seamus dubhghaill

Promoting Irish Culture and History from Little Rock, Arkansas, USA

Tag Archives: Cliftonville F.C.


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Birth of John McAlery, Association Football Pioneer

John McCredy McAlery, an Irish association football pioneer, is born in Rathfriland, County Down, on November 29, 1848. His accomplishments include organizing the first ever properly organized football match in the history of Irish football in 1878, founding the first Irish football club in 1879, helping found the Irish Football Association in 1880, and wearing the captain‘s armband in Ireland‘s first ever international match in 1882. He is known as the “father of Irish association football.”

McAlery moves to Belfast to learn the drapery business and soon becomes very successful, opening the Irish Tweed House gentleman’s outfitters on Royal Avenue. A talented cricketer in his youth, his first involvement in the Belfast sport scene is helping in the formation of the Cliftonville Cricket Club in 1870, later serving as club treasurer. In 1878, during his honeymoon in Scotland, he witnesses his first ever association football match, and enjoys it so much he decides to introduce the sport back home.

The first match of organized association football on Irish soil is played on October 24, 1878, between Caledonian and Queen’s Park. McAlery invites the Scottish sides to play in the exhibition match at the Ulster Cricket Ground in an attempt to showcase the game to the Belfast crowd. Queen’s Park achieves a 3–2 victory, and more importantly, the demonstration is well received by the locals.

On September 20, 1879, less than a year later, McAlery places an advertisement in both the News Letter and the Northern Whig soliciting for individuals interested in becoming members of the Cliftonville Association Football Club.

The newly formed Cliftonville F.C. side plays their first match just nine days later, losing 2–1 to a team of rugby players called Quidnunces. They achieve their first victory on November 1 with a 2–0 defeat of Knock F.C., a team of former lacrosse players.

On November 18, 1880, McAlery organizes a meeting at the Queen’s Hotel in Belfast between the seven Irish football clubs that have been established at the time: Alexander, Avoniel, Cliftonville, Lisburn Distillery, Knock, Moyola Park and Oldpark. These teams become the founding members of the Irish Football Association (IFA), with Lord Spencer Chichester serving as its president and McAlery as secretary. In an appendix to the minutes of the meeting, McAlery writes: “If the spirit which pervaded from those present be acted upon the result will be a strong Association for promoting the game which we have espoused.”

The meeting also provides for Ireland’s first official football competition, the Irish FA Cup. In the first Cup final of the inaugural competition, played on April 9, 1881, Cliftonville is defeated by Moyola Park. They suffer the same fate the following year, losing to Queen’s Island in the final of the 1881–82 edition. McAlery, who captains Cliftonville while playing at fullback, wins his first trophy on his third try, as his club defeats Ulster to win the 1882–83 Irish Cup.

McAlery does not play much after this, deciding to focus on his administrative role in Irish football. He referees international matches until 1887, and remains the Irish FA secretary until 1888.

McAlery captains Ireland’s first ever international match on February 18, 1882, playing at right back. On a “bittery cold” Belfast night with occasional rain and hail, Ireland loses to the far more experienced England team by a score of 13–0. A week later, he makes his second and final international appearance, captaining his team again as they lose 7–1 to Wales in Wrexham.

McAlery retires to Whitehead, County Antrim, where he dies on December 3, 1925.

In 2013, a blue plaque erected by the Ulster History Circle is unveiled at Solitude, Cliftonville’s home ground, to commemorate McAlery’s efforts.


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Birth of Irish Broadcaster George Hamilton

Irish broadcaster George Hamilton is born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on January 2, 1950. He is best known as the chief football commentator for RTÉ, for which he also commentates on other sporting events, such as the Olympic Games. He presents a classical music programme on RTÉ lyric fm on Saturdays and Sundays called The Hamilton Scores.

Hamilton is christened in the same Presbyterian church as George Best. His father Jimmy plays for Cliftonville F.C., but he is a Glentoran F.C. “superfan.”

While a student at Methodist College Belfast, Hamilton is, for a time, principal cellist with the school orchestra. He then studies German and French at Queen’s University Belfast.

Hamilton begins his commentary career with BBC Sport, before joining RTÉ eight years later in 1984. He had previously worked for RTÉ during the 1978 FIFA World Cup. Since 2003, he works for RTÉ lyric fm, Ireland’s classical radio station, on Saturday mornings. For many years, he fronts a popular weekly quiz show on RTÉ, Know Your Sport, alongside fellow commentator Jimmy Magee.

Hamilton is chief commentator for RTÉ Sport‘s coverage of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, the ninth one in which he has been involved. He is RTÉ’s chief commentator at UEFA Euro 2012 and commentates on all of Ireland’s matches in the competition. He is involved in the coverage of the Olympic Games since the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.

Hamilton is known for his use of colourful phrases and memorable quotes when commentating on games, his phrase describing David O’Leary‘s penalty against Romania in the 1990 FIFA World Cup, “The nation holds its breath,” is used for a book of Irish football quotations, compiled by Eoghan Corry, for which Hamilton writes the foreword.

The sports humour website, DangerHere.com, takes its title from another quote by Hamilton: “And Bonner has gone 165 minutes of these championships without conceding a goal. Oh, danger here…”

On August 16, 2011, Hamilton feels unwell and has a suspected heart attack. He later has several hours of emergency bypass surgery at the Blackrock Clinic in Dublin after being transferred from St. Vincent’s University Hospital. He recovers and resumes both his commentating and radio show.


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Birth of Mal Donaghy, Former Northern Ireland Footballer

Malachy Martin Donaghy, former Northern Ireland international footballer who also plays for Luton Town F.C. and Manchester United F.C., is born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on September 13, 1957. He is the manager of the Northern Ireland national under-19 football team from 2000-2008.

Originally from west Belfast, Donaghy begins his football career as a goalkeeper with little-known Down and Connor League side team St. Agnes before moving on to play as an outfield player for works team Post Office Social Club. After barely six months, he is on the move again, this time joining Amateur League side Cromac Albion, where his blossoming talent is spotted by then Larne F.C. boss Brian Halliday.

Donaghy’s rapid rise in the game continues when, after just 20 matches with the Inver Park club, he is transferred to Luton Town F.C. in June 1978 for a fee of £20,000.

Donaghy spends ten years at Luton Town F.C., overseeing the most successful era of their history to date. He collects a Second Division title winner’s medal in 1982, enabling him to experience First Division football for the first time. He helps Luton Town F.C. retain their First Division status and is a key part of the team that finishes a club record high of seventh in the 1986–87 season. In 1987–88, he helps Luton Town F.C. win their first major trophy as they achieve a shocking 3–2 win over Arsenal F.C. in the 1988 Football League Cup Final.

In October 1988, Donaghy departs from Kenilworth Road in a £650,000 move to his boyhood heroes Manchester United F.C. It is at the time a big risk for Alex Ferguson to pay out a large sum of money for a 31-year-old, but Donaghy repays the United manager’s faith in him with some consistent performances in not only his favoured central defensive position but also as a full-back.

Immediately after joining United, Donaghy is the club’s first choice left-back for the 1988–89 season, missing only the League Cup game for which he is cup-tied. However, his opportunities are limited in the 1989–90 season, and he is unable to make even the substitutes bench for the 1990 FA Cup final triumph over Crystal Palace F.C. However, he does make the substitutes bench for the 1991 European Cup Winners’ Cup final triumph.

United are First Division runners-up in 1991–92 and win their first-ever League Cup, but Donaghy’s first-team chances continue to be restricted, and he is also left out of the side that beats Nottingham Forest F.C. in the League Cup final.

Donaghy’s next move is in August 1992 when, just a month short of his 35th birthday, Chelsea F.C. manager Ian Porterfield pays £100,000 for his services. He helps Chelsea finish 11th in the inaugural Premier League season and helps them reach the 1994 FA Cup final, although he does not make the squad for the team that loses 4–0 to double-winners Manchester United F.C. At the end of the season, he announces his retirement from club football.

Donaghy makes his final appearance for Northern Ireland against the Mexico national football team in Miami in June 1994, three months before his 37th birthday.

Shortly after his playing career ends, Donaghy returns to the province with his family and after a brief spell as manager at Newry City F.C., he has stints as a coach with Cliftonville F.C. and as a Youth Development Officer back on his home pitch with Donegal Celtic F.C. In 2000, he is appointed manager for the Northern Ireland national under-19 team. He serves in this capacity until 2008.

The first of Donaghy’s 91 international caps comes in May 1980 at Windsor Park in the 1–0 British Home Championship victory over Scotland. He further enhances his reputation during the 1982 and 1986 World Cup finals. In the former tournament, he plays in four of Northern Ireland’s five games. He is sent off after 60 minutes of the famous 1–0 win over Spain in Valencia, for the offence of shoving Spain’s José Antonio Camacho, but returns for Northern Ireland’s final match, a 4–1 defeat by France in Madrid.


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Founding of Cliftonville Football Club

Cliftonville Football & Athletic Club, the oldest association football club in Ireland, is founded on September 20, 1879, by John McCredy McAlery in the suburb of Cliftonville in north Belfast.

Since 1890, the club has played home matches at Solitude. Cliftonville contests the North Belfast derby with nearest rivals Crusaders F.C., and also has historical rivalries with Glentoran F.C. and Linfield F.C. The club has won the NIFL Premiership five times outright including one shared title, the Irish Cup eight times and the Irish League Cup five times.

The foundation of Cliftonville F.C. is announced on September 20, 1879 in notices in the Belfast News Letter and Northern Whig, which asks “gentlemen desirous of becoming members” of the “Cliftonville Association Football Club (Scottish Association Rules)” to communicate with John McAlery, a young Belfast businessman and manager of the “Irish Tweed House”, Royal Avenue, and later with premises in Rosemary Street, or R.M. Kennedy, and advertising an “opening practice today at 3:30.”

Only one week after the advertisement is published, Cliftonville plays its first recorded game at Cliftonville Cricket Ground on September 29, 1879, against a selection of rugby players known as Quidnunces. The newly formed club, however, is beaten 2–1. In its first match against the Scottish club Caledonian, it fares worse, suffering a 1–9 defeat.

In 1880, it is again John McAlery who is the moving spirit in the formation of the Irish Football Association. He issues an invitation to interested parties in Belfast and district for a meeting to be called. The first meeting takes place on November 18, 1880, at Queen’s Hotel, Belfast, presided over by John Sinclair, from which the Irish Football Association is formed. While Lord Spencer Chichester is appointed president, McAlery becomes the honorary secretary of the association. This meeting also paves the way for the Irish Cup.

The first Irish Cup final, played at Cliftonville on April 9, 1881, sees a 1–0 defeat against Moyola Park F.C., an opponent that is well known for “rough and brutal play.” In the following year Cliftonville loses again in the Irish Cup final, 1–0 against Queen’s Island F.C. In 1883 Cliftonville wins the cup for the first time with a 5–0 win over Ulster F.C.

The club celebrates its 142nd anniversary in September 2021.


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Founding of the Irish Football Association

irish-football-association-crest

The Irish Football Association (IFA), the governing body for association football in Northern Ireland, is founded on November 18, 1880. It organises the Ireland national football team from 1880 to 1950, which after 1954, becomes the Northern Ireland national football team.

The IFA is founded by seven football clubs mostly in the Belfast area, as the organising body for the sport across all of Ireland. A meeting is called by Cliftonville F.C. of other football clubs that follow the rules set out by the Scottish Football Association (SFA). At that meeting at Queens Hotel, Belfast, the seven clubs form the IFA, making it the fourth oldest national football association in the world, after those of England, Scotland and Wales. The founding members are Alexander F.C., Avoniel F.C., Cliftonville F.C., Lisburn Distillery F.C., Knock F.C., Moyola Park F.C. and Oldpark F.C.

The IFA’s first decisions are to elect its first President, Major Spencer Chichester, and to form an annual challenge cup competition similar to the FA Cup and Scottish Cup competitions, called the Irish Cup. Two years later, Ireland plays its first international against England, losing 13–0, which remains a record for both teams, a record win for England and a record loss for Ireland.

Shortly after the partition of Ireland in 1921, the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) is established as a rival association to regulate the game in what is to become the Irish Free State. The immediate cause of the split lay in a bitter dispute over the venue for the replay of an Irish Cup match in 1921 involving Glentoran F.C. of Belfast and Shelbourne F.C. of Dublin. When the first cup match is drawn in Belfast, because of the Irish War of Independence, the IFA reneges on a promise to play the replay in Dublin and schedules the rematch again for Belfast. Shelbourne refuses to comply and forfeits the Cup.

Such is the anger over the issue that the Leinster Football Association breaks away from the IFA and forms its own national association. Those behind the FAI believe that football should be regulated by a federation based in the Irish Free State’s capital, Dublin. They also accuse the IFA of neglecting the development of the game in the South. The IFA’s supporters argue that the federation should be based where the game is primarily played – namely Ulster, and its principal city Belfast.

Both associations claim to represent the whole of the island, each competing internationally under the name “Ireland” and selecting players from both the rival national leagues, which also split at this time. Interventions by FIFA give the FAI de jure organising rights over the 26 counties of the Republic, with the IFA restricted to Northern Ireland. From the 1950s onwards, the IFA no longer claims it is the association for the whole of Ireland.

In 1960, the association moves to its present location on Windsor Avenue in south Belfast, in a building once occupied by Thomas Andrews. The IFA continues to regulate the game in Northern Ireland, and all results obtained by the Irish national side and records in the Irish Football League and the cup competition stand as Northern Irish records.