Tomorrow sees Bohs first home League game of the season, and to coin a phrase, all has changed, changed utterly. We’re lucky to have a team on the pitch, never mind a team who, despite their youth, fight like lions for possession and give it their all as seen over the last couple of weeks in the Setanta Cup and our first League game against Derry. I don’t think anyone can be disappointed with the effort put in so far.
But, to the point. Tomorrow evening, at six o’clock or so, I’ll make the journey up North Circular Road. Coming to Mountjoy Prison or there-abouts, I’ll see the beacons in the distance that are the floodlights of Dalymount Park. And then I’ll start to get the jitters. They signify the start of something, generally a night of beer, shouting my head off, beer, football, camaraderie, beer, shouting my head off again and a sense of ‘home.’ They signify everything I love about this League, a feeling those who follow a foreign team might get if they were to make their yearly trip to Old Trafford or Anfield every week instead. But they don’t, and won’t ever feel it the same way. Its a feeling of pride/ despair/ love/ heartbreak/ joy/ pain. (Insert where appropriate.)
Anyways, the reason for this post. Yesterday, the seventh of March was the fiftieth anniversary of the installation of floodlights at Dalymount Park. One of the most striking features of the Phibsboro and indeed the North Dublin skyline has been around for a full half century. How old they are is anyone’s guess when you think the pylons themselves came from Arsenal second hand, and they were guest opposition on the event of their unveiling. Below is a scan of the programme cover from that night, shame I can’t find the match report.
So, for half a century, the phrase “just follow the floodlights” has been used when directing visitors to Dalymount. For half a century, people have been feeling that same feeling I do when I’m walking up the NCR on a Friday night. I can’t wait for it tomorrow, that feeling never grows old. This isn’t the end, and we told you so. Come on Bohs.
Cheers to Giofóg from thebohs.com messageboard’s Da for uploading the scan, and Dotsy for the picture above.
Click on the book for more.
Click on the book for more.
Donal
Ciarán
Sam
Come Here To Me! 
Shame yez will take a baiting from your nearest neighbours on such an occasion but shels should win this one easing up, sure tiz the only reason we came back!! c’mon the peggy dells…….
I used to think that when Bohs were in Phibsboro they were playing against Dalymount..
Great post! Not even a Bohs fan but I love the feeling you get walking up the North Circular and seeing the light from the floodlights. Even if it’s just a freezing cold Wednesday night in November and you’re going to watch Ireland U-19s, it’s a special feeling. It’s football, it’s going to a game and that’s what it’s all about.
Get the same feeling only it’s on the N81 at Tallaght . We share the same religion though .
“if they were to make that yearly trip to Old Trafford or Anfield every week. ”
A pedant writes: if they went every week, they’d be wasting their time half the time.
Butterflies already for tomorrow. For a while there in the early half of the last decade, Bohs/ Shels was a bigger game than Bohs/ Rovers.
By which I meant if they made their annual trip weekly instead of annual… Hmm. Yeah, I wrote a bit on the Bohs/ Shels derby here before! Can’t wait to be honest.
Enjoyed my only visit a few years back. Dalymount has the feel of a ‘proper’ old town football ground, tucked in behind Victorian houses. Not unlike St Andrew’s, Birmingham before its modernisation. You can almost touch its history. The support seems to be predominantly from within walking distance and the club is definitely one that the locals identify fiercely with. The night I was there they were pretty ugly too, caring nothing for the visiting (European) visitors silkier skills. Not a ground I fancy that other teams look forward to visiting!
as predicted a good win for the shels, after a slow start which bohez completely dominated but thats footie.
ps when i was a chiseler i used to ask my dad were those big lights the “high lights” !!
remember the loo laa’s that used to climb all the way up to the top at international or european games?
[…] Elsewhere in the Premier Division last night, last year’s European heroes Shamrock Rovers secured a good 3-1 win over Roddy Doyle’s Monaghan United. St. Patrick’s Athletic beat Dundalk 2-0 while Derry City demolished Bray Wandererd 4-0. In the big game in the capital, Shels took home the spoils beating Bohemains 2-0 in Dalymount, which this week celebrated its 50th anniversary of floodlit football. […]
First game I went to was at Dalymount, ’78 Cup Final when there was a terrace at the front of the Jodi so you were standing below pitch level. First international the following year against the USA when there was a flagpole over in the corner where the carpark is now. Big crowd in, some of whom pulled the Stars and Stripes down and burnt it.
Dalymount is as much a part of this city to me as anything even though I’m not a Bohs supporter (my eldest is). I remember as a kid you’d go past there and it didn’t even need to be match day – to see the Subutteo pylons towering over the houses always, always gave you that feeling that there was this fantastic world just waiting in behind the houses.
We were there on Friday again and it has to be said the Bohs crowd , for the most part, really appreciate what the young lads are trying to do. Having spent some time on Merseyside, and therefore Anfield (and Prenton Park), I can safely say the first poster is spot on. Once off trips are great, I’m not knocking them at all, but you can’t beat knowing it’s there for you every week.
If I knew the ins and outs on scanning I’d stick the programmes up, they’re worth a gawk. Which reminds me; most of our clubs are knocking out decent programmes with the supporters’ articles giving them a fanzine feel that draws you in to the genuine communal feel you get at the grounds – you could see that the way Alan Bird got such a good reception the other night.
Good piece, I m a Rovers fan but I can recognise Dalymounts place in Dublins cultural history and that picture at the top of the thread is a classic football photo. I don’t really know why but there has always been something magical about football stadiums surrounded by terraced houses.
Football belongs in working class, urban communities and despite the sad way Dalymount and Tolka, and Richmond too ( though that was never the same as the two northside venues in term of tradition or heritage) have failed to keep pace with Irish society and ‘progress’ both venues still conjur up images of better days in Irish football. Respect!
A bit of Bohs history. If anyone has any more info on Sam I’d appreciated it.
Sam Robinson ROI
Sam Robinson RIP
The only reference I’ve found to Sam Robinson is him being mentioned in an article by Stephen Burke written for the Centenary celebration match programme when they played Celtic in August 1990. The article is ‘A Very Potted History of the Bohemian FC’ and it simply lists Harry Cannon, Sam and Christy Robinson, Jack McCarthy, Johnny McMahon, Jimmy Bermingham, Billy Dennis and Jimmy White as members of ‘probably the most remarkable of their amateur sides’.
It’s accompanied by a picture from a 1953 Bohs v Celtic game. It features both teams, many of the players are not identified and SB includes a request for help spotting who’s who.
Thanks Niall
I came across a direct descendent of his running a business on the South Side (deh traitor :_)). By coincidence I’ve also located a woman who says she has a photo of the team. If I get it I’ll post it here. Apparently Jerimiah “Sam” who played for Bohs and died in 1985 fought with Michael Collins. That was according to his daughter who died last year aged 85. This is his headstone in Glasnevin which say’s “Capt. Jeremiah Sam Robinson”
http://pix.ie/frpost/2780232/size/800
[…] to their thing; the Tivoli Carpark, Richmond Villas, Liberty Lane and Windmill Lane. A look at the history of Dalymount Park’s Floodlights, a beautiful plaque dedicated to the Irish Volunteers in Wynn’s Hotel, and a look at how they […]
Hi my name is David Needham writer of “Ireland’s First Real World Cup – The Story of the 1924 Ireland Olympic Team”. During my research I came across the story of Jeremiah “Sam” Robinson and his older brother, Christy – the first two brothers to play for an Ireland team selected by the FAI. Both were also members of the legendary Bohemians team of 1927-28 that are mentioned above. The 1911 census lists the Robinson family living on Arran Street East in the centre of Dublin. Ages given suggest that Christy Robinson was born in 1902 while Jeremiah was born around 1904. They lived with his their widowed mother, Elizabeth Robinson, who worked as a fish dealer, and their mother’s sister, Christina Kennedy. They also had an older sister, Mary. Christy Robinson has the distinction of scoring Bohemians first ever goal in the FAI Cup when he scored the opener in a 7-1 win over Athlone Town on January 28 1922. In 1922-23 he was Bohemians top scorer in the League of Ireland with 14 goals and in 1923-24 he was a member of the Bohemians team that won the League of Ireland double –the title itself plus the old LoI Shield. Christy, who could play as either an inside or outside right, scored a further 12 league goals during this campaign. 1923-24 also saw Robinson play for the Pioneers XI against Gallia and for the League of Ireland XI in their first official game against the Welsh Football League XI. He was also included in the Ireland squad for the 1924 Olympic Football Tournament. He did not actually play in the tournament itself but did play and score in a friendly against Estonia on June 4 1924. Like his older brother, Christy, Jeremiah would also go onto become an Ireland international. The Robinson brothers thus became the first brothers to both play for an FAI Ireland team. While Christy only managed to make just one Ireland appearance, the younger Robinson brother went one better. On February 12 1928 he partnered Jack McCarthy in defence in the 4-2 away win against Belgium. After joining Dolphin, Jeremiah won his second Ireland cap in the 1-1 draw away to Spain on April 26 1931. While Christy Robinson did not win any further international honours, he did however go to play in other representative games. In addition to playing for Bohemians in the League of Ireland, the Robinson brothers also turned out regularly for Bendigo in the Leinster Senior League and it was as a Bendigo player that Christy featured in a significant inter-league game. On November 7 1925 at Dalymount Park, Christy played for a Leinster Senior League XI against a Northern Ireland Intermediate League XI. These leagues were effectively the second divisions in the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland respectively. The Northerners won 4-0 but the result itself was not the most significant part of this occasion. It was the first time since the split that IFA and FAI representative teams had met and it marked the beginning of a normalisation of relations between the two rival associations. I never came across any mention of Robinson serving with Collins but a 1st Lieutentant Jeremiah Robinson, aged 21, is listed on the Irish Army census as serving with National Army in November 1922. His wife is listed as living at Mountjoy Street.
Hello David
I have a photo of Sams headstone in Glasnevin. He’s named as Captain Jeremiah Sam Robinson who died at 69 Swords Road on 23 December 1985 aged 81. His wife was Kate “Kitty” Glynn who died on 23 July 1971. Sam was born at 31 East Arran Street. Sam’s father died when Sam was only 1 year old leaving his mother Lizzie (Kennedy), a fish dealer, to raise the children alone with the aid of her sister. She was a very successful fish deal and when Sam, threw his daughter Maureen bodily out of the house for the “crime” of getting pregnant Lizzie, her grandmother, was able to buy her a house in Little Strand street just off East Arran St (formerly Boot Lane). Sam’s great grandfather, William Robinson, a stocking hosier, lived at 9 Boot Lane in the early 1800’s.
Christopher his brother was born in 1902 and their sister Mary in 1899 and a brother Charles was born in 1903. Sam, as far as I can remember, was a lookout for members of the Squad who had set up a cover operation in Abbey Street posing as joiners or carpenters. I have no idea how be became a Captain. Sam was a relative of William Robinson of Little Britain Street, who, sitting up a tree at the Canal end of Croke park at age 11, was the first person to die on Bloody Sunday.
Hi FXR and David
I have stumbled across your discussion of Sam Robinson and wonder if you might have further information to share. While I am aware of what you have discussed above, my father, the youngest son of Sam (brother of Maureen mentioned above) is always eager to confirm the stories he had heard growing up and to collect some of his family’s history. If you have any information that might be of interest I would appreciate it.
Many thanks
Hello Colleen
I got your message. If anyone else has any info or is interested in the family tree contact me at dubusa@hotmail.com. Put Robinson in the subject line.