Luke Kelly takes the biscuit
Raised on songs & stories Heroes of renown/
The passing tales & glories that once was DublinTown
The opening lines of “Dublin in the rare ould times” are a distillation of nostalgia at its purest for many Dubliners. The Pete St. John song found fame on the ballad circuit of the 1970’s and for my money the definitive version of the song will always be the Dubliners’ version with Luke Kelly on lead vocals. This song appeared on The Dubliners 1979 release “Together Again”, it marked the return to the band of Ronnie Drew and it would be the last album to feature Luke Kelly who would pass away less than 5 years later.
A rousing version of the song was performed in January of last year by Damien Dempsey accompanied by Kelly’s former bandmate John Sheahan on South King Street, a short walk from Grafton Street and Merrion Row and many venues that were home to performances by the Dubliners during the so-called “ballad boom”. This performance coincided with the 35th anniversary of Kelly’s death, aged just 43, but more positively it also announded the unveiling of a new bronze statue of the troubador and activist.
The unveiing of two pieces of public art celebrating the life and work of Luke Kelly provoked much fond reminiscence of him by friends and family, one area of his life that was discussed in detail was Luke’s love of football which was detailed in an excellent piece by David Sneyd in the Irish Mail on Sunday. The article had mentioned Kelly’s time as a schoolboy when he lined out for the famous Home Farm club, playing alongside future League of Ireland legend Billy Dixon.
It also mentioned the playing career of his father, Luke Kelly Senior who played in the League of Ireland for Jacob’s F.C. In a piece for the “Lost Clubs” series on this website I focused on the history of Jacobs and in the course of my research had come across Luke Kelly Senior. A talented half-back or “pivot” in the Jacob’s teams of the late 1920’s. Reports at the time describe him as a “tireless worker” , a “typical tackler and spoiler” and “most consistent”, though he was mentioned as being a shade on the small side. He was however, no brutal hatchet man, plenty of reports mention his range of passing and ability to switch the play and begin attacks.
The “pivot” role so commonly ascribed to him was one which had developed as part of the old 2-3-5 formation. The “centre-half” was not yet a central defender, but played in a more advanced role as an instigator of attacking play who could also drop back and assist in defensive areas. Hence he functioned as the “pivot” between defence and attack. This would change gradually over the 1920s, especially after Arsenal had success with withdrawing a centre-half into a more definsive position of a third defended, helping create what became known as the W-M formation.
Luke Senior was born on 1st September 1904 in Ryan’s Cottages on Marlborough Place in Dublin’s north inner-city. He was the son of Paddy and Christina Kelly who had been married nearby in Dublin’s Pro-Cathedral in 1898. Paddy Kelly had been born in Bealnamulla, Co. Roscommon just outside Athlone back in 1867, he in turn was the son of another Luke Kelly also from Bealnamulla. Luke Sr. married Julie Fleming in September of 1934 in St. Laurence O’Toole’s church which sits next to Sheriff Street, a part of the city to be forever associated with his son, Luke Kelly the singer who was born nearby in 1 Lattimore Cottages, Sheriff Street less than six years later.
Football was obviously deeply engrained in Luke Kelly Sr. from an early age, in an interview many years later when his son was at the height of his fame, he remembered playing football in Fairview Park when he and his pals spotted a brigade of the Scottish Borderers marching towards the city. Kelly recalled in the Irish Independent that he and his friends followed them all the way into the city, jeering at them and throwing stones.
What the young Kelly did not realise then was that the Scottish Borderers regiment had been called into the city centre on serious businesses. Earlier that day the Irish Volunteers had taken possession of a cache of weapons brough by boat into Howth harbour and which were en route to the city. The Dublin Metropolitan Police had been ordered to confront the Volunteers but many would have had sympathy with the Nationalist cause.
As prominent Irish Volunteer and IRB member Bulmer Hobson noted “A considerable number of the police did not move and disobeyed the order, while the remainder made a rush for the front Company of the Volunteers and a free fight ensued, in which clubbed rifles and batons were freely used. This fight lasted probably less than a minute, when the police withdrew to the footpath of their own accord and without orders.”
As a result the Borderers were sent to disarm the Volunteers, they also failed in this task and eventually a growing crowd stoned and jeered them as they marched back to Richmond Barracks along the Dublin quays. The troops opened fire on this taunting crowd on Bachelor’s Walk, killing three bystanders and injuring 37, including a 9 year old Luke Kelly as the youngest victim.
Kelly was shot in the back and a priest was called to administer to him as the staff in the nearby Jervis Hospital feared for his life. However Kelly was lucky and made a full recovery. A photo of him in his hospital bed even appeared in an edition of the Irish Independent a few days after the attack.
Photo taken from the Irish Independent July 28th 1914: Luke Kelly, a little schoolboy, a victim of the Borderers fusilade, in a ward in Jervis Street hospital
Kelly joined the Jacobs factory as an employee at the age of 16 and continued working for them for 46 years, until his passing in 1966. During his time with Jacobs he was an accomplished athlete, he ultimately played seven seasons in the League of Ireland with Jacobs, and although at one stage he was linked with a move to Fordsons in Cork, he remained with the Biscuitmen as a player even after they dropped out of the League of Ireland and returned to the Leinster Senior League.
Though Jacobs struggled for much of Kelly’s time as a player there are numerous reports that mention Kelly as their stand-out individual performer. Such was the high regard in which he was held as a player he was also selected to play in a number of high profile friendly matches, such as a charity game in aid of St. Vincent de Paul at Christmas 1927 as well as being picked to play for Shelbourne as a guest in a benefit match against Linfield for their star player, the Irish international, Val Harris.
Jacobs were justifiably proud of the sporting achievements of their employees, apart from a football team they also constructed a swimming pool for employees, based on the example of a pool built by Heinz for their workers in Pittsburgh. Kelly was also an able swimmer, though it did get him into trouble on one occasion. In May 1932 Luke Kelly senior (then aged 27) was arrested by a Garda Burns and charged with attempted suicide by drowning in the River Liffey.
Kelly’s defence to this charge was that he had been out with friends for a drink on Sunday and after some significant alcohol consumption a bet was proposed as to whether Kelly could swim across the Liffey from Custom House Quay. As part of Kelly’s defence it was stated that he was an excellent swimmer as evidenced by the fact that although he was wearing a hat at the time it had remained dry throughout. The Judge at the hearing of the case let Kelly off on the condition that he took the pledge and kept the peace.
To return to the opening lines of this piece, the words of Pete St. John as sung by Luke Kelly, it always struck me that they apply equally well to how we hear about football and its players when we are young, father’s, olders siblings, relations and bar-room bores regaling youngsters about scarcely believeable feats of skill from years gone by. Luke Kelly Senior was a friend of John Giles’ father Dickie and one can imagine that both Luke and John heard many romanticised tales from their respective fathers about their exploits on and off the field.
Raised on songs & stories Heroes of renown/
The passing tales & glories…
A Bohemian Sporting Life 