Club name: Shelbourne
Founded: 1895 (Founder members of the League 1921, resigned in 1934, re-elected 1935)
Home ground: Tolka Park, Richmond Road, Drumcondra, Dublin 3.
How to get there: From city centre take buses 11, 11A, 11B, 16, 16A, 41B or 41C to Drumcondra. Get off at AIB beside Fagan's pub. Cross the road and take the second right (Richmond Road). If you are travelling by car, there is plenty of parking in the Drumcondra and Glasnevin areas.
Phone: 01 8375754, 8375536, 8368781
Fax: 01 8375588
Website: www.shelbournefc.ie
Email: info@shelbournefc.ie
Club colours: Home: Red jersey, white shorts, red socks
Away: White jersey, white shorts, white socks
Nickname: Shels
Sponsor:
Manager: Pat Fenlon
Honours: League titles (12)
1925-26, 1928-29, 1930-31, 1943-44, 1946-47, 1952-53, 1961-62, 1991-92, 1990-2000, 2001-02, 2003, 2004
FAI Cups (7)
1939, 1960, 1963, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000.
League Cups (1)
1995-96
Getting to Tolka
Tolka Park is situated on Richmond Road in Drumcondra on Dublin's Northside. It is easily accessible, being just off the Drumcondra Road, which is the main road to the airport.
Driving to Tolka
From the North of the city....
Follow the Swords Road road from the airport towards the city. This becomes Drumcondra Road at the Whitehall junction. Continue straight, passing the Skylon Hotel on your right. Go through some pedestrian lights and Tolka Park is left at the next lights, on Richmond Road.
There are free car parks in operation near the ground but to get to these you should turn left at Whitehall onto Griffith Avenue, right at the second lights, onto Grace Park Road and this will bring you to the Ballybough end of Tolka Park.
From the city centre...
Follow signs for the airport which will bring you out along Dorset St. which becomes Drumcondra Road. Cross the canal and go under the railway bridge. As you keep driving, you'll pass houses on your left which are back from the road, behind trees. After these houses, you go through a set of lights and over a bridge. Richmond Road is the next right.
Match Days
Shelbourne FC would like to remind their fans and visitors, of the following guidelines for matchdays, which are recommended in order to minimise disturbance to our neighbours in the environs of Tolka Park.
Car Parking - Car Park at No's 15-17 Richmond Road, for players, staff and officials. Free car park for fans in Leydens Cash & Carry on Richmond Road.
Fans are asked to refrain from, parking in front of or blocking any driveways or laneways, parking illegally on Richmond Road or Grace Park Road , or parking at all in Grace Park Gardens or Avenue.
Exiting Tolka Park - All people are asked, when leaving Tolka Park, to do so in a quiet and orderly fashionout of respect to our neighbours, many of whom have young families.
Shelbourne FC appreciates your co-operation in this matter.
Getting there by Bus
There are many buses that go along the Drumcondra Road. Get off at "Kennedy's Pub" - ask the driver, if you need to. Then cross the bridge and turn right onto Richmond Road. Tolka Park is a couple of hundred yards down the road.
Bus Routes
3 (O'Connell Street)
11, 11A, 11B (O'Connell Street)
16, 16A (O'Connell Street)
41, 41A, 41B, 41C (Eden Quay)
The early years in Ringsend 1895 - 1920
Shelbourne FC, the team of 1913.
It was in 1895 that Shelbourne F.C. came into being when the club was formed by James Rowan and six others in the Dublin fishing village of Ringsend. Prominent among his associates were John Bury, Patrick Finn, Felix Wall and Micheal Wall and in their company he set off one morning to walk to Finglas and register the club with the Leinster Football Association. The task undertaken and duly completed Shelbourne F.C. were in business but for the first year they played only friendly games. Their first home was a piece of waste ground at the Havelock Square beside Lansdowne Road and it cost them £6 to rent this playing area for a year.
It did not take long for Shels to become an integral part of working class life in Dublin where the principal recreation was following Bohemians and Shelbourne soccer teams. It was from Ringsend that the first support came and it was from that locality that it later got its biggest rivals, Shamrock Rovers. Clearly the Shels-Bohs tussles from those bygone days lent a special flavour to the contact whenever the teams met - and it still does. But the rivalry that transcended everything else was that between Shelbourne and Shamrock Rovers. There is no greater passion than a family rivalry. Shels and Rovers split families and though it never had anything of a Rangers/Celtic passion, there were times when the Ringsend lads could have told Arsenal and Spurs what a derby meant. Shels had an edge obviously by being the older of the two clubs. It was the oldest professional club in the country until Bohemians shed its amateur status in the 'Sixties. In fact, Shels were paying their playing staff since 1905 and were rewarded with a string of Leinster Senior Cups and Irish Cups in these early years.
The first success came to in 1896/'97 when they won the Leinster Junior League and Cup titles. In the next few years Shelbourne, having joined the ranks of the Leinster Senior League, won the Leinster Senior Cup with a 1-0 win over Freebooters in the Final of 1900. The Cup was retained the following year when keen rivals Bohemians were defeated 2-1.
Football in Ireland at this time was a 32-county affair, obviously, and against all the northern opposition Shels and Bohs and teams like James's Gate flew the Dublin Flag with pride. Upon joining the Irish League in 1905 Shels made it to the Final of the Irish Cup, but were beaten 3-0 by Distillery. On their return the following year, Shelbourne lifted the trophy with a 2-0 success over Belfast Celtic and in the process became the first Southern club to win the IFA Cup. Before severing links Shels would lift the trophy twice more (in 1911 and 1920).
One of the great stars of the time was Val Harris whose memory sixty years later was still evoking tones of wonder and bitter arguments behind the goal. He had won an Irish Cup medal with Shels in 1906 and was back with the Reds in the 1920's after a glittering career in England during which he had become the most famous Irish footballer of the age.
Founder members of the Football League of Ireland 1921 - 1938
The Club now had its own facilities at Shelbourne Park and were one of the original members on the formation of the Football League of Ireland in 1921. They marked that inaugral season with a capture of the Shield trophy. The first FAI Cup game Shels ever played was against West Ham (not the Londoners, but a rather more modest outfit from Belfast). They won that game but their first defeat in the Cup was not long delayed. It came a few weeks later when they went down 2-1 to St. James's Gate, the eventual winners that year (1922).
Shels went into the next FAI Cup in '23 with hopes high and great confidence of their first success. Val Harris wanted an FAI medal to add to the Irish Cup one of 1906. Another Shels legend 'Boxer' Foley who had won an Irish Cup medal in 1920, wanted his hands on the new Cup too. Shels were such hot favourites that day that the bookies wouldn't take bets against them versus Belfast team Alton United in the Final. However, Shels wilted under the pressure, were beaten 1-0, and the Club descended into a dark period in which the fans thought, with good reason, that they were jinxed in the Cup.
Back in the Final in 1925, again with Foley and Harris leading the charge, the Reds failed once more, this time at the hands of Shamrock Rovers in the first of the Ringsend derbies before a crowd of 23,000 at Dalymount Park. A year later Shelbourne became League of Ireland Champions with two points to spare over their Ringsend rivals. The Reds topped the League again in 1929 and 1931 but the Cup still eluded them.
Their excellent record of membership of the League of Ireland was broken only once when the Club were expelled in 1934 for refusing to fulfill a Sunday fixture. They were accepted back into the League two years later and have enjoyed unbroken membership since
FAI Cup "Jinx" 1939 - 1958
To say that Shels had a modest cup run over the years is a wild understatement. They have been in vastly more finals than they have won. However, fate decreed that the great and legendary Val Harris was the manager of the team which won them the FAI Cup for the first time in 1939.
Shels had another legendary player on the field that day. His name was William 'Sacky' Glen and he would retain a place forever in the hearts of all true Redsmen ( and of course Redswomen too). The contest that day included the greatest goal-scoring machine British football had ever seen, ex-Everton star Dixie Dean who was playing for the rival finalists Sligo Rovers. Goals by Dean and Shelbourne's Sammy Smyth necessitated a second game. A second minute goal from a brilliant free by 'Sacky' Glen decided the issue and for the first time Shelbourne ribbons decorated the silverware. Billy Little made history in being the first Cup winning captain of Shelbourne. 30,000 witnessed the spectacle, the FAI reported gate receipts of £1,680 and three months later World War 2 was declared.
Shels won their fourth league title in 1944 but were denied access to the 'Double' when again defeated under a 3-2 scoreline by Shamrock Rovers in the cup. In fact this was quite a controversial match which saw one of Shelbourne's stars of the day, the great Eddie Gannon scoring an own goal.
Following from another League championship in 1947, the Reds found themselves back in the Cup Final in 1949. Overtones of cockiness in the game against Dundalk saw the 'Lilywhites' prevail beyond the realms of expectancy on a 3-0 scoreline.
No further Cup glory was achieved in the 'Fifties despite sending the 1951 Final with Cork Athletic to a replay. A single Johnny Vaughan strike at Dalymount Park gave the silverware to the southerners. Shelbourne's only success in this decade was a League Championship win in 1952/'53.
Swinging Sixties 1959 - 1969
In 1959 ex-player Gerry Doyle was appointed manager/coach and under his astute guidance the most exciting young 'Reds' side was to emerge. He lived to the maxim that "if they are good enough, they are old enough". This youth policy proved fruitful in 1960, when the Cup was won again for the second time. This time they did it with an enthusiasm and a vigour that captured the fascinated attention of the country. Goals from Eric Barber and Joe Wilson sank the hopes of Cork Hibs in the Final and enlisted Theo Dunne as successor to Billy Little. Other instrumental players in the victory were Freddie Strahan, Jackie Hennessy, Ben Hannigan and Tony Dunne who's signing by Manchester United was not rubber-stamped until after the Final. Gerry taught his team to be 100 per cent Redsmen. There is proof in the fact that the goalkeeper on that Cup winning team is today's club chairman Finbarr Flood.
The League title came to rest with Shelbourne again in 1962 courtesy of Ben Hannigan's goal in a play-off with Cork Celtic. Doyle's 'babes', more mature and more hirsute by then, had another shot at the Cup that year with high expectations of 'Double' glory. But the Rovers hoodoo meant that the 1962 Final was no different from that of 1925 or 1944 as 32,000 people witnessed a 4-1 drubbing by the dreaded 'Hoops'.
A year later Shelbourne made up for the lapse and beat Cork Hibernians 2-1 courtesy of goals from half-back Paddy Roberts and full-back Paddy Bonham (penalty). Alas, it was generally downhill for Shels in the 'Sixties after that.
The Bleak Years 1970 - 1986
The 'Seventies had even more disappointment waiting to jump out and grab those who invested their football emotions in Shelbourne. Success on the field was nowhere to be seen and off the pitch the excitement was often of a legal nature.
Shelbourne were again up for the Cup in 1973, and having disposed of Cork Celtic in a three game semi-final that transported 'The Reds' to the Final via a Ben Hannigan goal, they now faced fellow Corkonians Hibernians in the Final. A goaless first meeting invested Flower Lodge as the first venue outside of Dublin to stage a Cup Final. A litany of injury problems, Eric Barber's sending-off and a Carl Humphries goal 7 minutes from time, cast Shelbourne in the role of bridesmaid once more. Incarnate of the side that day, both Ray O'Brien and goalkeeper Paddy Roche would later transfer to Manchester United.
A devastating loss to Home Farm in 1975 still brings a wispy tear to the eye for those in red and white. The Farm became the first amateurs in 40 years to lift the FAI Cup and are almost certain to be the last. The only goal was scored by Frank Devlin. The entire soccer world was shocked and Shels were shattered.
From then on, Shels went into a period of deep gloom. There were severe doubts that the Club would survive at all. The 'Seventies and 'Eighties were bleak years as the Club struggled against relegation and ultimately fell into the First Division at the end of season 1985/'86
Fortunes change for the Reds 1987 - 1995
But tradition counts for something and passion always has its admirers. Shels survived the vicissitudes of having no money, no ground and no success, regained Premier Division status in 1987 and finally found a champion in businessman Tony Donnelly who had no previous connection with football, but threw his money and his keeness into Shelbourne. Tolka Park was purchased and a major financial injection saw a modernisation of the ground not previously witnessed in League of Ireland football.
Pat Byrne, a true Shelsman was appointed player/manager in 1988, and his efforts to bring long awaited success paid dividends and bridged a 30 year wait with the capture of the League trophy in 1992. Two goals by Gary Haylock in a Cup semi-final replay against Derry City the following year put Pat's men in access of Cup glory for the first time in 18 years. Greg Costello's headed winner against Dundalk in Lansdowne Road was the essence of victory and a reformed Shelbourne.
Byrne's subsequent sacking and three further managerial changes over the next two years may have curbed the potential of this promising Shelbourne side. The sacking of Eamonn Gregg in November 1994 coincided with an alarming slide down the table and severe danger of relegation.
Englishman Colin Murphy took over at the helm and succeeded in achieving a remarkable run of results which meant the Reds were challenging eventual champions Dundalk until the last day of the 1994/'95 season. Murphy also brought the Reds back to Lansdowne Road for a meeting with Derry City, the losing finalists of the previous year. History must have dictated that Shelbourne were again to be runners up as they were defeated 2-1 in a very disappointing game. Shortly afterwards Murphy left Tolka Park to take the manager's job at Notts County
Centenary Season 1995/'96
The subsequent vacancy was enough to tempt Damien Richardson out of retirement from footballing activities and he was appointed manager at the beginning of Shelbourne's Centenary season 1995/'96. It wasn't long before he had brought back the traditional Shelbourne style and flair to the field of play which had been absent in Murphy's more direct long-ball approach.
After collecting the President's Cup in August the Reds won their first League Cup in November 1995 after a thrilling two-leg final versus Sligo Rovers. Trailing 1-0 from the first leg, Shelbourne fell further behind in the second leg before a brace from the Geoghegan brothers Declan and Stephen in the second half levelled the aggregate. When extra time failed to separate the sides a penalty shoot-out gave Shels their second Cup of the season
The Reds were in the running for the League title for most of the season until a bad run of results in March and April left them in fourth place. After being drawn away from home against Premier Division opposition in every round of the FAI Cup (including the holders Derry City), Shels again found themselves back in Lansdowne Road for a chance to make up for the Cup Final defeat in 1995. The opposition were champions St.Patrick's Athletic, seeking their first 'double'.
After just 19 minutes of a promising game, Shelbourne goalkeeper Alan Gough was sent off for handball outside the penalty box, and the game became a drab affair as St.Pats failed to take advantage of their numerical superiority. They managed a goal from a free-kick 15 minutes from time, but just as all Shelbourne folk thought they were yet again to receive the runners-up slot, a wonder strike from Irish U-21 International Tony Sheridan gifted the Reds a deserved replay in Dalymount Park. A week later goals from Sheridan and Stephen Geoghegan and a marvellous penalty save from "villan-turned-hero" Gough gave Shelbourne their 5th FAI Cup triumph and ensured a perfect ending to their Centenary Season.
It is to the credit of the present board and particularly to the late Tony Donnelly that the club is now regarded as the best-equipped in Ireland and a credit to the present secretary Ollie Byrne that it is regarded as especially dynamic. But whatever about the administrators and officials, a soccer club means nothing without the memory of the great players who were happy to wear the red and the great victories they achieved