Bohemian Football Club Crest

@bfcdublin A 40-page pamphlet covering aspects of Bohemians' early history  is now available at the club shop at a reduced price of just €5. 'The Bohemian Football Club: The Enduring Legacy of an Idle Youth' is the work of history researcher and Bohs supporter Ciaran Priestley.

The Bohemian Football Club: The Enduring Legacy of an Idle Youth

When a small group of aspiring footballers met at the North Circular Road Gate Lodge in the Phoenix Park on 6 September 1890, they formed a club to partake in the fledgling Dublin scene of association football. On this day, the Bohemian Football Club was born.

Formed in the year before the death of Charles Stewart Parnell, the birth of Bohemians coincided with one of the most turbulent periods in Irish history, which culminated in the Great War, the 1916 Rising and the Irish Revolution.

The young men who established the Bohemian Football Club would go on to lead decorated and diverse careers in the civil service, military, education, medical and legal professions and religious orders, to name but a few.

A cohort of young college students in their late teens or early twenties, they came from a variety of religious backgrounds and counties as far apart as Cork and Antrim.

It is likely that they would have taken opposing views of the great political questions of the day, given their respective life paths and choices of allegiance.

Nonetheless, the spirit with which they formed, established and developed their football club made an enduring impact on the city in which they lived and the sport which they played.

The growth of Bohemian Football Club provided a unique distraction from everyday life. It afforded the opportunity of channelling time and energy into a positive means of professional and personal development.

It may also provide an insight into the society which changed around it.

 Pick up your copy of 'The Bohemian Football Club: The Enduring Legacy of an Idle Youth' at Dalymount for just €5.