Bohemian F.C

1890

1907

Richfield Sports Club  was founded in October 1889. The following September club members got together to form a football team. The founder members (lads of 17 and 18) were drawn from the Hibernian Military School and the Bells Academy (a civil service college).   They chose the name Bohemian F.C for its romantic and free spirited connotations.  The club was founded at the Gate Lodge of Phoenix Park (the North Circular Road entrance) and played their matches in the Phoenix Park Polo grounds.  
The current club colours of red and black were adopted in 1893. 
From 1902-1920 they were members of the  Irish Football League and contested the Irish Cup (which they won in 1908) when these were 'All-Ireland' competitions.  
With Independence and the foundation of the Irish Free State Bohemians became founding members of the League of Ireland  and competed in the Football Association of Ireland Senior Challenge Cup.

Ireland 1914

Ireland, the last of the 4 'Home Nations' to enter the International arena, had been the perennial whipping boys of the British Home Championship in the early days,
 In 1903 they shared first place with Scotland and England (all 3 finished the campaign with 2 wins and a defeat) and in 1913 enjoyed their first victory over England.


They won their first British Home Championship in 1914.

                                                                            v Wales

19.01.14		Wales  1 Ireland 2		Racecourse, Wrexham
GK	Fred McKee		Belfast Celtic
RB	Bill McConnell		Bohemians
LB	Sandy  Craig (c)		Greenock Morton
RH	Val Harris		Everton	Off injured at 45
CH	Pat O'Connell		Hull City
LH	Dave Rollo		Linfield
OR	Ted Seymour		Bohemians
IR	Sam Young		Linfield
CF	Billy Gillespie		Sheffield United	25, 65
IL	Billy Lacey		Liverpool
OL	Louis Bookman		Bradford City
Coach: R Bennett

14.02.14	England 0 Ireland 3		Ayresome Park, Middlesbrough
GK	Fred McKee	Belfast Celtic
RB	Bill McConnell	Bohemians
LB	Sandy  Craig	Greenock Morton
RH	Harry Hampton	Bradford City
CH	Pat O'Connell (c)	Hull City
LH	Mickey Hamill	Manchester United
OR	Dave Rollo	Linfield
IR	Sam Young	Linfield
CF	Billy Gillespie	Sheffield United	36
IL	Billy Lacey	Liverpool	6, 80
OL	Frank Thompson	Clyde
Coach: Rab Torrans

14.03.14		Ireland 1 Scotland 1		Windsor Park, Belfast
GK	Fred McKee		Belfast Celtic
RB	Bill McConnell		Bohemians
LB	Sandy  Craig		Greenock Morton
RH	Val Harris		Everton
CH	Pat O'Connell		Hull City
LH	Mickey Hamill (c)		Manchester United
OR	Johnny Houston		Everton
IR	Rab Nixon		Linfield
CF	Sam Young		Linfield	89
IL	Billy Lacey		Liverpool
OL	Frank Thompson		Clyde
Coach: Hugh McAteer

Ireland wore their St Patrick's Blue strip in all 3 matches:

The line ups , which include players based in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Dublin, show that the Ireland side in this era was representative of the whole of Ireland. Of the 16 players selected, 7 were from what is now Northern Ireland and 9 (including Bookman, who was born in Lithuania but grew up in Dublin) from what is now The Republic of Ireland. 

v Scotland. The name of the cat being held by Mickey Hamill is unknown to me. He did his job though, Sam Young's late equalizer meant that Ireland were champions. 

Explaining Football to the Natives...

 In 1894, in a missionary act, the Football Association of Wales decided to stage an international match in Swansea, in the south. The venue was St Helen's, a Rugby Union and cricket ground that, in a state of reduced grandeur, remains in use to this day.
In those days, as we have seen, Welsh football was centered on the north east of the country.
Swansea is about 260 km from London.
The Football Association of Wales had been founded in 1876. But football was foreign to the people of Swansea.  Football in Swansea , as in most of the southern half of the country, meant Rugby Union. In fact, as the Western Mail observed:  In this portion of the Principality the Association game is practically unknown. 
In preparation for the match the Western Mail published the following plan of the pitch and an explanation of the game for the benefit of the locals:

The match drew a crowd of 7,000.

Wales won 4-1, with 2 goals apiece from Billy Lewis (Chester City) and Edwin James (Chirk) after Olphie Stanfield (Distillery) had given the visitors a 1-0 half time lead. 

Three Newcastle United stars proudly displaying their international colours.

Three Newcastle United stars proudly displaying their international colours. The photograph dates from 1906.

Billy McCracken (Ireland), 
International debut 1902, 16 caps.
McCracken didn't actually play international football in 1906.A curious interruption to his international career came from 1908- he demanded a five times increase of his match fee to play England. The Irish Football Association refused and dropped him. McCracken didn't play any more international football until 1919 but following his recall he went onto win a total of 16 caps, retiring at the age of 40.

• Football League championship: 1904–05, 1906–07, 1908–09

• FA Cup winner: 1910

Colin Veitch (England)
International debut 1906, 6 caps.
The fascinating Colin Veitch was a socialist who was active in the formation of the Players' Union. He was a keen dramatist and an accomplished journalist.  Veitch also championed the idea of using a blackboard for tactical analysis. 
Veitch was on the  losing side in the FA Cup final on 4 occasions. Veitch is reputed to have developed the 'offside bogey' with McCracken.

• Football League championship: 1904-05, 1906-07, 1908-09

• FA Cup winner: 1910

Jimmy Gentleman James Howie (Scotland)
International debut 1905, 3 caps (all v England , 1905, 1906 &1908)  2 goals.

• Football League championship: 1904-05, 1906-07, 1908-09

• FA Cup winner: 1910

All 3 went on to become managers:

McCracken: Hull City, Gateshead, Millwall, Aldershot

Veitch: Bradford City

Howie: Queens Park Rangers, Middlesbrough 

Ireland v Scotland 1913

This match was played  on 15th March 1913 at Dalymount Park, home of Bohemians FC. 
4 weeks previously Ireland had beaten England 2-1 in Belfast, and following this success it must have been a bitter disappointment to have finished 4th in the British Home Championship (won by England).
Here Scotland ran out 2-1 winners, goals coming from William Reid and Alex Bennett.

Val Harris (Everton)

Billy Scott (Leeds City)

Frankie Thompson (Bradford City)

Jock Walker (Swindon Town)

William Reid (Rangers)

One remarkable  incident not recorded by the artist was  the arrest of Scotland winger George Robertson (The Wednesday) for allegedly breaking a spectators leg! Robertson went into the crowd to retrieve the ball. The ball was thrown at him and in the ensuing fracas he 'came into contact' with spectators.
Trouble spread.
The crowd followed the Scottish players to their hotel, and Jock Walker was assaulted.
The Scottish Association were of course outraged by the proceedings:

Evening Telegraph and Post 19.03.13

International Appearance Landmarks

The table below shows the first player to reach landmark numbers of international appearances.

10	Harry McNeil	Scotland	14.03.81
20	Olphert Stanfield	Ireland	24.02.94
30	Olphert Stanfield	Ireland	27.03.97
40	Vivian Woodward	England *	25.05.11
* This includes appearances for England Amateur and Great Britain, which FIFA classify as full internationals. The FA do not. leaving Woodward with 23 caps.
40	Billy Meredith	Wales	18.01.13
50	Imre Schlosser	Hungary	05.11.16
60	Imre Schlosser	Hungary	09.11.19

During our era (pre 1937) no one reached 70 caps.

Ángel Romano (Uruguay) played his 69th and final international on 14.07.1927

Ireland's first English based players

For the match against Wales at Belfast on 4th March 1899 Ireland picked players based with English clubs for the first time.
In their previous 50 matches they had enjoyed only 4 victories, all against Wales. Their first international of the season in February had seen Ireland receive a terrible 13-2 beating at the hands of England. 
On this occasion Ireland beat Wales 1-0.
The English based players selected were:

Archie Goodall (Derby County)

  Archie Goodall was born in Belfast when his father was posted there with the army. He went on to earn 10 caps.

Jack Mit Taggart (Walsall)

Taggart moved from Distillery to Middlesbrough as a 19 year old. He was an accomplished ball -playing full back, something of a rarity in an era where the defenders were expected to get rid of the ball rather than look for telling passes. Taggart then joined West Bromwich Albion. He had stepped down a level when he earned this, his only international cap. 

Tommy Ching  Morrison (Burnley)
 Morrison had won 3 previous caps whilst at Glentoran, and went on to make a total of 7 appearances for Ireland. He had 3 spells at both Glentoran and Burnley during his career, and also played for Manchester United and Celtic. He had the distinction of being a league championship winner in both Ireland and Scotland. Morison played at inside right or sometimes outside right. 


John Hanna (Royal Artillery Portsmouth)
Center forward Hanna won his only cap whilst playing for RAP in the Southern League.

Goodall was the only English based player selected for Ireland's trip to Celtic Park 3 weeks later when Scotland beat them 9-1.