Today I'm going back 33 years to 1988 and a Boxing Day visit to Terryland Park, Galway to watch Galway United's League of Ireland Premier Division fixture against Derry City.
Actually, in Ireland, it wasn't Boxing Day. They don't call it that. It's known there as St Stephen's Day or, sometimes, as the "Day of the Wren". St Stephen was the first Christian martyr, stoned to death in Jerusalem in around 33 AD. According to legend it was a Wren that betrayed St. Stephen while he was hiding from his enemies. If you haven't got it in for the Wren already then there's another Irish myth that talks about the Wren’s tendency to betray people. Around the year 750 AD, following Viking raids in Ireland on St. Stephen’s Day, in an bid to oust the invaders, Irish soldiers crept towards a Viking encampment. However, the Vikings were alerted to their approach due to the noise that Wren was making while eating crumbs from a drum (schoolboy error that). This story led people to believe that a Wren betrayed the Irish people and that Wrens obviously should therefore be stoned to death as St. Stephen had once been. Traditionally therefore, on this day, Irish boys would try to kill Wrens with stones. They would tie the carcass of an unfortunate Wren to a stick to collect money. Thankfully, by 1900, this tradition of killing Wrens and parading them on St. Stephen’s Day had died out. However, St. Stephen’s Day is still referred to as the Day of the Wren, especially in rural Ireland.
To be honest, perhaps the culling of the Wren was more successful than previously thought as I saw no sign of any on this particular trip. I did see Derry City however. The remarkable thing about Derry City is that, whilst the City is located in Northern Ireland, the team play in the League of Ireland's Premier Division. The reason as to why this is the case can be explained by sectarianism. Even the name of the club is a little controversial eschewing as it does the official name of the city: Londonderry. Formed in 1928 the club competed initially in the Irish League (Northern Ireland's League). The club attracted a largely Catholic supporter base in what was a largely Catholic city and from 1969 found itself increasingly at odds with the Protestant dominated and Belfast-based Irish League. By 1972, other (Protestant) clubs in the Irish League, perhaps feeling intimidated at having to travel into a Catholic heartland, refused permission for Derry City to use their Brandywell Stadium for home games effectively forcing their withdrawal from the League on economic grounds. Derry City then suffered 13 "Wilderness Years" in which they were unable to compete in their domestic League until 1985 when they were finally admitted to the League of Ireland (the Republic of Ireland's League) instead.
In the world of music, Derry City were made even more famous by a local punk band. The cover of The Undertones 1980 hit single "My Perfect Cousin", features a Subbuteo figure sporting the colours of Derry City. The song's video includes the group's front-man, Feargal Sharkey, kicking and leaping to head a ball while wearing Derry's red and white striped shirt. Also, the cover of The Undertones second ever single "Get Over You", showed the words "Derry City F.C." in the background. Teenage kicks indeed! There was also an excellent film about the club on the BBC last year which I strongly recommend if you're interested to know more about this remarkable club. Follow this link to find it:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000vcdr/different-league-the-derry-city-story ).
Season 1988/89 proved to be a very fruitful one for Derry who ended the season as League of Ireland champions. This was Derry's first ever League of Ireland title and they did the Irish treble that season by also winning the FAI Cup and the League of Ireland Cup. In their march to the title, Derry won the featured game comfortably by three goals to nil. Galway United finished 10th in a 12 team League and happily missed the bottom two relegation positions by four clear points.
CRB Match No. 943
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