Dublin Corporation built the Edenmore Estate in around 1964.
Most of the families came from the inner city. It was and still is a vibrant place to live. Edenmore became a very strong community and lots of parents became active in the community. Various activities and clubs evolved such as soccer, GAA, Scouts, and Girl Guides.
Soccer was at schoolboy level and my story is about a group of boys who were about to be over the age for schoolboy soccer and with no club in Edenmore for them decided to try and form a team and apply to a Junior Soccer League.
Upon applying the boys were told by the junior soccer committee that they had to have adults in charge of the club. After a lot of begging they got two men to take on the job of secretary, manager and coach. The job of treasurer was a joke. They hadn’t a coin of any description.
Brendan Wall Junior, one of the lads who set up the club, got his father to register as secretary. I agreed to go as manager and coach. Edenmore Road was registered as the home ground and the boys took training seriously but we also had a lot of fun. We started off in the league by losing badly. We were, after all, a newly formed team. As the season progressed however the players got to know one another and started to win games. By season’s end Edenmore had beaten the three top teams in the league.
One of the managers came to me and complained that a shoe belonging to one of their players was stolen from his gear bag after we had beaten his team. I told him I would investigate and asked him to leave his name and number. That night I rang his house and his mother said no such thing happened. It had just been a ploy by their manager to make a protest to the league to get the points. It turned out to be shoeless!
Recently I came across a photograph of the team and it has created a lot of interest in the area. We are trying to put names to the people in the photo. Due to lack of funds and facilities the team did not appear the next season. Some went on to play for other teams with success, but this and their band of supporters will always be known as the first junior soccer team of Edenmore.
We would like to say a special thank you to Aidan Soady (whose brother was the goal keeper) for supplying the photos.
By Jimmy Purdy
