The History of Dundalk Football Club (1903–1965) briefly describes the introduction of association football to the town of Dundalk, Ireland in the pre-World War I period, then subsequently covers the period from the formation of the Dundalk G.N.R. Association Club in September 1903 to the takeover of the club as a public limited company in January 1966. This page also includes short articles about events and people that were an integral part of that period of the club's history.
Football's origins in the town (1889–1914) Contemporary records of organised association football in the Dundalk area between the late 1880s (when the game was introduced), and the end of the World War I, are incomplete. The earliest reference to a Dundalk team playing in competition appears in the Belfast Newsletter of 2 October 1889, which stated that "Dundalk" had been drawn to play Newry Wanderers in the First Round of the Irish Football Association Irish Junior Cup – the third year of the competition. This side was a team from the Educational Institution (now Dundalk Grammar School). The school had adopted the game under its principal Thomas A. Finch, who had played while a student at Trinity College Dublin. Older references to "Dundalk F.C." and "Dundalk Football Club" actually refer to the modern-day Dundalk Rugby Club, formed in 1877.
In 1892, a new team called 'Dundalk' was formed. The Dundalk Democrat reported on a match that had occurred on Saturday 3 December 1892, which was the fifth encounter between Dundalk and the Institution 2nd XI, after four previous draws. This club established itself as the premier club in the town between about 1895 and 1904. They were runners-up to Bohemians in the 1896–97 Leinster Senior Cup Final, and were invited to enter the Leinster Senior League for the 1900–01 season in September 1900. They adopted the name "Dundalk Rovers" for the step up, but they did not survive the season, being requested to resign from the League "owing to their inability to fulfil their engagements". The club continued to compete in the junior cup competitions, however, reaching the Leinster Junior Cup Final in 1903, where they lost to St. Patrick's of Inchicore.
Before the 1904–05 season commenced, the clubs of the town amalgamated under the 'Dundalk Association Football Club' banner in order to give the town a better chance at success in competition. The representatives of the Nomads club insisted that the 'Rovers' moniker be dropped to show that the new club was to represent the whole town. The amalgamated club reached the Leinster Junior Cup Final that season, being defeated by Shamrock Rovers. The following season it led the foundation of the Dundalk and District League (DDL) alongside Drogheda, St. Nicholas's, St Mary's College, Carrickmacross, and the Great Northern Railway. To "save ambiguity" they became known as Rovers again and formalised the name change the following year.
St Mary's College won the DDL in its first season, with British Army sides winning it for the following three seasons. The League appears to have been inactive for the seasons 1909–10 to 1912–13, at a time when Gaelic football had become the dominant sport in the county (with Louth qualifying for three All-Ireland Finals in those years). Rovers were replaced by St Nicholas's as Dundalk's representatives in the Irish and Leinster Junior Cup competitions in those seasons. The DDL was reformed in 1913–14, and Rovers returned to the league and to contest the Junior Cups. But that was their last season of competition before World War I broke out. After they failed to fulfil a 1914–15 Irish Junior Cup tie with Dundalk G.N.R. in November 1914, Rovers disappeared from competition until 1924, by which time 'the Railwaymen' had become the preeminent football club in the area.
Dundalk G.N.R. in junior football (1903–1922)
The Dundalk Great Northern Railway (G.N.R.) Football Club was established during the 1883–84 season as a rugby football club. They played their final rugby match in February 1903 and in September 1903 the club switched codes to association football, setting in motion its journey to become the modern-day Dundalk Football Club. The new club, known locally as 'the Railwaymen', adopted the Dundalk Athletic Grounds (a municipal facility shared by a number of sporting codes) as its home ground. At first, they played challenge matches against other teams in the area, including sides from British Army regiments garrisoned in the town, then became founder members of the DDL in 1905–06. There are no records of the club being active between the 1907–08 and 1912–13 seasons, however it rejoined the local league in 1913–14. The DDL was dormant during World War I, but Dundalk G.N.R. did compete in both the Irish and Leinster Junior Cup competitions of 1913–14, 1914–15 and 1916–17; while another side, Dundalk Town, competed in the 1917–18 and 1918–19 competitions.
In 1919, the founder of the Dundalk Town club, P.J. Casey (a future Dundalk A.F.C. committee member and League of Ireland honorary treasurer), led the revival of the Dundalk and District League and affiliated it with the Leinster Football Association. The G.N.R. club appears to have been inactive in the 1917–18 and 1918–19 seasons due to the war, but it re-formed too, and its members decided to enter every competition available to them that season – joining both the DDL and Newry and District League. A victory over Dundalk Town in the Irish Junior Cup of 1919–20, was a prelude to the G.N.R. team becoming the local scene's dominant side for the next three seasons. They had two wins and one runners-up finish in the DDL, and also won through to represent the district in the Junior Cup competitions each of those seasons. In 1920 they reached their first final, the Leinster Junior Cup Final, losing out to Avonmore after two replays.
Stepping up (1922–1930)
Following the partition of Ireland, and the creation of the Football Association of Ireland (after the Leinster F.A. split with the Belfast-based IFA), a new Free State League was formed for the 1921–22 season, made up exclusively of Dublin-based sides. Subsequently, Dundalk G.N.R. successfully applied to join the Leinster Senior League (LSL) for the 1922–23 season, one of a number of junior clubs replacing clubs that had left to join the new Free State League – becoming the LSL's only team based outside of the greater Dublin area in the process. Ironically, they had been the only club affiliated with the Leinster F.A. to object in writing to the decision to split with the IFA in 1921.
In their first season in the LSL, the G.N.R. side finished fourth in the table (with three games in hand when the League was wrapped up), then finished third each of the following three seasons - coming closest to topping the table in 1925–26. That turned out to be the club's final season in that division as, in June 1926, they were elected to the Free State League to replace Pioneers, as the nascent League looked to spread to the provinces. They had previously applied for membership in the summer of 1924 but had been turned down. As it was entering its sixth season, nine clubs had already dropped out of the Free State League, so the challenge facing the new club was great. But Dundalk's unbroken participation in the League of Ireland was about to begin.
On 21 August 1926 the team, still known as Dundalk G.N.R. and under the management of Joe McCleery (ex-Belfast Celtic), travelled to Cork to face fellow works-team Fordsons in the opening match of the 1926–27 season. The 30-strong group of players, officials and supporters who travelled were treated to a tour of the Ford factory before the game. The result was a 2–1 defeat for the new boys in a match the Cork Examiner described as being "one of the best ever seen in Ballinlough", Joey Quinn (one of three veterans remaining from the junior football days) with Dundalk's first League of Ireland goal. They finished their first League season in eighth position, then in mid-table the next three seasons.
By this stage, the team represented the G.N.R. works in name only, and the club's management committee decided to make it independent of the company. In December 1927 new colours of white shirts with a crest of the town's coat of arms were adopted. They contested their first final as a senior club in April 1929—the Leinster Senior Cup final—losing in a replay. It was the last time the club was billed to be appearing as 'Dundalk G.N.R.', and the name of the club was formally changed to 'Dundalk A.F.C.' in the summer of 1930.
Early successes (1930–1949)
With a new manager, Steve Wright, "doing everything except selling the programmes", Dundalk finished as runners-up in both the League and the FAI Cup in 1930–31. Proof that they could compete at a national level gave the management committee confidence to press ahead, and the club was converted to a membership-based company— "Dundalk A.F.C. Limited" —on 25 January 1932. They became the first team from outside of Dublin to win a league title in 1932–33. Indeed, they were the first team from outside Dublin or Belfast to win a league title in Ireland since the inception of the Irish League in 1890. In the process they secured their first league victories over Shelbourne and Bohemians – Dublin's two original Irish League clubs. A shot at a League and Shield Double was spurned, when three defeats in a row towards the end of the Shield programme saw them slip to a runners-up spot. After Wright departed in 1934, the club became notorious for the number of cup final defeats suffered. There were FAI Cup and Leinster Senior Cup final defeats in 1934–35, and Dublin City Cup and Leinster Senior Cup final defeats the following season, which was their last season at the Athletic Grounds. In the summer of 1936, the committee decided to move to land made available by P.J. Casey on the Carrick Road and named the new ground "Oriel Park".
In 1936–37, the first season at their new home, they finished as runners-up again in both the City Cup and Leinster Senior Cup, as well as in the League. The search for cup success now became something of an obsession for both the club and the people of the town. Dundalk Rovers had lost one Leinster Senior Cup and two Leinster Junior Cup finals during their time as the town's premier side; while Dundalk G.N.R. had lost a Leinster Junior Cup final prior to joining the Leinster Senior League, and in their final match competing as "Dundalk G.N.R.", they had been defeated in their first Leinster Senior Cup final. The number of cup final defeats now stretched to eight across three tournaments since joining the Free State League. They had lost two Dublin City Cup finals in a row (being obliged to play the second, the 1937 final, against Sligo Rovers, 24-hours after defeating Waterford in the semi-final), so when they won the 1938 City Cup, defeating Cork 2–1 after extra time in the final, there was much rejoicing. "Dundalk have at last won a Cup Final!" exclaimed the Irish Press.