The Colourful History of Shelbourne Stadium, Ringsend

 

Every Saturday night between 8pm and 10pm the place to be in Dublin is greyhound racing at Shelbourne Park. Located on South Lotts Road which itself dates back to 1721, the stadium has become a mecca of sports and gambling. But while today those guests sitting in the park’s excellent restaurant see it associated solely as a greyhound venue, it has a very colourful sporting past.

 

Just like its Northside cousin Croke Park, the stadium originally began life as a soccer ground. The area became a derelict site following the departure of the Dublin Cement and Stone Company, the original of Roadstone and todays Irish Cement. The original home of Shelbourne FC and the venue originally known as Shelbourne Park was on Sandymount Road where the houses of Seafort Gardens are today. Shelbourne had opened that stadium in 1906. Those grounds were also home to another local club the Freebooters FC, hosted international matches and British Army Regiment tournaments. With the decision made to build houses for ex British Army personnel on that site, Shelbourne had to find a new home. With the cement firm departed from the South Lotts Road site, Shelbourne turned their attention to it. But before anything could be built, the site found itself in the headlines and in High Court action when a group of 30-40 Hungarian Gipsies, who had arrived from England, took over the site, erecting tents and carrying on their blacksmithing from the site. Initially the trespassers did not have running water or toilet facilities but the Pembroke Council installed a water tap for the squatters. The owners and the local DMP failed to get the encampment to move on and went to the High Court for an injunction which was granted when nobody from the Gipsies or their representatives appeared in court. When the process server arrived at the Ringsend site with the injunction the encampment had moved on, arriving in the docks area on the Northside of the city.

Once the site had been cleared, the new Shelbourne Limited employed architect John Hamden Shaw to design a new stadium for Ringsend. According to his obituary in 1932 they said that Shaw,

‘had been interested in all branches of sport, but especially racing, dog racing, cycling, breeding dogs, poultry etc’.

 

It became the home of Shelbourne FC pre-season in 1913. A trial match took place on August 16^th when Shelbourne played a Leinster League select eleven. At that time Shelbourne played in the all-Ireland Irish Football league and their first league match was a one all draw with fellow Dubliners Bohemians. The ground was operated by the Shelbourne Sports Company Limited and many various fund raising activities took place in the first couple of years to pay for and extend the facilities at the ground. In March 1914 Manchester United played their first ever match in Dublin.

 

Managed by John Bentley, there was some disappointment that United’s star player Welsh International Billy Meridith did not travel. On the same day the Irish Cup final was being contested in Belfast between Linfield and Glentoran, meanwhile the game in Dublin kicked off at 3.30, almost thirty minutes late as the crowds tried to get in. The reporters stated that Manchester were ‘playing beautiful football’ and that ‘Manchester gave a great exhibition of how the game should be played’ but yet the two teams went into half time scoreless. Before the end of the first half striker George Wall was carried off injured for United, they were down to ten men. The second half began in a torrential downpour and the visitors were down to nine men as John Hodge failed to make it out of the United dressing room. Just five minutes into the second half George Anderson scored the only goal of the game beating the Shelbourne goalkeeper Walter Scott. Anderson was United’s top goal scorer having scored 34 goals in 74 appearances for the club. The keeper beaten was English born Scott, he would set the record of being the first goalkeeper to save three penalties in one game when playing for Grimsby against Burnley. Shortly after his spell with Shelbourne ended and he returned to England where he joined the British army during the First World War and served in the Mechanical Transport Regiment.

 

United ended the match with the nine men and defended bravely as Shelbourne went in search of an equalizer. Beale saved a ‘stinging’ shot from Sheridan, the ball then fell to Carmichael whose shot crashed off the crossbar and was then cleared downfield by the keeper. Substitutions in soccer were not officially introduced until 1958.

 

United would finish fourteenth in the English first division for the 1913\14 season, the league was won by Blackburn Rovers. That same season, as soccer was an All-Ireland league, Shelbourne won the Leinster Senior Cup for the second season running and finished fifth in the Irish League. On the day they returned on the boat from Dublin, newspapers reported that United had been fined £20 for ‘playing Sergeant J. Rowe of the East Surrey Regiment, stationed in Dublin, without due notice to the officer commanding as per Rule 37. Rowe took part in a match for that club under an assumed name’.

 

While the major stars of Shelbourne took on the Red Devils, a weakened team took to the field in the Leinster Senior League at the same time away to St. James Gate. With the sports reporting that ‘the visitors were poorly represented and never extended the home lot’ and that ‘Shelbourne were seldom dangerous.’ Shels lost their second game of the day in front of a poor crowd six goals to one. The teams:

Shelbourne - Walter Scott; Arthur Linkson; William Watson; Dan McLoughlin; Harry Leddy; Ned McGuinness; (?) Fraser; Bob Carmichael; Jimmy ‘Paddy’ Sheridan; (?) Grant and David Neave.

Manchester United - Robert Beale; John Hodge; George Stacey; Joe Haywood; George Hunter; Michael Hamill; Joe Norton; Arthur Potts; George Anderson; Wilf Woodcock and George Wall.

For the complete story of Manchester United's first visit to Dublin 90 years ago, check out an article in the forthcoming Ireland's Own.

Interestingly while the Dublin newspapers reported that Shelbourne’s full back was ‘Arthur Linkson’, this was in fact a Manchester United player Oscar Linkson who had just transferred across the Irish Sea to Ireland. Oscar Horace Stanley Linkson was born on March 16th 1888. He played with Manchester United for five years from 1908 to 1913 before moving to Shelbourne where he would spend a year before the outbreak of the First World War however, he joined the British Army and in August 1916 he went missing during the Battle of the Somme and he was presumed dead. His first game for Shelbourne was against his former club.

Oscar Linkson

Meanwhile as envisaged by Shaw, the ground could be used for more than soccer and create other streams of income for the club. On May 23^rd a fifteen mile challenge race was run featuring Irish international running sensations Charlie Harris and Paddy Fagan. A track around the pitch was used on summer Wednesday evenings for trotting and whippet racing. Trotting on a Friday would cost one schilling admission while to enter your pony cost £1 but there was a prize of £30 if you got through the qualifying rounds. It proved extremely popular.

 

Over the following decades Shelbourne’s home venue was also used by the Football Association of Ireland following the establishment of the Irish Free State and the split from the IFA in Belfast, as home of both semi finals and finals of the FAI Cup including an enthralling final in April 1929 between Shamrock Rovers and Bohemians. Shelbourne remained at the ground until the 1948/49 season when Shelbourne’s last match against Waterford ended just like their first in a draw.

In September 1921 the then titled President of Ireland Eamon DeValera officially opened a Fete that featured a new concept, a seven a side Gaelic football tournament. Competing were Keatings, Geraldines, Milltown Emmets, Rossa’s, Collegians and O’Toole’s. Keatings beat Milltown in the final. The fete was billed as having the ‘best of outdoor and indoor attractions’ the indoor featured Irish dancing Feis, a Ceili and a cinema.

 

As a greyhound venue it was Ireland’s second after the opening of Celtic Park in Belfast. Greyhound racing began on May 14^th 1927 in front of ten thousand spectators packed into the venue. The National Greyhound Racing Company Limited, the forerunner of Bord Na gCon and the Irish Greyhound Board was the brainchild of Kerry native Jerry Collins, Paddy O’Donoghue, Patsy McAlinden and Jim Clarke.

But the early days of greyhound racing was not without its difficulties. A riot broke out in September 1927 when two dogs Galbally Lass and Skeango racing in the semi final of the Civic Cup stopped mid race and savaged each other. The crowd expected a blue flag denoting a ‘non race’ but to their dismay the 6-4 favourite Gone For Sure was declared the winner. The ‘mob in the cheap enclosure invaded the ground trampling wire and person and attacking the judges box’. Police from nearby Irishtown police station restored order.

 

Hockey internationals arrived in March 1924 when Ireland beat England in a 3.15pm tip off to win the triple crown, a year later 1/6 would gain you admittance to the Ireland v Scotland encounter.

 

In 1934 another new sport arrived when thousands arrived by ferry from Britain to watch the inaugural Perpetual Challenge Cup match between Warrington and Wigan in rugby league. The match was sponsored by the Irish Hospital’s Sweeps Trust and Wigan overcame their opponent thirty two points to nineteen. Alas despite its proposed annual status, this was the only rugby league match played at the south Dublin venue.

 

On July 9^th 1937 promoter Joe McAllister organised a boxing tournament featuring flyweight contender Jim Warnock. The card was dominated by Irish and visiting South African boxers. Warnock won his bout but lost a belt eliminator to Peter Kane two weeks later in a fight held at the home of Liverpool, Anfield.

 

In 1950 a new sport arrived, the thrill of the speedway. Motor bikes were speeding around the course in a sport that was now attracting both spectators and American riders eager to earn a living. The sport initially stayed four years at Shelbourne Park promoted by Ronnie Green. It returned in 1961 for a season and a further two years in 1970/1971. Although mostly made up of American riders ‘The Shelbourne Tigers’, captained by seventeen year old Ronnie Moore, matched many of the big teams from across the Irish Sea drawing thousands to the south side venue.

In 2001 the stadium was redeveloped and modernised. In recent years greyhound racing has shared its space in Shelbourne Park with show jumping. The ‘Jumping in The City’ event organised by the Irish Greyhound Board as a way of utilising their venues in Limerick, Cork and Dublin on days when their stadia were empty.

 

One unique event to take place in July 2009 was when Richard Hammond from BBC’s Top Gear programme arrived at the stadium to challenge his MX5 car against a greyhound. The result can be seen here:

https://youtu.be/VM8ArZ3o8qE