The Dublin Association Football Club was an

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is t ...

club based in

Dublin, Ireland Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

. Dublin Association was the first football club to be formed in Dublin and the first club outside of Ulster to be affiliated with the

Irish Football Association The Irish Football Association (IFA) is the governing body for association football in Northern Ireland. It organised the Ireland national football team from 1880 to 1950, which after 1954, became the Northern Ireland national football team. ...

. The club existed between 1883 and 1890 and played in the

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. I ...

History

Dublin Association was formed at Tyrone Place (now Cathedral Street) in October 1883, with players from well-heeled clubs such as Old Carthusians, St Mark's,

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 ...

City A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be de ...

, and

Notts County Notts County Football Club is a professional association football club based in Nottingham, England. The team participate in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. Founded on the 25 November 1862, it is the ...

, and the first captain being H. L. Pocock of Pilgrims. Initially, the team had little in the way of competition, with only 12 men turning up for their first game, however a month later, students from

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

would form a rival club called

Dublin University A.F.C. Dublin University Association Football Club is an Irish association football club based at Trinity College Dublin. Founded in 1883, Dublin University A.F.C. is the oldest surviving association football club in the Republic of Ireland. Their seni ...

The first-ever "Dublin Derby" was played at College Park on 7 November 1883 when Association met and defeated the university, 4–0. Association's goals were scored by W. Butler (2), H.J. Hamilton and C. Clegg. By 1884, there were five teams in the city, including a Scottish infantry battalion side. Both Dublin Association and Dublin University would enter the

in 1883–84; with the draw being regionalized the two clubs played each other in the first round at College Park, Dublin winning 3–2. However Dublin scratched from its tie with

Wellington Park Wellington Park is the protected area which encompasses kunanyi / Mount Wellington and surrounds near Hobart, Tasmania. There are numerous hiking and mountain bike tracks within the park of varying difficulty. Protection Although it carries ...

, being unable to travel to

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 Kingd ...

. The club did however visit England for a friendly at

Walsall Town Walsall Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Walsall, West Midlands, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club's nickname, "The Saddlers", reflects ...

, notably a side from the "upper crust", although the match itself was less than friendly, ending with the Midland side 3–1 to the good after the crowd "broke in". Its first season however was overall a successful one, with 6 wins in 9 matches, and a membership of 50. The club would last for seven years. It continued to enter the Irish Cup, either losing to Belfast clubs, or scratching when drawn to play one. In 1889–90, the club reached the semi-final, beating the University 3–1 in the second round and

Limavady Limavady (; ) is a market town in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, with Binevenagh as a backdrop. Lying east of Derry and southwest of Coleraine, Limavady had a population of 12,032 people at the 2011 Census. In the 40 years between ...

6–2 in the third; Limavady unsuccessfully protested its surprise defeat, the basis of it being that the Association had recruited a number of

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gur ...

footballers stationed at

the Curragh The Curragh ( ; ga, An Currach ) is a flat open plain of almost of common land in County Kildare. This area is well known for Irish horse breeding and training. The Irish National Stud is located on the edge of Kildare town, beside the f ...

, including five from the

93rd Highlanders The 93rd (Sutherland Highlanders) Regiment of Foot was a Line Infantry Regiment of the British Army, raised in 1799. Under the Childers Reforms, it amalgamated with the 91st (Argyllshire Highlanders) Regiment of Foot to form the Argyll and Suthe ...

, who held the Army Cup at the time. In the semi-final against Cliftonville, held at Linfield's Ulsterville ground in front of 4,000 spectators, Association was 3–0 down at half-time, hindered by an injury to Harris which rendered him hors de combat, but pulled the score back to 3–2 by the end. However, one of the umpires at the match was a member of the Cliftonville club, and, while it was normal practice at the time for each side to provide an umpire for regular matches, rule 13 of the competition rules forbade that for the semi-final and final of the Cup, so the IFA ordered a replay. The replay (at Ulster's Ballynafeigh) also went the Redshirts' way, by 4 goals to 2, despite the Metropolitans bringing back a number of Army players for the replay, thanks to a mix of Clugston's goalkeeping and incessant Association complaints about refereeing. Despite the prospect of a new league competition, and with the Metropolitans being touted as a founder member, Association pulled out of the competition and folded as a club. Following this, a number of Dublin Association members would go on to form a new club called the Leinster Nomads.

Colours

The club wore red and blue 3" stripes, with white knickers and blue stockings.

Ground

The club's usual practice area was at Nine Acres,

Phoenix Park The Phoenix Park ( ga, Páirc an Fhionnuisce) is a large urban park in Dublin, Ireland, lying west of the city centre, north of the River Liffey. Its perimeter wall encloses of recreational space. It includes large areas of grassland and tr ...

, and thanks to the wealth of Armytage was able to secure a private ground at

Donnybrook Donnybrook may refer to: Places Australia * Donnybrook, Queensland, Australia * Donnybrook, Western Australia * Donnybrook, Victoria, Australia ** Donnybrook railway station, Victoria, Australia Canada * Donnybrook, Ontario, a former village in ...

. It 1884 it was using a ground at

Sandymount Sandymount () is an affluent coastal suburb in the Dublin 4 district on the Southside of Dublin in Ireland. Etymology An early name for the area was Scal'd Hill or Scald Hill.

Notable former players

Brothers Willoughby and William Hamilton were the first and only two Dublin Association players to represent

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 ...

when they played against

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 ...

on 11 April 1885. The match, the last to be played as part of the

1884–85 British Home Championship The 1884–85 British Home Championship was the second football tournament between the Home Nations and was, like the previous competition, won by a Scottish team which completely dominated proceedings. The English also performed well, beginning ...

ended with a 2–8 loss to the Welsh in

References

{{Reflist, 2 Association football clubs in Dublin (city) Association football clubs established in 1883 Association football clubs disestablished in 1890 1883 establishments in Ireland 1890 disestablishments in Ireland Association football clubs in Ireland