DUNDALK RUGBY CLUB START CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS
INTERNATIONALS TO PLAY IN MATCH AT MILL ROAD September 1977
TO inaugurate Dundalk Rugby Club’s centenary year celebrations, a Dundalk selection is set to play a full C.I.Y.M.S. team.
The match against the Ulster Senior League outfit kicks off a number of special events being staged during the coming season to mark the foundation of the club one-hundred years ago.
In Dundalk’s first campaign, which as far as can be determined, began in the latter part of 1877, records of the first AGM, held in 1878, state ‘only three matches were played last season, of which the club was successful in two.’
Dundalk Football Club, as it was then known, held its first AGM in the Exchange Buildings, chaired by club captain, Greves Leech.
According to a report in the Dundalk Herald on 5 October, 1878, the club successfully acquired its first playing field on the Long Avenue.
Dundalk has a current membership of approximately 300, and three pitches, one with training lights at Mill Road, where there is also one of the most impressive clubhouses of any provincial club.
With the recent addition of a ‘centenary’ extension, Dundalk has changing facilities for six teams, besides a committee room, kitchen, bar, and dancehall/ gymnasium for indoor training during the winter.
By a strange coincidence, Dundalk has a link with the acknowledged founder of rugby football, William Webb-Ellis. His father, James Ellis, was stationed in the town as a member of the First Dragoon Guards in 1807, the year William was born.
As the Dundalk club progressed, it became a member of the Provincial Towns Union in the North, and later the Northern branch of the I.R.F.U. which came into being in 1885, as a result of a merger between the Towns Union and Northern Union.
In 1912, the club was disbanded after running into difficulties, and was not reformed until September, 1922.
Ten years later, captained by Arthur Halliday, Dundalk beat Longford to win the Provincial Towns Cup.
It was the start of a golden era. Between 1936 and 1949, Dundalk appeared in the final on ten occasions, taking home the trophy six times.
The last, and eighth, success came in 1970.
Those winning captains were, Dan O’Herlihy (1936), John O’Neill (1939), Kevin Campbell (1945), Larry Steen (1947), Niall McCann (1948), Ernie Jeffers (1949) and Vinny McGee (1970).
As part of the celebrations, a first overseas tour is being planned, and it is intended to set aside a day for juveniles and veterans.
Meanwhile, the Dundalk selection for the C.I.Y.M.S. match is: B. Carroll, K. Strut (Bangor), A. McKibbin (Instonians), D. Kearney, M. Ryan, T. Steen (Sunday’s Well), T. Campbell, R. Rutherford, W. Shannon, R. Dowdall (cpt.), J. Martin, G. Hannigan, H. McGee, R. Jeffers, C. Murtagh (Portadown).
The opposition includes internationals, Frank Wilson, Ronnie Harkin and Eddie Grant.
International referee, Dave Burnett takes charge.
The game will be preceded by an exhibition seven-a-side between teams from Dublin and Belfast.