The history of the beautiful game in Ireland as a whole is a complicated issue due to the country’s separation into Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. In today’s article, we will look at the origins of the game in the country as a whole.
The early history of the game in Ireland
Labeled group photo of the Ireland national association football team in 1898 – Benson, Belfast (no individual credited), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
When it comes to association, football, sometimes referred to as soccer to avoid confusion with Gaelic Football, is regarded as the second most popular sport in the Republic of Ireland, with the Gaelic form of the game considered the national sport.
Football, as we know, is also the third most popular spectator sport in the Republic after Gaelic football and hurling. Unfortunately for football in Ireland, many football fans take a keen interest in the English Premier League and are regular visitors to English top-flight clubs, with reportedly over 100,000 Irish fans per year visiting UK grounds.
Association football became popular in Ireland in the late 1870s and early 1880s, although the game is believed to have been played in different forms in the country since the 17th century.
In its early days, as the game we know it now, it was mostly played around Dublin, now the capital city of the Republic of Ireland. However, it eventually spread to the rest of the country, with clubs all over the country, including in the north.
Clubs from the Republic and the North originally played in the Irish Football League, which was founded in 1890. Clubs from the Republic, Bohemians, Shelbourne, and Tritonville all appeared in the league.
However, the league is now called the Northern Ireland Football League, which is the top-flight of football in the north.
In 1921, after Ireland was partitioned, the League of Ireland was formed, and the league is now known as the League of Ireland Premier Division.
The two oldest football associations in the Republic of Ireland are the Leinster Senior League, formed in 1896, and the Munster Senior League, established in the early 1900s.
The Irish Football Association (IFA), founded in 1880 in Northern Ireland, still exists and organises football in the country, including the national team.
A complicated international history
LlGC ~ NLW, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
International football has a complicated past in Ireland. The country, fielding a team from both the north and the south of the country, played its first game in 1880. The Irish national team is considered one of the oldest international teams in the world.
The national team were inducted into FIFA in 1919 and UEFA in 1954, but by the time of the latter they were playing as just Northern Ireland.
The 1921 partition of the country that saw the country split into the North and the Irish Free State (Now the Republic) saw a change in how international football was played in Ireland.
The Irish Free State gained its own footballing body in June 1921, with the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) formed in Dublin.
In 1923, FIFA recognised the Free State as an independent body and admitted it to the organisation. The team made its international debut in 1924.
Players from both sides of the Irish divide were still representing both national teams at international level until 1950. FIFA then made it slightly more official in 1953 by directing the two countries only to pick players from their own parts of the now-divided Ireland.
As separate international teams, both have competed in major tournaments, including the World Cup. Northern Ireland reached the quarter-finals of the biggest international tournament in 1958, which is still their best achievement in the game.
The Republic of Ireland matched Northern Ireland’s achievement at the 1990 World Cup in their debut appearance in the competition. In more recent years, both teams made it to the last-16 of the European Championships in 2016
