DCC commemorative plaques: Shelbourne F.C.

On Friday, 4th September 2015, a Dublin City Council plaque commemorating the founding of Shelbourne Football Club was unveiled in Dublin 4.

The plaque is located outside Slattery’s Public House (at the junction of Shelbourne Road and Bath Avenue) and was unveiled by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Críona Ní Dhálaigh, and Chairman of Shelbourne Football Club, Joe Casey, with the ceremony hosted by broadcaster Ray Kennedy. Also in attendance were Kevin Humphreys T.D, Minister of State at the Department of Social Protection, local councillor Paddy McCartan, and members and supporters of Shelbourne Football Club.

It is widely believed that it was in Slattery’s (then known as Nolan’s) that a group of young men who lived in the Bath Avenue area of southeast inner-city Dublin founded Shelbourne F.C in 1895. Spurred on by successful local performances during the next two years, Shelbourne joined the senior ranks of Irish football in 1897, and in 1905 became professional.

Based at Drumcondra’s Tolka Park since 1989, Shelbourne have won the League of Ireland (of which they were a founding member in 1921) championship thirteen times and are one of only three teams to have won both the Irish Football Association Cup and the Football Association of Ireland Cup.

Those wishing to learn more about the history of one of Ireland’s oldest football teams should consult Christopher Sands’s book Shels. A Grand Old Team to Know. A History of Shelbourne Football Club since 1895 (Dublin, 2016). You can also watch the presentation below by Dr James Curry, Dublin City Council historian in residence, which is part of a Plaques of Dublin online lecture series. Submitted by Historian in Residence, James Curry.