Come Here To Me!

Dublin Rule O.K (Image Credit: Dublin City Public Libraries/DCC)

Our friends at The Little Museum of Dublin are gearing up for a new exhibition that will explore the glory days of Dublin GAA in the 1970s and 80s, and the loyal band of supporters known as ‘Heffo’s Army’. It’s an important bit of Dublin social history, and something we’ve looked at briefly on the site before.

‘Heffo’s Army’ made their presence felt everywhere they went. One journalist who watched Dublin away in Longford in 1977 wrote that:

It was like being in the Kop or at Old Trafford. “Give me a D, give me a U, give me a B,give me an L, give me an I, give me an N!” roared the conductor perched high up in the steel girders on the roof of the stand and the sound reverberated all around the ground. ‘Molly Malone’, ‘The Likes of Heffo’s Army’ and ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ were followed by ‘Go home ye bums, go home.’ And then there was provocative chants about the Dubs being the only football team in the land, and “The rest are no fucking good.”

As Museum Curator Simon O’Connor notes, this forthcoming exhibition isn’t just intended to be a look at the team and their successes, but the effect they had on the life of the city and the GAA in Dublin. While there are plenty of items which tell the story of the success of the team on the pitch, what is missing are

…fan mementos, home-made supporter material like flags, buttons, even small fanzines supporters may have made at the time. I wonder if any of your blog’s readers might have anything like that? The story of the time is as interesting in terms of fans as it is in terms of the games and teams themselves.

We’d be looking for items on loan, for a three month period, and would take them in the coming weeks – all items loaned would be insured and returned by mid June, with lenders acknowledged in the credits section of the exhibition.

Drop Simon an email at simon(at)littlemuseum(dot)ie if you think you can help.

(Image Credit: Evening Herald)