Come Here To Me!

Irish Independent, 12 February 1958.

This year marks the sixtieth anniversary of the Munich Air Disaster which claimed the lives of twenty-three people. On 6 February 1958, British European Airways Flight 609 crashed while attempting to take off in poor conditions at Munich-Riem Airport. Among the dead were eight of the Busby Babes, the remarkable young football side built by manager Matt Busby. It was a team that commentator Eamon Dunphy has recalled as being “proud, young and fearless.” The heartbreak in Manchester led to thousands taking to the streets there when bodies returned, with the Irish Examiner noting how “more than 100,000 people – men, women and children – lined the streets of the route from the airport to the ground in the biggest ever tribute paid by the people of Manchester.” The grief was not restricted to the red side of that city either, as Manchester City legend Frank Swift was also killed in the disaster.

One of the lives lost that day was Liam Whelan, a twenty-two year old from Cabra who had previously played with Home Farm in Whitehall. The return of his body to Ireland and subsequent funeral was a phenomenal spectacle, bringing Dublin’s northside to a halt. Bertie Ahern recalls the event in his autobiography:

Manchester United meant nothing to me as a six-year-old, but we were all brought out on the day of the funeral when it was on its way back in from the Christ the King in Cabra. We’re all very proud round here that he played for Home Farm longer than he played for United. He’s very much a local hero.It was a few years later before Manchester United started to reckon with me. At that stage, I was more interested in Drumcondra in the League of Ireland because they were the local side.

In signing for Manchester United in 1953, Whelan had followed in a long Irish tradition that began with Dubliner Patrick O’Connell in 1914. In a more contemporary sense, he followed the great Johnny Carey, who amassed more than 400 appearances for the club between 1936 and 1953, and whose escapades were closely followed in the Irish press.

Liam Whelan (Image Credit: Manchester United Football Club Archive)

The success of Busby’s United side – and the wonderful football they played – excited many in Ireland. More than forty thousand fans crammed into Dalymount Park in September 1957 to watch the side take on Shamrock Rovers in a competitive European clash. A hopeful sports reporter noted that “though a Dublin man and a Six-County man are in the visiting party, a good display will mean a lot to the prestige of Irish football.” Matt Busby – treating Rovers with a respect some in the English press felt they didn’t deserve – traveled to Dublin the week before the clash to watch the side, telling readers of his Evening Chronicle column in Manchester that “the Shamrock boys played some really grand football – no kick and rush and no unfair tactics. They showed good team work and a confidence born of a long run of success.” In the end, United ran out clear winners, with Whelan scoring twice in a six-nil victory. Rovers player Gerry Mackey remembered that there wasn’t much of a contest in the end, as “we ran ourselves into the ground. They scored three of their goals when we just couldn’t stand up anymore.” Mackey’s fellow Hoop Jimmy McCann recalled:

I can remember the crowds trying to get up the lane at Dalymount to get into the changing rooms. You had to almost beat your way up.

‘The whole country went bananas when Shamrock Rovers were drawn to play Manchester United. They had lots of great players such as David Pegg, Johnny Berry, and, of course, Duncan Edwards and Liam.

There was no shame in the defeat against such a superior side. United’s strikers just couldn’t stop scoring, leading the Sunday Independent to quip that “next to petrol, the most valuable commodity in England today is probably the Manchester United forward line.”

Evening Herald front page following the disaster,

When news of the tragedy reached Dublin, people began to gather at the Whelan family home in Cabra. The Irish Press reported that:

The tragic news of Liam Whelan’s death reached his family home at St.Attracta Road, Cabra,late last night, after hours of agonised waiting by his family… From the time the first reports of the disaster reached Dublin, crowds gathered at the Whelan home and phone calls for news of Liam were put through to Manchester at regular intervals on a phone in a neighbour’s house. Schoolboy friends waited silently, hoping against hope for the word that he survived.

Thousands lined the route as Whelan’s body arrived home on 10 February, taken from Dublin Airport to the Christ the King Church in Cabra. At the airport,a guard of honour from the Aer Lingus Association Football Club honoured the dead footballer. A larger guard of honour, made up of more than 250 players and volunteers from Home Farm awaited the body at Whitehall. Johnny Giles, then a young Manchester United player who would come to prominence in the aftermath of the tragedy, remembered that “Dublin, like Manchester, was under a pall of gloom. It couldn’t be any other way in a city with such a football tradition, a city full of kids like me, dreaming of playing for Manchester United.”

Liam’s funeral mass was delivered by Rev C. Mulholland,an RAF chaplain from England and a personal friend who was scheduled to have married the young footballer to his finance Ruby McCullough only a few short months later. The church, packed to capacity, included FAI President and Minister for Justice Oscar Traynor in its congregation, as well as representatives from right across the English and Irish footballing leagues. Sympathies came from GAA clubs too, with one spokesperson emphasising that “the players killed in the crash might have differed from us in their ideals, but they were sportsmen.”Liam’s body made the short journey from Cabra to Glasnevin Cemetery. To this very day, fans continue to leave United scarves and jerseys upon it.

The strong local pride in Liam Whelan is today reflected in the naming of  Cabra’s Liam Whelan Bridge, which includes a commemorative plaque unveiled by fellow Busby Babe Bobby Charlton in 2006. The Busby Babes would be remembered in poem and song, with Dubliner Dominic Behan penning ‘Manchester Mourns’ in the aftermath of the tragedy, while decades later Morrissey would sing of how “We love them, we mourn for them, unlucky boys of red.”

The outpouring of grief around Liam’s passing in Ireland – coupled with the spectacle of a packed Dalymount Park when the Busby Babes had played here just prior to the tragedy – no doubt contributed enormously to the support base Manchester United succeeded in building in this city, at a time when televised football (or even televisions!) remained a distant dream for many here.

Liam Whelan Bridge commemorative plaque, unveiled in 2006.