Bohemian Football Club (Number Lotto)
The Bohemian Football Club - A Short History
The Bohemian Football Club
The Bohemian Football Club is the oldest football club in the Republic of Ireland to have led an uninterrupted existence for each and every year since its formative meeting on 6th September 1890.
The club led a nomadic life until Dalymount Park was founded in 1901, and for much of its life has boasted a proud amateur tradition.
“The Gypsies” – A Short History
On the evening of Saturday, 6th September, 1890, in the Gate Lodge at the North Circular Road entrance to the Phoenix Park, a small group gathered. Mostly young, and mostly students, they sacrificed the beautiful day outside and stuck to their task of forming a club in the "new" football code, soccer, the Bohemian Football Club.
Bohemians first played and trained on the Polo Grounds in the Phoenix Park and from an early stage two elevens were fielded. The members carrying the goalposts there from the Gate Lodge (which still stands).
The first set of jerseys worn were white with two red down stripes front and back, and a red star of David on the right breast, with black shorts.
In 1893 Bohemians secured their first private ground on the site of what is now Croke Park in Jones's Road, but which had been opened as the rather grandly titled City & Suburban Racecourse and General Amusement Grounds in August of the previous year.
Bohemians' fourth annual general meeting, held in Wynn's Hotel in October 1893, was a typically lively affair. A private ground had already been secured, at Jones's Road, new club colours of red and black were adopted, and Bohemians were to enter the Irish Cup. Newly qualified as a doctor, graduating from the Royal, Alex Blaney presided over all these ambitious plans. His days as a sturdy full back were behind him though he was only 24. Born in Antrim, and educated at St Malachy's, Belfast, and the Catholic University School of Medicine in Dublin, his knowledge of the game had proved invaluable. Later a senior surgeon in the Mater Hospital, he was a religious and charitable man.
Bohs first played on the Jones's Road football field on Saturday, 14th October 1893, when they held a general practice, making their home début the following Saturday when losing 4-3 to Montpelier.
Bohemians won the Leinster Cup six times in a row from 1894 to firmly establish their reputation as the leading club in the province.
In 1895 the club moved out to a new ground on the Finglas Road at White Hall, close to Glasnevin Cemetery, and just beyond where the tram line terminated.
The nickname of “The Gypsies” was soon widely adopted.
Players came and went in the formative years, but the club had a strong and determined core from the outset in the three Sheehan brothers in particular. James Sheehan was just as diligent off the field as on, and this soon put him in the forefront of football administrators in Leinster, while Willie and George were exceptional forwards. George would captain Ireland as a Bohemian player on St Patrick's Day, 1900, against England at Lansdowne Road.
George Sheehan wasn’t the first Bohemian international however, that honour falling to John Fitzpatrick in 1895, who captained Ireland versus England at Cliftonville.
In 1901 Bohemians fashioned Dalymount Park from what had previously been part vegetable patch and part vacant lot behind the Dalymount terrace of houses on the North Circular Road, a brilliant find that is credited to the then Honorary Treasurer, Thomas Sanderson.
On 7th September, 1901, Lord Mayor Tim Harrington kicked off at the official opening of Dalymount Park, Harold Sloan scoring the first goal in a 4-2 win over Shelbourne.
One of the club’s most prominent members in the early days was Oliver St John Gogarty, who Joyce immortalised as Buck Mulligan in Ulysses. Gogarty won a Leinster Cup medal with Bohemians in 1897 and was neither the first nor last in the list of remarkable characters associated with the club. Gogarty became a good friend to Michael Collins who died in the arms of another former Bohemian forward, Major Emmet Dalton, at Béal na mBláth.
Bohemians truly came of age in their 18th year when they won the Irish Cup in 1908. They defeated Glentoran, Linfield, Belfast Celtic, and finally Shelbourne, all after replays.
Dalymount Park hosted its first international in 1904, but truly was dubbed "the home of Irish football" after a major rebuild in 1927, hosting practically all the major cup finals and Republic of Ireland home internationals from that point on until the 1970s.
When Irish football "split" in 1921, Bohs were prime movers in the founding of the FAI, especially as they owned the only ground of substance under the new Association.
Bohs won their first League of Ireland title in 1924. In 1928 the League, FAI Cup, Shield, and Leinster Cup - a clean sweep of domestic honours - were won. The League was won again in 1930 and 1934, the FAI Cup in 1935, and the League again in 1936, a truly golden era when the likes of Freddie Horlacher, Jack McCarthy, Jimmy Bermingham, Harry Cannon, Paddy Andrews (brother to C.S. “Todd” Andrews), Plev Ellis, and Billy Jordan - all Irish internationals - became household names.
After the Second World War, however, the pace of life changed, and the amateur ethos began to wane. Bohemians still attracted fine and loyal players, such as Kevin and Michael O’Flanagan, Brendan O’Kelly, the Morris brothers etc, but many others would only play for a season or two before the semi-professional clubs tempted them away. As a result Bohs were no longer serious contenders for trophies, with honourable defeats more the order of the day.
Dalymount continued to develop, and in May 1957 held a record crowd of 47,600 for a World Cup match with England. Floodlighting arrived in 1962, but sent the club heavily into the red.
Against all the odds, manager Seán Thomas - the club's first full-time manager - revived Bohemians on the field in the mid ‘60s, plucking talent from the most unlikely corners. One of the club’s leading lights then was its captain, the remarkable Willie Browne, who in 1963 became the last amateur to be capped at full international level by the Republic of Ireland.
However, even Thomas couldn't stop amateurs leaving for the paid ranks at the end of each season, and then he too was enticed away to the United States. Though Thomas returned, by the end of the decade the writing was on the wall as Bohemians finished bottom of the League.
The club's survival cried out for change. At an EGM in February 1969 the necessary 75% majority voted with their heads instead of their hearts to allow payments to players and a new era was born. Apart from this, the club's structure remains in essence unchanged. The Club's Management Committee is elected by the members – currently approx. 400 – and each position on the committee is an honorary one, thus in a very real sense the old amateur ethic lives on at Dalymount.
Tony O'Connell was signed as the first semi-professional, and he scored the winner for Bohs in the FAI Cup final of 1970 to end a 34-year trophy drought. The “new” Bohemians began to set the standards. Under manager Billy Young there were two League wins, in 1975 and ‘78, and the FAI Cup was won again in ‘76. Now when Bohemians lost players now it was only to the likes of Manchester United (who snapped up Mick Martin, Gerry Daly, and Ashley Grimes), and transfer fees could at last be received.
More high points, though not trophies, were enjoyed in the ‘80s, particularly September 1984’s 3-2 win against Rangers in a UEFA Cup match. Patience was reward in May 1992 when Bohemians won the FAI Cup at Lansdowne Road in front of 17,000.
During the '90s the great Zinedine Zidane made two appearances at Dalymount Park in European matches for Bordeaux against the Gypsies.
The appointment of the charismatic Roddy Collins (brother to former world champion Steve) as team manager during the 1998/99 season came after a disastrous start to that campaign, but the “Gypsies” finished strongly to maintain their Premier Division status.
14th June 1999 – Dalymount Park gets a new 2,800-seater main stand costing approximately £1 million; the Jodi Stand is born.
2000/2001 proved one of Bohemians' greatest seasons ever. Away wins in the UEFA Cup at Aberdeen and Kaiserslautern were the best results by an Irish club in Europe for many years, and the season finished in stunning fashion with Bohs winning their first League and FAI Cup double in 73 years. The Club made its Champions League début in season 2001/2002.
Bohs were champions again in 2002/2003, and in the following summer’s Champions League qualifiers they beat BATE Borisov before bowing out to Rosenborg.
In the 2008 season Bohemians won their third League and FAI Cup double, the League won by a record 19-point margin and featuring a 27-match unbeaten run. 2009 brought another double, the League plus the EA Sports Cup. ‘The Gypsies’ – the Club’s nickname for over a century – won the all-Ireland Setanta Sports Cup in 2010 at their first attempt, 1-0 v. St Patrick's Athletic in the final at Tallaght Stadium. In a nerve-wracking end to the season they were only denied a hat-trick of League titles on goal difference.
With the home turf of Dalymount Park in the safe hands of Dublin City Council, the Bohemian Football Club celebrates its 125th anniversary with a new spring in its step, ready to add to a long and proud history.
