madrid 5-3. Puskás and Di Stefano, the attacking stars of one of the greatest club sides ever, the storied five in a row Real Madrid, men justifiably regarded as amongst the greatest players ever.

How many remember the third of this three-goal scoring triumvirate? The final member of the triptych was Italian international Pierino Prati who, in the 68-69 final, at the age of 22 scored three against the emerging force of Cruyff’s Ajax in a 4-1 victory for AC Milan. That hat-trick capped off an astonishing two year string of triumphs for Prati. From the beginning of the 1967-68 season to the end of 1969 season the young striker won a Serie A title, the Cup Winners Cup, the European Cup and the Intercontinental Cup for Milan, the 1968 European Championship for Italy as well as picking up the coveted Capocannoniere award for Serie A’s top scorer for the 1967-68 season.

What makes this run of successes all the more remarkable was that Prati had spent the previous season on loan at Serie B side Savona where, despite scoring 15 goals for the Ligurian side they were relegated to Serie C. It was only after the re-appointment of Nereo Rocco as coach of AC Milan that his prospects would change.

Prati was born in December 1946 in the small town of Cinisello Balsamo just north of Milan. He was on the radar of AC Milan at an early stage and played with various Milan youth teams. The then head coach Nils Liedholm was apparently alerted of his talents by another Milan player, Luigi Maldera who spotted the young striker’s talent in a youth tournament. Before he would make his Milan breakthrough though he had to begin his senior career in 1965-66 on loan with Serie C side Salernitana where he scored ten goals (despite suffering a serious injury) to help them attain promotion to Serie B. Prati returned to Milan but only made a couple of appearances before his loan move to Savona began. By this stage there was considerable change at managerial level leading to the appointment of Rocco, a man most synonymous with the defensive system of catenaccio.

Prati after suffering an injury playing for Salernitana

Rocco had achieved great success with Milan in the early 60’s winning both the league and the club’s first European Cup before leaving for Torino. His return signalled a revival in the fortunes of the club and would mark a turning point in Prati’s career. Not that it started out so smoothly. Rocco asked for the young forward to be recalled from Savona and he arrived at the club with long hair, jewellery and wearing a pair of flares. Rocco is reported to have reacted by saying “I asked for Pierino Prati the footballer, not Pierino Prati the pop singer”. By the end of his career he’d be known as “Prati the pest” due to his driven and persistent style of play.

Any concerns that Rocco may have had were allayed in that first full season when Prati became Serie A top scorer as Milan strolled to the title, nine points clear of second placed Napoli. Prati formed part of a formidable attack along with the Brazilian born Angelo Sormani, newly-arrived, experienced winger Kurt Hamrin and the legendary Gianni Rivera with whom he developed a close on-field partnership. Behind this array of attacking threat was a solid midfield based around the more defensively focused Giovanni Trappatoni and Giovanni Lodetti, a man whose style of play allowed Rivera freedom as the creative fulcrum of the side and led to him being known as Rivera’s “third lung”. Behind them was a defence that only conceded 24 times in 30 games with either Pier Angelo Belli or the newly arrived Fabio Cudicini in goal and German international Karl-Heinz Schnellinger in defence alongside the likes of Roberto Rosato, Saul Malatrasi and Angelo Anquilletti. Early on it was difficult to find a role for Prati. Sormani was the first choice centre-forward, but in one game the right-footed Prati was asked to fill in on the left side of the attack and given the no. 11 jersey, he scored in that game and didn’t stop thereafter. He’d found his place in the side.

By May 1968 Prati had added the Cup Winners Cup to his accomplishments, starting
the final in Rotterdam against the Hamburg of Uwe Seeler which was decided by two early goals from Kurt Hamrin. Such was the success of his breakthrough season that Prati was called up by the Italian national team for Euro 1968. The Azzurri had comfortably topped their Euro qualifying group without Prati’s help but his form ensured that he made his debut in the competition’s two legged quarter final against Bulgaria due to an injury to regular starter Luigi Riva. He impressed, scoring in both legs as Italy advance 4-3 winners on aggregate, securing their place at the four team tournament proper hosted on Italian home soil.

Prati in action against SV Hamburg in 1968

The Italians were drawn against the Soviet Union in the semi-finals, a tough task as the Soviets had been the side to knock them out of the World Cup two years earlier. It was tight game and Italy were beset by injury problems, first Rivera was forced from the field for lengthy treatment. Then as the match entered injury time Giancarlo Bercelli also had to go off injured, and with no substitutions allowed Angelo Domenghini was withdrawn from the forward line to left back. Prati had a good chance to seal the win but shot wide and there was to be no separating the sides. In the days before penalty shoot-outs the game was to be decided on the toss of a coin. Team captains Giacinto Faccetti and Albert Shesternev joined the referee in his room inside the stadium and Faccetti correctly called tails. He sprinted out to his team-mates on the pitch, his celebrations confirming to all that they were through to the final.

Prati would retain his place for the final against a strong Yugoslavia side who had just defeated England and featured the exceptionally talented winger Dragan Džajić. As with the semi-final, the first final was a very close affair. Džajić had opened the scoring in the first half and Italy, without the injured Rivera were struggling to find a breakthrough. It looked as though Italy might lose the final in Rome’s own Stadio Olympico but ten minutes from the final whistle Angelo Domenghini of Inter thumped a free kick past Pantelic in the Yugoslav goal to secure a replay.

With two consecutive games going to extra time the Italy coach Ferruccio Valcareggi made significant changes to his side for the replay of the final. In came Mazzola and Di Sisti to the midfield while Sandro Salvadore started as a fifth defender. Crucially for Prati and for his whole future international career, his place in the attack was taken by fit-again Luigi Riva of Cagliari. It would prove a decisive change, Riva opened the scoring after only 12 minutes with one of his trademark powerful left-footed drives, on the half-hour Pietro Anastasi, much improved from the first final, notched a second. With Tarcisio Burgnich marking Džajić out of the game Yugoslavia were unable to find a way back in. Italy won Euro 68 in their Capital city. Riva was the hero, he could have scored a hat-trick in the game given the number of chances that fell to him.

For Pierino after his first full season in Serie A he was a League Champion, Cup Winner’s Cup winner and now a European Champion with Italy. However much of his subsequent international career would be lived in Gigi Riva’s shadow.

While 67-68 had been Prati’s breakthrough season when he finished as Capocannoniere this achievement was bookended by Riva’s scoring exploits as it was he who had finished as top scorer in 66-67 and would again in the 68-69 and 69-70 seasons. As a result Prati was left out of the starting line up for most of Italy’s World Cup 70 qualifying despite the fact that he had continued his excellent form into the 68-69 season. The one game he did play, a 2-2 away draw with East Germany saw Italy line-up with a front three of Riva-Mazzola-Prati with Rivera in behind. Riva scored both of Italy’s goals.

Despite a scoring record that showed 38 goals in 70 games over the previous two seasons, including the goals that won the 1969 European Cup, Prati was not in the original squad for the Mexico World Cup in 1970, it was only some locker room hijinks that got him on the plane to Mexico. The Juventus forward Pietro Anastasi, at that time the most expensive footballer in the world, was in the Italian pre- World Cup training camp, he was a bored 22 year old with too much energy and was spending his time winding up the team masseur Tresoldi. The masseur had had about enough of Pietro’s messing when he turned around swiftly and hit Anastasi square in the testicles. Anastasi hit the deck but it was only later that night when the pain became too much to bear that Anastasi realised something was seriously wrong. He was rushed to hospital for surgery, his World Cup was over before it began.

The Italian coach Valcareggi had been pinning his hopes for success on the perfect strike combination of Anastasi and Riva, but with this unexpected injury he called up two forwards to replace one; Roberto Boninsegna of Inter and Prati, while he sent home Prati’s team-mate and Rivera’s “third lung” Giovanni Lodetti to make room. While Boninsegna would have a major impact on the finals, scoring against Germany in the semi-final, providing an assist for Rivera in the same game as well as scoring Italy’s consolation goal against Brazil in the final. Prati meanwhile spent the entire tournament either on the bench or in the stands. Despite the physical demands on the rest of the squad of the Mexican altitude, the heat, and the semi-final against Germany going to extra time Valcareggi kept faith with a core group of players with no space for Prati.

Prati as a spectator at a show in Mexico

It was Prati’s misfortune that his international career overlapped with that of Riva, a man whose national team goalscoring record (35 goals in 42 games) has remained unbroken for over 40 years. Riva was a true star of the European game, he had propelled little Cagliari to their only ever league title in 1969-70, the same year he finished second for the Ballon d’Or behind his international team-mate Rivera. Even despite Prati’s exceptional form it was also an injury to Riva that gave Prati his first starts for Italy, his return to the Azzurri jersey after the disappointment of the 70 World Cup also coincided with Riva suffering a serious leg injury while playing in a friendly which caused him to miss much of the 1970-71 season. In his absence Prati helped Italy top their qualifying group for Euro 72, scoring in both of their games versus Ireland, as well as netting against Austria, however he was dropped for the quarter-final games against Belgium when Italy were knocked out.

By the 72-73 season Prati’s time at Milan was coming to an end. Milan had just won back to back Coppa Italia’s and while Prati had been central to their success throughout 72 where played regularly through to the final he wasn’t involved at all in the 1973 edition of the cup. There was increased competition at Milan from the likes of Romeo Benetti, Alberto Bigon and the latest arrival, Luciano Chiarugi who would score 22 in his first season. The following year, after 209 appearances and 102 goals for Milan in all competitions, Prati was on the move. He was on his way to the capital to join his old coach Nils Liedholm at Roma.

At Roma Prati become the focal point of their attack and would be the club’s top scorer for each of the next two seasons as they steadily improved; finishing 8th and then 3rd, but as the 70s progressed and Prati entered his 30s, games were harder to come by and niggling injuries began to take their toll. He joined Fiorentina for the 77-78 season but played only eight times without finding the net. It was to be his last year in top flight Italian football. He would spend the rest of his career (apart from a short spell in the NASL with the Rochester Lancers) with one of his earliest clubs, Savona, by then lining out in Serie C2. He retired in 1981 having made 458 appearances for his various clubs, scoring 205 goals, for Italy he won just 14 caps, scoring seven times.

In a league noted for the miserly nature of its defences, especially during the heyday of catenaccio as espoused by the likes of Rocco and the Inter Milan sides of Helenio Herrera, the scoring exploits of Prati are worthy of praise. He was a versatile forward, capable of playing through the middle and on either wing. At just shy of six foot and blessed with a powerful leap he was a handful in the air while possessing a formidable right foot which saw him score his fair share of goals from distance, including a certain speciality with thunderous free kicks. It was noted that at the time that it was common for Italian strikers to drop deep, afraid of being isolated further up the pitch or being caught on the counter-attack, Prati went against this completely and played a high line, always looking to get forward. in his style of play he was likened to the great striker of the 30s and 40s Silvio Piola by no less an authority than the infamous Gianni Brera.

And of course he is the last man to score a hat-trick in a European Cup final. His set of skills were demonstrated ably by the three goals he scored. His first on seven minutes a powerful head from ten yards out as he meets a Sormani cross. The second and third goals showing his intelligence, positioning and most of all his on-field connection with Rivera. The second shows Rivera in possession with Prati feinting as if to head for the left touchline, before quickly changing direction, losing his nominal marker Barry Hulshoff to take possession off a delicious Rivera back-heel. Now finding himself in acres of space 20 yards from goal he lets fly with a right foot rocket into the Ajax net just before the end of the half. The final goal sees Rivera in possession again, sending Ajax defenders one way and the other as he waits for support to arrive, charging through the centre comes Prati, Rivera deftly chips in a cross right onto his forehead as he heads home from six yards to seal a 4-1 victory over a side that will dominate the early 70s.

Milan celebrate their European Cup victory in 1969

On an island in the sun – UD Lanzarote

Posted on January 16, 2016 by gerrytastic

As any League of Ireland fan knows we have one of the longest football off-seasons anywhere in Europe. The last game of the season was the FAI Cup Final won by Dundalk FC on the 8th November 2015 and the new season won’t kick off again until March 4th 2016. It’s a long gap between live football matches, especially as a I missed a few of Bohs later fixtures last year.

This lacuna in live football got me to reminiscing about this time last year when I was able to get away for some winter sun in the Canary Islands, specifically Lanzarote. It was the first time I’d gone away to the sun at that time of year but I’d heartily recommend it. It was something to look forward to after the inevitable post-Christmas comedown and it broke up the drudgery of bleak, dark January evenings.

Any time I get away I try to catch a game, or if it’s the off season even just visit the local stadium. I dropped by to see a game between UD Lanzarote and UD Telde from the neighbouring island of Gran Canaria. Both teams play in the regionalised Tercera division which is officially the fourth tier of the Spanish football pyramid and is split into 18 different regional groups. The Canary Island teams feature in Group 12.

The match was played in the local municipal sports ground, the Ciudad Deportiva de Lanzarote in the main city of Arrecife. In keeping with the rest of the architecture on the island it is low-rise and whitewashed collection of buildings, and has a running track surrounding the pitch. The capacity is listed at around 6,000 with most accommodated in a main stand opposite the primary entrance to the ground. The entrance fee was a modest €5.

On the day there were may 700-800 supporters present, I was trying to get a handle on the make-up of the support, there seemed to be a few tourists like myself, some ex-pat British and Irish who’d probably retired to the sun and a fair number of local Canarians, one of whom, a somewhat older, man was highly vocal and had a habit of banging the advertising hoarding for the slightest of reasons. I know that a lot of the marketing and promotion of the club is done by an English ex-pat named Ian Lane and he was to be found running the Lanzarote club shop at half-time. This consisted of a patio table selling jerseys, scarves and other souvenirs along by the track (there is a good interview with Ian in issue 6 of the Football Pink by the way). Nearby was a red food and drinks kiosk that did up some tasty fried pork sandwiches and some ice cold beer, which thankfully you could take back to the shade of the stand. Despite this generous concession there was no mass drunken uproar in the stands for the beginning of the second half, just a thought.

As for the level of football, that’s a hard call. It reminded me quite a bit of League of Ireland standard, a certain mix of players, some obviously playing at the very height of their ability and the handful of players of certain quality probably wondering how they ended up playing at this level. However, there were some serious defensive lapses and the quality of goalkeeping from both sides was especially poor. There was a midfielder lining out for Lanzarote who particularly looked the part, a constant attacking threat, he was hard to miss with his Fellaini-like mop of hair. The game ended 2-2 and there were some lovely moments of skill and two cracking goals from distance.

It’s now the middle of January, the heat is on in the house, there’s ice on the ground and no live senior football in Dublin. This year I’ll be off to the home island of UD Telde, Gran Canaria, and hopefully to catch a La Liga game featuring the islands’ only top flight side Las Palmas. I can’t wait.

Football, revolutionaries and my great-grandfather – 1916 and all that

Posted on January 4, 2016 by gerrytastic

We’ve only begun the year of commemorations and there has already been a great deal written about the various organisations, groupings and competing actors around the dramatic events of Easter 1916. In much of nationalist history there is a huge role played by sport in the recruitment and training of the Volunteers, this is something often celebrated by the GAA and is born testament to in the naming of stadiums and club teams around the county.

This involvement with the nationalist cause was not limited only to the sphere of Gaelic games. Despite its occasional portrayal as a “Garrison Game” many individuals who were actively involved with football clubs also became key players in the struggle for independence. Among them were family members of my own.

In doing some family tree research I’ve started looking into the history and background of some of the relatives on my Da’s side of the family, people I was vaguely aware of but who by and large had died before I was born. This trail has brought me to a few individuals, my great-grandfather Thomas Kieran (occasionally spelled Kiernan) his sister Brigid and her husband , my great-uncle, Peadar Halpin.

At this point I must state that I do indeed have some non-Dublin blood in my veins, not much mind, but both Thomas and Peadar were from Co. Louth. Peadar would come to prominence due to his association with Dundalk FC and the FAI. He was a founder member of the club and spent decades on the management committee of Dundalk FC and was also club President. He also served as Chairman of the FAI’s international affairs committee and President of the League of Ireland and also Chairman of the FAI Council.

Football in Dundalk, in a somewhat disorganised fashion could be found as far back as the late 19th Century and some of the impetus given to the game in the early 20th Century can be traced back to a Dundalk architect named Vincent J. O’Connell. He had played for scratch teams in the town in his youth and had been a member of Bohemian FC between 1902 and 1907 during a sojourn in Dublin. Upon his return north he set about working with others to bring some structure to the playing of the association game in the town. The club we know today as Dundalk FC began life as Dundalk GNR, the GNR standing for Great Northern Railway, and they spent a number of years in junior football before being elected to the League of Ireland in the 1926-27 season. The campaign for election to the league as well as the eventual re-branding of the club to Dundalk FC was apparently the result of the machinations of a group of local football enthusiasts comprised of Peadar Halpin, Paddy McCarthy, Jack Logan, Paddy Markey and Gerry Hannon. According to a report in the Irish Times the decision to change the club’s colours from black and amber to white and black was made by one Barney O’Hanlon-Kennedy who promised his silver watch as a raffle prize for a fundraiser for the club. As he was the one putting forward the funds he was given the honour of selecting the team’s colours.

That Dundalk should be so connected with the railway shouldn’t be that surprising, then as now, Dundalk was a major station between Dublin and Belfast, even if the creation of the border did cause disruption. My great-grandfather Thomas Kieran (born in 1889, son of Patrick and Annie Kieran) was a worker for the railway, at the time of the 1911 census when he was 22 years old and residing in the family home of 14 Vincent Avenue in Dundalk (five minutes from the train station). He was listed as being an “engine fitter”, while his father Patrick was a carpenter for the railway as well. Later reports show that Patrick was also involved with the union (the Irish Vehicle builders and Woodworkers Union) and was among the workers representatives when a strike was threatened in 1932. The census also reveals that of the family of five both Thomas and his sister Brigid spoke Irish.

House in Vincent Avenue today, they were build c.1880

Republican roots, what the records say…

When searching through the Bureau of Military history records I came across a number of references to the Kieran family. One referred to the family as a “Volunteer family….railway people”. This came from the witness statement of Muriel MacSwiney, the wife of future TD and Lord Mayor of Cork, Terence MacSwiney who stayed with the Kieran family during one of Terence’s frequent bouts of imprisonment. This is confirmed by the witness statement of another local Volunteer James McGuill who referred directly to Brigid saying that Muriel MacSwiney “stayed in Dundalk with Miss Kieran now Mrs. Peadar Halpin.”

Muriel MacSwiney

On a slight digression Muriel MacSwiney was a fascinating woman, born Muriel Murphy, her family owned the Midleton Distillery and they were firmly against her marriage to Terence MacSwiney and even tried to get the Bishop of Cork to intervene to delay it. As a footnote that will become relevant later, the best man at their wedding was Richard Mulcahy the future Chief of Staff of the IRA, Minister for Defence during the Civil War and later still, leader of Fine Gael. Terence was in and out of various gaols during the course of his short marriage with Muriel, he would be dead by 1920 at the age of just 41, wasting away on hunger strike in Brixton Jail. The impact his death had on the wider world is probably comparable to that of Bobby Sands six decades later. MacSwiney was viewed by many as a martyr in a fight against Imperialism and was cited as an influence by Mahatma Gandhi as well as India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

Apart from providing lodgings for Muriel MacSwiney it’s worth looking at what else the Halpins and Kieran’s were up to at this turbulent time. Thomas Kieran is mentioned again the the Bureau of Military History. In the witness statement of Patrick McHugh, Operational Commander and Lieutenant of the Irish Volunteers in Dundalk during Easter week 1916 listed Thomas Kieran among those “who served Easter Sunday 23rd April 1916, remained with company that day and, volunteered to return home when uncertainty of position was explained to them. Some returning Sunday night, others Monday morning or as Stated.” Interestingly Thomas is already listed as living in Dublin by this stage while most of those mentioned were still living in Dundalk. Peter Kieran (a possible relation?) another Dundalk based Volunteer declared in his witness statement that Thomas Kieran was among a group of Volunteers who had arranged to meet on the night of Thursday 20th April with plans to make their way to Dublin to join the rest of the Volunteers in the Rising. They had elaborate plans to get there via motor boat but were warned that the Royal Navy had vessels patrolling the area.

The plans for the Thursday journey to Dublin was called off and the group met again on Friday and Saturday night, however word came that the Rising was off, probably a reference to Eoin MacNeill’s order cancelling the Rising, which obviously had a significant impact on the numbers of those who arrived in Dublin. Peter Kieran went on to state that about the second week in May arrests were made in the town by the RIC. The family version of the story that I’ve been told was that Thomas was one of those arrested while cycling his bike with a rifle on his back and that he was later interned!

Peter Kieran in his statement also noted that “Those who served 23rd, 24th and 25th April 1916 and became disconnected, were ordered home on account of age, infirmity or as stated. [included] Peter Halpenny or Halpin [of] Byrnes Row Dundalk” Although it is hard to be absolutely certain this Peter Halpin could well be our Peadar Halpin, he was listed as Peter on the earlier census return. There is also a record of a P. Halpin from Byrne’s Row who was arrested a couple of weeks after the Rising and sent to Stafford Detention Barracks in England on 8 May 1916. There are other references in other sources to a P. Halpin of Byrne’s/Burn’s Row being arrested and sent to Stafford.

In searching the medal rolls for this issued the 1917-21 Service Medal both Peadar and Brigid appear. Both were issued the medal, Brigid in 1943 and Peadar in 1951. Her deposition states that Brigid was a member of Cumann na mBan from before the Rising. She was involved in dispatch work, fundraising for the purchase of arms, did election work for local candidates and visited republican prisoners. Peadar in his deposition states he was a member of “A” company of the 4th Northern Division of the IRA and that his involvement also predated the Rising, going back to 1915. It doesn’t however, detail individual operations of which he was part.

Patrick McHugh (who we encountered above) managed to escape arrest although he was interrogated by RIC men just after the Rising. He then moved up to Dublin to stay with his sister on Iona Road for a short time until he “got in touch with friends Tom Kieran and his wife [the granny Kiernan], who had a room in Mountjoy Street.” It seems that Thomas Kieran had moved to Dublin sometime between 1911 and 1916. I know he ended up working in the CIE engineering works in Inchicore for many more years. He obviously met Jane Brennan (2 years his junior) when he moved to Dublin, she had been living on Dominick Street Upper at the time.

The house at 27 Blessington Street, just off Mountjoy Street, where the Kierans lived.

Peadar was born in 1895 and grew up in Stockwell Lane, Drogheda. He trained as a cooper, (the trade of his father John) before moving to Dundalk to work in the Macardle Moore Brewery where he later became the foreman cooper. It is interesting to note that his wife Brigid was 12 years his senior. He came from something of a Republican family and a street (Halpin Terrace) in Drogheda bears the family name. This street has something of a tragic history to it as it was named after Peadar’s younger brother Thomas, who was killed there by the Black and Tans in February 1921. At the time Thomas was an Alderman of the local Corporation representing the Sinn Féin party. Thomas Halpin, along with another man, John Moran were abducted from their homes and brought to the local West Gate barracks where they were brutally beaten. They were then dragged to a third man`s home, that of a Thomas Grogan whose house was also raided but fortunately Grogan had been tipped off and had made his escape before the Tans arrival. It was at this spot that Thomas Halpin and John Moran were murdered, their bloodied bodies being discovered there the following morning. Each year the local Council commemorates this event and a monument now stands at the site of the men’s murder.

Commemorations for Alderman Thomas Halpin & Captain John Moran in 2014

Footballing connections; all roads lead to Bohs

Thomas, is something of a family name, Peader’s brother Thomas was tragically killed and Peadar would name a son of his as Thomas, perhaps in tribute to his murdered sibling. Thomas Kieran would also have a son named Thomas and there is an interesting football overlap as both of these men named Thomas would have a part to play in the history of Bohemian FC.

Peadar’s son Tom lined out for Dundalk in the early 40s before moving to Bohemians in 1947. He featured prominently in Bohs run to that season’s FAI Cup Final where he was part of a team that defeated Drumcondra FC, Shelbourne in the semi-final (where Halpin scored a penalty) and took on a highly talented Cork United side in the final. Cork United had been the dominant team of the 1940s and had already won five league titles by the time they took on Bohemians in front of over 20,000 fans at Dalymount Park on April 20th 1947. The Leesiders were the strong favourites. Bohs were at an added disadvantage as two of their key, experienced defenders (Snell and Richardson) were out injured. Halpin was playing at right half and spent most of his time trying to counteract the attacking threat of Cork’s forward line which included Irish internationals like Tommy Moroney and Owen Madden.

The Bohemian team from the 1947 final

Bohs were already 2-0 down before 30 minutes were on the clock but Mick O’Flanagan managed to pull one back before Halpin scored a penalty after Frank Morris was fouled in the box. The game finished 2-2 and went to a replay four days later. In a howling gale and lashing rain Bohs lost out in the replay in front of barely 5,500 people with the Munstermen winning 2-0.

Tom Kieran’s connection with Bohemians was a very long one, a referee for decades, including at League of Ireland level in the 1960s. The uncle Tom was a member of Bohemians since 1969 and was Vice-President of the club from 1985 to 2000 and was later made an Honorary Vice-President for life. Tom’s daughter Susan and her husband Dominic are of course still very familiar faces down at Dalymount to this day.

The uncle Tom as photographed for an Evening Herald profile in Dalymount Park

There are further remarkable connections with the Halpin family and with Dundalk and Bohemians as Thomas Halpin’s grandson; Peter was the Commercial Manager at both Dundalk FC and Bohemian FC as well as having a spell with Belfast club Glentoran.

Despite these many connections with the beautiful game the strongest and most influential roles in Irish football were undoubtedly held by Peadar Halpin. He was on the committee of Dundalk FC since at least 1926 and had two spells as Club Chairman from 1928-1941 and 1951-1965 and in 1966 he was appointed Club President, a position he was re-elected to in 1973. He also held a number of roles for the FAI, he was Chairman from 1956-1958 and had many years previous experience on various FAI committees and had made an unsuccessful attempt at arranging UEFA mediation to help resolve the long-running schism between the FAI and the IFA. At the age of 70 he was elected as President of the League of Ireland, it was a role he hadn’t been expecting to fill but after the Dundalk rep Joe McGrath became ill Peadar was the only member of the Dundalk committee with sufficient experience to take on the role. While the FAI and League of Ireland have (with good reason) been seen as conservative and at times backward there were a number of advances that took place during his tenure. It was the Dundalk committee that suggested the introduction of the B division which would eventually lead to the creation of the First Division as well as overseeing the admittance of new clubs to the League of Ireland. On a local level he was crucially involved with the development of Dundalk FC as a force within the League of Ireland, at present they are the second most successful side in Irish club football with 11 League titles and 10 FAI Cups. He claimed that of the many successful years that Dundalk enjoyed his favourite was 1942 when Dundalk beat Cork United 3-1 in the FAI Cup final and Shamrock Rovers 1-0 in the Inter City Cup.

Mattie Clarke in action for Dundalk in the 1950s as featured in the Irish Times

A potential politician?

Despite this extremely long connection with Dundalk FC the earliest reference to his involvement was in 1926. Prior to that we know that he was working as a foreman cooper in the Macardle Moore Brewery but in March 1923 his name appears in a debate in Dáil Éireann when his local TD Cathal O’Shannon raised a question on his behalf with the then Minister for Defence, General Richard Mulcahy. This is the same Richard Mulcahy who had performed best man duties at the wedding of Terence MacSwiney and Muriel Murphy who the Halpin’s would later shelter. It is testament to the divisiveness of the Civil War that such former allies could be so opposed.

O’Shannon had been elected TD for Louth-Meath in 1922 as a member of the Labour Party and was a supporter of the Treaty of 1921 which had officially led to the partition of Ireland. Mulcahy as Minster for Defence was a highly controversial figure for some as it was he who gave the order for 77 executions during the Civil War. The content of O’Shannon’s query was a request for an update on the status of Peadar Halpin and the likelihood of his release from Newbridge Barracks where he had been held since August 1922. Mulcahy replied that “Mr. Halpin was arrested for aiding and abetting Irregulars during the time of their occupation of Dundalk. It is not considered advisable to release him at present”, he further added that Peadar was not to be allowed send or receive letters.

As for what “aiding and abetting the Irregulars” referred to, the most likely answer given the fact that Peadar was arrested in August 1922 in Dundalk was that he was involved in assisting the anti-Treaty IRA (or “Irregulars”) in their attack on Dundalk on August 16th 1922. During this attack, led by future Tánaiste Frank Aiken, the anti- Treaty forces captured the town, freed over 200 prisoners held in the barracks and also took over 400 rifles. Rather than try to hold their position the town was re-taken the following day by Free State forces. In all the attack on Dundalk cost the lives of six Free State soldiers and one officer as well as the lives of two of the “Irregulars”. It is not clear what assistance Peadar provided during this time but it was obviously significant enough to warrant him being held in gaol for months without charge.

Family recollections of Jane Kieran née Brennan, the wife of Thomas Kieran are fairly clear on her views on Mulcahy and Cumann na nGaedheal, she put it bluntly and succinctly, saying “they cut the old age pension and they shot them in pairs”. It was not to be the last connection between Peadar and Cathal O’Shannon or Frank Aiken for that matter as the below excerpt shows.

From the Irish Times April 29th 1927

Cathal O’Shannon stood in the new Meath constituency in the first general election of 1927 and in his absence as the Labour candidate it was proposed that Peadar should run. Among his competition would have been the man he likely assisted during the Civil War, Frank Aiken. However as is the cross that left-wing politics must bear, there was a split, those who proposed Peadar as a candidate were not successful in securing his nomination and Thomas O’Hanlon and Michael Connor ran, unsuccessfully, for the Labour Party. As another of my many side notes, Cathal O’Shannon was unsuccessful in gaining election in 1927 however he later became the first Secretary of the Congress of Irish Unions in 1945, the last president of this Congress was one Terence Farrell, head of the Irish Bookbinders and Allied Trades Union. His nephew Gerard, after whom I’m named, married Nancy Kieran which brings together the Farrell and Kieran clans. Their eldest son was my Da, Leo and as many in the family will know he played for Bohs in the early 60s.

Anyone who has read this blog regularly will know that I often try to look at life and history through the prism of football. Of particular interest is the role that “soccer men” played in the Rising and subsequent War of Independence and Civil War. This is probably the most personal post as I’ve tried to do the same with my own family and their involvement with the nationalist movement. There are many stories that I would love to include but haven’t but would appreciate any feedback or additional information from family members. I hope that this could be the first in a series of posts that might be of interest or maybe just a first draft of something more extensive, there were certainly enough stories told at uncle Joe’s funeral to fill a book, but I hope this might be a start.

With a special thanks to Jim Murphy, Dundalk FC historian for his assistance with some of the research for this piece.

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