The Montreal Shamrocks were an amateur, later professional, and then amateur again men's

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

club in existence from 1886 to 1924, based in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, Canada. They were spun off from the Montreal Shamrocks lacrosse club. Starting off as an independent club and briefly playing in the AHAC, the team became a permanent fixture in the early amateur leagues, when in 1895 they merged with the

Montreal Crystals The Montreal Crystals (''Crystal Hockey Club'') were an ice hockey team based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada that existed from 1884 to 1895. One of the first established ice hockey teams, the Crystals played various challenges against other clubs in ...

and replaced them midway through the 1895 season in the AHAC. The club eventually went professional and played one season in the

National Hockey Association The National Hockey Association (NHA), officially the National Hockey Association of Canada Limited, was a professional ice hockey organization with teams in Ontario and Quebec, Canada. It is the direct predecessor of today's National Hockey Lea ...

(NHA), the predecessor of today's

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

. Afterwards, with the cost of professionalism being too expensive, the team reverted to an amateur club and played into the 1920s in various amateur leagues. Their greatest success came when they won back to back

Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup (french: La Coupe Stanley) is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, an ...

s at the turn of the century in 1899 and 1900.

Team history

The Shamrocks were founded on December 15, 1886 at a meeting of the Shamrock Lacrosse Club to organize an ice hockey club. The Shamrock Lacrosse Club of Montreal predated the hockey team by twenty years, founded in 1867 by J. B. L. Flynn. Both teams were under the umbrella name of the ''Shamrock Amateur Athletic Association'' of Montreal. The Shamrocks started off playing exhibition games, but their standard of play increased leading to the club playing in two Amateur Hockey Association of Canada (AHAC) challenges, in 1891 and 1892 respectively. After these challenges the club went into dormancy, but in 1895 the ''SAAA'' purchased the

' hockey club and merged them into the Shamrocks, reviving the team in the process. The newly revived Montreal Shamrocks hockey club then replaced the Crystals midway through the AHAC's 1895 season. After this, the club began actively competing in season based play. The club rose to be the pre-eminent senior amateur hockey club in North America by the turn of the twentieth century, winning the

in 1899 and 1900 before losing a Stanley Cup challenge in 1901. Following the retirement of its stars, including Hall of Famers

Harry Trihey Henry Judah "Flip" Trihey (December 25, 1877 – December 9, 1942) was a Canadian amateur ice hockey player and executive in the era before professional ice hockey. Trihey played the centre forward position for the Montreal Shamrocks from 1897 ...

and

Arthur Farrell Arthur "Art" Farrell (February 8, 1877 – February 7, 1909) was a Canadian ice hockey player, author and businessman. Farrell played for St. Mary's College in the 1890s and later the Montreal Shamrocks in the Amateur Hockey Association of Cana ...

, the Shamrocks faded from prominence and never again had a winning season.Barlow, Matthe
"The Montreal Shamrocks Hockey Club"
/ref> They were eventually done in as a professional entity around 1910 by the growth of professionalisation in hockey. Despite playing one season in the

(the forerunner to the

), they had trouble competing financially with other clubs, and with the myriad splits and feuding in elite-level hockey (which lead to the formation, disbandment, and formation of new leagues), the Shamrocks ceased being a professional club and became dormant. In 1911–12, the club was reactivated and returned to their amateur roots by joining the

Interprovincial Amateur Hockey Union The Interprovincial Amateur Hockey Union (IAHU or IPAHU) was the premier amateur ice hockey league in Canada after the split between the amateur and professional ice hockey teams of the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association (ECAHA) in 1908. His ...

. In 1912–13, they joined the

Montreal City Hockey League The Montreal City Hockey League (MCHL) was a Canadian amateur senior ice hockey league in Montreal, Quebec which ran for 14 consecutive seasons between 1910 and 1924 when it merged with the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey League. A rivaling senior ...

. They played in that league until 1924 when the Shamrocks finally folded.

Junior teams

Outside of the popular senior team, the Montreal Shamrocks had two lower tier teams. First was an intermediate team that played from 1896 through 1912. From 1896 to 1898 they played in the ''Intermediate Amateur Hockey Association of Canada'' (IAHAC). Then, from 1899 to 1912, they played in the ''Intermediate Canadian Amateur Hockey league'' (ICAHL). There was also a junior team that played from 1902 through 1916. In 1902 they played in the ''Junior Montreal Hockey League''. In 1903 they played in the ''Independent Junior League''. From 1904 to 1908, they played in the ''Junior Amateur Hockey Association of Canada'' (JAHAC). The team became dormant in 1909 but returned in 1915. They would fold after the 1916 season.

Players

While the lacrosse club was a predominantly working-class team, based largely in the Irish Catholic industrial working-class neighbourhood of

Griffintown Griffintown is a historic neighbourhood of Montreal, Quebec, southwest of downtown. The area existed as a functional neighbourhood from the 1820s until the 1960s, and was mainly populated by Irish immigrants and their descendants. Mostly depopulat ...

, the hockey club reflected a more

bourgeois The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. They ...

background, more in keeping with the image the Shamrock Amateur Athletic Association wished to convey to the wider community of

, as

Irish Catholic Irish Catholics are an ethnoreligious group native to Ireland whose members are both Catholic and Irish. They have a large diaspora, which includes over 36 million American citizens and over 14 million British citizens (a quarter of the British ...

s attempted to integrate into the mainstream of the city's body politic in the late 19th century. Many of the players on the Stanley Cup–winning teams of 1899–1901 went on to study at

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

, and entered into the city's bourgeois professional ranks as doctors, lawyers, and businessmen. Harry Trihey, the captain of the Cup-winning teams, became a prominent Montreal lawyer and, during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, was commissioned by the

Government of Canada The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown ...

to raise the Irish Canadian Rangers, a venture that ended with Mr. Trihey resigning his commission and returning to Montreal in 1916 after the

British High Command British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

reversed its earlier promise to Mr. Trihey to send the Rangers into battle as a

unit Unit may refer to: Arts and entertainment * UNIT, a fictional military organization in the science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' * Unit of action, a discrete piece of action (or beat) in a theatrical presentation Music * ''Unit'' (alb ...

, deciding instead to plug them into the front line as reinforcements. Mr. Trihey also had problems recruiting in

and

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 ...

following the GPO Rising in

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 ...

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...

1916.

Season-by-season record

Prominent players

The following players have been inducted into the

Hockey Hall of Fame , logo = Hockey Hall of Fame Logo.svg , logo_upright = 0.5 , image = Hockey Hall of Fame, Toronto.jpg , caption = The Hall's present location on Yonge Street since 1992 , map_type = , former_name = , established = 1943 , location = 30 Y ...

: *

* Jimmy Gardner *

Jack Laviolette Jean-Baptiste "Jack" Laviolette (July 17, 1879 – January 10, 1960) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. Laviolette played nine seasons for the Montreal Canadiens hockey club and was their first captain, coach, and general manager. Lavi ...

Jack Marshall Sir John Ross Marshall New Zealand Army Orders 1952/405 (5 March 1912 – 30 August 1988) was a New Zealand politician of the National Party. He entered Parliament in 1946 and was first promoted to Cabinet in 1951. After spending twelve years ...

Didier Pitre Joseph George Didier "Cannonball" Pitre (September 1, 1883 – July 29, 1934) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. Nicknamed "Cannonball," he was renown for having one of the hardest shots during his playing career. One of the first playe ...

* Fred Scanlan *

Joe Hall Joseph Hall may refer to: Sports * Joe Hall (American football) (born 1979), American football player * Joe Hall (baseball) (born 1966), American baseball player * Joe Hall (ice hockey) (1881–1919), Canadian ice hockey player * Joe B. Hall (192 ...

Tommy Dunderdale Thomas Dunderdale (6 May 1887 – 15 December 1960) was an Australian-Canadian professional ice hockey forward. Born in the Colony of Victoria (now part of Australia), he moved to Canada with his family in 1894. He played in Winnipeg for t ...

References