Irish Football Association Research Articles

‘We are Grateful for the Opportunity to Act as Ambassadors for Our Club and Our Country’: Sporting Hospitality during the Northern Ireland Conflict

Association football did not escape the destructive effects of the conflict in and about Northern Ireland from 1969. As ‘the troubles’ escalated through the 1970s, several international teams declined to visit Northern Ireland, adversely affecting the revenue and reputation of the Irish Football Association (IFA) and its affiliated clubs. British clubs cancelled pre-season friendlies in both Irish jurisdictions. To counteract the domestic game’s crisis, clubs across Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland’s border counties pioneered a unique mode of sporting hospitality. While clubs’ officials, sponsors, and supporters were determined primarily to elevate their particular team, they shared with the Belfast football authorities a broader desire to promote the regional game. Hosting British opponents in European competition and pre-season friendlies, teams in the north of Ireland welcomed visitors with studied generosity. Coalescing around these cross-channel encounters, football officials from both sides of the Irish Sea asserted that sporting fraternity transcended ‘the troubles’. Trawling matchday programmes, the sports press, and the archives of football governing bodies in Belfast and Dublin reveals how Irish hosts and British visitors alike promoted their game as a cornerstone of a robust civil society capable of outlasting the Northern Ireland conflict.

Assessing the Irish Football Association’s “Ahead of the Game” Coach Education Training Programme on Raising Mental Health Literacy in Youth Football Coaches

The purpose of the present study was to assess the influence of the Irish Football Association’s “Ahead of the Game” coach education training programme on mental health literacy of youth football coaches in Northern Ireland, and to gain insights into coaches’ own role perceptions of providing mental health support for athletes. A total of 105 coaches (90% male and 10% female; Mage = 37.84, SD = 8.81, Mexperience = 9.53, SD = 6.59) completed an online survey examining mental health literacy and role perceptions of providing mental health support for athletes. A total of 40% of the sample completed the “Ahead of the Game” mental health literacy training programme, while 60% of the sample served as the comparison group. Results showed that participants who had completed the training programme demonstrated significantly higher mental health literacy in comparison to those who had not yet undertaken the programme. Thus, the “Ahead of the Game” programme may be useful for increasing mental health literacy. Youth sport coaches are an accessible and trusted outlet as a first point of contact to provide initial mental health support for athletes, thus advocating for the integration of mental health literacy training as a key part of coach education.

‘The game of football is quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged’: a comparative analysis of the 1921 English Football Association ban on women's football in Britain and Ireland

ABSTRACT On 5 December 1921, the English Football Association (FA) implemented a ban on affiliated clubs allowing women’s teams to use their grounds and the use of FA registered referees, thus undermining and restricting the women’s game. The FA claimed that football was unsuitable for women and that it should not be encouraged. 2021 also marks 50 years since UEFA directed its members to recognise women’s football. The FA ban has been well documented; however, the English experience of the ban implemented by the FA has been conflated with the experience of the rest of Britain and Ireland. This article examines the impact, the FA ban had on women’s football in these regions. It explores if a similar ban was introduced by the four other British and Irish governing bodies (Scottish Football Association, Welsh Football Association, Irish Football Association and the Football Association of Ireland formerly the Football Association of the Irish Free State) and what impact this had on women’s football there.

The structuration of a sporting social system? Northern Ireland fans, Football for All and the creation of the Green and White Army

In terms of the extant literature to date on sport and fandom in the divided society of Northern Ireland, academic attention has focused almost exclusively on its apparently contentious nature. However, until now, there has been a dearth of actual empirical data to inform such analyses. This article is designed to help rectify this deficit by drawing upon interviews with Northern Ireland football supporters and Irish Football Association staff to explore their co-creation of the Football for All campaign, which aimed to challenge sectarian fan behaviour within the national stadium. This resulted in the previously variegated Northern Ireland fan base becoming the Green and White Army, an informal collective identity for supporters. In continually (re)producing the Green and White Army as a ‘social system’, it is argued that fans are knowledgeable actors who continually draw upon what Giddens refers to as practical and discursive consciousness. Informed by Giddens’ structuration theory, the article argues that in relation to the current policies of the Union of European Football Associations and the Fédération Internationale de Football Association to close stadiums in the event of ‘discriminatory’ fan behaviour, priority should instead be given to supporting fan activism to effectively challenge such behaviour at matches; particularly given the potential for social control over supporters in a situated geographical space.

‘Ireland’s Second Capital’? Irish Footballers’ Migration to Liverpool, the Growth of Support and the Organisation of Liverpool and Everton Football Clubs’ Matches in Dublin: An Historical Assessment

ABSTRACTThis article assesses the historical links between the cities of Liverpool and Dublin in terms of Republic of Ireland-born player migration to Everton and Liverpool football clubs, the role of supporters’ clubs and the organisation of matches involving these clubs in Dublin. While Everton Football Club had initially been more closely linked to Dublin through the signing of Irish-born players, the organisation of friendly matches and the establishment of a supporters club in the Irish capital by the mid-1950s, it was not until the 1970s that Liverpool Football Club’s popularity in Dublin surpassed Everton’s through European success, Irish player recruitment and the organisation of friendly matches in the city.Abbreviations: B. and I. Ferries: British and Irish Ferries; FAI: Football Association of Ireland; FC: Football Club; IFA: Irish Football Association.

Coaching and Coach Education in the Football Association of Ireland

The island of Ireland is quite unique in its dynamic due, in part, to the geographical and political separation between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Historically, the Island of Ireland had one governing body for association football. Currently, the Irish Football Association (IFA) governs Northern Ireland while the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) governs the Republic of Ireland in the south. Interestingly, not all sports (e.g., Irish Rugby Football Union) on the Island of Ireland have separate Governing Bodies. This paper provides a brief historical overview of this separation between the FAI and IFA. Following this, we explore the history of coach education in the FAI and an overview of the FAI Player Development Plan. Then, we explore how coach education was, and is currently, structured with particular focus on recent improvements in terms of how coach education courses are delivered and assessed. The final section provides a brief overview of the future of coach education within the FAI.

‘They’re just not my team’: the issue of player allegiances within Irish football, 2007–2012

Rarely, it seems, is the interplay between sport and politics, or perhaps more accurately sport and identity, so apparent as in Ireland. Whilst there has been a considerable degree of work undertaken in examining the historiography of the indigenous sporting organization, the Gaelic Athletic Association, the level of focus on other sports in Ireland has, in comparison, been somewhat more modest. This essay considers the emergence and outworking of the player eligibility dispute between the Football Association of Ireland (FAI), as the governing body of the game in the Republic of Ireland, and the Irish Football Association, their counterparts in Northern Ireland, focussing specifically on the height of this dispute between 2007 and 2012. Drawing upon interview material from players who previously have not spoken about their personal decision to leave Northern Ireland and play for the Republic of Ireland, a combination of social, personal and political factors, combined, allow for a detailed account of this process to be established. It profiles a long-running and difficult rivalry between soccer authorities on a small island on the western seaboard of Europe but where passions remain high in both sport and politics.

The origins of association football in Ireland, 1875–1880: a reappraisal

ABSTRACTAccording to its foundation myth, association football was introduced to Ireland when one man, John McAlery, personally organised an exhibition match between two Scottish teams in Belfast in 1878 and went on to form the first Irish association club in 1879 and the Irish Football Association in 1880. Based on new research, this article seeks to revise this traditional account, by presenting evidence of earlier association matches, including one in 1875: the earliest recorded association match thus far discovered. It also uses primary sources and a critical re-examination of secondary sources to re-evaluate the role of McAlery, and suggests that others ought also to be credited for the efforts that were made to establish association football in Ireland from the mid-1870s. The article also considers, but dismisses, other extant claims of early association football in Ireland, and, taking stock of recent scholarship, points to the existence of other more informal, less organised and less successful processes of diffusion in Ireland, prior to and contemporaneous to, but independent of, that which was ultimately successful in Ulster.

The Social Background of Ireland’s Pre-World War I Association Football Clubs, Players and Administrators: The Case of South and West Ulster

This paper examines the development of association football in the South and West Ulster counties of Fermanagh, Tyrone, Cavan, and Monaghan in the pre-World War One era against the backdrop of the sporting ‘revolution’ and the political and social climate in Ireland at that time. While the Irish Football Association was founded in Belfast in 1880 and the game’s early growth in Ireland was centred in East Ulster, South and West Ulster were areas which were rather dislocated from the hearth of soccer in the province’s largest city, where professional structures were in place by 1894 and where senior and junior association football clubs were strongest. The origins of a number of clubs are examined and it will be shown that despite a lack of major industry and a professional structure, by the early 1900s, the game of soccer had established a strong role within society in many local communities in the area. An examination of the social backgrounds of players and administrators illustrates that leagues and cups were played on a cross-community basis in many areas and that patronage, as well as player participation and administration, came from nationalists as well as unionists.

Association Football in the Shamrock Shire’s Hy Brasil: The ‘Socker’ Code in Connacht, 1879–1906

Connacht was the only Irish province outside the penumbral aura of a Victorian-era Irish Football Association (IFA) division. Throughout the Gaelic Renaissance, this western province quintessentially represented the primitivistic and joyful aesthetic trope of Hy Brasil. It informed the transmundane thinking of those Celtophiles who classified soccer as a ‘garrison game'. Though the historiography of soccer in this isolated outpost is an impoverished habitus, within key urban sportive oubliettes resided sequestered soccer pioneers. This paper considers themes to include the introduction, agency, lucid diffusion and participation of the ‘socker code' in Connacht. Its inherently bottom-up organization, responses to top-down oppositional nativist fusillades, local mythos (often amid complex class and regional sporting allegiances) are expressed through multi-vocal identities and ethno-religious mentalities. The belated fin-de-siècle fizzle of rural soccer and veracity of perpetuated contentions regarding the British military’s key role as soccer’s sole provincial emissary are also appraised.

Football unity during the Northern Ireland Troubles?

This article looks at the attempts during the 1970s and early 1980s between the Irish Football Association and the Football Association of Ireland to heal the split that had been in place in Irish soccer since 1921. These attempts were made against the backdrop of the Northern Ireland Troubles of 1968–1998. This paper explores the reasons why the talks took place at this juncture. It examines the main issues discussed at the conferences that took place from 1973 to 1980 between these national governing bodies for football and assesses the main factors leading to their ultimate failure.

The development of schoolboy coaching structures for association football in Ireland, 1945–1995

This article offers a comparison in progress in developing coaching structures for schoolboys’ soccer in Ireland in the period from the end of the Second World War until 1995. It will be shown that in Northern Ireland, the Belfast-based Irish Football Association’s implementation of coaching courses was at a more advanced level in the decades immediately following the war, while the Dublin-centred Football Association of Ireland was hindered by a lack of facilities and funds for most of the twentieth century. In Northern Ireland, links between soccer organizers and governing bodies for physical recreation were stronger, and the IFA had begun to develop a coherent structure for the qualification of coaches by the early 1950s. This contrasted greatly to the structures put in place by the FAI and it was not until the Jack Charlton era (1986–1995) that they were able to implement a more comprehensive nationwide system.

Networking Structures and Competitive Association Football in Ulster, 1880–1914

This article examines attempts to develop formalised structures for association football in regional Ulster in the late Victorian and early Edwardian periods. Using the counties of Donegal, Tyrone, Fermanagh and Cavan as case studies, it will be shown that many clubs in these areas were rather isolated from the hearth of activity in the north-east of the province and developed independently without the assistance of the Irish Football Association. These regional soccer administrators struggled to organise their own county structures and instead relied heavily on cross-county fixtures. The failure of association football to develop a coherent identity throughout each of these counties is discussed while the importance of patronage and the railway network in the organisation of matches is highlighted.

‘Darling of the Gods’: Tom Farquharson, Irish footballing migrant

This article examines the footballing career of Dublin-born goalkeeper Tom Farquharson. Using his appearance at the 1927 FA Cup final when Cardiff City beat Arsenal as an anchor this article seeks to explore Farquharson’s career both as a Cardiff City and Irish international player as a case study of Irish men playing their football in Football League in the interwar period. Farquharson’s refusal in 1931 to accept his selection by the Northern Ireland-based Irish Football Association was a significant moment in the attempts of the Irish Free State’s own Football Association to be recognized as the rightful association to use the term Ireland in international competition, being the first time a player refused of their volition. Analysing this and his footballing career more generally, we can intersect sports, labour, migration and diaspora history and begin to understand what it was like to be an Irishman playing football in interwar England.

Sport, the Northern Ireland peace process, and the politics of identity

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the implications of the Northern Ireland Good Friday Agreement (GFA) through the lens of sport, particularly football, and with reference to theoretical literature on peace-making processes. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is structured in such a way as to review theoretical literature, to consider the nature of the Northern Ireland problem and its implications for sport, to critique the current settlement and to demonstrate its failings using sport as an exemplar. The methods used are a critical review of relevant literature combined with reflections on the author's own involvement in sport and community relations. Findings – The paper argues that the GFA has resulted in a consociational “solution” to the Northern Ireland problem. The example of sport, and especially the standing of the Northern Ireland football team, indicates that such a settlement fails to address the central problem of two divided communities with different political aspirations and attitudes towards national identity. Research limitations/implications – The analysis is limited to the extent that it adopts an essentially top down approach. The findings deserve to be confirmed (or indeed refuted) at some future point by a gathering data from football fans and others. However, the implications are that the terms of the GFA should be revisited in the light of evidence of the failings of the current settlement not only as found in this paper but based on recent political developments. Practical implications – The Irish Football Association has to address the perception that appears prevalent amongst some Catholic players that they are not wanted by the national association. Politicians need to renew their efforts to create greater mutual understanding instead of fooling themselves that so long as they can talk to each other, the communities they represent will remain peaceful. Originality/value – I doubt if any academic author has had the same degree of involvement in relation to the role of sport in the Northern Ireland peace process. What gives the paper its particular value, however, is the fact that it is probably unique in looking at sport in Northern Ireland with specific reference to political science peace-making literature.

The ‘silent’ Irish – football, migrants and the pursuit of integration

Much has been written about life and sport in Ireland. In Northern Ireland, such discourse has rarely strayed from the issue of identity politics and all aspects of society appear, even in an era of peace, to reflect some degree of partisanship, including within the realm of association football. In the Republic of Ireland, the emphasis has increasingly been on the growing multiculturalism of that state and at present there exists a real challenge to all aspects of civic society to do more to integrate ‘new arrivals’ into Irish life in a more convincing manner than has been the case to date. And so, this is essentially what this article intends to examine – the role football authorities in Ireland can and do play in utlising the game as a means of integrating ethnic minorities into everyday life. There are examples of impactful work already taking place in this regard – notably on the part of the Irish Football Association’s (IFA’s) innovative World United programme, whilst there also remains shortcomings around the approach adopted both by the IFA and the Football Association of Ireland and these are critically engaged with throughout this article. Finally, in the spirit of finding a constructive way forward, the somewhat recalcitrant and authoritarian approach to granting eligibility to some of the very best young footballers on the island, including those living in the Republic of Ireland’s designated refugee centre north of Dublin, is afforded due recognition.

The Development of Gaelic football and Soccer Zones in County Donegal, 1884–1934

This article examines the geography of Gaelic and Association football zones in Donegal between 1884 and 1934. It will illustrate where these sports were initially played and will show how, by the early twentieth century, soccer was the number one team game in the county. With the decline of competitive soccer in Donegal after 1915, a vacuum existed for the organisation of competitive structures for Gaelic football and the Donegal Gaelic Athletic Association county board was refounded in 1919, having run initially from 1905–1907. County championships were soon organised and these provided a competitive form of football on a regular basis as players could adapt to each code fairly easily. However, many local sports organisers in the north-east of the county were eager to continue with soccer and it was through the organisation of local leagues and cup competitions that they managed to do this. A deep tradition of soccer and strong connections with Derry city and Scotland also meant that association football received priority there. In contrast, by 1934, Gaelic football had become firmly entrenched in the south and south-west. The importance of local organisers within the county and the failure of both the Irish Football Association and the Football Association of the Irish Free State to develop soccer in this peripheral area will also be outlined.

Transcending the borders of Irish identity? Narratives of northern nationalist footballers in Northern Ireland

In light of a growing trend by which Northern Irish-born footballers opt to pledge their sporting allegiance to the Republic of Ireland, the issue of player eligibility has become the subject of much public and political debate across the island of Ireland. In seeking to shed light on this controversial topic, this article examines the myriad factors which are negotiated by northern nationalist footballers when faced with the choice of which ‘nation’ to which they belong. Based on extracts from a series of interviews with northern nationalist players, the study situates their lived experiences within the broader socio-political landscape of Northern Ireland, highlighting a range of factors from the perceived culpability of the Irish Football Association (IFA) to sporting pragmatism on the part of the players. The research is theoretically grounded in the writings of Norbert Elias and Pierre Bourdieu, in particular by utilizing their respective interpretations of the socio-psychological concept of habitus in an attempt to understand the interplay between the relatively superficial and potentially temporary nature of sporting identity and a more deeply ingrained sense of national or political identification.

An Opportunity for a New Beginning: Soccer, Irish Nationalists and the Construction of a New Multi‐Sports Stadium for Northern Ireland

This essay examines two issues which for some time have dominated discussions on soccer in Northern Ireland. One is the long‐standing reticence of northern nationalists, Irish nationalists living in Northern Ireland, to attend home international matches. For a range of political, social and ideological reasons large numbers of this community have stayed away from these games for more than three decades. The other is the recent decision by the British government to build a new multi‐sports stadium on the outskirts of the capital city, Belfast. Viewed together, these developments give rise to a broader argument, as the present essay points to, which suggests that notwithstanding the well‐founded opposition northern nationalists have had towards symbols of unionist hegemony in Northern Ireland, including the Irish Football Association (IFA), it is now time to move on. In so doing it offers an ideal opportunity for all concerned to contribute to the birth of a new political and social context in this most divided of western societies.

Accounting for the early success of the Gaelic Athletic Association

Writing some years after the events he was describing, Michael Cusack, the first secretary of the Gaelic Athletic Association, suggested that in its early years the ‘Association swept the country like a prairie fire’. This is perhaps a little exaggerated, but its success was striking. Eighteen months after its foundation the G.A.A. was reckoned to have 50,000 individual members. Six months later there were around 400 affiliated clubs. The relative success of the G.A.A. is particularly apparent when its progress is compared with that of two of its rival organisations. The Irish Football Association was founded in 1880. Ten years later only 124 clubs had affiliated to it. By the same date the G.A.A., founded in 1884, had 875 member clubs.