STADIUM INFORMATION
Name: Dalymount Park
Club: Bohemian FC
Inauguration: September 1901
Capacity: 12,200
Address: Phibsborough, Dublin 7
Official Site:
Bohemian FC - Official website http://www.bohemians.ie/index2.htm
TICKETS (Bohemians Games)
Prices:
€12-€15
Buy tickets:
Tel: 00353 1 8680923
Fax: 00353 1 8681034
Email: ann@bohemians.ie
The Bohemian Football Club is the oldest association football club in the Republic of Ireland. Founded on 6 September 1890 at a meeting in the North Circular Road Gate Lodge in Dublin's Phoenix Park, we have a long and rich history.
Bohemians were prime movers in re-establishing the game in Dublin, the province of Leinster, and then further afield.
The "Gypsies," as they came to be known, were proud amateurs until March 1969 when the first semi-professional players, Tony O'Connell and Dinny Lowry, lined out in the famous red and black colours that the Club had adopted back in 1893.
A club entirely owned by its members, Bohemians opened Dalymount Park in September 1901 and developed it into an international ground of renown. Up until the early '70s "Dalyer" was still physically and spiritually the home of Irish football, and the "Dalymount Roar" was a well-regarded and known phenomenon.
Bohemians continue as one of the country's leading clubs, and have recently completed the first phase of their re-development of Dalymount Park.
The Future is Red and Black!
Bohemians and Dalymount Park
11 years a-wandering
The first Bohemians played their football on the Polo Grounds (a.k.a. The Nine Acres) in the Phoenix Park, and each match day carried the goalposts to and from the Gate Lodge at the North Circular Road entrance where they were stored. The Gate Lodge, the venue of the Club's original meeting in September 1890, survives and a plaque commemorating the founding of the Bohemian Football Club stands in its garden today.
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.
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 largest attendance Bohemians attracted to White Hall was but a couple of thousand, the ground considered just that bit too remote.
The Gypsy Camp - Dalymount Park::
Legend has it that in the summer of 1901 the Bohemian Treasurer visited an acquaintance in Phibsborough. When William John Sanderson walked out the back gate of his friend's house he couldn't help but see a largely disused piece of ground behind the tramway sheds, part vegetable plot, partly overgrown, and generally regarded as common land. He soon made enquiries as to who actually owned the space, agreed an annual rent of £48 and paid three month's as a deposit from his own pocket. Dalymount Park was born.
A simple enclosure at first, with a corrugated iron fence (at a cost of £70) and wooden terraces fashioned from railway sleepers for spectators to stand on, Dalymount Park was officially opened on Saturday, 7th September, 1901, with Lord Mayor Tim Harrington, MP, kicking-off a friendly match with Shelbourne which Bohs won 4-2. The honour of scoring the first goal fell to Harold Sloan, and how fitting that was, for he would develop into one of the Club's greatest stars and become a regular full international. A hero indeed, he was killed in action during the First World War in January 1917.
Dalymount was rapidly developed, and on 14th March 1903 the Irish Football Association saw fit to hold the Irish Cup final there. The following March and Dalymount hosted its first full international, Ireland v Scotland.
Regular internationals::
When the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) formed in 1921 after a split from the IFA it was only natural for the finest ground under its jurisdiction to become the regular international venue. A major redevelopment of Dalymount in 1927, entirely funded by the Bohemian club, increased the ground's capacity to over 20,000. Under the guidance of one the leading football ground architects of the day, Archibald Leitch, Dalymount was continually expanded and improved. The Second World War halted its progress, but by then the ground could accommodate over 40,000. In May 1957 the ground held its record crowd, 47,600 for a World Cup match against England.
Lights On - Or Lights Out?::
The ground's first floodlights were switched on in March, 1962, when a Bohemian Selected XI played Arsenal, the visitors winning 8-3.
Solely developed out of the Bohemian Football Club's funds, Dalymount in the early '60s was a great credit to the Club's members and supporters, but the financing of the floodlights almost proved a step too far. Investment in the lights was meant to copper-fasten an agreement with the FAI to host all its major fixtures there, as it solved one of the Association's biggest headaches - the hosting of midweek internationals. The huge cost (£18,000) put Bohemians heavily in debt, and in no position to develop the ground further, particularly with regard to seating.
The Club itself turned to semi-professionalism in March, 1969, in a bid for its very survival, but just over two years later the FAI in a sense "jumped ship" and hosted the international with Italy at Lansdowne Road. It was the beginning of the end for Dalymount as an international venue, for though games were still played there on a regular basis up to 1975, Lansdowne was clearly getting the more attractive games due to its far greater seating capacity (approx. 20,000 to Dalymount's 2,200).
In 1988 the FAI seemed to have saved Dalymount for football by purchasing it from Bohemians, but the proposed deal, which would have seen the Club remaining on as tenants, fell through.
A New Dawn::
All was not lost however, and with Tony O’Connell at the helm for six years, and now led by his successor as Club President, Felim O’Reilly, Bohemians’ own plans for their ground were revived.
An ambitious yet practical redevelopment of the ground commenced mid-June 1999 with the refurbishment of the main stand, and this first phase culminated in the re-opening of the ground on 31 October 1999 with the 3,000-seater Jodi Stand in use for the first time.