The plans that betray the original ideals in early football clubs

A panorama of Villa Park from the Trinity Road Stand (Photograph: Harry Vale/Wikipedia)

Patrick Comerford

I live in a house divided. Since my teens, I have been an Aston Villa supporter, for no other reason than that Villa Park was the nearest ground to Lichfield; one of my sons is a lifelong fan of Newcastle United – for no other reason than as a young child he was attracted by the starkness of their black-and-white strip.

We have exchanged banter this season, as Aston Villa hovered around the middle of the table, never quite making into the top flight, while Newcastle eventually managed to avoid relegation.

On occasions, we have gone together to fixtures in England and Ireland home games in Dublin; we are ‘ABU’ supporters (‘Anyone But United’); and we have shared the same criticism of recent plans to create a ‘European Super League.’

Not that either Aston Villa or Newcastle were ever going to be considered for any new ‘super league.’ But the notions that football clubs are commodities to be traded and that ticketholders are customers and not fans or loyal supporters, eat away in insidious ways at many of the principles that undergird local support for local teams.

Fans saw the scheme as the ‘ultimate betrayal.’ Supporters of the ‘English Six’ – Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur – were vocal in their protests.

Chelsea supporters already resent the Russian owner Roman Abramovich, an oligarch close to Vladimir Putin. Manchester United fans feel scorned by the American Glazer family, who secured their loans to buy the club against its assets, including Old Trafford.

Aston, the home station for Villa Park … it had an early attraction as the first club on the line from Lichfield to Birmingham (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

***

Perhaps Manchester United fans went over the top when they invaded the pitch at Old Trafford; they certainly went beyond peaceful protest when police were injured and the teams’ hotel was besieged.

The cancellation of the ‘super league’ has been hailed as a victory for fans. But it may yet turn out to be nothing more than a Pyrrhic victory. The owners of the big clubs seem more interested in profit margins and the money earned through pay-to-view television, advertising, gambling and merchandising.

No-one failed to notice the irony of Boris Johnson pretending to take an interest in the plight of mainly working-class fans. That irony was compounded by the fact that the Prime Minister who made Brexit his trademark was opposed to taking the elite clubs out of the give-and-take of a league system that brings together the strong, the mediocre and the weak.

Some commentators also link Johnson with a Saudi bid to buy Newcastle United from Mike Ashley of Sports Direct. There are objections to a foreign state becoming a major stakeholder in a very integral part of English identity, and protesters accuse Saudi Arabia of abuses of human rights, including the murder of the US-based Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.

The CIA links the murder to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and the Premier League is worried the bid could make the Crown Prince the effective owner of the club.

Saint James’ Park remains the name of Newcastle United’s home ground (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The church origins of
so many English clubs

This is not the first time for something like this in English football. In the 1990s, the top clubs broke away to form the Premier League.

But all of this is light years away from the origins of many English clubs, that can be traced to works kick-abouts and the ‘social gospel’ ideas of many Victorian parishes and churches, keen to provide facilities that offered healthy exercise and social activities for young men and boys in the rapidly expanding, industrial swaths of England.

Aston Villa, for example, was formed in 1874 by members of the Villa Cross Wesleyan Chapel in Handsworth, which is now part of Birmingham, and played its first match against the local Aston Brook Saint Mary’s rugby team, formed in a Church of England parish church that was demolished in the 1970s.

Aston Villa was one of a dozen teams that competed in the inaugural Football League in 1888, and one of the club’s directors, William McGregor (1846-1911), was the league’s founder and chair of the Football Association Aston Villa became as the most successful English club in the Victorian era, winning five League titles and three FA Cups by 1901.

For 40 years, McGregor worshipped at Wheeler Street Congregational Church in Aston. The Revd WG Percival said the best thing about him ‘was not so much the genial, kindly, honest sportsman, but the Christian behind it all.’ When he died, McGregor was buried in the churchyard at Saint Mary’s, Handsworth.

The former Hibernian Military School played a role in the formation of Bohemian AFC (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

***

Aston Villa’s arch-rivals are Birmingham City, with games between the two clubs – first played in 1879 – known as the ‘Second City Derby.’ Birmingham City was formed by members of Holy Trinity Church choir and Saint Andrew’s, the name of the club’s home ground, also points to early church links.

Other teams in the region include Wolverhampton Wanderers, another founding club in the Football League in 1888. Wolves were formed as Saint Luke’s FC in 1877 by John Baynton and John Brodie, two schoolboys at Saint Luke’s Church School in Blakenhall, when they were presented with a football by their headmaster, Harry Barcroft.

Newcastle United, the focus of division in this household, plays at Saint James’ Park, another name reflecting the early links many clubs had with local churches. To this day, Southampton glories in the nickname of ‘The Saints.’ They were founded from Saint Mary’s Parish, which gives the stadium its name.

Manchester City (1880) owes it origins to the Revd Arthur Connell of Saint Mark’s Church and his efforts to regenerate the former rural district of West Gorton. There are similar church origins for many other clubs.

In Scotland, Glasgow Celtic was established in 1888 by several Roman Catholic parishes trying to raise money to help feed poor children in the city. Sadly, the divisions between supporters In Liverpool and Glasgow perpetuate sectarian divisions among early Irish immigrants.

Watching an Irish home game in Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

An Anglican bishop who
played soccer at Croke Park

I wonder whether there are similar origins for Saint Patrick’s Athletic in Dublin. It is said the colours of Drogheda United represent the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Conception of Mary.

The original founder clubs of the League of Ireland were Shelbourne, Bohemians, Saint James’s Gate, Jacobs, Olympia, Frankfort, Dublin United and YMCA, some with obvious links with the Church of Ireland or seen at the time as ‘culturally Protestant.’

Bohemian Football Club, the second oldest League of Ireland club in continuous existence, began when a small group from Bells Academy in North Great George’s Street joined students from the Hibernian Military School in the Phoenix Park to form a club in 1890.

The founding secretary, Andrew Philip Magill (18), was a Protestant, and the founding secretary Paul Bell (17) was a Protestant. The name Bohemian AFC reflected the club’s difficulties in finding a suitable venue, wandering between the Phoenix Park, Jones Road and Whitehall, until their move to Dalymount in Phibsboro in 1901.

Jacobs Football Club was based in Crumlin. In the 1919-1920 season, during the Irish War of Independence, a group of Jacobs players invaded the dressing room of their opponents, Olympia, after a Leinster Senior Cup game. Two Jacobs players and an Olympia player were suspended when it emerged that Jacobs had been taunted for ‘playing soldiers’ in their team.

Bishop John Curtis (1880-1962) … the Irish missionary bishop who played soccer at Croke Park

***

The United Churches Football League was formed in 1948 to facilitate Saturday-only football opportunities. It was founded at a meeting in Saint Mark’s Parish Hall in Westland Row, chaired by Canon George Hobson, but its origins can be traced back to the 1920s, when an early league was formed by former members of the Boys’ Brigade in the Old Boys Union.

Early clubs with links with Church of Ireland parishes included Saint Paul’s, North Strand, Saint Marks, Saint George’s and Clontarf. Key figures in the league included Canon Robin Armstrong, later Rector of Dun Laoghaire, who was an amateur international player while with Bohs, George Fitch of Kildare Place School, and Jim Carroll of Hibernian Marine.

Another renowned player was John Curtis (1880-1962), the last Irish Anglican bishop to work in China. In his late teens, Curtis played at inside-left for Bohs in 1897-1898, when Oliver St John Gogarty played at outside-left, and they won the Leinster Senior Cup. He played again when Bohs won the Leinster Senior Cup the following season.

In 1899-1900, Bohemians got to the Irish Cup final against Cliftonville after John Curtis scored a vital goal in the semi-final against Belfast Celtic at Jones Road, now Croke Park. But Bohs lost that final 2-1 in Grosvenor Park in Belfast. His two younger brothers, Edward (Ned) and Harry, also played for Bohs.

His career became the stuff of schoolboy adventure stories and comic strips: after the Japanese invaded China at the start of World War II, he was a prisoner of war in Shanghai. He stayed in China as a missionary bishop after the revolution, living in Hangzhou until he was forced to leave in 1950.

Clarendon House, Rathgar Road … the childhood home of Bishop John Curtis (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

This two-page feature was first published in June 2021 in the Church Review (Dublin and Glendalough)

New on-line collection shows how three Comerfords responded in 1916

The tower and spire of Saint Peter’s Church, Phibsboro ... Father Edmond Comerford claimed for damage to the church during Easter Week 1916 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

In recent weeks I have written about the role of members of the Comerford family in the events during the Easter Rising in 1916.

Newly released archives also show that three members of the Comerford family claimed for damage to their businesses and to church premises in the aftermath of the Easter Rising.

The National Archives of Ireland last week released a new on-line collection detailing more than 6,500 compensation claims that were submitted to the Property Losses (Ireland) Committee in the aftermath of the 1916 Easter Rising. The collection has been fully indexed and is searchable by surname, location or business name.

The applications for compensation came from individuals and businesses and involve damage to buildings and property, including loss of personal property, due the fighting, or later as a result of fire and looting.

Most of the claims came from Dublin, but there was a substantial number of claims for damage in Enniscorthy, Co Wexford and a small number in Co Galway. The files include a huge range of small items, from jewellery that had been left for repair in a jewellery shop on Sackville Street (O’Connell Street), to personal effects belonging to chambermaids working in hotels in the city centre.

The majority of claims are from individuals who lost small amounts of personal property or whose homes were damaged in the fighting. There is also a large number of claims from businesses and property owners.

Launching the new collection in the Reading Room of the National Archives in Dublin last week, the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Heather Humphreys, said: “This new website provides a fascinating insight into the very personal cost of the Rising and the impact that the fighting had on both homes and businesses. As well as the lives lost during Easter Week 1916, many businesses were damaged or destroyed.”

One of the buildings completely destroyed in the Rising was the Royal Hibernian Academy on Abbey Street Lower. A number of artists lost works on display in the RHA, including Jack B Yeats and Sir John Lavery.

Three members of the Comerford family submitted compensation claims after the Rising.

John Comerford of 32 Parnell Street, Dublin, claimed for a total loss of £29 for household goods and damage to his building and the contents. He claimed his windows had been broken and his shop wrecked during Easter Week. The glass cases had been put in, and the furniture damaged included a mahogany table, six chairs, and a “chimney pier glass.”

He also sought compensation for repairs to the roof. However, a claim for £18.10.0 in cash taken from a box was not allowed, and he received a total of £14.

Nearby, at No 75A, at the junction of Parnell Street Lower and O’Connell Street, one of the signatories of the 1916 Proclamation, Tom Clarke, owned a tobacconists shop.

Miss Jane Ellen Comerford, of 76 King Street North, Dublin, was described as a spinster with income from a private source. She was the daughter of James Comerford, a well-known Dublin builder who built or designed a number of important late Victorian buildings in the North King Street area. She lived over a vacant shop with her aunts. She reported the damage this building was caused by bullets and military bombardment on Thursday 28 April in Easter Week. Her claims included damage to the building (£5.4.6) and to household furniture (£2.7.6).

The lease of the building was in the name of Patrick Brennan and had expired after a term of 31 years in March 1916. A new lease was prepared for his signature for a further 31 years, but he died on 9 May 1916.

Jane Ellen Comerford, who was his niece, applied for a new lease on 9 May in her own name. The owner of the building, a Miss Carolin, consented to this provided a small amount, exclusive of the damage done by the bullets, be laid out on the premises and that a yearly rent of 10 shillings was paid.

The inspector’s report found that the claimant had private means and was also a school attendance inspector with Dublin Corporation.

Her claims arose from damage to a shop plate glass window, replacing and painting windows, damage a pilaster at the shop front, upholstering a couch, replacing curtains, and repairing a wall damaged by bullet holes. However, the inspector who interviewed her niece believed “the amounts claimed are slightly exaggerated.”

The Revd Edmund Henry Comerford, CM, claimed for damage to the roof of the church building and the presbytery at Saint Peter’s Church, Phibsborough. Father Edmond Comerford, CM (1870-1940), a Vicentian priest priest, was born in Muckalee, Co Kilkenny, and educated at Castleknock College, Co Dublin. He joined the Vincentians in 1890 and was ordained priest in 1895.

Father Edmund worked with the Vincentian missions in Sheffield before returning to Dublin in the 1900s as Dean of Saint Vincent’s College, Castleknock. He later served in Saint Peter’s Church, Phibsboro, and was appointed Provincial Bursar in 1922. He was attached to Saint Peter’s, Phibsboro, when he died in 1940.

The chancel and transepts of Saint Peter’s were erected, together with a great central tower, by George Goldie in the early 1860s. But the construction of the tower was a controversial affair and resulted in a long and costly law-suit that began as a dispute between the architect and builder and ended with the involvement of their client. A Court Order meant the tower had to be dismantled, and the architects Ashlin and Coleman, who were heirs to the Pugin practice in Ireland, got involved in 1902. The design for the work was entrusted to the architect, George Coppinger Ashlin, and the contractor was James Kiernan of Talbot Street. They remodelled the nave and built the 200ft tower at the east end.

The damage to Saint Peter’s Church in 1916 was caused when the Railway Bridge at the North Circular Road was blown up and a large piece of stone or masonry fell on the church roof and on the presbytery on Tuesday 25 April 1916.

The damaged windows included the Rose Window, windows depicting the Sacred Heart, Saint Joseph, and a window of cathedral glass above the high altar. The church was insured for £25,000 and the windows for £5,000, and so the inspectors allowed for compensation in part only.

The Sacred Heart window in Saint Peter’s ... one of Harry Clarke’s early masterpieces (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

As a consequence of the damage the church windows suffered in 1916, Father Comerford commissioned the three-light window by Harry Clarke in Saint Peter’s Church in 1918, illustrated with the Sacred Heart, Saint Margaret and Saint John the Evangelist. At the time, Saint Peter’s was home to the Arch-Confraternity of the Sacred Heart in Dublin. In 1919, Harry Clarke spent almost the entire months of May, July and August working on Father Comerford’s commission, and he completed the window on 28 August 1919.

Sadly, the original tracery lights were destroyed in 1972. When the church was renovated in 1999 the window was incorporated into the design of the new Chapel of Adoration. The window is signed “H. Clarke Aug. 1919” in the third light, beside Saint Cecilia, above the lower panel.

According to John McDonough, the Director of the National Archives of Ireland, these compensation files offer “a unique window into the material damages caused in April 1916. Through these files we gain a real sense of the losses to individuals and businesses. The files will enable historians and family members to research the impact of the fighting on peoples’ lives and the claims they made in an attempt to rebuild them.”