Bohemian FC History Calendar 2008

I recently designed a 2008 calendar for Bohemian FC. It’s a pictorial record of the history of the club, spanning twelve decades from the 1890s to the 2000s.

When Bohs was founded in 1890, Frank Whitaker, who later became Brother Francis de Sales Whitaker of the Order of Saint John of Gods, proposed the name Bohemians. The vote was tied and the chairman, Dudley Hussey, who later became a senior civil servant, used his casting vote – the club would be called Bohemians instead of Rovers. Here’s the earliest report that I have found of a Bohs match, from the Irish Times on November 4, 1890: >>>

Sun Oct 30, 1977 – Bohs 3 Shamrock Rovers 0

Update: Between now and February 2008, I will be focusing my blogging attention on my other blog, That’s Ireland, and my football attention on real-life activities with Bohemians, including designing a history calendar for the club, preparing plans to celebrate the centenary of our first ever national trophy, the Irish Cup of 1908, and preparing motions for the Bohemians AGM in April 2008. Blog entries will resume here after that. In the meantime, back to Bohs v Rovers in 1977:

Thirty years ago today, carrying my ‘Thor-lough O’Connor: God of Goals’ banner into Dalymount, I was giddy with anticipation for the second-biggest game of the season. The crowd was not as big as it was against Newcastle, but I knew it would be at least as passionate, and at least some of those present might be as violent. Rovers fans in those days had an annoying tendency to try to ‘take the shed’ and, unlike at away games, Bohs fans were less likely to run away from the duty of defending this fiefdom. Meanwhile, on the pitch, things could hardly have been tighter between the two sides. We were in joint fourth place, level on twelve points from nine games. We had the better goal difference, but Ray Treacy was two goals ahead of Turly O’Connor in the scorers chart.

Shamrock Rovers from Ringsend to Milltown

Our tenth game of the 1977-78 season was against our biggest rivals, Shamrock Rovers. Rovers were founded in 1901 in Ringsend, where Shelbourne were at the time the local club. Rovers played their first games at Ringsend Park, and in their early years were twice forced out of football for not having their own ground. They first disbanded in 1906, briefly changing their name to St Patricks, were re-formed in 1915, and again disbanded after one season. Rovers were born again for the third time in 1921, having found a new ground outside the city at Windy Arbour.

Sun Oct 23, 1977 – Dundalk 2 Bohs 2

Thirty years ago today Bohs were off to Oriel Park, where Dundalk were struggling to recover from a poor start to the season. Oriel Park in the 1970s was a horrible place to visit for away fans. I say this not in any sense of judgment about the genuine supporters of Dundalk, but more as a reflection of the tendency of a minority of thugs to chase us to and from our buses under a hail of bottles, stones and assorted missiles. This Céad Míle Missiles welcome was often mirrored in the picturesque tourist attractions of Limerick, Waterford, Athlone and Milltown. And, in that era anyway, the traditional response of travelling Bohs fans could usually be summed up in the sensible tactic of ‘run away!’

Dundalk Great Northern Railway Football Club

Our ninth League game of the 1977-78 season was against Dundalk, one of Ireland’s oldest clubs. The Great Northern Railway Association Football Club was founded in 1903. They joined the Leinster Senior league in 1922 under the name Dundalk GNR, and were elected to the Free State league four years later, replacing Pioneers. They changed their name to simply Dundalk when they first became league champions in 1933. They won the cup twice in the 1940s, and twice again in the 1950s. Their breakthrough second league title came in 1963, exactly 30 years after their first, under club captain John Murphy. Their forward line included Francie Callan and the one-armed Jimmy Hasty, whose favourite trick was to lean his stump on the shoulders of jumping defenders, knowing that referees would be reluctant to give a free against him.

The Law of Leeds and Bohs Weekend Results

After Bohs beat Cork Celtic, I tried to understand how the Law of Leeds and Bohs Having the Same Result Every Weekend had failed to work. I absolutely had to figure this out, or else I would have to go to Bohs matches without knowing the outcome in advance. Maybe the Law didn’t work when Leeds and Bohs were both at home? No, it wasn’t that. Maybe the Law didn’t work when Leeds had the same result two weeks in a row? No, it wasn’t that either. So something must have been unusual about this weekend. Maybe something unrelated to football. But what could it have been? Well, here are some of the events that hit the Irish news headlines during that fateful weekend:

Sun Oct 16, 1977 – Bohs 3 Cork Celtic 1

Thirty years ago today, an immutable law of nature was changed. For the first seven weekends of this League of Ireland season, Leeds and Bohs both won, both drew, both won, both drew, both drew, both won, and both lost. So when Liverpool beat Leeds this Saturday, I was in a predictably despondent mood as I boarded the 19A bus to Dalymount the next day. Our inevitable defeat would mean that, if Drogheda or Cork Albert won today, they would go four points clear of us, which would take at least three weeks of good results to claw back. Skeptical friends told me I was just being superstitious, but having been reared on the belief system of Don Revie at Leeds, I knew how the football world worked.

Cork Football from Evergreen to Celtic

Our eighth League game of the 1977-78 season was against Cork Celtic. I’ve already gone over the Fordsons-Cork-City-United-Athletic-Hibernians-Albert half of the city’s football history. The other half began with Cork Bohemians, who played two league seasons in the early 1930s. After them came Evergreen United, who first played in the Free State Cup in 1937. They joined the league in 1951 and two years later lost the first all-Cork cup final against Athletic, despite Athletic’s centre-half Florrie Burke playing for Evergreen because of a contract dispute. By the end of the decade Evergreen were regular title challengers, and in true Cork tradition changed their name to Cork Celtic in 1959. A great local rivalry with Cork Hibernians quickly emerged.

Wed Oct 12, 1977 – Ireland 0 Bulgaria 0

Thirty years ago today in Lansdowne Road, I watched Ireland bow out of the World Cup campaign for Argentina 1978. Our fate had been sealed long before, thanks to two outrageous refereeing decisions in earlier games. Frank Stapleton had a perfectly good goal disallowed against France in Paris, and Johnny Giles had a perfectly good goal disallowed against Bulgaria in Sofia, both of which resulted in damage not only to our chances of qualifying but also to my fist and my television set. Now we were third in a three-team group, having to beat Bulgaria by perhaps a million goals, and also hope that France and Bulgaria drew their final match, if we were to feature in the 1978 World Cup Finals.

Sun Oct 9, 1977 – Finn Harps 3 Bohs 0

Thirty years ago today, Bohemians faced disaster. Leeds had lost the previous day to Bristol City, whose major contribution to British football was in the field of rhyming slang, and this meant that Bohs were destined to lose today against Finn Harps. I was unlikely to have traveled to Donegal anyway, but I was comforted by the fact that I would be missing a defeat instead of a win. And so I settled down in my living room for a marathon session of watching QPR playing Everton on the Big Match, then listening to radio updates on the Bohs game, then watching Felicity Kendall in the Good Life, Clive Dunn in Dad’s Army, and later on highlights of Shamrock Rovers against Sligo on Sportscene.

Thurs Oct 6, 1977 – Bohs 2 Athlone Town 1

Thirty years ago today, Bohemians played host to Athlone Town in the Leinster Cup quarter-finals. We were two goals up at half-time, thanks to a header by Eddie Byrne and a shot by John McCormack, before Athlone’s Brian Dawson got a last-minute consolation goal. But the main talking point of the tie was the return of Fran O’Brien at left-back for Bohs, after his aborted transfer to Derby County. The upside was we were in the semi-finals of a pretty minor competition, along with Dundalk, Shelbourne and Home Farm. The downside was that we had now played two games every week for a month, and the players must be feeling the strain. I could only hope that Leeds would win on Saturday, which would ensure that we beat Finn Harps on Sunday.

Sun Oct 2, 1977 – Bohs 4 Home Farm 0

Thirty years ago today, Bohs were 100% certain to end our four-match goal drought by beating Home Farm at Dalymount. This was not because of the quality of either team, but because Leeds had beaten Chelsea the day before, and Bohs had the same result as Leeds for the past five weekends in a row. As usual for the routine games, there was a very small crowd in Dalymount. That could have been because of a major publicity coup by Saint Pats: they were playing Shamrock Rovers that afternoon, and former England World Cup hero Gordon Banks was playing in goal for them. Or it could have been because Bohs crowds were crap for most minor games, which was not something I chose to dwell on.

Sat Oct 1, 1977 – O’Brien Transfer Collapses

Thirty years ago today, the fortunes of the two newly-transferred Bohemians could not have been more different. Gerry Ryan played for Derby against Middlesboro, and helped to make a goal in Derby’s first win of the season. But Fran O’Brien, originally pencilled in for Derby’s reserve team today, was instead told that his transfer had fallen through because he had failed a medical examination.

Home Farm Drumcondra – A Historic Merger

Our sixth league game of the 1977-78 season was against Home Farm, which was effectively a merger of two of Dublin’s oldest clubs. Drumcondra was founded in 1923, and four years later won the Free State Cup. They joined the league in 1928, the same year that Home Farm was founded as a schoolboy club playing in the Altar Boys league. Both clubs were based about a mile apart on Dublin’s northside, close to where I now went to school, and between them they helped to shape much of the tradition of Irish football history.

Thur Sep 29, 1977 – Bohs Pair Sign for Derby

Well, that didn’t take long. Thirty years ago yesterday, new Derby County manager Tommy Docherty had hired a private jet to fly to the Newcastle Bohs game. He then slept overnight in the sauna room of the hotel that Bohs were staying in, after offering Bohs a record-breaking £75,000 for Fran O’Brien and Gerry Ryan. As it happens, I have a very minor personal experience of Docherty’s eccentricity. Many years later, in 1998, when I was travelling on the Eurostar train to the World Cup Final in Paris, I was woken from my snoozing by a loud voice checking train tickets. It turned out to be an extremely drunk Tommy Docherty, pretending to be a ticket inspector. He didn’t even have a ticket for the World Cup Final; he was just going across anyway to watch the game in a French pub.