From Gaelic Games to Soccer: The Battle to Bring Soccer to Irish Radio.
How sporting rivalries,
political pressure, religious influence and fears over falling attendances
delayed the arrival of live soccer broadcasts in Ireland.
In the last post we have looked at the first rugby commentary and commentator on 2RN in 1927, today we look at the first soccer broadcasts and broadcasters in Ireland in 1928.
In August 1926, Irish broadcasting made sporting history when the
first Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) match was broadcast on radio. It was a
landmark moment, not just for Irish sport but for European broadcasting, as it
is credited as the first broadcast of a field sport in Europe[1]. The following year, rugby
union joined the growing list of sports available to radio listeners. In 1927,
listeners could hear live coverage of the rugby Five Nations Championship from
Dublin, following earlier coverage of a match at Twickenham. This was followed
by broadcasts on 2RN, Ireland's national radio station, of visiting South
African and New Zealand rugby touring sides in late 1927. The first live
broadcast of soccer match on the island of Ireland was by 2BE, the BBC station
in Northern Ireland, on Saturday February 26th when the Northern
Irish team played their Scottish counterparts at Windsor Park with John C.
Fergusson as commentator. The following month on March 5th, 1927,
also from Windsor Park in Belfast, the meeting between Northern Ireland and the
Irish Free State with teams drawn from players in the domestic leagues was
broadcast live.
Yet one of the country's most popular and rapidly growing sports
remained absent from the airwaves in the southern half of the island. Soccer,
despite its expanding following and the emergence of the League of Ireland
after independence, had to wait until February 1928 for its first live radio
broadcast. That historic occasion featured Drumcondra against Fordsons, played
in Cork and broadcast by the Cork station 6CK, with the transmission relayed to
Dublin for its sister station, 2RN. Why did soccer have to wait when Gaelic
games and rugby had already found a place on Irish radio?
The answer lay in a complex mixture of sporting politics, economic
concerns, social class and religious influence in the early years of the Irish
Free State. In the years following independence, the GAA occupied a prominent
position in the cultural and political life of the new state. Gaelic games were
closely associated with Irish national identity, and the organisation had
considerable influence among communities across rural Ireland.
The early decision to broadcast a GAA match was therefore significant. Radio offered an opportunity to bring local sporting traditions into the homes of listeners across the country, reinforcing the place of Gaelic games in the cultural life of the new state. Rugby, by contrast, was often regarded as an elitist sport with English roots, associated with private schools, universities and sections of society quite different from the traditional GAA base. Its presence on the radio did not necessarily represent the same perceived challenge to the GAA's position. Soccer however was another matter.
Following independence, the game was experiencing considerable
growth, particularly in urban centres. The establishment of the League of
Ireland in 1921 gave domestic soccer a new national structure, while clubs were
attracting increasingly loyal followings. For the GAA, the concern was not
simply competition from another sport. Soccer represented a growing alternative
sporting culture, with the potential to draw supporters and local loyalties
away from Gaelic games.
The influence of the GAA extended beyond the playing field. Many
rural communities were closely connected to the organisation, and politicians
representing these areas were well aware of its importance to their
constituents. Rural-based members of Dáil Éireann had strong incentives to
support the interests of their local sporting communities. The GAA's grassroots
network gave it a powerful voice in debates about the role of sport in national
life. The prospect of regular live soccer broadcasts therefore carried
political implications. Giving soccer access to the same new broadcasting
medium as Gaelic games could help strengthen its appeal in areas where the GAA
had traditionally been dominant.
Radio was still a relatively new yet influential medium. A live
broadcast could introduce a club or competition to listeners who might never
have attended a match, potentially expanding the game's following well beyond
the cities and towns in which it was played. The question of which sports
deserved airtime was consequently about more than entertainment. It was also
about influence, identity and the distribution of attention in a newly
independent country. Politics was only one part of the story. The clubs
themselves had practical concerns.
The newly established League of Ireland clubs were attempting to
build sustainable businesses around match-day attendances. Gate receipts were
an important source of income, helping clubs meet operating expenses. Live
radio presented an obvious risk. If supporters could listen to a match from the
comfort of their homes or public house, would they still pay to attend in
person?
This concern was not unique to Ireland. Football authorities in England were also debating the relationship between broadcasting and attendance. The English Football League opposed live broadcasts of their league matches, fearing that radio coverage would undermine gate receipts, while the Football Association continued to permit live radio broadcasts of certain matches. The first live soccer match with a running commentary was from Highbury and a game between Arsenal and Sheffield United on January 22nd, 1927, with commentator Ted Wakelam. The distinction between the two bodies reflected a wider debate about the commercial future of football. Broadcasting could promote the sport and attract new followers, but it might also provide a substitute for the live match-day experience. Irish clubs faced the same dilemma. They wanted greater exposure for their competitions, but they could not afford to jeopardise the income on which their survival depended. For a young league still establishing itself, the consequences of falling attendances could be serious.
The debate also unfolded against the backdrop of the Catholic
Church's considerable social influence in Ireland during the 1920s. Church
authorities and clergy were influential in shaping attitudes towards leisure,
recreation and public behaviour. In urban areas, where soccer had developed a
strong following, there were concerns that the sport could distract
parishioners from religious observance and other aspects of community life.
One Dundalk based priest said,
‘in three or four counties he knew all the jazz dances were being
run by GAA Clubs during the past twelve months. Those men took a football in
their hand and kicked it but they were no better than those who played soccer
and rugby.’
He added,
‘in the GAA there are two classes, one who played Gaelic games
because they were Irish and another class who played Gaelic games because they
were brought up in a Gaelic environment and who would have played soccer or
rugby had they been brought up where these games were played.
These objections formed part of a broader tension between
organised religion, popular entertainment and the changing habits of an
increasingly urban society. Soccer's popularity was growing at a time when
Irish society was negotiating its identity after independence. The sport's
strong links with Britain, its appeal among urban working-class communities and
its expanding club structure made it a subject of wider cultural debate. Radio
threatened to extend that appeal even further.
The eventual arrival of live soccer on Irish radio appears to have
benefited from a practical solution to the controversy. Rather than beginning
with a Dublin fixture, the first broadcast involved an FAI Cup semi final match
played in Cork between Drumcondra and Fordsons on February 19th 1928. The Cork station 6CK carried
the match, with the broadcast relayed from Dublin by 2RN. From 1927 when 6CK
opened, all programmes were made by the station and relayed from Dublin, while
during the rest of the week 6CK was the relay station for 2RN broadcasts. The
use of 6CK is particularly significant because it illustrates the role of
regional broadcasting in the early development of Irish radio. The national
broadcasting service was not yet operating with the reach, resources or
established conventions familiar to later generations. Its stations were
helping to define what public broadcasting in Ireland would become. Gaelic
games and rugby had already shown that live sport could become part of radio
programming. The remaining questions concerned policy, economics and the place
of soccer in Irish public life.
The game itself was played at the Mardyke in front of a sell-out
10,000 spectators. Those first commentators were John Murphy, a former Pioneers
player and the Pioneers delegate on the Leinster Football Association. He was
assisted by Jim Brennan who was the then chairman of the Free State League. Murphy
and his two brothers, Myles and Bobby, all played for Pioneers and were all
involved in the early FAI as organisers. John became their delegate to the Leinster
Football Association and represented Athlone Town FC to the new Irish Free
State League committee. As part of his role, he accompanied the Irish Free
State national team to Paris to compete in the 1924 Olympics. For the 1925-26
season he was elected chair of the Irish Free State League and before
relinquishing the post one of the final acts, he oversaw was the admission of
Dundalk to the league. Brennan would later take on a similar role in the FAIFS.
John Murphy, Ireland’s first soccer commentator died at his home in Marino in
August 1966. Jim Brennan through himself in the administration of the newly
formed Free State football organisation and was the FAI delegate on a number of
occasions at FIFA meetings. When he died in December 1949, his newspaper
obituary was written by Myles Murphy, the Honorary Secretary of the FAI. He
also was a regular broadcaster on Radio Eireann on the Soccer Survey Programme.
In Cork, the Dublin side won three goals to nil. There were
numerous listener letters from soccer fans demanding more games to be
broadcast. The Irish Examiner[2] claimed that there was an
embargo on soccer broadcasts and added that,
’Gaelic and rugby games have
been repeatedly broadcast and why association football should be so far have
been shut out is difficult to understand.’
but this was counteracted by a denial not from Seamus Clandillon
at 2RN but from Sean Neeson, the director at 6CK. He wrote,
Sir, Your Dublin
correspondent, referring in Saturday’s issue of the “Examiner” to the broadcast
of the Cup semi-final between Drumcondra and Fordsons, remarks that “the
wireless embargo on ‘Soccer,’ if such there be, cannot now in any fairness be
continued.” There has never, to my knowledge, been an embargo on “Soccer.” No
discrimination is made between applications from the authorities of Gaelic,
Rugby, “Soccer,” or other pastimes. Yours faithfully,
SEAN NESSON,
In 1928 an editorial in the Irish Independent remarked,
‘For the past few years followers of
Association football have had a grievance against the broadcasting authorities
in the Saorstat. Rugby Internationals and Gaelic matches have been broadcast,
but for some strange reason “Soccer” has been left severely alone. In view of
the very large support for this game throughout the country, it seemed rather
curious that it should have been neglected. It is the business of those in
charge of 2R.N. to suit the requirements of the public, no matter how peculiar
those requirements may seem to them. To the ordinary citizen there was nothing
unusual in the desire to ascertain the progress of yesterday’s match in Cork.
After a great deal of controversy and letters to the Press the Dublin station
decided to cater for wireless enthusiasts who are also Soccer enthusiasts, and
the wisdom of this step was very apparent. Curious though it may seem, it
caused quite a flutter of excitement in Dublin. Where there was a loudspeaker
there was a goodly gathering of interested listeners. This is evidence enough
of the popularity of the decision, and it is to be hoped that the matter will
not end here. There will be other important matches, and those might receive
similar attention. The duty of those in charge of broadcasting stations in the
Saorstat is to serve the public and broadcast events of interest.’
The exact extent to which the Cork location was deliberately
chosen to avoid political controversy merits further historical investigation,
but the circumstances surrounding the broadcast reflect the competing interests
that shaped the early years of Irish sports broadcasting. Live radio offered
clubs an opportunity to reach listeners who were unable to attend matches. It
could introduce teams to new audiences, build interest in the League of Ireland
and help establish a stronger national sporting conversation.
Newspapers also feared
live broadcasts from 2RN and despite the fact that anyone who could tune into
the live broadcast would know the result, the Irish Independent advertised in their
newspaper,
‘we
have made arrangement to get through the result of this Cup tie in Cork on
Sunday as soon as possible after the finish of the game and will show it in the
window of our office, Carlisle Building, D’Olier St about 5pm.’
Sports coverage was
important to the newspapers and their sales, sports often taking up as much as
a quarter of the newspaper and they feared radio and especially live radio.
At the same time, it challenged established assumptions about how
sport should be promoted and consumed. The concerns over gate receipts,
political influence and cultural identity would not disappear overnight, but
the arrival of soccer on the airwaves showed that the game could no longer be
excluded from the country's developing broadcasting landscape. The story of
Irish sports radio in the 1920s was therefore about much more than the
technical achievement of transmitting a match. It was a reflection of the
tensions within a young state, where sport was intertwined with national
identity, political allegiances, religious values and commercial survival. The
delay was not simply a question of which game was most popular. It was a
struggle over who would control the new medium, which sporting traditions it
would serve and how far the growing influence of radio would reshape Irish
sporting life.
In the end, the radio could not remain the preserve of one
sporting tradition. As the popularity of soccer continued to grow, the airwaves
had to make room for it.
[1]
Baseball had been broadcast by NBC in 1921 with a match between the New York Yankees
and the San Franscisco Giants from the Polo grounds in New Rork. The Polo
Grounds later accommodated the only All Ireland GAA final held outside Ireland.
[2]
Then known as The Cork Examiner
Sources
The Irish Newspaper Archive
Dail Eireann Debates
UCD Archives
The British Newspaper Archives
BBC Archives
RTE Archives
FAI Archives
LSL Archives
US Newspaper Archives
World Radio History
