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ABSTRACT
The League of Ireland is commonly seen as a development league, one whose best players are signed at an early age, usually by larger, wealthier clubs from Britain, following a pattern established more than a century ago. In this set of four case studies from the 1920s through to the twenty-first century another narrative is examined: the stories of footballers who have come into the League of Ireland from outside. This paper explores the circumstances that brought these footballers to Ireland, the scouting networks, the inter-relationships between leagues, and in several cases the major geopolitical events taking place at the time. It also examines the experiences of those men while they were playing in Ireland and investigates what these four case studies can tell us about the League of Ireland and Irish society more broadly.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
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4. CSO census data 2020 available at https://www.cso.ie/en/media/csoie/census/census1961results/ (accessed August 30, 2020).
5. Irish Times, 22 October 2005.
6. Hayes, The Republic of Ireland international football facts.
7. FourFourTwo, 23 August 2019 https://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/ossie-ardiles-ricky-villa-tottenham-british-footballs-first-foreign-footballers.
8. The Guardian, 13 May 2007, https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2007/may/13/obsmagspecial5.theobserver8.
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10. Graham, Republic of Ireland football league tables and results 1921–2012.
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12. Reid, Bohemian AFC Official Club history 1890–1976.
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14. Interview with Maryanne Otto Calitz, 1 September 2017.
15. National Army Museum: https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/senussi-revolt.
16. Uys, The South Africans at Deville Wood.
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19. Freeman’s Journal, 3 May 1923.
20. Dublin Evening Telegraph, 20 December 1920.
21. Reid, Bohemian AFC Official Club history 1890–1976.
22. British Pathé: https://www.britishpathe.com/video/football-dallymount/query/Bohemianism.
23. Reid, Bohemian AFC Official Club history 1890–1976.
24. Trench and Farrell, ‘Harry Willitts – The darling of Dalymount’.
25. P&O Line, SS Bendigo Australia via the Cape Service passenger list, 24 November 1927.
26. Ibid.
27. Irish Independent, 24 November 1973.
28. 1911 Census of Ireland: http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Dublin/Drumcondra/St__Patrick_s_Road/28240/.
29. Irish Times, 27 March 1958.
30. Union-Castle Mail Steamship company, HMS Hardwick Castle passenger list, July 1950.
31. Irish Press, 17 March 1958.
32. Evening Herald, 19 March 1958.
33. Union-Castle Mail Steamship company, HMS Pendennis Castle passenger list, 5 May 1960.
34. Interview with Maryanne Otto Calitz.
35. Irish Times, 4 November 2014.
36. Manning, ‘The Football Pink’, 25 October 2018, https://footballpink.net/2018-10-25-poles-apart-piotr-suski-wodzimierz-lubaski-and-the-league-of-ireland/.
37. Toms, Soccer in Munster.
38. Munster Express, 17June, 2011.
39. Irish Independent, 1 September 1930.
40. Nottingham Evening Post, 17 August 1929.
41. LFC History: https://www.lfchistory.net/Players/Player/Profile/622.
42. Ibid.
43. Evening Telegraph, 5 November 1919.
44. LFC History, https://www.lfchistory.net/Players/Player/GoalsPerTeam/622-8.
45. LFC History, https://www.lfchistory.net/SeasonArchive/Goalscorers/71.
46. Irish Independent, 28 April 1930.
47. LFC History, https://www.lfchistory.net/Players/Player/GoalsPerTeam/622-22.
48. LFC History, https://www.lfchistory.net/Players/Player/Profile/252.
49. Ibid.
50. Ibid.
51. Toffeeweb.com, 30 October 2020, https://www.toffeeweb.com/season/20-21/comment/history/40105.html.
52. Ibid.
53. LFC History, https://www.lfchistory.net/Players/Player/Profile/622.
54. Irish Independent, 14 August 1930.
55. Sligorovers.com https://www.sligorovers.com/blast-from-the-past-dixie-dean/.
56. LFC History, https://www.lfchistory.net/Players/Player/Profile/622.
57. Ibid.
58. Western Daily Press, 20 May 1932.
59. Western Daily Press, 8 November 1933.
60. Evening Telegraph, 19 July 1937.
61. Toffeeweb.com, https://www.toffeeweb.com/season/20-21/comment/history/40105.html.
62. Sunday Independent, 5 January 2020.
63. Hayes, The Republic of Ireland international football facts.
64. Cork Examiner, 9 May 1931.
65. W.P. Murphy, ‘English F.A. and signing of Dodds’, Irish Independent, 28 August 1946, 8.
66. Ibid.
67. Efl.com, 18 January 2016, https://www.efl.com/news/2016/january/fifty-five-years-to-the-day-20-maximum-wage-cap-abolished-by-football-league-clubs/#:~:text=In%201961%2C%20under%20the%20leadership,a%20week%20during%20the%20season.
68. Wilson, The Names Heard Long Ago.
69. Irish Independent, 26 February 1949.
70. Judt, A History of Europe Since 1945, 136–7.
71. Sligo Champion, 5 March 1949.
72. Irish Independent, 26 February 1949.
73. Sligo Champion, 5 March 1949.
74. Sligo Weekender, 25 October 2018.
75. Irish Independent, 26 February 1949.
76. Ibid.
77. Bohemian FC v Sligo match programme, 6 March 1949.
78. Irish Press, 28 March 1949.
79. Irish Examiner, 12 April 1949.
80. Evening Herald, 8 November 1950.
81. Sean Ryan, ‘Tales of Taffy Jones and Drop a stitch’, Sunday Independent, 27April 1986, 25.
82. Interview with Gergely Marosi, August 2020.
83. UNHCR, 6 November 2006, https://www.unhcr.org/en-ie/news/latest/2006/11/454f3a95a/hungarian-refugee-crisis-presented-ireland-new-challenge.html
84. Irish Examiner, 4 November 2016.
85. UNHRC, 23 October 2006, https://www.unhcr.org/en-ie/news/latest/2006/10/453c7adb2/fiftieth-anniversary-hungarian-uprising-refugee-crisis.html#:~:text=By%20the%20time%20the%20borders,as%20fast%20as%20they%20arrived.
86. Irish Press, 30April 1957.
87. Limerick Leader, 8 December 1956.
88. W.P. Murphy, ‘Limerick sign Laszlo Lipot’, Irish Independent, 10 August 1957, 12.
89. Limerick Leader, 19 January 1957.
90. Interview with Gergely Marosi.
91. Murphy, ‘Limerick sign Laszlo Lipot’.
92. Irish Times, 19 September 1957.
93. Cork Examiner, 9 September 1957.
94. England & Wales Deaths 1837–2007, District: Caerphilly.
95. Limerick Leader, 6 May 2015.
96. The 42, 9 June 2019, https://www.the42.ie/eric-lavine-interview-4640970-Jun2019/
97. Nationnews.com, 28 October 2015, https://www.nationnews.com/2015/10/28/a-thorny-issue-footballers-lack-the-hunger/
98. The 42, 9 June 2019 https://www.the42.ie/eric-lavine-interview-4640970-Jun2019/
99. Daily Mirror, 15 August 1998.
100. Interview with Eric Lavine, 14 March 2019.
101. Ibid.
102. Ibid.
103. Irish Examiner, 24 September 1999.
104. Evening Herald, 11 February 2000.
106. Interview with Austin Huggins, 12 March 2019.
107. Ibid.
108. Socawarriors.net: http://socawarriors.net/archive/avery_john.htm
109. Irish Independent, 10 July 2006.
110. EC.Europa.eu, 15 December 1995 https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_95_1411