Blues - Waterford United FC Programme v Shelbourne Friday 9th May 2014 | Page 14

Gone But Not Forgotten

The League Of Ireland Shield By Brian Kennedy
Believe it or not there used to be a before losing to Bayern Munich. The competition was the
football competition unlike any other right type of carrot to dangle before League of Ireland
on the continent that was distinctly clubs. We still should have this tournament! The benefit
Irish. A competition that could get to Drums of that gateway into Europe, and rubbing the
you into Europe before a ball was shoulders with such giants, wasn’t lost on them – they had
kicked in anger in the league. A third choice tournament, qualified by winning the Shield, yet only finished 7th in the
but contested as fiercely as any of the two ranked above their league campaign.
them. The League of Ireland Shield was that competition.
And the tournament threw up some glamour ties for
Hailing from our exciting beginnings of independence, League of Ireland clubs. The very next season in 1963/64
and continuing throughout the decades until interest and Rovers were narrowly beaten by Valencia. Shelbourne
attendance finally waned, the League of Ireland Shield secured the first major Irish triumph in a mammoth threecarried much prestige. Though ranked as the League of game session against Portuguese opposition in Belenenses,
Ireland’s third most important trophy it was still highly but narrowly lost out to Atletico Madrid in the next round.
thought of, mainly because its roots belong in the very first Drums played Eintracht Frankfurt, St Patrick’s Athletic
year of our existence. Along with the inaugural ten team locked horns with Bordeaux in ’67 – amazingly scoring
league and twelve team Free State Cup in the League four goals, alas conceding twice as many. Dundalk first
of Ireland’s first year, the Shield was first contested in entered the tournament as runners up to Waterford FC in
1921/22. Shelbourne became the
the league, because Shamrock Rovers
first champions, a title they not only
had won both the FAI Cup and League
retained in 1922/23, but would win
of Ireland Shield (which happened on
twice more in that first decade (1926
occasion), and it saw them compete
& 1930).
against Utrecht, doing the league
As the league expanded so did
proud on their maiden voyage in Interthe Shield. However the residence
Cities Fairs waters with a 3-2 win over
of the trophy seemed almost certain
two legs, before going out to Glasgow
never to leave Dublin. Only twice
Rangers. The Lilywhites returned
in the first twenty years, from 1921
a season later, losing to Liverpool.
to 1941, did the winners come from
Cork Hibernians would become the
outside the capital, and that was the
last League of Ireland club to play in
same club! This feat was achieved by
Europe via the Inter-Cities/ League
Waterford FC in 1930/31 and again
of Ireland Shield route, when they
in 1936/37. In the 1940s a club as
lost out to Valencia in the 1970/71
superb and all-conquering as Cork
tournament.
Shelbourne recorded a famous
United were always going to take
Though the domestic Shield ran for
victory over Belenenses in the
this title (1942/43 & 1947/48), and
a couple more seasons, with Cork Hibs
Inter-Cities Fairs Cup
the magnificent Drumcondra got in on
taking that last honour in 1972/73,
the act, winning it back-to-back in 1946 & ‘47. Shamrock the UEFA Cup had now taken over in Europe and with
Rovers even by this stage had collected the Shield on no it came the demise of our League of Ireland Shield –
less than seven occasions, and remain the most decorated replaced by the League of Ireland Cup. Mostly a straight
side in the competition.
knock-out (though several tournaments would start via a
However when in the early sixties it was decided that round robin group stage in the seventies and beyond), the
lifting the Shield also meant the winning club gaining entry League Cup suffered from a third world climate with mass
to the following season’s Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, it intensified unemployment and a country in hard times.
the competition. The tournament became an early August Decades later the League Cup is still here (in its current
appetizer, played out over a dozen games, which