| 1882–1950 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Association | Irish Football Association | |
| Mostcaps | Elisha Scott (31) | |
| Top scorer | Billy Gillespie (13) | |
| Home stadium | ||
| FIFA code | EIR | |
| ||
| First international | ||
 Ireland 0–13England  (Belfast, Ireland; 18 February 1882) | ||
| Last international | ||
 Wales 0–0Ireland (Wrexham, Wales; 8 March 1950) | ||
| Biggest win | ||
| Ireland 7–0Wales (Belfast, Ireland; 1 February 1930) | ||
| Biggest defeat | ||
| Ireland 0–13England (Belfast, Ireland; 18 February 1882) | ||
TheIreland national football team (Irish:Foireann peile náisiúnta na hÉireann) represented the island ofIreland inassociation football from 1882 until 1950. It was organised by theIrish Football Association (IFA), and is the fourth oldest international team in the world. It mainly played in theBritish Home Championship againstEngland,Scotland andWales. Though often vying with Wales to avoid thewooden spoon, Ireland won the Championship in1914, and shared it with England and Scotland in1903.
After thepartition of Ireland in the 1920s, although the IFA's administration of club football was restricted toNorthern Ireland, the IFA national team continued to select players from the whole of Ireland until 1950, and did not adopt the name "Northern Ireland" until 1954 inFIFA competition, and the 1970s in the British Home Championship.[n 1] In 1924, a separateinternational team, organised by theFootball Association of Ireland, fielded a team called Ireland, which now represents theRepublic of Ireland.
On 18 February 1882, two years after the founding of the Irish FA, Ireland made their international debut againstEngland, losing 0–13 in a friendly played atBloomfield Park inBelfast, becoming the fourth international side ever to take the field. This result remains the record win for England and the record defeat for an Ireland team. The Irish line-up that day includedSamuel Johnston, who at the age of 15 years and 154 days became the youngest international debutant, which was a record untilAníbal Zapicán Falco played for Uruguay in 1908 at the age of 15 years and nine days. On 25 February 1882 Ireland played their second international againstWales at theRacecourse Ground,Wrexham and an equaliser from Johnston became Ireland's first ever goal, although Ireland went on to lose 1–7, the goal also saw Johnston became the youngest ever international goalscorer.
In 1884 Ireland competed in the inauguralBritish Home Championship and lost all three games.[5] Ireland did not win their first game until 13 March 1887, a 4–1 win over Wales in Belfast. Between their debut and this game, they had a run of 14 defeats and 1 draw, the longest run without a win in the 19th century. Despite the end of this run, heavy defeats continued to blight Ireland's record, including 3 March 1888 when they lost 0–11 to Wales, and on 23 February 1901 when they lost 0–11 to Scotland. These losses, together with the initial loss to England still constitute the record wins held by each of the otherhome nation teams.
However, there were some brighter moments: on 7 February 1891 an Ireland team featuringJack Reynolds and four-goal heroOlphert Stanfield defeated Wales 7–2, providing Ireland with their second win. Reynolds international performances attracted the interest ofWest Bromwich Albion who signed him in March 1891, however it was later discovered that Reynolds was actually English. On 3 March 1894 at theSolitude Ground in Belfast, after thirteen attempts Ireland finally avoided defeat to England, the team that includedFred Spiksley and Reynolds, who had since switched allegiances, Ireland gained a 2–2 draw. Goals from Stanfield andW.K. Gibson inspired Ireland to come back from 2–0 down to gain a 2–2 draw.
Lacking the strength in depth enjoyed byEngland andScotland, Irish internationals of this era started younger and their careers lasted longer than their English or Scottish contemporaries. As a result, Ireland fielded both the youngest and oldest national teams during the 19th century. Samuel Johnston had led the way in the early 1880s. Then on 27 February 1886Shaw Gillespie, at the age of 18, became the youngest goalkeeper of the 19th century.[6] Both Olphert Stanfield and W.K. Gibson were only 17 when they made their debuts. Another 17-year-old debutant was futureWorcestershire cricketer,George Gaukrodger. In Johnston, Gibson and Gaukrodger, Ireland also had three of the four youngest goalscorers in the 19th century. Stanfield would go on to win 30 caps for Ireland, making him the most capped international of the century.
Ireland's greatest success on the football field came when they won the1913–14 British Home Championship. However the foundations for that success had been laid over a decade earlier when Ireland had pioneered the use of national team coaches. The first time in the history of modern football that a national team had a coach was on 20 February 1897 whenBilly Crone was in charge of the Ireland team that lost 6–0 toEngland, again for the wins againstWales on 19 February 1898, on 4 March 1899, Ireland was coached byHugh McAteer, and on 24 February 1900Robert Torrans coached Ireland for the game againstWales. In 1914 McAteer would return to coach Ireland to their greatest success.
In 1899 theIFA also changed its rules governing the selection of non-resident players. Before then the Ireland team selected its players exclusively from theIrish League, in particular the fourBelfast-based clubs,Cliftonville,Distillery,Glentoran andLinfield. On 4 March 1899 for the game againstWales, McAteer included four Irish players based in England.[7]: 156 The change in policy produced dividends as Ireland won 1–0. Three weeks later, on 25 March one of these four players,Archie Goodall, aged 34 years and 279 days, became the oldest player to score at international level during the 19th century when he scored in a 1–9 defeat toScotland.Goodall remained a regular at centre-half for Ireland until he was almost 40. On 28 March 1903, aged 38 years and 283 days, he scored the opening goal in a 2–0 win againstWales and became the oldest goalscorer in Ireland's history. The goal also helped an Ireland team, that also includedJack Kirwan,Billy Scott,Billy McCracken andRobert Milne, clinch a share in the1902–03 British Home Championship. Until then the competition had been monopolised byEngland andScotland. However, in 1903, beforegoal difference was applied, Ireland forced a three way share. Despite losing their opening game 0–4 to England, the Irish then beat Scotland for the first time with a 2–0 win atCeltic Park.
On 15 February 1913, with a team captained byVal Harris and including Billy Scott and two-goal heroBilly Gillespie, Ireland beat England for the first time with a 2–1 win atWindsor Park. In1914 Ireland went a stage further and won the championship outright. Harris and Gillespie were joined in the squad by among others,Patrick O'Connell andBill Lacey. Gillespie scored twice as Ireland beatWales 2–1 away, Ireland then beatEngland 3–0 atAyresome Park,Middlesbrough with Lacey grabbing two of the goals. They clinched the title following a 1–1 home draw withScotland in what would be their last match until the end of theFirst World War.
Following the end of hostilities, theBritish Home Championship resumed in October 1919, opening with Ireland taking on England at Windsor Park. The championship winning team had since broken up, and in their first game, Ireland fielded eight debutants, and despite only losing one game in the first post war competition, they finished the tournament in last place.
Ireland never refound the form of their 1914 winning season, and only managed two second places in the following twenty years. However they did have a number of excellent match performance including beating England 2–1 at Windsor Park on 10 October 1923 with a team featuringTom Farquharson,Sam Irving,Bobby Irvine andBilly Gillespie. During the 1920s, Billy Gillespie set the Irish FAs record of thirteen goals in an international career, of which seven of these came at the expense of England. Gillespie's record was eventually equalled byColin Clarke in 1992 and broken byDavid Healy in 2004, thus holding the record for nearly 80 years.[8]
Throughout Ireland's formative years they exclusively played againstEngland,Scotland andWales, both in friendlies and in theBritish Home Championship. However, in the 1920s there were occasions when Ireland played other teams, includingFrance,Norway andSouth Africa, for various reasons, such as the number of amateur players involved, the status of these internationals has been disputed.[9]
On 10 October 1927 Gillespie and Irving were joined byElisha Scott as they defeated England 2–0 at Windsor Park, in the following match a defeat by Wales in Belfast put the championship beyond reach, however on 25 February 1928 an inspired goalkeeping performance from Scott helped Ireland defeat Scotland 1–0, their first win against the Scots in eighteen years, gaining the side their best season finish since 1914.
On 2 February 1930 Ireland beat Wales 7–0 withJoe Bambrick, playing at his homeclub ground scoring six of the seven goals. This remains the team's record win to this day, and Bambrick's six goals was the highest tally by any player in a single match in the history of the competition, and remains unequaled to this very day.[7]: 245
However Ireland spent the remainder of the decade in the bottom half of the table, only managing to avoid last place on three occasions. Followingwar breaking out in Europe, the British home championship was again suspended with Ireland finishing the1938–39 competition where they had spent most of the last two decades, at the bottom of the table, having lost all their games.
In 1920 Ireland waspartitioned intoNorthern Ireland andSouthern Ireland. In 1922, the south of Ireland gained independence as theIrish Free State, later to becomeRepublic of Ireland. Amid these political upheavals, a rival football association, theFootball Association of Ireland (the FAI), emerged inDublin in 1921 and organised aseparate league and later anational team. In 1923, during a period when the home nations had disaffiliated from the governing body,[10] the FAI was recognised by FIFA as the governing body of the Irish Free State on the condition that it changed its name to theFootball Association of the Irish Free State.[11] At the same time, the IFA continued to organise its national team on an all-Ireland basis, regularly calling up Free State players.[12][13] During this era at least oneNortherner,Harry Chatton, also played for the Irish Free State and from 1936, the FAI began to organise their own all–Ireland team.[14][15] Both teams now competed asIreland and during this era at least 39dual internationals were selected to represent both teams.[16] In an era when national teams played only a few games a year, it was rare for professional players to turn down an opportunity to play at international level.Between 1928 and 1946 the IFA were not affiliated to FIFA and the twoIreland teams co-existed, never competing in the same competition.[17] Only in 1949, they both would participate in thequalifying tournament for the 1950 World Cup.
During theSecond World War all home internationals were suspended, however, during this period Ireland played an unofficial match against acombined services eleven, which was effectively a Great Britain side containingMatt Busby,Stanley Matthews,Tommy Lawton andStan Mortensen.[9][18] The game was a high scoring affair with Ireland losing 4–8, with all four Ireland goals coming from the future managerPeter Doherty. The performance of Doherty was such that the match commentator,Maurice Edelston, stated "He was almost a one-man team – and if Ireland had two Dohertys that day, I shudder to think what might have happened".[19]
In 1946, when the Home Nations resumed official internationals, the IFA-FAI split was highlighted as England played both teams in the same week.The English FA requested each association to select only players from its jurisdiction, "quoting the International Federation rule to that effect".[20] The FAI complied, but not the IFA, and two players from the 2–7 defeat in Belfast on 28 September played again in the 0–1 defeat in Dublin on 30 September. On 27 November, seven players born in the 26 counties, includingJohnny Carey,Peter Farrell andCon Martin, played in the IFA side's 0–0 draw withScotland. The draw helped the team finish as runners-up in the1946–47 British Home Championship. From then until the 1949–50 season the IFA regularly selected five to seven players born in the Free State and were rewarded with some respectable results, including a 2–0 win againstScotland on 4 October 1947 and a 2–2 draw withEngland atGoodison Park on 5 November the same year.
The Irish FA, along with the other Home Nations, rejoined FIFA to compete in theWorld Cup; the1949–50 British Home Championship was used as the qualifying group. Ireland hosted the first ever World Cup qualifier in which a home nation side competed, losing 2–8 to Scotland in Belfast, and eventually finishing bottom of the group only managing to take a point, away to Wales. During the match againstWales at theRacecourse Ground,Wrexham, the IFA fielded an all-Ireland team for the last time. The team included four players –Tom Aherne,Reg Ryan,Davy Walsh and the captainCon Martin – who were born in theIrish Free State, and all four of whom had previously played for theFAI international team in their qualifiers and as a result had played for two different associations in the sameFIFA World Cup tournament.[21]
The FAI took steps to prevent players from what was now theRepublic of Ireland turning out for the IFA's Ireland team. All UK-based players from the Republic were pressured to sign an undertaking not to play for the IFA.Jackie Carey was the last to comply, in April 1950.[22] Rule 35(b) of the FAI articles provided that players based in the Republic would be denied clearance certificates fortransfers abroad unless they gave a similar undertaking.[23] The IFA complained to FIFA; in April 1951, FIFA replied that the FAI rule 35(b) was contrary to its regulations, but also that the IFA team could not select "citizens ofEire".[24] An exception was for British Home Championship games,[23] as a 1923IFAB agreement atLiverpool prevented FIFA intervention in relations between the four Home Nations.[25] However, the exception would only apply "if the F.A. of Ireland do not object",[24] and was never availed of.
IFA and FAI teams both continued to compete asIreland. At FIFA's 1953 congress, its Rule 3 was amended so that an international team must use "that title ... recognised politically and geographically of the countries or territories".[25] The FAI initially claimed Rule 3 gave them the right to the nameIreland[26] (seenames of the Irish state), but FIFA subsequently ruled neither team could be referred to asIreland, decreeing that the FAI team be officially designated as theRepublic of Ireland, while the IFA team was to becomeNorthern Ireland.[27][28] The IFA objected and in 1954 was permitted to continue using the nameIreland in Home Internationals,[29] based on the 1923 agreement. This practice was discontinued in the late 1970s.[30]
Up until 1899 Ireland played all their home internationals inBelfast, with their first international being played atBloomfield. Subsequent home games during the 1880s were played at theUlster Cricket Ground, also known asBallynafeigh Park, the home ofUlster F.C. During the 1890s theSolitude Ground, the home stadium ofCliftonville, hosted 11 home internationals. In the early 20th century occasional internationals were also played at Grosvenor Park, the then home ofDistillery, and theBalmoral Showgrounds.
On 17 March 1900,Saint Patrick's Day, Ireland played their first game inDublin, losing 0–2 atLansdowne Road toEngland.[31] On 26 March 1904 Ireland played their first game atDalymount Park in north Dublin, a 1–1 draw withScotland. Between 1904 and 1913 Dalymount hosted at least one Irish international in the years when Ireland had more than one home match. The other games were played atWindsor Park, completed in 1905. After thepartition of Ireland, all subsequent home internationals were played inBelfast, mainly at Windsor Park but occasionally atCeltic Park, the home ofBelfast Celtic.
     Usual | Away to Scotland |
| Early Ireland colours | |
From the beginning Ireland wore a variety of colours, including green, white and blue. The first colours were "royal blue jerseys and hose and white knickers".[32]St. Patrick's blue, however, emerged as the established colour from before theFirst World War until September 1931.[citation needed] Blue has been a national colour of Ireland since theNorman era and has been used by several other Irish sports teams, includingDublin GAA,Leinster Rugby andDublin City.[33][34] In 1931 the shirts were changed to green, the colour still worn by the modernNorthern Ireland team. The official reason given for the change was to avoid a clash withScotland, who also wore blue.[35]
Ireland's initial logo was a stylisedCeltic cross with a harp in the centre, which in a modern form is used by the current team, however this had been replaced in the 1930s until the 1950s with aShamrock badge. This change occurred at a time when the IFA and the FAI were both using the Ireland name, and at this time the shamrock was also being worn by the FAI's national side.
SeeCategory:Pre-1950 IFA men's international footballers
Selection was the responsibility of a committee, with no individual manager in the modern sense. Coaches were appointed on a match by match basis, among themBilly Crone (1897),Hugh McAteer (1898, 1899, 1914) andRobert Torrans (1900).
During the preparations for the1928 Olympic Football Tournament,FIFA ruled that all its member associations must provide "broken-time" payments to cover the expenses of players from the country who participated. In response to what they considered to be unacceptable interference, the football associations of Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales held a meeting at which they agreed to resign from FIFA.[36] As a result, Ireland did not compete in the first three World Cup competitions.
| FIFA World Cup record | FIFA World Cup qualification record | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Round | Position | Pld | W | D* | L | GF | GA | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | |||
 1930 | did not enter | did not enter | |||||||||||||||
 1934 | |||||||||||||||||
 1938 | |||||||||||||||||
 1950 | did not qualify | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 17 | ||||||||||
| Total | – | 0/4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 17 | |||
| Rank | Player | Caps | Goals | Career |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Elisha Scott | 31 | 0 | 1920–1936 |
| 2 | Olphert Stanfield | 30 | 11 | 1887–1897 |
| 3 | Robert Milne | 27 | 2 | 1894–1906 |
| 4 | Samuel Torrans | 26 | 1 | 1889–1901 |
| 5 | Billy Gillespie | 25 | 13 | 1913–1930 |
| Billy Scott | 0 | 1903–1913 | ||
| 7 | Jack Peden | 24 | 7 | 1887–1899 |
| 8 | Jack Jones | 23 | 0 | 1930–1937 |
| Bill Lacey | 1 | 1927–1930 | ||
| 10 | Johnny Darling | 22 | 1 | 1897–1912 |
| Rank | Player | Goals | Caps | Ratio | Career |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Billy Gillespie | 13 | 25 | 0.52 | 1913–1930 |
| 2 | Joe Bambrick | 12 | 11 | 1.09 | 1928–1938 |
| 3 | Olphert Stanfield | 11 | 30 | 0.37 | 1887–1897 |
| 4 | Davy Walsh | 7 | 11 | 0.64 | 1946–1950 |
| Jack Peden | 24 | 0.29 | 1887–1899 | ||
| 6 | Harold Sloan | 5 | 8 | 0.63 | 1903–1909 |
| Alex Stevenson | 19 | 0.26 | 1933–1947 | ||
| 8 | Jimmy Dunne | 4 | 7 | 0.43 | 1928–1932 |
| William Boyd Dalton | 11 | 0.36 | 1888–1894 | ||
| Jimmy Kelly | 11 | 0.36 | 1931–1936 | ||
| George Gaffikin | 15 | 0.27 | 1890–1895 |
