INTRODUCTION
Ireland had not beaten England in twenty attempts in amateur international games - the last being in 1912 when John McDonnell of Bohemians scored the winner in a narrow 3-2 victory at the home of Cliftonville FC (Solitude) in north Belfast.
On November 15th, 1930 there were to be four Bohemian FC players in another victorious team versus England - James 'Jimmy' Birmingham, John 'Johnny' McMahon, Alexander 'Alec' Morton and Alfred Frederick 'Fred' Horlacher.
However, by the time the celebrations had dissipated, one of these would be honoured with more caps for the Ireland amateur side, the other three would be suspended from playing football for Bohemian FC, and there would be a boardroom kerfuffle at Dalymount Park.
HONOUR
It all started at Dalymount Park, as Thomas Greene (President, Bohemian Football Club) would later recall. The occasion was a November 1st, 1930 Leinster Cup game between a fancied Bohemian FC side playing Drumcondra AFC. Conditions were 'heavy' and Bohemians struggled to get going and, despite pounding the 'drums' goalkeeper for the last thirty minutes, an early second-half 'drums' goal (McCarney) held to the end as the decisive strike of the game.
Whatever about the result -or the performance - afterwards in the pavilion Greene and other committee members were being introduced to a Mr. J. Gibson from Belfast, a selector for the Belfast-based IFA (Irish Football Association) by the Hon. Treasurer of the club, Mr. Beckett. Gibson had notified Bohemian FC in advance, stating his purpose - to see if there were any Bohemians players up to the standard for selection for a forthcoming amateur international game versus England.
During the game, a number of players were pointed out to him, by Greene and others. Bohemian FC assured Gibson that any chosen players would be released for the forthcoming international match, if and when selected. Four players would be subsequently requested to be made available by the IFA, which Bohemian FC agreed to their release the following week, by letter.
LOYALTY & JUDGEMENT
On that Monday, November 10th that four players from the Irish Free State had been selected than its import became apparent to the FAIFS. That afternoon, with news that the Emergency Committee of the FAIFS was being assembled to review the matter, a hastily convened committee meeting of Bohemian Football Club examined club rules. Pre-emptively, it was decided that the club was determined to release the players, as 'amateur' rights were free and unfettered' - no matter what the Association would conclude. A resolution was also passed congratulating the players on their selection to represent their native land and, that members of the committee should accompany the players to Belfast.
That evening, the wheels were set in motion to prevent the players from playing when the Emergency Committee of the Football Association of the Irish Free State was hastily convened. It decided that the it regarded such action as 'a gross act of discourtesy and arrogance' by the IFA and contrary to the terms of an agreement reached at a conference of both football associations held in Liverpool in 1923, which recognised the authority of the Free State Association to be complete and independent within the twenty-six counties. The minutes record:
'after consideration of the action of the IFA Ltd in all its actions and reading the constitutional rules of the Association, the terms of the Liverpool Conference, and the result of the Congress of FIFA at Helsinki: That the Emergency Committee of the FAIFS has learned with astonishment, through the medium of the press, of the action of the IFA Ltd in selecting players born and playing within the area under the jurisdiction of the FAIFS in the match between England and Northern Ireland which is being mis-represented as an amateur international fixture between England and Ireland.'
It was resolved: 'that this Committee forbids any player or players who are at present registered and playing under our jurisdiction, and who were born within the area now known as the Irish Free State from playing in this or any other match arranged and controlled by the Irish Football Association Ltd'.
Letters were immediately dispatched to three of the players' homes that evening informing them that if they played contrary to the decision of the Emergency Committee they were to appear before the Committee a week later. (Johnny McMahon was not party to the decision since he had been born outside the Irish Free State in County Derry and was also a member of and was also a member of Cliftonville FC).
That evening, Mr. Joe Wickham (Secretary, Bohemian FC) received a phone call at home. The association were perturbed. The nature of the unhappiness was laid out, somewhat emotionally in the statement above published by the association the following day, and carried in the soccer press.
AMATEUR RIGHTS
For Bohemian FC to rectify the matter the players were summoned and requested to withdraw their agreement to play in the fixture. As team-mates do, they were sticking together and refused to withdraw their agreement to play, subsequently sending a telegram and follow-up letter to Belfast to confirm their intention to fulfill their promise to play for Ireland, as other Bohemian FC players had done in the past.
The Players
Alec Morton (centre-back) was born in Drogheda, Co Louth in 1905, but brought up by an aunt in Rathgar, Dublin. His nurturing took place for Junior sides Wasps, Ninian FC and CYMS.
Around 1927, Morton was captain of a Rathmines-based amateur amalgamation named The Casuals who played occasional challenge matches against teams from outside Dublin, mostly in Co. Meath. By 1927 Morton was on the Bohemian B team and the following year was on the 1928/29 first team slotting in at centre-back. He was a member of the team who won the Aciéries d'Angleur competition in Belgium in 1929.
At the time, Alec Morton also played cricket for the Leinster 2nd's and 3rd's counting Irish rugby international Ernie Crawford as a team-mate.
Johnny McMahon (defensive-midfielder) was born in Co. Derry and his footballing skills were nurtured as a Gaelic footballer and a soccer player with St. Eugenes FC and Derry Guilds FC in his hometown of Derry. He and then in Dublin from 1922 when he joined An Garda Siochana (the Irish police force) and played with their Gaelic football team, losing the 1923 Dublin Football Championship final to O'Toole's GFC.
Persuaded by Bohemians committee member Bucksie Jordan he switched codes and turned out for the Bohemians B team in 1925 and never looked back. McMahon was a mainstay of a the amateurs of Dalymount and was part of a troupe of footballers who won the Free State League in 1927/28, 1929/30 and FAIFS Cup in 1928.
He was part of the successful Bohemian team who travelled to Belgium, beating all-comers in the Aciéries d'Angleur competition of 1929. Before the 1930 game, he was capped as an amateur by the IFA Ireland' in November 1929 versus England. By the time of the 1930 match McMahon was a serving member of an Garda Siochana.
James Bermingham (right-wing) was born in Ringsend in Dublin and was employed as a charge-hand. While McMahon turned to soccer from Gaelic football, Bermingham was first a soccer player for minor side The Wasps with future Everton star Joe Kendrick, fellow Bohemians Alec Morton and Charlie Dowdall (later of Barnsley and Swindon Town) before fortuitously playing Gaelic football - for Kerry.
Jimmy Bermingham joined the National Army in the early 1920s and, in 1923 his regiment, the Dublin Guard was posted to Kerry. Jimmy was a Battalion Quartermaster Sergeant. The ‘Dublin Guard’, comprised of IRA veterans with many of its officers were closely associated with Michael Collins. They were dispatched to Kerry to fight irregular' and recalcitrant anti-Treaty republicans, often viciously.
The close IRA connections perhaps indicating Bermingham's 'other' activities in that revolutionary period.
At the time soccer was not permitted in the Free State Army so Jimmy decided to try Gaelic football. Spotted on a team winning the Kerry Command final by Kerry legend Dick Fitzgerald he was invoited to play for the Kerry team in the Munster Football Final, which Kerry won.
The 1923 All-Ireland Final was played in September 1924 because of the Civil War, and while he was approached to play (versus Dublin) he had already thrown his lot in with Brooklyn FC before signing for Bohemian FC.
A goal-scoring outside-right, Bermingham finished the 1926/27 season as Bohemian's top goal scorer with 23 goals in all competitions and went on to captain Bohemians in 1928/29, being capped y the Irish Free State versus Belgium in 1929 at Dalymount Park. He was also part of the Bohemian FC team that won the Aciéries d'Angleur competition in 1929.
Fred Horlacher (inside-left) was born in 1910, in Blackrock, Co. Dublin the son of German Mormon-immigrants, he would join Bohemians in 1928, making 430 appearances, 193 in the league, scoring 159 goals, 85 in the league. His best season came in 1935/36 when he netted 28 times in all competitions, helping Bohs win the league title for the third time.
The Horlachers were pork-butchers and relatively comfortable and sedate existence until the outbreak of the War. In September 1914, Fred's father, Hermann, was imprisoned in Arbour Hill, Military Prison as a suspected German Reservist, but soon released.
A clean-living Mormon, himself, he often quoted what the Bohemians coach, Bobby Parker (ex-Glasgow Rangers) told him: 'our coach, a famous international, told me one day that it is an absolute necessity to abstain from liquor and tobacco if one is to be outstanding in sport, and it is recognized by all professional coaches'. A devout man, his word from on divine interventions was: 'The Word of Wisdom is a great law of health and scientists in recent years have confirmed the truth of the teachings of it'.
Horlacher was a multi-talented sportsman. Away from the pitch he excelled in pool as a water-polo player, winner of the Irish Cup (v Clonard in 1929) and had been in Belfast as recent as November 7th 1930, representing his Sandycove club in losing the Irish Cup final to Clonard. He was also a triallist for the all-Ireland administered Ireland water-polo team perhaps making it incongruent to the amateur sportsman how he could not represent Ireland in another code - soccer.
Fred made his international debut as a 20-year-old in the Belgium v Irish Free State match on the 11th of May, 1930 in Brussels.
PRINCIPLES & RESIGNATIONS
With the players refusing to budge and the FAIFS adamant in their position the committee at Dalymount was conflicted. And with honourable man's word being his bond and with principals to the fore, conflict was inevitable. The players had given their word to the Irish amateur team selectors in Belfast, Bohemian FC had agreed initially, and play they would.
High principles, different definitions of amateurism and its role in football, the split between Dublin and Belfast associations and the backdrop of Irish nationalist sentiment made for a heady mix. And when the gentlemen of the committee disagree, they do the honourable thing - resign.
Thomas Green, President, a member of Bohemian FC since 1905 resigned on two principles. Firstly, on the basis that the club was reneging on its previous decision and secondly over the rights of amateurs and the freedom inherent in being an amateur vis-a-vis the right therefore of the IFA in choosing them to represent Ireland as an amateur. In his view, amateur players had 'unfettered freedom to play for who they wished'.
For another, JJ Doyle, a Vice-President (and a former President of Bohemians and a member since 1901), the principle was loyalty to the FAIFS and he resigned when the four players indicated their rejection of the Bohemian committee's advice.
AMATEUR HERITAGE
As a staunchly amateur club, Bohemian FC, even in 1930 were a throwback to more high-minded times when Victorian ideals were cherished. Bohs were anomalous in their strict adherence to an amateur code evinced by one of its founders, Dudley Hussey: 'The club shall exist as an amateur body. Much of the popularity of Bohemians is due to this fact, which appeals very strongly to the sport-loving Dublin public (Bohemian FC's) aim has been to encourage players to play the game for the game's sake'.
The players, in playing for Bohemians choose to be amateurs, as opposed to being paid for their talent. This was more than a point of principle but one of heritage, history and philosophy for the club that permeated the committee room, the spectating stands and terraces as well as the ethos of the dressing room. Bohemian FC were part of an ever-dwindling but exclusive coterie of clubs that could trace their history through the amateur code to more simple times when talk of coinage and money-making were frowned upon, and sports professionalism was seen as uncouth.
Fellow amateurs, Queens Park (of Glasgow), Corinthians (of London), Cliftonville (of Belfast) and Caledonians (of London) were visitors to the Dalymount Park enclosure in the late 1920s and early '30s embodying and making real the club's international connection to an ethos adhered to by Bohemians until 1969.
In fact, between 1906 and 1930 twenty-five Bohemian players would win 47 Ireland amateur caps. The amateur status of Bohemian FC, unsurprisingly led to a large contingent of players from the club being chosen for the all-amateur 1924 Paris Olympics squad: Jack McCarthy, Bertie Kerr, Christy Robinson, Johnny Murray, John Thomas and Ernie Crawford. Accompanying the team to Paris were players Billy Otto and Johnny McIlroy, trainer Charlie Harris and Committee-member James Brennan. In fact, teammate and Olympian, Jack McCarthy was the last Bohemian FC player to be capped for the amateur Ireland side in 1921 versus France in Paris, trained by Bohemian's Charlie Harris.
To the four Bohemian FC players, their status - as amateurs - was clear in relation to the heritage and personal choice to be amateur, and discriminated against, they would not be:
'If an English player was playing for Bohemians and was selected by an English association to play against Scotland or Wales he could not be restrained by either the Bohemian Club or the Free State Association. What was thought to be done here was because the Free State Association had a dispute with the Northern Association they had seized any weapon that came to their hands'.
BOHEMIAN DIVERSITY
With this amateur heritage and pedigree came diversity. Bohemian FC were a broad church in the late 1920s and early 1930s representing various competing strands of Irish society.
By way of example, there were ex-British Army playing members: Edward Brooks, English-born Billy Dennis and Harry Willits and South African-born Billy Otto. Joseph Stynes, Christy and Sam Robinson were all one-time active members of the IRA during the War of Independence while Harry Cannon and James Bermingham were members of the National Army and Johnny McMahon was a Garda. At committee level, IRA member, Major-General Emmett Dalton was a 1924-25 President while the thrice-elected Mayor of Dublin and Redmondite politician Lorcan George Sherlock served as President and as a committee member between 1927 and 1934.
The club studiously avoided being embroiled in matters outside the realm of football and developed a reputation for its independence of thought and deed as purely an amateur sporting body. However, the 1930 football match would, regrettably to many members, draw Bohemian FC into a quasi-political 'crux' occupying space were Irish politics and football overlapped to the consternation of players, members and the management committee alike.
PUBLIC OPINION
The reaction from Belfast and Dublin informed commentators recognised the contradictions of the bizarre situation the administration of football on the island of Ireland had found itself in. Northern-based writers felt that FAIFS were over-egging the situation and over-reacting.
One claimed that football was the sole reason for the selection of Bohemians' players since there was a 'dearth of amateur talent in the north'. Another saw something mischievous: 'how comes it that Bohemians with no Northern connection, are now eligible for internationals after being passed over for years?'
Dublin writers generally reported the 'crux' matter-of-factly noting the contradiction of Irish Free State professionals Peter Kavanagh (ex-Bohemian FC, Glasgow Celtic), Jimmy Dunne (ex-Shamrock Rovers, Sheffield United), Thomas Farquharson (ex-CYMS, Cardiff City) and Harry Duggan (ex-Richmond United, Leeds United) being selected for Ireland teams under the auspices of the IFA a month earlier on the 20th October 1930.
Others noted that their had been no agreement between the two associations with regard to international fixtures, amateur or otherwise and if there were 'it was never made legally binding'.
Others pointed out, when it came to amateur internationals, the Irish Free State FA had, in deviation to any 1923 agreement, included Belfast-born and sometime Bohemian FC player, Ernie Crawford, in their squad submitted for the 1924 Olympiad in Paris, though one could make a case this was under the auspices of the Irish Olympic Committee.
Belgium v Irish Free State, 11th of May, 1930, Brussels
Joe Flood (Shamrock Rovers), Harry Duggan (Leeds United), Billy Lacey (Shelbourne), Tom Farquharson (Cardiff City), Lye Golding (Shamrock Rovers), Jimmy Dunne (Sheffield United), Fred Horlacher (Bohemian FC), Sacky Glen (Shamrock Rovers), Mick O'Brien (Walsall), Frank McLoughlin (Fordsons), Jack McCarthy (Bohemian FC)
GLORY
A respectable crowd of 7,000 braved the cold but bright weather to make it to Solitude, hopeful of an Irish victory. Special trains were laid on for eager day-trippers from Dublin. The advent of the four Bohemian stalwarts, who got a special cheer from the Belfast spectators, would make a difference to proceedings: Horlacher was reported as the schemers-in-chief of the Irish line; Bermingham added nous with shrewd passing; McMahon was dangerous with long-shots and Morton had a defensive mind with an eye for an accurate forward pass. ore than anything they fiited into a team that played with 'cunning advances and -irresistible team work'. The fact that Ken Tewkesbury, the England goalkeeper was their best player speaks volumes.
The England team, which had not lost a game for 18 years, consisted of: K.C. Tewkesbury (Birmingham University), F.J. Gregory (Wimbledon), E.H. Gates (London Caledonian), C. Murray (Dulwich Hamlet), W.T. Whewell (Corinthians), Peter Anderson (Crittall Athletic), W.H. Warnes (Woking), J.C. Burns (Queens Park Rangers), Vivian Gibbins (West Ham United), R.C. Beswarwick (Enfield), G. Peploe (Ilford)
The full Ireland team would be: Alfred Gardiner (Cliftonville); R. M. Skelton (Cliftonville), Robert Fulton (Belfast Celtic); Jack Jones (Linfield), John McMahon (Bohemians) capt, Alec Morton (Bohemians); Jimmy Bermingham (Bohemians), Fred Horlacher (Bohemians), James Miller (Cliftonville), John Doherty (Ards), Norman McCaw (Cliftonville).
Any notions of an Irish inferiority complex were dispelled from the get-go, with Ireland starting at pace and combining speed with cleverness had the Englishmen on the back foot. Morton in defence had his hands full with the English wingers but marshalled his lines cleverly while McMahon was rampaging forward from a defensive midfield position and shooting, accurately from distance. Horlacher and Bermingham were outstanding on the wing and late in the first half it was a Birmingham cross that found Miller who hooked it into the net to make it 1-0 at half-time.
If the Bohemian quartet were the stars of the first half, it would be Miller who would outshine them all. In the 55th minute, Morton tackled and robbed Burns and put Horlacher away on a run. Passing to Millar, who tricked Gregory before rifling into the net. Two minutes later Miller picked up a clearance from a corner and shot powerfully to make it 3-0 to Ireland before England could draw breath. A late goal by Vivian Gibbin gave some respectability to the final score. As one Belfast scribe noted:
'it was not a rout within the meaning of the word, but it was at least the next best thing to it'.
CONSEQUENCES
With little time to bask in the glory, on returning to Dublin the three players were summoned to attend before the FAIFS Emergency Committee on November 18th, where they were given an opportunity to explain their actions. Having heard from them the Emergency Committee passed the following resolution.
“That the Emergency Committee of the Football Association of the Irish Free State, having considered the explanations furnished by Messrs J. Bermingham, F. Horlacher and A. Morton (registered playing members of the Bohemian Football Club) as regards their failure to obey an order of this Committee issued to them on the 11th inst. respecting their participation in an international match styled ‘Ireland v. England’ which took place on Saturday last, the 15th inst., do not regard the explanations offered as satisfactory. The action of the players concerned is a direct challenge to the properly constituted and recognised football authority in the Free State, inasmuch as they are deemed guilty of conduct objectionable to and subversive of the discipline and authority properly vested in this Association. The Council cannot allow its authority to be flouted by any player under its jurisdiction and accordingly the three players referred to above are hereby suspended from further participation in football.”
BANNED FOR LIFE
Stung by an open-ended - essentially a life-time ban - in any country, the Bohemian Three lodged an injunction to prevent the ban being implemented and as the judge noted: 'the players concerned instituted actions on November 25, 1930 against the first named defendants as the Emergency Committee of the Free State Football Association and against the second named defendants as the Council of the same'. The plenary summonses claimed declarations:
- that the resolution of the Emergency Committee of November 11, 1930 was void,
- that it had no application to the plaintiffs,
- and that the resolution of suspension of November 18 was void,
- for an order that the minutes of the last mentioned resolution might be expunged from all books and documents under the control of the Council;
- for injunctions restraining the defendants from preventing or attempting to prevent the Bohemian Football Club from selecting the plaintiffs on the teams of the said club in pursuance of the rules of the said club whereby the plaintiffs as playing members of the said club were eligible for such selection, and from otherwise interfering or attempting to interfere with the contractual rights of the plaintiffs as members of the club; and
- restraining the defendants from giving effect or attempting to give effect to the said resolution and from attempting to prevent the plaintiffs from playing football in Saorstat Eireann, and
- restraining the defendants from further publishing or causing to be published the said resolution
- They further claimed damages for libel by publication of the said resolution, and damages for conspiracy by the defendants to injure the plaintiffs'.
HIGH STAKES
For the FAIFS the stakes were high, posing an almost existentialist question. If they could not govern football within the 26 counties of the Irish Free State, then why did they exist? For fault, they looked to the IFA Ltd (as they referred to the norther-based association). The IFA were presented to the judge, the villains of the drama, who put Bohemian FC in an invidious position, led the amateur players astray and all to undermine the association's power.
JUDGEMENT
With the Four Courts still under repair from the Civil War, the December 1930 High Court proceedings would take place in the Gothic Room of Dublin Castle. Taking his seat, and scanning the room the judge quipped:
'Judging by the crowd, one would imagine we were going to have a match in court!'
'This action concerns the suspension of three well-known amateur international Association Football players who represented Ireland in the recent match between Ireland and England— which match, - though this was totally irrelevant to the proceedings before me - I cannot not refrain from recalling was won by Ireland, as I am sure it would be many a time again, if these unhappy disputes could be composed'.
So began Judge James Creed Meredith in the High Court on December 1st, 1930. It seems he could not resist some delight in Ireland beating the English, but this was to be of little comfort as the 'three well-known amateur players' would get from his Lordship.
James Creed or 'Jemmy' Meredith himself had a competitive amateur sporting pedigree - in 1895 at the AAA championships in Northampton, he won the quarter-mile race in 52 seconds while representing Dublin University, beating English all-comers. He also held the Irish one-hundred and two-hundred yard titles in 1895 and would win the quarter-mile title for years in a row from 1895-1898.
An accomplished sprinter - he also competed over the 100 and 220 yard distance - racing for the Irish Amateur Athletic Association (IAAA) Ireland versus Scotland meets at the RDS, Meredith would always wear a green and white singlet competing in numerous meets in England, competing until 1903.
Not limited to sprinting he turned out on the rugby field for Wanderers FC for five seasons 1891 to 1896 as a wing three-quarters and full-back and, for good measure, played one association football match for the seminal Leinster League side - Leinster Nomads FC. For his sporting prowess one newspaper heralded him as being a 'genuine gentleman amateur.'
Beyond his sporting acumen James Meredith was an erudite polymath and scholar particulary interested in philosophy- and Irish nationalism. The latter was made real when he took part in the landing of guns for the Irish Volunteers from the yacht Chotah in 1914 in Kilcoole, Co. Wicklow. Subsequently, he was instrumental in establishing the Dáil Courts system was set up to replace the English-law based court system and is the last judge to invoke Brehon Law in Irish jurisprudence.
The Bohemian Three were to be represented by two other Judges of the Dáil Courts - Cecil Lavery and George Gavan Duffy KC. Duffy was well-known to the Irish public having been a Sinn Fein MP from 1918 and the defender of Roger Casement after the Easter Rising. He was an Irish Provisional Government representative at the Paris Peace Conference and one of de Valera's plenipotentiaries to negotiate the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1921.
This cast of Irish republican agust characters, international footballers and the drama of football intersecting with politics pushed the story from backpage to frontpage, allowing enough room for anti-soccerites and devout nationalists to vent and to vindicate long-held antipathy towards soccer - the foreigners game.
REPUTATIONS
With a solid legal team and Meredith's amateur sportsman background the Bohemian Three hoped for a fair hearing.
Bermingham, in an affidavit, claimed his reputation as an amateur player was being ruined for life and that he had offers of professional contracts at English clubs which would now be in serious jeopardy.
The judge noted that the suspension of the players seemed extreme in that the suspension seemed 'indefinite', and was not happy with the reply from Martin Maguire KC, representing the association: 'an indefinite ban was not contemplated and their was no malice towards the plaintiffs at all, and the last thing the association wanted was anything in the nature of a vendetta'.
The judge replied that this was not what the suspension said.
It was on the basis of the rights of amateur football players, that the three Bohemian FC players, took their case. Having been suspended by the FAIFS, they contended that, as amateurs they had the right to play for whom they wished and were, in this case, applying to the court for interlocutory injunctions to 'restrain the Association from preventing or attempting to prevent the plaintiffs from playing football in the Irish Free State'.
However, slightly peeved Judge, was determined not to be dragged into any semi-political disputes between the Belfast and Dublin-based football associations in giving his ruling.
DEFENCE
The players defence invoked the Magna Carta, the FIFA conferences and the rights of amateurs - but to no avail. In essence, Meredith's decision would be largely free of rhetoric and instead be based on an examination of the rule book.
DECISIONS
On the rights of amateur footballers, Judge Creed pronounced obtrusely:
'The plaintiff, however, in the last resort, relied on an alleged right of an amateur to play anywhere he pleased except in so far as he had contracted to surrender that right. In a sense the plaintiff had that right, though it was not restricted to amateurs. But the defendant Association had an equal right to confine its privileges and its recognition how it pleased. That right was only the same right as the Bohemian Club itself had to confine its privileges to amateurs, and to expel any member for professionalism. When the plaintiff said that the defendant Association was preventing him from playing football there was an ambiguity in the expression; and His Lordship thought that there was a resulting confusion of thought at the basis of the plaintiff's claim.
The Association did not prevent the plaintiff from playing in the match on the 15th, for he did in fact play. In the same way the defendant Association was not preventing the plaintiff from playing on any team of the Bohemian Football Club if that Club chose to play him. Also that Club was free to select him. The Club could tomorrow select the plaintiff, and the only consequence would be that the Association would suspend the Club, which suspension would be serious or not according as the other Clubs affiliated to the Association chose to stand by the Association. If the Bohemian Football Club and all the other Clubs in Saorstat Eireann stood by the plaintiffs they could form a new association or simply affiliate straight away with the Irish Football Association and then the much discussed resolutions would be waste paper'.
It only remained for him to refuse the application by the Bohemian Three. With regard to McMahon, it was summarised:
'The fact that the resolution was not directed to a player such as Mr. McMahon who, though registered and playing under the jurisdiction of the defendant Association, was not born in the Irish Free State, had been taken to indicate some want of bona fides His Lordship did not understand that criticism. Mr. MacMahon, not being born in the Irish Free State, was not eligible for selection to play in any international match promoted by the defendant Association, hence an injustice would have been done to him if the Association had used its jurisdiction to prevent him playing in the only international in which he was eligible to play. The differentiation between the cases of Mr. MacMahon and the plaintiffs to His Lordship's mind indicated a most commendable sense of fairness on the part of the defendant Association'.
It was Rule Number 24 that would decide the case. Under this rule
“The Association may, as it thinks just, suspend, fine or otherwise deal with any club, and suspend, fine or otherwise deal with any player or member of a club, for an infringement of any of these Rules, and also for any conduct that may be deemed objectionable in or in connection with any match or fixture or with any decision of the Association or a Committee thereof.”
It was under this rule that the Emergency Committee acted. This rule expressly extended the power of the Association, acting under its constitution to the exercise of control in cases other than those involving an infringement of any express rule.
SETTLEMENT
When, in February 1931, a settlement was reached the Bohemian Three stated they:
'affirm our loyalty to the association, our anxiety to see the association prosper, and to assure the Association prosper and to assure the Association that we honestly believed that under the rules we were within our rights in accepting the invitation to play in the amateur international. we now realise our actions were open to misconstruction. We undertake not to accept any invitations from other football teams in future without first submitting them to the Association for approval and undertake to abide by all decisions made by the Association. In these circumstances, we ask the Association to remove the suspension.'
Joe Wickham on behalf of Bohemian FC, intimated another reason for the lifting of the suspension, recoded in the FAIFS minutes. Wickham informed FAIFS members thayt the three players had received another invitation, this time to play against Scotland, and the players attitude was ‘that if we can't play here, we may as well play in the North’.
Wickham said there was a risk of breaking up a united front if the bans were not lifted. Subsequently, a letter from Bohemian FC was sent to the FAIFS stating that the three players had replied to the IFA invitation informing them that, in the current circumstances, they were unavailable. The scene was set for a resolution.
RESOLUTION & RECONCILIATION
Generously, the association agreed to pay their own costs ('some hundreds of pounds'), with the players doing likewise, (Bohemian FC refused to contribute). The suspension was lifted with the players returning to action the following with an immediate impact at Milltown in a 2-1 victory over Shamrock Rovers. With matters settled Greene and Doyle returned to their former positions on the Bohemian FC committee and the reconciliation was complete. At national level, Judge Meredith concluded with the hope that that the IFA and the FAIFS could see a way to resolve their differences, difference that remain unfortunately to this day.
Having failed in their case, while the Bohemian Three were obliged to pay their costs of the case and while Bohemian FC were shorn of their talents for three months, there was no apologia.
Bohemians were to finish the 1930-31 season in third place in the league (four points behind winners Shelbourne FC) and reaching the semi-final of the FAIFS cup (losing 3-0 to rivals Shamrock Rovers). The season was not trophy-less for the club, winning the Leinster Senior Cup.
POST-SCRIPT
Of the four players one turned professional - Jimmy Bermingham. Bermingham transferred to Dolphin FC who would go onto win the FAIFS Cup in 1932–33, before returning to Bohemians as an amateur. He had attracted interest from Walsall FC and Linfield FC.
He later played two seasons for Drumcondra FC in the late 1930s, returning in 1949 to coach the Bohemians first-team, and then taking over from Matt Giles, the uncle of John Giles, to manage CIE-sponsored Transport FC in 1953-54. He also had a career as a professional singer under the stage name 'George' Bermingham while retaining a strong association with Bohemians until his passing in November 1985.
Johnny McMahon would later recall with pride his exploits in Belgium in 1929 and was capped seven times for the amateur Ireland team and once in a full international in 1933. Before passing away in January, 1987 he declared the highlight of his career was 'just playing with Bohs. Every match was a cup match as far as I was concerned. And the fact that I played for Bohs made me a kind of a hero when I went back home to Derry'. On occasion, he also turned out for Cliftonville FC as a guest while a Bohemian FC player. He was a member of the Garda Band until his retirement.
Alfred Horlacher did tragically young on St Patrick's Day 1943, six weeks after retiring as a one-club man with Bohemian FC. He was the team captain in the 1930's and the 1930 epidode did not harm his international career: He made 6 further senior appearances and scoring both his international goals versus the Netherlands in Dalymount Park in 1935. He took part in the Bohemian FC European tours to Belgium (1929), France (1931) and the Netherlands and Belgium (1934). He may have earned more caps but for his devotion to his Mormon faith, spending the 1937-38 season in Britain as a missionary in Nottingham, Hull, and Scottish Districts.
A committed amateur, Alec Morton moved to Newry Town FC in the 1931-32 season, partly in the hope of further call-ups for the amateur Ireland team but to no avail. By 1932-33 he was back within the Bohemian fold and was named captain in 1934. He continued to line out in charity matches until 1943 and post-retirement, in 1954 Morton, with fellow ex-Bohemian Bertie Kerr was a driving force in the establishment of the Amateur Football League in Dublin, serving as Treasurer and then President. Initial members included Bohemian FC, Pioneers FC, Midland Athletic, Dublin Maccabi, UCD and Home Farm FC. The League was founded to provide football for people who are amateurs, playing in a competitive spirit and is currently the largest league in Ireland. Morton held FAI positions, including President (Junior Football) bringing Junior football in Ireland to a new level in the 1960s.
Always associated with Dalymount Park and a hardcore amateur, he was the President of the club who resigned in 1969 when the club relinquished its amateur status by signing professional players. Alec Morton passed away in 1972 and the Alex Morton Junior Cup is still competed for in his honour.
THANKS - I am much obliged to Gerard Farrell (@gerrytastic) for the extra information he provided. And to Donagh Farrell BL for sourcing the transcripts. Kyran O'Brien (@kobpix) was great to lend the unseen cover photo of the 1930 Ireland amateur team and jersey.
AS ALWAYS: This story is published on Twitter as part of a Digital Storytelling class I teach and any errors, amendments or suggestions can be directed to me @ info@commonread.com.
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