The Bohemian Football Club transcript

The following is a transcript of a talk by Ciarán Priestley on the history of Bohemian Football Club, spanning the founding of the club in 1890, some of the club's influential players and matches and the how the history of one of Dublin's most influential clubs is connected with both the history of the city and the history of soccer in Ireland. The talk was part of the Sport and the City Seminar held in Dublin City Library and Archive on 11th September, 2010. Listen to the lecture

Welcome to the Dublin City Public Libraries and Archive Podcast. In this episode, Ciarán Priestley outlines the history of Dublin’s Bohemian Football Club, looking at influential players, club rivalries and key games, since the club’s foundation in 1890. Recorded in front of a live audience at Dublin City Library and Archive, Pearse Street on 11 September 2010, as part of the Sport and the City Seminar.

The thirty years between the death of Parnell and the signing of the Anglo-Irish treaty in 1921 flashed with more brilliance, and, at the same time, were riddled with more disappointment, than any comparable era in our history.

Professor Donal Mc Cartney, University College Dublin

Thank-you very much. Thanks to Ellen for her assistance there and not only that for the invitation to speak here today and to give me the opportunity to present this research, which as I mentioned is something that I am trying to run at the same time as studying my PhD research. But it’s something that for me is of great interest and probably has facilitated the research. I should thank the IRCHSS who is acknowledged here at the bottom [of the PowerPoint presentation]. I am in receipt of a grant for my PhD research and while this isn’t directly funded by them it was almost done on their time, so I should recognise them. They may not thank me for the title.

So I’ll start with the – if we look this is one of the first Bohemians teams that played in the Phoenix Park. The 120th anniversary is officially 7th September of this month (2010) so it was celebrated on Thursday night, not on the exact date at Dalymount with a small get together where this research was presented. So I’ll start…

When a small group of aspiring footballers from Bells Academy, a civil service college in North Great Georges Street, joined with students from the Hibernian Military School at the Gate Lodge in the Phoenix Park on 6 September 1890, they formed a club to partake in the fledgling Dublin scene of Association football. The origins of this meeting at the North Circular Road entrance at the Phoenix Park lie in the establishment of Richfield Sports Club on 19 October 1899. This club had emerged from the playing of ‘association football’ at Bells Academy and the need to accommodate participants from outside the college in the organisation of the game. Andrew Philip Magill and Hamilton Paul Bell were appointed Honorary Secretary and Treasurer of the Richfield club respectively. Census records show Magill and Bell to have been aged eighteen and seventeen at the time of the inaugural meeting of Bohemian F.C. Both were born in Dublin, Magill was the Protestant son of a Swiss mother and Bell was a Roman Catholic who claimed proficiency in the Irish language. And Andrew Magill is someone I’ll come back to a little later on.

The Dublin Association Football Club had been formed in November 1883, and appears to have been the first in the city. The report of the club’s first game noted that only twelve men turned up to take part, including a bearded, pipe-smoking goalkeeper. The first inter-club match in Dublin was played between this club and a new one at Dublin University later that year. Dublin Association beat their university counterparts by four goals to nil on that occasion. From 1885, Castleknock College appears to have been an early patron of the sport. Clongowes Wood College adopted the game within a decade and many of those who founded Bohemian Football Club and the important club at Dublin University were past pupils of either school.

It is difficult to ascertain the precise inspiration behind the adaptation of the name ‘Bohemians’ as the most suitable for the new club. Certainly, the term ‘Bohemian’ was often used in the contemporary parlance of Dublin culture and society, as was mentioned the theatre seems to have been an influence there as well because ‘The Bohemian Girl’ by Balfe was the most popular opera and this seems to have received kind of constant cultural references. I notice theatre and sport have crossed over a lot today. E.J. O’ Mahony, in the Bohemian Football Club: Golden Jubilee Souvenir published in 1940, credited Frank Whittaker with a humorous speech during which he proposed the name Bohemians because the player’s wanderings in search of a suitable meeting places and playing venues reminded one of a bunch of ‘Tinkers’, and they ‘indeed were truly Bohemian in spirit’. The club were subsequently to wander from the Phoenix Park to Jones Road in 1893 before moving to Whitehall, Glasnevin in 1895 where they played until their permanent move to Dalymount, Phibsboro (in 1901) in a common ground that was colloquially known as the ‘Pisser Dignam’s Field’. The club nickname ‘the gypsies’ has proved an enduring legacy of these nomadic origins, despite the club spending over a century at their permanent home at Dalymount Park. Whittaker later qualified as a doctor, before entering the Order of St. John of God where he became known by his religious name, the Rev. Frances de Sales, after a long and distinguished service to the club. The first appointed Chairman of the club was Alex Blayney, a twenty-year-old Roman Catholic medical student from County Antrim. Blayney later graduated from his studies with a first class degree and was appointed as professor of Biology at Cecilia Street medical school and assistant surgeon at the Mater Hospital soon after. By 1904, he had become a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons and been appointed full surgeon to the Mater Hospital and Assistant Professor of Medicine at U.C.D. Twenty year old Dudley Hussey held the position of Honorary Secretary and Frank Whittaker was as we mentioned earlier on became Honorary Treasurer. These are the respective people that I mentioned Frank Whittaker and Dudley Hussey in their earlier days and then older. These were published roughly in the Golden Jubilee of the club, the top pictures, so they had achieved their relative positions then.

Ireland’s elected M.P.s had taken their seats at the parliament at Westminster, London since the passing of the Act of Union in 1800. In Dublin, the loss of the Irish Parliament at College Green was keenly felt in the civic, social and economic life of the city. The Irish Parliamentary Party had made considerable progress in their campaign for ‘Home Rule’ and the return of political autonomy to Ireland. This was due, in no small part, to the charismatic and dynamic leadership of Charles Stewart Parnell. The legacy of Parnell’s demise casts a lingering, emotive and poignant shadow over the period covered in this research. The political vacuum which followed this event instigated a flurry of influences, innovations and ideologists to articulate their vision for the future of Ireland. It was in this environment, in the year before Parnell’s death that the Bohemian Club took to the field for the first time to play football for the first time. The starting line up of their earliest encounters indicated a complete cross over in terms of administrative and playing members at this time. It also illustrated the young age profile of Bohemians as the club president, treasurer and chairman all took to the field to play Dublin University in one of their early ties. So this again is the early photograph that we had. I also notice some crossover of names with the Maids of the Mountain, which I don’t know, maybe there are personal stories that intersect.



The Leinster Football Association was formed in October 1892 at the Wicklow Hotel on Exchequer Street. The organisation was affiliated to the Irish Football Association in Belfast and sought to organise formal competitions in the province under the auspices of the national body. Despite the comparative strength of the sport in Belfast, it was the game of ‘rugby football’ which was most popular in Dublin at that time. Indeed, the term ‘football’ was always made in reference to the ‘rugby’ game in the local press. Dudley Hussey was appointed as the first Honorary Secretary to the association. According to the 1911 Census, Hussey was twenty years of age when he assumed this position. A Roman Catholic who was born in England, he was to become a clerk in the Department of Agriculture and was married to Mary, from County Cork. They had four children at the time of the Census in 1911. Hussey would eventually achieve the position of principal officer at the Department of Agriculture. His fellow Civil Servant, A.P. Magill, was to embark upon an ambitious career which saw him move to Westminster by 1913 to serve as private secretary to Augustine Birell, the Chief Secretary for Ireland. Following partition in 1921, Magill was instrumental in establishing the new government in Northern Ireland and was eventually to serve as Assistant Secretary for Home Affairs. In his later memoirs, he recorded what he described as a ‘positive nostalgia’ for Dublin and the Phoenix Park in particular, which he described as, and this is a quote ‘the only place in Dublin which comes before me in my dreams’. Alex Blayney and James Sheehan were also said to have represented Bohemians at this time.

The following month, on 25 November 1892, Douglas Hyde delivered his pivotal lecture On the Necessity of De-Anglicising the Irish People. This was, essentially, a call to cultural arms by Hyde, which sought to inspire a generation of young Irishmen to recreate a separate Irish cultural nation through a process of ‘de-anglicisation’. Crucial to this was a refusal to imitate the English in their language, literature, games, dress and ideas. The Gaelic League, founded 1893 by Douglas Hyde and Eoin MacNeill sought to take practical steps to promote the Irish language and assert Ireland’s cultural right to political autonomy.

The Gaelic Athletic Association, which was founded in Thurles in 1884, had done much to revive and organise national games in a strong rural network throughout Ireland. In many respects, the spread of the G.A.A. and the foundation of clubs such as Bohemians form an unlikely parallel in terms of channelling the energies of participation and attention to local organisations for the practise of sport. It is somewhat unfair to assume that those who participated in sport at any level or in any location were to conform so immediately and readily to the hierarchical view of their superiors in such a socially and economically unequal country.

An inter-provincial match between Leinster and Ulster took place under association rules in Belfast on 9 December 1893. Four members of the Bohemians’ squad - Robert Murray, John Blayney, Albert Wilson and Willie Sheehan were named in the starting line up alongside four players from Trinity, two from Nomads and one Montpelier. This team selection should serve as an accurate reflection of the influence exerted by the Bohemian Club in the earliest expansion of association football in Dublin. That being it was an influential role but they didn’t exclusively own the development of football. The influence of the medical profession on the early evolution of Bohemians should not be underestimated. Of the club’s earliest members, Alexander and John Blayney, Frank Whittaker, Joe Whelan, Michael O’Sullivan and George Sheehan would all later qualify as medical doctors.

The Leinster Challenge Cup Final of 1894 was contested by Bohemians and Dublin University. In addition to securing the army grounds at Sandymount, the organisers intended also to provide seating for the comfort of any ladies who wished to attend. So it’s a poor first attempt at inclusion. The first tie ending a two all draw, a replay was fixed for St Patrick’s Day 1894 at Sandymount. The preview of that game noted that six of the previous seven meetings between the two sides had ended in draws, the only victory achieved by either side was that of Dublin University in the previous year’s semi-final. On this occasion, a comprehensive 3-0 victory was recorded by Bohemians side who became the first to claim silverware in the long history of the Bohemian Football Club. The club would go on to dominate the Leinster Cup competition, winning it for the next five consecutive seasons and sharing the trophy with the Shelbourne Club alone over the next thirty years.

The start of the 1894-’95 season proved a milestone in the early history of Association football in Dublin. The Leinster Football League appears to have been constituted around this time, to compliment the Leinster F.A.’s successful Cup Competition. Still in existence today, a printed notice on 4 September 1894 edition in The Irish Times under the headline ‘Leinster Football League’ gives details of ‘a general meeting of the league [which] was held the other evening at 27 D’Olier Street’. Bohemians, Britannia, Dublin University, Leinster Nomads, Phoenix and Montpelier competed in the first year of the competition.

Bohemians defeated Dublin counterparts Montpelier by three goals to nil in the fourth round of the national Irish Challenge Cup in November 1894. This set up an exciting tie with the Glentoran club of Belfast, then holders of the Irish Football [League] title. The result of this game appears to have been clouded in some controversy, as a protest was lodged by the Belfast club with the Irish Football Association over alleged crowd interference in the game. The Referee’s opinion that and this was a quote: ‘the spectators in no way interfered with the result of the game’ was allowed to stand and all other grounds for complaint were dismissed. The exact nature of spectator interference was not alluded to. This set up a Challenge Cup Semi Final tie for Bohemians against Derry Celtic in Belfast in February 1895. The game was played at Grosvenor Park, and the Bohemian team were successful on the day. This set up for the very first time a side from Dublin was going to travel to Belfast to play in the final of the Irish Challenge Cup, which was the first time that had ever been achieved. 'The Irish Times' noted that occasion by stating:

"If anyone at the start of the season had predicted that a Dublin team would fight its way into the final of the Irish Challenge Cup, he would have been laughed at, especially in the North of Ireland. Yet this apparently impossible task has been achieved by the plucky Bohemians, and our northern friends are at the present moment much exercised in their minds by the danger of the Dublin side upsetting all tradition and taking the Irish Cup across the Boyne.

This is something that seems to crop up all the time this concept of taking the cup across the Boyne, much the way in Gaelic Football now we speak of the cup being brought across the border. So it seems to be one of these parameters that existed, certainly in Association Football."

In defeating Derry Celtic, Bohemians progressed to the Irish Challenge Cup Final where they would face the ominous task of overcoming the Linfield Club of Belfast. And this is a picture of the team from just four years before Bohemians played them, so I think it’s quite a contrast between the two sides. Arguably the most formidable football side in Ireland, Linfield had achieved the cup and league double in 891, 1892 and 1893. They had lost both titles during the 1894 season to Distillery and Glentoran respectively. When they secured the Irish Football League title for 1895, only Bohemians stood between Linfield reclaiming the double and therefore reaffirming their superiority over all other opponents in Ireland.

In local competition, Bohemians continued to exert their superiority over their closest rivals. They retained the Leinster Cup by beating Dublin University in a replayed final by three goals to one in March 1895. Bohemians prepared for the Irish Cup Final by making their first visit to Clongowes Wood College for a challenge match during the week before the game. At this time, both association and rugby football were being played at Clongowes and it was reported in the journal of the, the name escapes me, the Clongowes’ journal, the student journal that the College was the alma mater of the Bohemian club. With many former students amongst their playing ranks, the Bohemian team was ‘entertained to dinner with that lavish hospitality for which the Fathers are so justly famous’.

The Irish Challenge Cup Final of 1895 took place in Belfast at Solitude, the home ground of Cliftonville Football Club on 23 March. A heavy downpour of rain reported on the morning did not deter a reputed crowd of around 2,000 spectators who attended the final. In the early exchanges, the Bohemians forwards were credited with ‘some excellent passing’, creating several attacking moves. From a throw in, Bohemians’ forward Delaney gathered the ball and ‘sent in a low shot, which made the first goal for the visitors, amidst loud cheering’. So Bohs went one nil up early on. Somewhat shaken by conceding an early goal, the Linfield response was immediate. They soon equalised through Gankrodger, and added a second soon after. Linfield added a third goal before half-time, during which ‘the play of Morrogh, the Dublin goalkeeper, was conspicuous’. Bohemians suffered a total and historical collapse in the second half, conceding a further seven goals to Linfield in what remains a record 10-1 defeat and victory to the respective clubs. The pain of that monumental defeat was still being echoed philosophically through the club some forty five years later, as E.J. O Mahony mused that while, this is a quote, ‘the inglorious end ... represented a failure which would remain on record as long as football was football..., it was a marvellous achievement for these young Dublin players to secure the honour of being the first Dublin club to contest the final.’

The case of the 1895 Irish Cup Final illustrates the clash of cultures between the association game in Dublin and Belfast. Neal Garnham has articulated the view that the shipyards and linen mills of industrialised Belfast ensured that Association football became professionalised and commercialised to the extent that football took on the appearance of a business. The game in Dublin assumed, in large measure, a gentlemanly amateur ethos and was primarily a game for players and participation, not for professionals and paying spectators. This can be said to have been especially true for Bohemians, a club which officially retained its amateur ethos until 1969 and boasted many civil servants and medical students amongst its early membership. Professionalism was sceptically viewed by the contemporary Dublin press, a somewhat vulgar corruption of the Victorian ethos of partaking in sport for the purpose of self-improvement. Amateur clubs such as Bohemians professed a moral authority over their professional counterparts due to their purity of ethos, which was often best articulated after suffering a defeat on the field of play.

So this man is well-known, his name is inscribed on several buildings throughout Dublin and several works of literature as well. It’s Oliver St. John Gogarty, and he was one of Bohemians’ most auspicious former players, was a member of the squad by the start of the 1896/’97 season. There apparently, there seemed to be some dispute as to his registration, there’s reports that appear in the press he originally committed himself to the Freebooters Club, which were a club that played in Sandymount, so not too far from here. And he seems to have got himself out of that eventually and he managed to play two seasons with Bohemians. As a former student of Clongowes and a keen athlete in-training for a career in the medical profession, Gogarty was amongst his peers at the Bohemian Club. Gogarty became well known as a poet, an author and a Senator in the Irish Free State. He was famed for his wit and debonair attitude to life and inspired the character of ‘Buck Mulligan’ in James Joyce’s Ulysses. A deep suspicion of Buck Mulligan’s motives and intention is maintained throughout Ulysses, and this was a seemingly personal swipe by Joyce at his former friend. Interestingly enough Joyce’s family moved to St Peter’s Terrace, which is about, it’s only two houses - it’s across the road from Dalymount Park. Joyce’s mother died in the house and it was there that Joyce came back to when he was kind of commandeered by his father to come home and cut his studies short. So I don’t think he had a particularly fond memory of Phibsboro or his friend that played football in Dalymount Park, or his former friends at the time.

Bohemians retained their hold on the Leinster Senior Cup until the 1899/1900 season, when they lost in a semi final tie to Dublin rivals Shelbourne FC. For the next generation of Dublin Association footballers, it was this rivalry with Shelbourne which was to be the most contested in the capital. To a large extent, the efforts of the first generation of Bohemian’s players culminated in an Irish Cup Final at Grosvener Park, Belfast in 1900 where they narrowly lost out to Cliftonville by two goals to one. So it was a much stronger performance and I presume they felt some kind of redemption at the 10-1 defeat they suffered previously.

Bohemian’s position as pioneers of the game in Dublin, winning successive Leinster championships as they struggled to make an impact at national level reflected the challenges which faced the club at the end of this period. In many respects, they set the agenda for a thirty year sporting journey for Bohemians and secured a strong position for the club to embark upon a 120 year sporting journey which is still ongoing today. By the start of the new century, the amateur sportsmen qualified for their respective medical and civil service careers, a new generation of players began to graduate from the ranks of the reserves into the first squad. I’m not entirely sure and I can’t say for any, I can’t state categorically but I think the previous slide was a notice of the sale, which Dalymount was purchased. You see Lot no. 2. This appeared in February and by September the club had purchased the ground and were playing there. Again it’s hard to state categorically and I think it would probably involve a trip to the Registry of Deeds, which I think I’ll just leave it at that.

The most significant event in the history of Bohemian Football Club took place on 7 September 1901, when Dalymount Park was officially opened by the Lord Mayor of Dublin Mr Tim Harrington. Before a crowd of 5,000 spectators, Bohemians defeated Dublin rivals Shelbourne F.C. by four goals to two in an exhibition match. It was Harold Sloan who earned the distinction of having scored the first goal at the new ground. About this time, season tickets were made available to the public for the modest sum of five shillings. The origins of Bohemian’s association with the Phibsboro area date from this period and the nomadic club soon became a hub of community as its journey and fortunes became married to that of Dalymount Park and its regular patrons. From the outset, Bohemian’s self appointed position as moral custodians of the association code is evident in the missionary zeal with which they embarked upon the Dalymount project. High profile friendlies against Glasgow Celtic and Preston North End were organised during the first six months of Dalymount’s existence and a strategy of securing the highest standard of opponent became central to the Bohemian’s plan.

In 1902, Bohemian’s took another significant decision when it became the sole Dublin representative in the Belfast dominated Irish Football League. The difficulties faced by an amateur club travelling long distances to face superior opposition, coupled with the uncertain availability of team members due to professional commitments, ensured that Bohemians made little impact in this competition. Bohemian’s initial seasons during their twelve years of active participation in the Irish League involved a few noteworthy victories and a final position of seventh or eighth in an eight team league. The inclusion of fellow Dubliners Shelbourne F.C. to the Irish League in a professional capacity from 1904 appears to have added some impetus to their campaigns as Bohemians regularly achieved fifth place and they kind of consolidated their place as an Irish League side.

While Bohemians struggled to mount a sustained league campaign, their pedigree as a formidable cup side continued to develop. They appear to have targeted the Irish Challenge Cup as their most realistic prospect of national honours during this period, no doubt encouraged by the belief that their amateur talents could defeat professional counterparts on any one single occasion. A crowd of 6,000 spectators witnessed the first Irish Cup final to be staged at Dalymount Park as Distillery overcame Bohemians by three goals to one in 1903. Bohs had to suffer the indignity of watching Shelbourne become the first Dublin side to win the cup in 1906 when they defeated Belfast Celtic at Dalymount Park by two goals to nil. During the 1907/’08 season, Bohemians embarked upon an exhaustive, hard fought campaign to reach the Irish Cup final. Having suffered final defeats in 1895, 1900 and 1903, their route to the final in 1908 required replays in every round of the competition. As an Irish league side, Bohs entered in the second round with a tie against Glentoran in Belfast, where the concession of a last minute goal ensured that a replay was needed to secure a four goals to one victory at Dalymount Park. A two goal lead was surrendered to Linfield at Windsor Park in the quarter final before an impressive two one victory at Dalymount Park was recorded. Again they also another replay to defeat Belfast Celtic, and set up the first all-Dublin Irish Challenge Cup final in 1908 against Shelbourne again in Dalymount Park.

The stand out performance on the day was that of O’Hehir, the reserve Bohemian goalkeeper, who saved two penalties and whose performance inspired The Irish Times to comment that ‘nothing finer ... had been witnessed for a long time in Dublin’. This is an early sketch of the ground in 1907, it’s very hard to see but it appeared in the ‘Daily Mail’. It just gives a rough, anyone that is familiar with the area, with Dalymount Park would probably recognise the modern ground from that. Although noticeably St Peter’s Church doesn’t appear to be in the background, which is a very conspicuous landmark.

These are headlines taken from ‘The Sunday Independent’ from that match. And O’Hehir, the Bohemians goalkeeper, who by all accounts was drafted in at the last minute, he had been a reserve keeper and he was the stand out performer. Interestingly enough he played such a good game in the first match that the game went the following Saturday to a replay. But he was a rugby player as well, he played for Bective Rangers and he was due to play in Lansdowne Road that day against Dublin University. So it’s just interesting to think that he was playing in Dalymount one Saturday and Lansdowne Road the next. ‘The Sunday Independent’ reported on the replayed final that ‘from the opening of the gates at two o’ clock, the crowds poured in rapidly and from that hour the splendid band of [Dublin] Metropolitan Police convened things with a pleasing musical programme’. The number of spectators was said to have been noticeably smaller than the previous encounter and ‘The Freeman’s Journal’ expressed the opinion that the ‘prices of admission were considered too high’ for the occasion. This was a common complaint of the Dublin press when the Irish Football Association was responsible for selling the tickets. And this is a constant tension that existed between the IFA and the Clubs in Dublin, and I suppose within a generation they did eventually split and partition along political lines, which is why now we have the Northern Ireland and the FAI where almost every other sport has managed to keep their sporting body as one. Where the fault lies is not exactly clear.

So on the replayed final Bohemians drew blood after, drew first blood, I beg your pardon, after only eight minutes, when a Harold Sloan strike came off the upright and was finished by Dick Hooper. Hooper added a second on the half hour mark with a strike from distance that beat Reilly in the Shelbourne goal. A blistering first half display from Bohemians concluded with a goal from younger brother William Hooper, which gave his side a three goal cushion at half time. Some questionable tactics employed by Shelbourne in the second half saw several long delays in play after Bohemian’s Balfe, Thunder and O’Hehir were knocked out by their opponents. And I suppose this is in the days before substitutions as well. Incidentally I think they were clearly targeted, that’s their captain, their main striker and their goalkeeper, so I think very strategic. John Owens, who had received a caution from the London referee for his conduct, pulled one back for Shels, who ultimately failed to capitalise on their opponents beleaguered state. Bohemians finished the game strongly, which ended with a Harold Sloan strike which hit the back of the net after the final whistle, amidst reported scenes of uncontrolled celebration from players and supporters. 'The Irish Times' commented:

"No club that was ever formed in Dublin did so much to popularise and improve the game in Leinster as Bohemians, and these facts, taken into consideration with the fine performance of their cup team this season, probably accounted for the remarkable scene of enthusiasm which was witnessed at Dalymount Park on Saturday when the final whistle sounded. "

Then again are some headlines that I’ve taken ‘The Sunday Independent’ I don’t know if anyone ever goes over these things for information. ‘The Sunday Independent’ is a great visual archive, before anyone else they seemed to have etchings and headlines and visually it’s quite impressive, but their match report is quite poor really, it’s almost a forerunner to a tabloid, which I suppose it isn’t really today. But certainly if anyone is ever looking over sports history it’s an interesting archive to look at.

The next slide this was the menu from the Bohemian Football Club dinner, which took place on 25 April 1908. The cup was formally presented at a dinner I suppose we’re used to seeing things presented on the pitch. Just from studying it you’d think, you know it wouldn’t be that interesting to go into the story behind each picture but there was a resident artist obviously in the club and there is quite humorous anecdotes behind each of those cartoons so I’m sure it provided some entertainment on the night. Also the menu, and it’s quite hard to see there, it’s quite an impressive menu - five courses of the finest cuisine that Dublin had at the time – the Dolphin Hotel, which is now the Court Buildings, I can’t remember exactly what street it’s on, it’s just off George’s Street, the name of it is after escaping me.

This was the Bohemians side that won the Irish Challenge Cup in 1907-’08. So if we just consider almost the evolution of the pictures - which was presented very well in the Maids of the Mountain [talk by Hilary McDonagh] - more in terms of their understanding of the sport they probably evolved from a rag tag, the people who were sitting around a tree in the Phoenix Park.

I’ll finish with a mention of Harold Sloan, who did earn the distinction of scoring the first goal that was ever scored in Dalymount Park. And he really was the stand out, I suppose the star striker of his day. He was the middle child of three brothers in a Presbyterian family from Scribblestown, Co. Dublin. He was a civil servant by profession and married Mabel Fitzgerald sometime after 1911. They lived their married life in Blackrock, south Dublin and had one son who was born on 21 December 1913, who also named Harold. Like over 200,000 Irishmen of his generation, Sloan enlisted in the British Army during the course of the First World War. The December 1914 edition of Sport, which was a Dublin based sporting magazine, reported that Bohemians had lost up to forty playing members to the military. They were a sporting club but they were also an Association Football Club of several teams, they were quite proud of their reserve structure, which I think at one point included about five teams. So at this point in December 1914, this was at the earliest peak period of the war was when recruitment for the front was at its naively enthusiastic peak. Sloan did not enlist until 1916, not long before the insurrection at the G.P.O. in Easter of that year. He was a second Lieutenant of the Royal Garrison Artillery, 198th Siege Battalion and was killed at Combles, near the Somme in January 1917. He was thirty-seven years of age. So this picture appeared in ‘The Irish Independent’ soon after his death. I took that the picture from the Commonwealth Graves Commission and the inscription on his headstone is printed underneath. His only son, Harold jr, was said to have been a keen footballer during his school days, who concentrated on playing tennis and hockey upon entering Trinity College, where he later qualified as a surgeon. Like his father, he enlisted in the British Army upon the outbreak of international conflict and was also killed in action in 1940 while serving with the Royal Navy during the Second World War. Mabel Fitzgerald Sloan was to survive them both, having lost her husband and only son in the great conflicts of the twentieth century.

The young men who established the Bohemian Football Club would go on to lead decorated and diverse careers in the civil service, military, education, medical and legal professions and religious orders, to name but a few. It is likely that they would have taken opposing views of the great political questions of the day, given their respective life paths and choices of allegiance. Nonetheless, the spirit with which they formed, established and developed their football club made an enduring impact on the city in which they lived and the sport which they played.

This research suggests a context in which to understand the lives of those who found themselves at a crossroads in Irish history that is without an overtly political motive. The growth of Bohemian Football Club provided a unique distraction from everyday life and afforded the opportunity of channelling time and energy into a positive means of professional and personal development. It may also provide an insight into the society which changed around it.

So we have some aerial shots of Dalymount Park and the pictures just run through to where we are today.

As a sporting institution, the Bohemian Football Club has few parallels within the city of Dublin. None of its peers in the League of Ireland can claim such an influential role in shaping the early evolution of the sport in the city. It can also be said that none of Bohemian’s peers in the early 1890’s can claim to have withstood the explosion of change and the religiously tainted political revolution, of which their town stood on the brink. The Bohemian Football Club remains the most tangible link that the game of soccer in Dublin has between its earliest days and its current situation.

Thank-you

 

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