Follow The Lights… To Drumcondra

by Brian Kennedy

(first published in the October 2011 Shelbourne match programme)

Shelbourne were the ninth football club I travelled to on my 3000 mile journey around the country to write ‘Just Follow The Floodlights’. It was also the day I signed the book contract… both occurring on April 1st. Somewhere in the back of my mind I had this idea Shelbourne would make a fool of us 7-0 in the League and Cup and the publisher would go belly up before I even got back home. Thankfully none of this has yet happened (he said praying Shels won’t inflict a heavy defeat on us tonight!)

Whereas a lot of people tend to look at the early years of the Free State League as a monopoly of trophies dished out between Northsiders Bohemians and their Southside counterparts Shamrock Rovers, history will show the lads from Havelock Square, their first ground, won no less than 3 League Championships, 4 League of Ireland Shields and the Free State (or FAI Cup) once before the Second World War. Throw in the IFA Cup (which they competed in until 1921), which was captured three times, and a whole host of Leinster Senior Cups, and Shelbourne had just as big a dominance as both their friends from the capital. Between all three clubs they would win 16 of the first 25 league titles.

In that time both of their record wins came against poor Bray Unknowns. If hammering them in the FAI Cup 9-0 in 1923 wasn’t enough, they decided to do exactly the same in the League against them two years later… by the same score. Hitler trying to conquer Europe didn’t stop football in Ireland and Shels took yet another two titles in 1943/44 and 1951/52 , but it was Gerry Doyle’s side of the early sixties that really lit up not only the club but the League itself.

Doyle was a visionary. Having seen the youth team win the FAI Youth Cup in 1959, he promoted six of that side into the senior team, one of which was an 18 year old left-back called Tony Dunne. Less than ten years later, the Dubliner would win the most prestigious medal in world club football, winning the European Cup with Manchester United and going on to make over 400 appearances at Old Trafford. Players like Jackie Hennessy, Eric Barber, Christy Doyle, Freddie Strahan were promoted to that side which took the 1962 League of Ireland Championship in a first ever play-off to decide the title against Cork Celtic.

It proved to be the club’s last title until the early nineties. By that time chairman Tony Donnelly had started to revolutionize the club, making Tolka Park into the first all-seated stadium in Ireland, and Shelbourne began a period of domestic dominance.  Damien Richardson would bring the club back-to-back FAI Cup triumphs in 1996 and ’97 whilst the club were regularly mixing it with the likes of Athletico Madrid and Panathinaikos in Europe.

Oh and Rangers. How could we forget Rangers? “It was the best and worst night of my managerial career” is how Dermot Keely described July 22nd 1998 at Prenton Park when goals from Mark Rutherford, Pat Morley and an own goal put Shels 3-0 up against the ‘Old Firm’ giants… only to lose 5-3.

Shels take the field at the Riazor Stadium

Players like Steve Williams, Owen Heary, Ollie Cahill, Jason Byrne, Tony McCarthy, Stephen Geoghegan would be pivotal in the clubs success around this time as well as future Celtic striker Anthony Stokes and Wes Hoolahan (now of Norwich City). Chief executive Ollie Byrne and Chairman Finbarr Flood were putting huge resources behind the team and the odd bit of banter about an Irish team finally making it to a Champions’ League group stage would be thrown about on the factory floors of Ireland. Improbable – maybe? Impossible – no. Well it so almost happened with Deportivo. Scoreless after 135 minutes and with everything to play for at Riazor Stadium in La Coruna, the Dubliners went down 3-0 in the second half and it remains the closest we’ve come to breaking that final Champions League frontier.

Tonight Shelbourne find themselves in the same division as us but destined surely for higher plains come the end of October. They’ve come close to promotion before, losing out to an injury-time equalizer from Limerick’s Colin Scanlon – who earned himself the freedom of Dundalk by handing the Lilywhites the title with that goal, but when the fixture list is churned out next February, in whatever division, it will have the name of Shelbourne Football Club which bar one season (1935/36) will be the clubs 90th in the League’s history.

Just Follow The Floodlights
The launch for my new League of Ireland book will take place on Saturday October 15th at 8pm in Dooley’s Hotel. It’s the first of its kind as it takes in the histories of all 47 clubs to have played in the League of Ireland, plus it’s also a supporters guide, as I travelled to all 21 clubs reporting on things like admission prices, record attendances, rivals, mascots, ground information. Everything from the nearest bar for a pint to the cheapest burger!

Former Republic of Ireland manager Eoin Hand will launch the book and Blues players from the past including the likes of Al Finucane, Vinny Maguire, Tommy Lynch, and members of the Waterford Legends side from last year will be in attendance among other guests. It kicks off at 8pm and I extend an invite to you all. Hope to see you there.