Long Tradition of Soccer in "The Town"

The lads of "The Town" are certainly following in the footsteps of a great footballing tradition in the town of Dún Laoghaire. A recently unearthed photograph of the British Railways staff football squad of nearly sixty years ago contains many of the grandfathers and great grandfathers of current and past players of Dún Laoghaire Town Football Club. Surprisingly in a wellknown publication about soccer in the Borough of Dún Laoghaire, British Railways FC didn't even receive a mention. British Railways (later known as Sealink) operated the mail-boat and later the ferry service between Dún Laoghaire and Caergybi (Holyhead) in North Wales. The photograph was taken on Sunday April 30th 1949 after the game between British Railways FC and St. Kevin's FC, in which, the gallant railway lads were between 4 : 1 by St. Kevin's FC. Pictured are from left to right: Back Row: M. Whelan, M. Cullen, S. Keane, M. McDonnell, M. Merrigan (23 yrs) and B. Smith; Front Row: M. Davit, J. Dwyer, F. Young, B. Kearns and J. Carden (?). In conclusion, this year marks the 90th anniversary of the sinking of the mail-boat RMS Leinster in October 1918 many locals lost the lives in this tragedy, indeed, quite a number of our current players have family connections to this disaster.