The Mighty Bull (Pt 3): Dundalk humbled, Celtic Swifts score hat-trick

Year five of the Bull Park 7s - 1979 - saw the prestigious competition go from strength to strength. It was opened that year by Jim McLaughlin's double winning Dundalk F.C. (League of Ireland & FAI Cup winners).

Jim brought a near full strength side to the 'Bull' to play a 'Derry Bull Park Select'. He also brought with him the FAI Cup itself, possibly the first time the famous trophy had travelled up north and certainly the first time it had been in the city of Derry.

Many local football fans probably believe the first time the FAI Cup was in our city was (memorably) 10 years later in 1989 when Derry City brought home that unforgettable treble, but it was in fact 1979 that a 'well stocked' FAI Cup was passed around the 'Bull' to the enjoyment of the assembled spectators.

For the record, the Derry Select hammered Dundalk and a bitterly disappointed Jim McLaughlin was a far from happy man, even suggesting he would bring a team back up the following year to put matters straight!

This same Dundalk side only six months later, in November ’79, was to play the mighty Glasgow Celtic in the European Cup. Celtic triumphed 3-2 in the first leg at Parkhead and over 16,000 people crammed into Oriel Park for the return leg. How 16,000 got into Oriel Park is anyone's guess but the official attendance was returned as that figure!

Dundalk only needed a goal to eliminate Celtic but the game ended scoreless and Dundalk missed out narrowly on playing another of the biggest clubs in world football, Real Madrid, in the quarter-finals of the European Cup. The feat is widely regarded - even to this day - as the best performance by an Irish side in European competition.

For the record, Real Madrid defeated Celtic by 3-2 over the two legs of the quarter-final after losing the first leg 2-0 in Glasgow.

It was in 1979, having witnessed the success of the 'Bull' and the appetite for football, that the committee entertained the idea of bringing senior soccer back to Derry via the League of Ireland under the name, Derry Celtic. The name was chosen to follow in the footsteps of those gentlemen from Derry who joined the 'All Ireland League' way back in 1899, first playing at Celtic Park (now the GAA stadium) until 1900 and then moving to the Brandywell the following year.

Derry Celtic were voted out of the 'All Ireland League' in 1913 and never played senior soccer again. Derry City joined the Irish League in 1929 and the rest, as they say, is history.

Two of the bull Park committee, Eamonn Doherty and Sammy Brown, met with the late Frank Curran who advised them on their tentative move to bring senior soccer back to Derry. Frank, as a previous sports editor of the 'Derry Journal', was all for the idea and gave the example of Berwick Rangers playing in Scotland although being from the north of England. The seed was sown and Eamonn approached Jim McLaughlin who lent his support and outlined the type of money involved in the ambitious project. A top local businessman was also more than willing to come on board.

However, before an application was ever submitted, one member of the three man committee informed the FAI by letter of the Bull Park's intentions and was subsequently told that only one team from Derry would be successful. That was good enough for the Bull Park personnel as all they desired was the return of senior soccer, through League of Ireland participation.

By this year - 1979 - prizemoney had now risen to £1,000. The teams appearing got stronger with every passing year as they did their utmost to lift the trophy and claim the substantial prizemoney.

In front of a big crowd, the 1979 winners Maydown defeated Crusaders 7-4 and the charity to benefit that year was the Derry branch of Kidney Research.

The following year, 1989, saw the prizemoney increase again, this time to a huge £2,000 - the equivalent of about £12,000 in today's money. It was kindly sponsored by local bookmaker, Hugo Toner who was based in Elmwood Hall. That year he ran a book on all the games throughout the tournament.

The competition felt as if it had gone to another level altogether and was arguably the biggest of its kind in Ireland. The teams all searched for top players to try and get the prize. Many of the games were of the highest quality and fiercely competitive as you would imagine with in excess of 1,500 spectators. Huge attendances indeed! Even more so when you consider many Irish League or League of Ireland clubs could only dream of such attendances at that time.

The semi-final betting was 11/8 Crusaders, 2/1 Brandywell Harps, 4/1 Shelbourne and 11/2 Mailey's. Crusaders and Mailey's reached the final with a huge crowd watching it but the game itself, maybe because of what was at stake, was a dour, stop-start match from which Crusaders emerged victorious by 3-1 to claim the £2,000 pot.

Six years into the competition now at this stage, it was apparent how difficult it was to win as the first six years had produced six different winners: Parkhead, Celtic Swifts, Collegians, Oldpark Celtic, Maydown and Crusaders. The charity to benefit in 1980 was CT Scanner.

The following year in 1981, after the huge prizemoney of the previous year, the competition was reluctantly cancelled due to the Republican hunger strikes and the subsequent deaths and widespread disorder on the streets. The committee obviously felt that the health and safety of people could not be guaranteed.

A statement of the times, reflecting the abnormality of the situation which could not be made look normal in the Bogside. And how correct the cancellation proved as the same Sunday night it would normally have kicked-off, British soldiers were firing plastic bullets at locals youths through the very same park and surrounding areas.

The year 1982 was a World Cup year and with the competition not being staged the previous year, the committee wondered would it take off again in the manner it had. But history showed that the Derry footballing public loved the tournament as crowds diminished in no way. That year, 1982, also saw prizemoney revert back to £1,000 and all the 'big guns' - Oldpark Celtic, Celtic Swifts, Brandywell Harps, Crusaders and Collegians - hoping to make history by becoming the first team to lift the trophy a second time.

And in fact that is precisely what transpired as Celtic Swifts became the first team to get their hands on the trophy more than once when, in front of over 2,000 supporters, they defeated the Waterside based Phoenix by 5-3. It was a Swifts team that included Mickey Guy, the two McCreadie brothers, Seamus 'Shakes' McDowell, Thomas Healy and Denis Feeny in nets; a really powerful outfit.The charity to benefit that year was Special Care Northland Road.

The following year - 1983 - saw the emergence of a really strong Coolagh Celtic side into the competition. Although they first entered in 1982, they appeared to be taken aback by the nature and strength of the 7s that year and returned 12 months later bolstered and even more determined. The competition kingpins, Celtic Swifts, having now won it twice, reached the semi-finals again and were joined by Coolagh, Oldpark and Quigley's Point. Most believed it would be a Coolagh v Celtic Swifts final but Coolagh surprisingly lost to Quigley's Point by 6-4. Another few thousand watched the final as Swifts ran out 3-2 winners.

Now nine years into the tournament and Celtic Swifts, with three 'golds' to their name, had emerged as the strongest annual contenders. The charity to benefit in 1983 was the new church, Holy Family, in Ballymagroarty.

Next week we conclude this four part series by looking at the years 1984 - 1992.