1941 – The Year A Rivalry Was Born

Every Game An Away Game by Bluebeard

(first published in the April 2011 Cork City match programme)

There is something a bit special about a Munster Derby. If it’s Limerick or Cobh, there is a little bit extra in every pass, every header, every tackle. Often times each team will have one or more players who have played for the other side. I’d imagine that the two sets of players, if time permitted, would have a great time catching up and the banter would be great between them, but when three points are on the table, there always seems to be that bit extra, the fabled 110% comes into effect – or at least as judged against the previous week’s exertions.

And perhaps this is even more the case when tonight’s guests play us. The latest of a long line of Cork teams, the inheritor of Cork City’s recently fallen mantle, and of a long line of fans that have followed Fordsons, FC, Bohemians, City, United, Athletic, Evergreen, Hibernians, Celtic, Rovers, Alberts, United again, and finally City again. While for many Waterford fans, Shamrock Rovers are traditionally the great enemy, in recent years there has been a fair development of the rivalry between the two sides. But there is history in such a rivalry between the two.

Prior to either of the two teams as they now exist, there was a fairly significant rivalry between Celtic (Waterford) and Bohs (Cork) in the Munster Senior League in the 1920s. The early years in the League were quiet enough, but things became more heated in 1940/41.

The League that year was seen as a fairly open race, partly due to the effect of the Emergency on teams. Waterford got off to a roaring start, but defeat against Brideville in January showed a first chink of fallibility. Cork played much lauded football, and also were at the top of the table for much of the season. Shamrock Rovers were there or thereabouts for a length, but it was soon to be a two horse race.

Waterford dropped stupid points – losing both games to lowly Brideville, one to the scarcely better Drums, and drawing at home to a poor Shels team. Despite this they beat Cork at the Mardyke, and walloped them 4-0 in Kilcohan early in the season. Cork were one of many teams hammered by Waterford – indeed only Brideville and Shels failed to concede 3 in a game to the Blues.

The Cup saw more of the same. The Blues destroyed Limerick away, and then battled through three tough games to top Shamrock Rovers in the semi-final. The final was set to be an all Munster affair for the first time, and it looked certain that the League would also go the same direction.

In a time when petrol and coal were in short supply, and most could not travel far or easily, over 30,000 paid in to see a 2-2 draw on the 20th of April. It was considered a poor game, the country’s two “scientific” sides both thought to have let the occasion get to them. Cork were said to have been well within themselves until the end, while Waterford on one occasion had four different players fail to net the ball, until a Cork defender clearly punched the ball away, though fortunately for him, the ref was unsighted. The replay, three days later in front of 15,000, proved more decisive, though in Cork’s favour, ending 3-1 after each team had a man sent off.

League action resumed and Waterford beat Rovers and Bray to go level at the top at the season’s end. Waterford were ahead on goal difference, and would have won outright under three points for a win, while Cork led on goal average. Well, as it is the League of Ireland, none of this was to be used to separate level teams, so a “test match” was decreed, and set for the 11th of May at the Mardyke – Cork’s home ground.

And then the madness. Seven Blues players asked for a £5 win bonus, and £2, 10 shillings in case of defeat. The board of directors refused. For an idea of the value, in 1941 No. 30 on The Mall, at the time a popular guesthouse, could be rented for £45 per annum. The seven were dismissed forthwith, and transfer listed. They included the goalkeeper, two of the top three scorers in the league that season, and young Paddy Coad. Without the players there was no team. Without the team, there was no game, and the club officials had to inform the FAI and the League, and concede.

Things fell apart after this. In early June, the club admitted that they couldn’t get a team together for a charity match in aid of the victims of the bombing of the North Strand. By mid month, Waterford resigned from the League. The reason cited was losses made owing to the cost of travelling around the country for Shield and League games in the middle of the Emergency – a reason that led to Sligo opting out the previous year. While the club outlined its plan to apply for readmission on the end of the war, a man named Martin Breen attempted to form a new club to take the old club’s place, but failed to gain election, and as a result many great names were to vanish from first class football in Ireland, and senior football stopped in Waterford until the end of the Emergency.

I would suggest that this may have been the best of all the Cork teams over the years – like in other sports, Cork seemed to get stronger during the Emergency. Certainly, judging by the accounts from the papers in 1941, there was only one team could hold a candle to them, and bettered them twice in the four meetings that took place. When Waterford resigned from the League, there was none left that could manage them.

By the same token, that surely was the best Waterford team prior to the late ’60s. Timmy O’Keeffe, at left wing, was a full international and regularly a leading goalscorer in the League. Coad was a sensation in the centre and was tapped up by teams a-plenty the following season. The captain, Phelan was solid at the centre of defence, in front of Daly, a highly rated goalkeeper. Above all, Johnny Johnstone was in some sense the man who made most difference to the side, adding a second potent threat up front in his first season with us. Despite a couple of poor seasons before, this team looked like it could boss the League. And certainly, they would have forged a mighty rivalry with that Cork United team.