Irish Sports
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Is that not many want to pay to see non premiership footballers being paid to kick a ball about .
Afraid that's the way it has been for 50 years plus . Only viable set-up died when Belfast Celtic were "kicked out" in late forties . Up to that crowds of 20,000 plus were commonplace and not the preserve of the English and Scottish clubs . But in those days there was a "maximum "wage which was ludicrous in my opinion . One mult-international of my acquaintance played for one of the big two in those days , he was paid £4 a week ( by a club notorious for their tight fistedness ) . The other of the big two offered him £8 , he jumped ship causing a furore at the time , but who could blame him ?
Derry City , now ( Lisburn ) Distillery , have been in the news , players not being paid etc . Truth is , if you have little income and are dependent on "handouts --described as sponsorship " , you cant afford to PAY players . First rule of economics .
When are the people in charge going to face facts and revert to amateur status or semi-pro . Soccer in Ireland will never attract crowds when the only aspiration most of those who play for them is to be "spotted" so they can go and play in England ( or Scotland ) . That is sad in itself , but its the truth .
Irish horse racing ( N H variety mainly ) used to be predicated on the "English shop window " principle . Thank goodness those in the industry had a look at themselves and decided to "go it alone , lets keep the good ones at home " . Has worked , but cant see the soccer people being as skilful , truth is they have not the vision .
There is no counter attraction in England (such as gaelic football and hurling ) to soccer . Apart from rugby ( and English rugby teams to me at present are a by-word for the definition of boredom ) soccer is the only game in England , and will always thrive as there is little comparable alternative . But we do have alternatives , Gaelic games and rugby mainly ,essentially amateur at all but high levels , and they are more attractive at nearly all levels than soccer . The public here know that , just examine weekly attendances and look at the relative facilities available in most villages and small towns throughout Ireland .
In the North ,nearly all the soccer pitches are owned by the public councils ( and funded at the tax-payers expense ) , the Gaelic pitches are privately owned and funded by the GAA members . Who has got it right ?
Not just having a pop at the soccer heads , but any of them who are satisfied with current set-up and not advocates of some radical change need counselling in my opinion .
Any debate ?
Afraid that's the way it has been for 50 years plus . Only viable set-up died when Belfast Celtic were "kicked out" in late forties . Up to that crowds of 20,000 plus were commonplace and not the preserve of the English and Scottish clubs . But in those days there was a "maximum "wage which was ludicrous in my opinion . One mult-international of my acquaintance played for one of the big two in those days , he was paid £4 a week ( by a club notorious for their tight fistedness ) . The other of the big two offered him £8 , he jumped ship causing a furore at the time , but who could blame him ?
Derry City , now ( Lisburn ) Distillery , have been in the news , players not being paid etc . Truth is , if you have little income and are dependent on "handouts --described as sponsorship " , you cant afford to PAY players . First rule of economics .
When are the people in charge going to face facts and revert to amateur status or semi-pro . Soccer in Ireland will never attract crowds when the only aspiration most of those who play for them is to be "spotted" so they can go and play in England ( or Scotland ) . That is sad in itself , but its the truth .
Irish horse racing ( N H variety mainly ) used to be predicated on the "English shop window " principle . Thank goodness those in the industry had a look at themselves and decided to "go it alone , lets keep the good ones at home " . Has worked , but cant see the soccer people being as skilful , truth is they have not the vision .
There is no counter attraction in England (such as gaelic football and hurling ) to soccer . Apart from rugby ( and English rugby teams to me at present are a by-word for the definition of boredom ) soccer is the only game in England , and will always thrive as there is little comparable alternative . But we do have alternatives , Gaelic games and rugby mainly ,essentially amateur at all but high levels , and they are more attractive at nearly all levels than soccer . The public here know that , just examine weekly attendances and look at the relative facilities available in most villages and small towns throughout Ireland .
In the North ,nearly all the soccer pitches are owned by the public councils ( and funded at the tax-payers expense ) , the Gaelic pitches are privately owned and funded by the GAA members . Who has got it right ?
Not just having a pop at the soccer heads , but any of them who are satisfied with current set-up and not advocates of some radical change need counselling in my opinion .
Any debate ?
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it's better than the Africans Nations Cup ]:)
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2 items caught my attension kelly, 1 you state horse racing caught itself on and kept horses on this side of irish sea , my answer to that is the celtic tiger pure and simple .more people could afford to keep their horses here plus loads of new owners , i.e. builders remember them ,syndicates lots of lads with spare cash to spare and wha better place to be seen than th parade ring at the curragh , so the real turing point for horse racing was self explanatory . re soccer , football was the dublin working mans day out .early 40 50 60s massive crowds to be seen at most dublin games .come the invention of colour tv in late 60s early 70s and the loss of drumcondra etc soccer started to lose its support on the north side of the city , bohs were relatively unknown in the early 60s amatuer club very little support . dublin people started to have english football beamed into the sitting room most sat nights plus a game most sundays .unfortunetley for irish soccer it never recovered .irish football will always be a shop window for english clubs to come a plucking the best from our football sad to say .that is just my opinion i'm sure there are better informed than me with there own views.
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Workrider , the Celtic Tiger was a factor allright in Irish NH horse owners keeping most of the best at home , but there was still an element of the selling to England mentality . This was not true in Irish flat racing circles , thanks mainly to Coolmore as it became , who via the efforts of Vincent and co became the stand alone model for lots of others .
Reference the Dublin working class and colour TV's etc , I worked in Dulin in early sixties , before the advent of colour TV in Ireland , or possibly TV of any denomination , saw little evidence then of huge interest or attendances at soccer matches . Big attendances at Lansdowne and Croke Park , but Dalymount was not in that league ( went there once , that was enough ) . Only soccer well supported in southern Ireland in my memory was the national one instigated by Jack Charlton's successful team . The Dublin working class , presumably emotionally attached to soccer , Gaelic football , and occasionally hurling were always a fickle lot regarding support . Went to a NFL game in Newcastle in mid eighties , versus Down . There were about 100 Dublin supporters there , I was in among them and they were died in the wool supporters , fair play to them . They told me that at their last match away they were able to name every person on the 2 buses bringing them to the match . Inside a few years there were 100,00 looking for tickets for Croker . Dont think the soccer supporters were a lot different . |
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kelly ,re early 60s soccer remember going to milltown as a kid , the place was always full. min 10,000 in those days . most grounds were full , well every game against rovers anyway .were as coolmore just might be responcesible for owners keeping their flat horses in ireland ,the irish still have lots of horses in england atm .
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Yeah Shamrock Rovers were well supported around that time Workrider , probably because they won nearly everything as I remember . Never discovered where Milltown was myself , I lived firmly in Dublin 4 ( before it became Dublin 4 ) , within walking distance of Lansdowne , and Croke Park was a short walk from O'Connell street , as was Dalymount .
Liam Tuohy was a name that I remember , what was his era ? |
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60s was liams era if i remember rightly , if you lived in dublin 4 you would have been about 20 mins max from milltown :) its a funny old world eh . liam went on to play for newcastle utd . rovers drew massive crowds were ever they played . 6d into milltown .i got a shilling pocketmoney in those days.
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bohs were relatively unknown in the early 60s amatuer club very little support
You couldn`t resist a pop wr. Yawn. This link proves there wasn`t much to entertain us Dubs back in the rare oul times. http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=29496 :D |
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No car in those days , Workrider , depended on public transport, even to get to play golf . So it might have been 20 mins , but effectively other side of moon .
Came home late one night from Bray , last bus , clubs over my shoulder , stopped by 2 Garda who seldom saw that . In those days there were Garda on foot near city centre . |
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http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=2947
Here`s something to keep you happy wr! Those were the days,eh? When you won something! :^0 |
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giant i have to trust you on that , not exactly an expert on computer so will have to wait till ither daughter or son return from work and let them show me :) kelly i remember those days all to well my friend , relying on someone for a lift to play golf .its funny really but i'm off to buy myself a car today :)i'm 30 yrs married today so its about time i got rid of the old bike and bought a car :) the hills are killing me .
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enjoyed it giant , hard to belive the crowds :)
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