Joseph James Ledwidge Sr. (8th June 1877 – 19th January 1953) was a

Gaelic football Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach; short name '), commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA or Football is an Irish team sport. It is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score by kic ...

er, an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

international soccer player and a cricketer. He won two All-Ireland medals playing with the

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

Geraldines and later played with Shelbourne in the Irish League.Obituary, Evening Press, 20 January 1953

Early life

Ledwidge was born on Arran Quay,

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

to Joseph William Ledwidge, a butcher, and Elizabeth Trulock. He married Molly Owens in 1910.

Sporting career

He had his first successes playing with the Geraldines' selection that won two All-Ireland titles for Dublin in 1898 and 1899. Ledwidge joined Shelbourne in 1901 when they played in the Leinster Senior League and played 51 times for them in the Irish League after they joined in 1904 until he left Shelbourne in 1909. He played for Shelbourne in their historic

Irish Cup The Irish Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly referred to as the Irish Cup (currently known as the Samuel Gelston's Whiskey Irish Cup for sponsorship purposes) is the primary football knock-out cup competition in Northern Ireland. Ina ...

final win over

Belfast Celtic Belfast Celtic Football Club was a football club. Founded in 1891 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, it was one of the most successful teams in Ireland until it withdrew permanently from the Irish League in 1949. The club left the league for polit ...

in 1906 as well the cup final defeat to

Distillery Distillation, or classical distillation, is the process of separating the components or substances from a liquid mixture by using selective boiling and condensation, usually inside an apparatus known as a still. Dry distillation is the heati ...

in 1905 and the cup final replay defeats to

Cliftonville Cliftonville is a coastal area of the town of Margate, situated to the east of the main town, in the Thanet district of Kent, South East England, United Kingdom. It also contains the area known as Palm Bay. The original Palm Bay estate was ...

and

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in 1907 and 1908. He was the first man to win both a GAA All-Ireland and an IFA cup-winner's medal. Shelbourne_F

Ledwidge won an inter-league cap for the Irish League against the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

during the 1905-06 season. He also played soccer for

St. James's Gate F.C. St James's Gate Football Club is an Irish association football club based in Drimnagh/Crumlin, Dublin. They played in the League of Ireland between 1921–22 and 1943–44 and again from 1990–91 until 1995–96. Gate were the inaugural win ...

He got his first international caps playing for

against

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

and

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

in the 1905-06 British Home Championship.

Post-sporting life

After his sporting career, he enlisted in the British army during World War One, and was a private in the 1st Battalion of the Royal Irish Fusiliers as well as a sapper in the Royal Engineers, seeing action in France at the

Battle of Passchendaele The Third Battle of Ypres (german: link=no, Dritte Flandernschlacht; french: link=no, Troisième Bataille des Flandres; nl, Derde Slag om Ieper), also known as the Battle of Passchendaele (), was a campaign of the First World War, fought by t ...

. While serving in the latter, he received the

Distinguished Conduct Medal The Distinguished Conduct Medal was a decoration established in 1854 by Queen Victoria for gallantry in the field by other ranks of the British Army. It is the oldest British award for gallantry and was a second level military decoration, ranki ...

for conspicuous gallantry. Ledwidge was a great-great nephew of historian

Edward Ledwich Edward Ledwich LL.D. F.S.A. (1738 – 8 August 1823) was an Irish historian, antiquary and topographer. Life Ledwich was born in Dublin, the son of John Ledwich, a merchant. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, entering on 22 November 175 ...

and 2nd cousin of notable Irish anatomist and surgeon Thomas Hawkesworth Ledwich. He worked for the Ordnance Survey office and later for the Land Commission before retiring. Joseph died in Dublin on 19 January 1953 and is buried in

Mount Jerome Cemetery Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest. Mount or Mounts may also refer to: Places * Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England * Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, C ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ledwidge, Joseph 1877 births 1953 deaths Burials at Mount Jerome Cemetery and Crematorium Dublin inter-county Gaelic footballers Irish association footballers (before 1923) Pre-1950 IFA men's international footballers Shelbourne F.C. players NIFL Premiership players Association footballers from County Dublin Gaelic footballers who switched code Leinster Senior League (association football) players Men's association football players not categorized by position