Come Here To Me!

Pearse Street Play Centre kick about, at Pearse Square. Dublin City Public Libraries (for more footballing images from the city collections see here)

Soccer was Sheriff Street – that’s all we played there. Soccer was working class. Soccer was ballet. Soccer was skill. Soccer made sense. Soccer was Manchester United. Soccer was the Busby Babes. Soccer was the Munich Air Disaster. Soccer was grief. Soccer was joy. Soccer was Spurs doing the double. Soccer was the past and the present. Soccer was Jackie Carey and Liam Whelan and Noel Cantwell. Soccer was Drums and Shelbourne and Shamrock Rovers and Saint Pat’s. Soccer was Tolka Park on a Sunday with Shea and Johnny and Da. Soccer was Dundalk and Ma crying when they won the FAI Cup. Soccer was life itself…

So writes Peter Sheridan in Forty Four: A Dublin Memoir. Perhaps nobody has captured what football means to this city so elegantly.

Póg Mo Goal is a beautifully produced football magazine, from right here in Dublin. With an emphasis both on the local game and football culture internationally, it occupies a unique place in the world of Irish print magazines, while it also enjoys a lot of support from fans of good design, owing to the emphasis on the aesthetics of the publication. It looks – and reads – unlike any other football magazine this island has ever witnessed.

With a strong emphasis on fan culture, articles have examined things as diverse as the European ‘Ultras’ movement, football in war-torn regions, fan ownership of clubs and more besides. There’s plenty of strong historical content, and I tip my hat especially in the direction of Cian Manning.

I’ve been fortunate to write some pieces for Póg Mo Goal to date, ranging from Dublin City FC (RIP), to the history of women’s football in Ireland (big up to the Ballyfermot All Stars and Finglas side Suffragettes FC!) as well as a piece on Pier Paolo Pasolini’s love of the beautiful game, something entirely different from the norm for me.

The latest edition of Póg Mo Goal is Issue 5. The magazine, which is published annually(ish), has taken a new direction, moving from newspaper format to a spined magazine. Writers include Kevin Brannigan, Jelena Đureinović, Edd Norval and Mé Féin on ‘Gentleman John’, the great Jackie Carey. You can support the magazine here, and you can even buy a brilliant John Aldridge t-shirt while you’re at it.