Dalymount Park – Irish Soccer’s First Home Ground

First Match at Dalymount Park (Dalyer)

Noel Cantwell leads
Ireland out against England
at Dalymount Park, Dublin

The first home match of the then Irish Free State soccer team was played on 16 June 1924 in Dalymount Park against the USA. The Irish won the match 3-1 with goals from Duncan, Robinson and Ghent.

Dalymount Park is the home of Bohemians Football Club and is situated in Phibsboro on the north side of Dublin. Dalymount staged it’s first match in 1901 when Bohemians (Bohs) played Shelbourne. Since then Dalymount Park has been the venue on 82 occasions for Irish international matches.

Dalymount Park has staged many memorable matches in the years between 1924 and 1990 including when the Irish Free State and Belgium played out a
4-4 (a record high score draw for the Irish) in front of 35,000 football fans.

Paddy Moore of Aberdeen scored all four goals for the Irish on 25th February 1934. Just over 50 years later Don Givens was to repeat the feat at the same venue when Ireland crushed Turkey 4-0 in the last Irish match in the 1976 European Championship qualifiers.

Record Crowd at Dalymount Park

Dalymount Park’s record attendance for an Irish international is estimated to be 48,000 when the English visited Dublin for a 1958 World Cup qualification match on 19th May 1957. The Republic of Ireland came within a whisker of a famous victory over Ireland. The Irish held on to the lead that they took after just three minutes through Alf Ringstead right up until the 90th minute. With almost no time left on the clock John Atyeo popped up with a headed equaliser to send an excited Dalymount crowd home bitterly disappointed.

Don Givens Hat Trick at Dalyer

Finally, another memorable occasion was on 30th October 1974 when almost 32,000 witnessed the Republic of Ireland dismantle a strong Soviet Union team. The match is notable, not just because of the result but because Don Givens scored a hat trick and because of the sensational international debut by a young Liam Brady. The famous Dalymount roar was at it’s most raucous on that afternoon.

Dalymount Park was also the setting for the largest ever Irish international victory when Malta was beaten by eight goals to nil on the 16th November 1983.

Goodbye to Dalymount

In the wake of major crowd congestion problems during a friendly against Italy in February 1985 the authorities decided to limit the capacity of Dalymount Park to just 22,000. After this Dalymount Park was never used for a competitive Irish international football match as the FAI switched home matches to Lansdowne Road. In the last full international soccer match at Dalymount Park Ireland beat Morocco on the 12th September 1990.

Ireland Record at Dalymount

The Republic of Ireland has played a total of 82 international football matches at Dalymount Park and the Irish record is as follows: