Shelbourne look back on very eventful 120 years

DUBLIN’S Lord Mayor, Cllr Críona Ní Dhálaigh, recently unveiled a plaque outside Slattery’s pub which sits at the junction of Shelbourne Road and Bath Avenue in Ringsend. 

It commemorates the founding of Shelbourne Football Club by a group of dockers who took the name for the club from one of those two roads in 1895. Apparently, they decided which road would get that honour by the toss of a coin.

The club got off to a flying start, winning 25 of their 28 matches in that first season. They scored 109 goals while conceding just 15. 

The intervening 120 years have seen the ups and downs that are the story of all League of Ireland clubs.

But Shelbourne supporters like to remember high points, like winning their 13th league title in 2006, or the 2004 Champions League match when a 22-year-old Wes Hoolahan dominated midfield against Deportivo La Coruña in Lansdowne Road. 

That spell of success began when Tony Donnelly enabled the club to establish themselves in Tolka Park in 1989 and buses brought supporters – including a young Robbie Keane – from as far afield as Donaghmede and Tallaght as the trophy cabinet began to fill up.

The club’s travails in recent years are well documented but the group of people who took over the running of the club following Ollie Byrne’s death in 2007, supported by the Shelbourne Supporters’ Development Group, have ensured their survival against the odds. 

Shelbourne’s youth sections – both boys and girls – have been hugely successful. And this year, Shelbourne Ladies FC entered the Women’s National League for the first time. 

The women have emulated the achievements of their male counterparts back in 1895 with a blistering first season to date. They won their first league match 9-1 and have made it to the Women’s FAI Cup Final which will take place in the Aviva Stadium on November 8 and will be televised live. 

Incidentally, their opponents in the semi final were Shelbourne’s U18 Girls who had defeated Castlebar Celtic’s and Cork City’s senior sides to get there. 

Shelbourne have the distinction of being the only club in the country that offers a complete pathway for male and female players, from when they begin to play organised football as children, all the way to the highest level of senior soccer in Ireland.

Shelbourne’s League of Ireland campaign drew to a close recently with a 2-0 victory over Cobh Ramblers in Tolka Park. That game saw children from the direct provision centre at Mosney invited to watch the match and meet the players afterwards. 

Shelbourne’s chairman, Joe Casey, sees initiatives like this as key to the club’s future.

“We want to do more to increase the connection between the club and the community around us and to attract families to Tolka Park,” he says. “We’ve already started work on our plans to introduce a family section for next season and we’re confident that sponsors will come on board to help us offer an enjoyable match night for families.”