Ireland

Podcast: Football in Pre-Partition Ireland

Patrick O’Connell, the Dubliner who signed for a record £1,000 for Manchester United
in 1914 pictured in his Hull City days [Credit: DonPatricio.TV]

We talk to Dublin-based football historian Gerard Farrell about how association football took off in Ireland before partition in 1921 into what are now known as the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Gerard runs the blog A Bohemian Sporting Life, and provides a fascinating insight into how soccer competed for attention against the other emerging football codes, rugby and Gaelic football, all within the turbulent political context of the time.

If you’re interested in learning more about early Irish soccer, listen to:

our podcast with the team behind Don Patricio, a film about Ireland’s first soccer superstar, Patrick O’Connell (pictured) [Play]
our podcast with Benjamin Roberts, author of Gunshots and Goalposts about football and conflict in Northern Ireland [Play]

We’re aiming to post a new podcast every Sunday, so be sure to subscribe on your preferred podcast platform. We’re on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Player.FM and Anchor. Look for us in Google Podcasts too. We’d really appreciate a rating or view if you like what we’re doing as it helps others discover our podcast.