Sirocco Works Football Club is a

Northern Irish Northern Irish people is a demonym for all people born in Northern Ireland or people who are entitled to reside in Northern Ireland without any restriction on their period of residence. Most Northern Irish people either identify as Northern ...

intermediate football club playing in Division 1A of the Northern Amateur Football League. Established in 1924, the club is the longest existing club in all the intermediate and junior divisions in Northern Ireland.H. Johnstone & G. Hamilton (n.d.) ''A Memorable Milestone: 75 Years of the Northern Amateur Football League'', p. 217 The club currently play matches at Dixon Park in East

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

. The club also fields a second team in Division 3A of the Amateur League as well as several youth teams.

Club history

The club is historically linked to the Sirocco Engineering Works located on the east bank of the

River Lagan The River Lagan (; Ulster Scots: ''Lagan Wattèr'') is a major river in Northern Ireland which runs 53.5 miles (86 km) from the Slieve Croob mountain in County Down to Belfast where it enters Belfast Lough, an inlet of the Irish Sea. T ...

in Belfast. Established in 1881, the company was one of the leading makers of

rope A rope is a group of yarns, plies, fibres, or strands that are twisted or braided together into a larger and stronger form. Ropes have tensile strength and so can be used for dragging and lifting. Rope is thicker and stronger than similarl ...

in the world before focusing on the

tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of ''Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and north ...

industry and supplying the local

Harland and Wolff Harland & Wolff is a British shipbuilding company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It specialises in ship repair, shipbuilding and offshore construction. Harland & Wolff is famous for having built the majority of the ocean liners for the W ...

shipyards. It was one of the biggest employers in Belfast and from this spawned the Sirocco Works Football Club. The club joined the Amateur League in 1924 and is the longest-serving member of that league, in unbroken membership ever since. It originally played its home games in Castlereagh, before moving to Warnock Park in the 1950s and the Dixon Park, Belfast.H. Johnstone & G. Hamilton (n.d.) ''A Memorable Milestone: 75 Years of the Northern Amateur Football League'', p. 218 The success of the football club mirrored that of the engineering firm with the majority of the club's trophies won in the 1930s and 40s. From 1934 up to 1940 the club won six back-to-back league titles and numerous cups. The 1938/39 season saw the club claim four honours including the league title,

Border Regiment Cup Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders c ...

and Clarence Mayes Cup. But the most important of which was their

Steel and Sons Cup The Steel & Sons Cup (also referred to as the Steel Cup) is an intermediate football competition in Northern Ireland run by the North East Ulster Football Association (also known as the County Antrim & District Football Association). The com ...

victory as they became the first amateur side to lift this prestigious trophy. The times following

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

saw the decline of industry in Belfast. Similarly the football club started to struggle in the League. By 1960 the club picked up their last notable honour for the next 20 years, an appearance in the final of the Border Cup. In 1999 came the death knell for the Sirocco Engineering Works as the site was closed to be redeveloped. Despite the closure of the parent Sirocco engineering plant board members of the football club decided to continue under the Sirocco name. Recently the club has seen a return to winning ways by winning Division 1B in 2007–08. Most recently Sirocco won promotion back to 1A in 2016/17 and have been runners up in the 2017/18 Clarence Cup Final and 2018/19 Steel & Sons Cup Final.

Honours

Intermediate honours

Steel & Sons Cup The Steel & Sons Cup (also referred to as the Steel Cup) is an intermediate football competition in Northern Ireland run by the North East Ulster Football Association (also known as the County Antrim & District Football Association). The compe ...

: 1 ** 1938–39 * Northern Amateur Football League: 8 ** 1926–27, 1934–35, 1935–36, 1936–37, 1937–38, 1938–39, 1939–40, 1947–48 * Clarence Cup: 6 ** 1925–26, 1926–27, 1938–39, 1943–44, 1945–46, 1947–48 * Border Cup: 6 **1936–37, 1937–38, 1938–39, 1941–42†, 1944–45, 1945–46 † Won by 2nd XI

Notes

External links

Sirocco Works Official Club website

nifootball.co.uk
- (For fixtures, results and tables of all Northern Ireland amateur football leagues) {{Football in Northern Ireland Association football clubs in Northern Ireland Association football clubs established in 1924 Association football clubs in Belfast Northern Amateur Football League clubs 1924 establishments in Northern Ireland Works association football teams in Northern Ireland