The lost history of Cliftonville FC

mdingwall

mdingwall

Administrator
The oldest football club in Ireland. Now supported overwhelmingly by Catholics following the enforced population movement of Protestants out of the area from the early 1970s onwards. They used to be regarded as the "doctors and lawyers" club and they clung onto amateurism longer than most.

When I worked in Belfast one of the lads I worked beside was a Glentoran fan from the Shore Road - his dad was a Cliftonville fan from his youth and he still accompanied him to the games but it was impossible for a young Protestant growing up in the 70s to be a fan.

Cutting is from the Irish News 1915

afNhDCp.png
 
Was speaking to some older lads at the Norn Iron v Poland game in Nice during Euro 2016. They grew up Cliftonville fans and when England won the world cup there was street parties all over Belfast including near their home. I forget where they said but presumably somewhere in North Belfast near Solitude. There wouldn't be much celebrating there now. I watched the England v USA world cup game in 2010 in the Sandy Row Rangers bar and was surprised that most of the bar was supporting America (although a couple of lunatics did go crackers when England scored). The blokes I spoke to in Nice had been in Marseille the day before for the England Russia game which was apparently a quiet enough day. What a life that must have been growing up through all of the troubles. Having to leave your own area and your football team turning into something else probably wouldn't have been the worst things they've seen as well.
 
mdingwall said:
STAu5Jv.png


Lodge pictured outside the club pavilion.
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The Young Citizen Volunteers (14th Royal Irish Rifles) 36th Ulster Division also had strong connections with the Cliftonville Club. In 1919 as part of the victory celebrations held throughout many cities of the UK, large military parades of war veterans took place. In Belfast the remnants and survivors of the YCV formed up on the pitch at Cliftonville and proudly marched behind the battalion flag to join the main parade at Belfast City Hall. As one of the thousands of young Linfield supporters who stood on that same pitch with blue scarfs held aloft when Linfield clinched the league title in the 7 trophy season of 61/62 it breaks my heart to see what has become of that area today.
 
Libertonchaz said:
Great pictures and story
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mdingwall said:
The oldest football club in Ireland. Now supported overwhelmingly by Catholics following the enforced population movement of Protestants out of the area from the early 1970s onwards. They used to be regarded as the "doctors and lawyers" club and they clung onto amateurism longer than most.

When I worked in Belfast one of the lads I worked beside was a Glentoran fan from the Shore Road - his dad was a Cliftonville fan from his youth and he still accompanied him to the games but it was impossible for a young Protestant growing up in the 70s to be a fan.

Cutting is from the Irish News 1915

afNhDCp.png
Click to expand...
 
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I was aware of the links between Cliftonville and C*ltic in my youth (I’m early 40’s) but was always surprised that my Da (a Blues man from Sandy Row and born late 30’s) had no great axe to grind with them, his dislike was almost exclusively for the Glens. I’m sure he told me Cliftonville were a Protestant team historically. Another example to me that while the accusations are usually flung at the PUL community on both sides of the water, we can give no lessons to that mob on segregation and sectarian violence.
 
Belfast Celtic had a minority of Protestant/Unionist fans as well. I've met two people, not related, who came from families that supported Belfast Celtic and when they disbanded went on to support Glentoran. I think one of them had a grandfather that played for them.

People tend to forget that prior to 1969 a number of things were very different in Northern Ireland.
 
Always thought Cliftonville was mixed myself. Some staunch areas like the westland estate although technically might not be classed as Cliftonville.
 
I remember walking with the Shankill Road Defenders around the Cliftonville Road in the early 90's during a Tour Of The North Parade.

The Parade was banned from entering the Cliftonville Road shortly afterwards after trouble from Republicans.
 
My father in law played for them late 50's, scored against Belfast Celtic. Got some of his cards still, the ones he would get selecting him to play that weekend.
On the card would be how much he would get for the game, and where he would get his tea after the game.
 
On my travels, through mutual friends, I was introduced to an ex Club Secretary of Cliftonville. This is not much of a story but this meeting was in the Wee Blues Club in Rathcoole of all places.
Wee Bill had a lot of stories to tell.
I met up with him again many times to listen to his tales some about being a Protestant who supports Cliftonville.
I now digress, After one 12th July he asked me to pass on his best wishes to the late Keith Alexander, ex Chickenville manager of Lincoln City. When I passed this message on to Keith him it caught his full attention but it was about 1/2 hour before KO and he asked me to talk later to him.
This we did and after all the pleasantries exchanged. Keith Alexander asked how I knew him. I suitably required then he laughingly asked if I supported Chickenville then answered his own question in laughter saying I banged the drum so it was a stupid question.
 
The area surrounding Solitude prior to the troubles was an affluent area where doctors, solicitors and judges all lived.

The club itself were just an amateur club where football fans of other clubs would go and watch if their team was not playing that day.

In the early 70's the troubles were in full flow and with that came the demographics of Belfast changed so next thing you know the Cliftonville Road became predominantly Nationalist. At the top of the Cliftonville Road you wouid have the entrance to Ardoyne and at the bottom part you wouid have the New Lodge.

It was probably when Cliftonville won the Irish cup in 1979 they started to gain a big following amongst the nationalist population of Belfast and then a once proud club were poisoned by people who were using the club as a vehicle for politics etc.

As other posters on this thread have pointed out, Prods who did support them pre-troubles still even to this day would go and watch them.

Most of the guys who worked behind the scenes eg committee members, groundstaff were all Prods as well but about 13 years ago there was a restructuring of the club and everyone in any meaningful position is from a catholic/nationalist background now.
 
JD65 said:
Just shows that mentally challengeds infest everything and anything they come into contact with, like parasites trying to take over the host.
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Same philosophy as Gadaffi....out populate with huge families ..the teachings of the R.C. Church the welfare state will look after them .
 
Alex Venters said:
I'm sure we played Cliftonville in the early 1920's, maybe to open the stadium?
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Yes Alex, we played them on a number of occasions from the Victorian period in the 1880s and there are some playing links as well- Jimmy Macauley (one game for Rangers) Bertie Manderson, Albert Lyness. Former Ranger Jimmy Sharpe was coach at Cliftonville and also played for Cliftonville cricket club who were based across the road from the football ground. Sadly the cricketers were ethnically cleansed from the area, the ground later being used as a GAA pitch.
 
Blaew said:
Belfast Celtic had a minority of Protestant/Unionist fans as well. I've met two people, not related, who came from families that supported Belfast Celtic and when they disbanded went on to support Glentoran. I think one of them had a grandfather that played for them.

People tend to forget that prior to 1969 a number of things were very different in Northern Ireland.
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100% The so called "troubles" were a travesty for our country. It will be several more decades before the place recovers, if it ever does.
 
Belfastblue85 said:
How times have changed. The blue men have a police escort in now from ballysillan..
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Mate, I'm old enough to remember when we couldn't actually go to Solitude. I visited for the first time in 1996 (I think). Very tense, army of peelers and a young Colin Nixon making his debut for the Glens at right back effectively ending the career of George Neill. Think it was 1-1. The next season it snowed and a wee woman came out of her house to lambast the lads pissing up her wall. She was met with a volley of snowballs and retreated with all the "Orange Barstewards" she could muster. Remember a guy of our bus being lifted that day too for firing a snowball at the peelers. Can still hear him shouting "You can't lift me for a snowball fight!", they didn't listen.
 
Geneva said:
Yes Alex, we played them on a number of occasions from the Victorian period in the 1880s and there are some playing links as well- Jimmy Macauley (one game for Rangers) Bertie Manderson, Albert Lyness. Former Ranger Jimmy Sharpe was coach at Cliftonville and also played for Cliftonville cricket club who were based across the road from the football ground. Sadly the cricketers were ethnically cleansed from the area, the ground later being used as a GAA pitch.
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Bert Manderston also played for Belfast Celtic alongside my great grandfather who was from Glasgow and they became life long friends.i have pictures of the two of them taken in Glasgow after my great grandfather had retired from playing and Bert was at Rangers.
 
I have very vivid memories of my first visit to Solitude, it was as a14 year old Ballymena United fan to attend the 1970 Irish Cup Final against Linfield. At the time both clubs protested because the final wasn't at the Oval, which would have held a far bigger crowd. As it was the crowd was restricted to 16,000 and the ground was absolutely packed. Linfield won 2-1, both goals scored by Phil Scott, his grandson the current blues player Jordan Stewart is the spitting image of him. There was a lot of bother outside the ground after the game between Linfield fans and some of the locals, with the result that Linfield were banned from going there until relatively recently.
Pre-troubles Belfast really was a very different place. My three aunts moved up from rural Co. Antrim to work there and one of them managed a shop in Sandy Row for many years. My brother and I used to call with her and as early teenagers we walked all over Belfast, up the Donegal Road, across the Falls to the Shankill, through the Markets. Van Morrison's album, Astral Weeks, always reminds me of those days.
 
dublinbluenose said:
Bert Manderston also played for Belfast Celtic alongside my great grandfather who was from Glasgow and they became life long friends.i have pictures of the two of them taken in Glasgow after my great grandfather had retired from playing and Bert was at Rangers.
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There is a colourised photo of Bertie Manderson in a Belfast Celtic team group on the cover of a book on that clubs history. Perhaps your relation is on it.
 
scottwoodburn said:
Mate, I'm old enough to remember when we couldn't actually go to Solitude. I visited for the first time in 1996 (I think). Very tense, army of peelers and a young Colin Nixon making his debut for the Glens at right back effectively ending the career of George Neill. Think it was 1-1. The next season it snowed and a wee woman came out of her house to lambast the lads pissing up her wall. She was met with a volley of snowballs and retreated with all the "Orange Barstewards" she could muster. Remember a guy of our bus being lifted that day too for firing a snowball at the peelers. Can still hear him shouting "You can't lift me for a snowball fight!", they didn't listen.
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The Glens had actually said they wouldnt play at Solitude again when their players were attacked and stoned coming off the pitch in the early 70s. They did return and this episode is mentioned in Roy France's book on Glentoran.
 
I was actually born in one of the Protestant streets in Ardoyne and was brought up around Ballysillan.
Although I was a Linfield supporter in the 60s and early 70s if I wasn’t playing on a Saturday sometimes I would go to see Clitonville get beat.(They were always a crap team and TBH I can never even remember them even scoring a goal.)
Never was there a hint of trouble or tension.

When I came back home for a visit in 1980 i actually met up with a mate in their social club for a few beers.He was a youth coach and their first team manager was Billy Sinclair, a guy from Glasgow who used to wear a Rangers top at training.

I had an idea that the club was changing but I never really felt threatened in that night in their club. Although at that time they still had a few Protestants involved with the club their numbers were dwindling fast.

I don’t know how they were taken over but what was once a respectable and friendly club is now a complete cesspit.Personally I hate what they’ve become.
 
Shankill Loyal said:
When they played Celtic in the 80's at Sollitude they rioted and attacked the RUC, resulting in an RUC officers weapon being stolen from him and later used in murders by the PIRA.
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Yes was aware of that SL. Just remember seeing a photo of fans with Union flag with Cliftonville written across the front.
 
I remember walking up to Solitude with other Glenmen a good few times back in the 80s.
We'd assemble on the Lower N'Ards Rd and the peelers would escort us over the Queens Bridge where we'd meet up with another escorted Glens crowd who'd come over the Albert Bridge from the Woodstock and Cregagh, and up Laganbank Rd. By this time, especially for a big Saturday match, there could be up to a couple of thousand.
We'd then be escorted through the city centre to Crumlin Rd - where, and this is true, we'd be joined by hundreds of Bloomen from the Shankill, all quite peacefully - the Blues were banned from even playing at Solitude at that point - and then through Old park to Cliftonville Road to Solitude.

It was the homeward journey that the trouble always started - if not at the ground during the match. The crowd back was usually a lot smaller as some of them, included the temporary Linfield allies, had melted away to do whatever they had to do (you could usually hear them taking the fight to the Chickenville support somewhere in the near distance).

I remember one midweek Co Antrim Shield game, that some of we Bangor lads realised that if we split from the crowd at Central Station there was a train in 15 minutes and it would get us home quicker than walking up the N’Ards Rd and catching our bus home at the Arches like we usually did.

Very bad decision.
As soon as we split off, there was a crowd of Leftfooters from the Markets waiting for us. We got chased into the station and got onto the deserted platforms and shut the platform security gates behind us, only for some poety bastard of a station worker open the gates for about thirty of them to let them on to the platforms. There's was only about seven of us. We managed cross the tracks, up the other tube walkway into the main station again, to get through to the bogs and lock ourselves in.
They started to blatter down the door as we held it shut from inside.
It was an eternity - but probably only a few minutes - until an army patrol arrived and we heard an English voice tell us it was safe to come out.
We told him to fúck off as we suspected a trick.
It wasn't until we heard yelps of pain that we tentatively opened the door to see the army boys wailing the shíte out of some of the Markets scum they'd caught. :))

We then started to go after the wee station cúnt who'd opened the gates for them.
But the army guys shoved us off and the nearly empty train had arrived (it was now about half ten at night on a wet winter Wednesday in the city centre) and they shoved us on it.

As it trundled off eastwards the adrenaline was still kicked in and we regaled each other with personal heroic tales of how we valiantly held a ravening band of poets at bay Rorkes Drift style.
Ignoring the obvious fact that our brave last stand was all of us cowering, and in one case almost blubbering (I ..um...also had a toothache....er...honest) and holding shut a door in a station bog.
 
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UlsterScotGer said:
I was aware of the links between Cliftonville and C*ltic in my youth (I’m early 40’s) but was always surprised that my Da (a Blues man from Sandy Row and born late 30’s) had no great axe to grind with them, his dislike was almost exclusively for the Glens. I’m sure he told me Cliftonville were a Protestant team historically. Another example to me that while the accusations are usually flung at the PUL community on both sides of the water, we can give no lessons to that mob on segregation and sectarian violence.
Click to expand...
All decent people hate the glens.
 
bluewonder said:
The area surrounding Solitude prior to the troubles was an affluent area where doctors, solicitors and judges all lived.

The club itself were just an amateur club where football fans of other clubs would go and watch if their team was not playing that day.

In the early 70's the troubles were in full flow and with that came the demographics of Belfast changed so next thing you know the Cliftonville Road became predominantly Nationalist. At the top of the Cliftonville Road you wouid have the entrance to Ardoyne and at the bottom part you wouid have the New Lodge.

It was probably when Cliftonville won the Irish cup in 1979 they started to gain a big following amongst the nationalist population of Belfast and then a once proud club were poisoned by people who were using the club as a vehicle for politics etc.

As other posters on this thread have pointed out, Prods who did support them pre-troubles still even to this day would go and watch them.

Most of the guys who worked behind the scenes eg committee members, groundstaff were all Prods as well but about 13 years ago there was a restructuring of the club and everyone in any meaningful position is from a catholic/nationalist background now.
Click to expand...
They don't sign prods these days and blame that on the prods. Absolute scum of a team. Infested with republicans and sex offenders. Bit like the glens.
 
Conlig Loyal said:
I remember walking up to Solitude with other Glenmen a good few times back in the 80s.
We'd assemble on the Lower N'Ards Rd and the peelers would escort us over the Queens Bridge where we'd meet up with another escorted Glens crowd who'd come over the Albert Bridge from the Woodstock and Cregagh, and up Laganbank Rd. By this time, especially for a big Saturday match, there could be up to a couple of thousand.
We'd then be escorted through the city centre to Crumlin Rd - where, and this is true, we'd be joined by hundreds of Bloomen from the Shankill, all quite peacefully - the Blues were banned from even playing at Solitude at that point - and then through Old park to Cliftonville Road to Solitude.

It was the homeward journey that the trouble always started - if not at the ground during the match. The crowd back was usually a lot smaller as some of them, included the temporary Linfield allies, had melted away to do whatever they had to do (you could usually hear them taking the fight to the Chickenville support somewhere in the near distance).

I remember one midweek Co Antrim Shield game, that some of we Bangor lads realised that if we split from the crowd at Central Station there was a train in 15 minutes and it would get us home quicker than walking up the N’Ards Rd and catching our bus home at the Arches like we usually did.

Very bad decision.
As soon as we split off, there was a crowd of Leftfooters from the Markets waiting for us. We got chased into the station and got onto the deserted platforms and shut the platform security gates behind us, only for some poety bastard of a station worker open the gates for about thirty of them to let them on to the platforms. There's was only about seven of us. We managed cross the tracks, up the other tube walkway into the main station again, to get through to the bogs and lock ourselves in.
They started to blatter down the door as we held it shut from inside.
It was an eternity - but probably only a few minutes - until an army patrol arrived and we heard an English voice tell us it was safe to come out.
We told him to fúck off as we suspected a trick.
It wasn't until we heard yelps of pain that we tentatively opened the door to see the army boys wailing the shíte out of some of the Markets scum they'd caught. :))

We then started to go after the wee station cúnt who'd opened the gates for them.
But the army guys shoved us off and the nearly empty train had arrived (it was now about half ten at night on a wet winter Wednesday in the city centre) and they shoved us on it.

As it trundled off eastwards the adrenaline was still kicked in and we regaled each other with personal heroic tales of how we valiantly held a ravening band of poets at bay Rorkes Drift style.
Ignoring the obvious fact that our brave last stand was all of us cowering, and in one case almost blubbering (I ..um...also had a toothache....er...honest) and holding shut a door in a station bog.
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Had some great times coming back from Bangor and getting off at Central station. Was trouble on the train with ones from the East then the poets when we walked into town
 
When I lived in Ulster I stayed for a while with my mates mum and dad - the dad, Jim played in the RUC band as well as performing other duties.

He often accompanied the Reds fans from Solitude down into town to wherever they were going - onto trains mostly. He said it provided a great source of intelligence as young republicans from all over would come to join the fun - even a couple of brothers from Bangor for instance - and mix with active members of terror groups.
 
mdingwall said:
When I lived in Ulster I stayed for a while with my mates mum and dad - the dad, Jim played in the RUC band as well as performing other duties.

He often accompanied the Reds fans from Solitude down into town to wherever they were going - onto trains mostly. He said it provided a great source of intelligence as young republicans from all over would come to join the fun - even a couple of brothers from Bangor for instance - and mix with active members of terror groups.
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I think I know who you mean.
 
Geneva said:
There is a colourised photo of Bertie Manderson in a Belfast Celtic team group on the cover of a book on that clubs history. Perhaps your relation is on it.
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He is on that, a poster on here sent me it.its cover of a book about Belfast Celtic and he also sent me a black and white photo of the squad in front of big crowd which he’s in.i have a few photos up stairs of players and they are postcards and printed on the back is the IFA logo.he played for one season 1913/14 but it was very much at the end of his career as he’d been playing since around the 1880’s and I often think that he must have known some of our gallant pioneers.the family have two Glasgow cup medals (runners up).he also played for Clyde when a certain mr William struth was at Clyde before coming to Rangers
 
I think Derry City was very much the same. I'm young enough to have went to the Brandywell prior to the 'troubles' with my mates and remember Roy Wright and Roy Seddon, both teachers of mine, playing for them. My recollection is that it was a Protestant run club. The nationalists had nothing to do with it and didn't support it either. I have a picture somewhere of my mum and dad at possibly an Irish Cup final wearing their Derry City scarves maybe 1950's or late 1940's and my dad was a District Commander in the B Specials and two of his brothers were RUC men. But thank god I am a long time left!
 
steviered said:
They don't sign prods these days and blame that on the prods. Absolute scum of a team. Infested with republicans and sex offenders. Bit like the glens.
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Their current chairman Gerard Lawlor is one bitter prick, even used the official club account to congratulate John Finucane on winning the north Belfast seat in the last general election.

As you say the place is an utter cesspit and is a no go club for anyone who does not share their beliefs.
 
Conlig Loyal said:
I remember walking up to Solitude with other Glenmen a good few times back in the 80s.
We'd assemble on the Lower N'Ards Rd and the peelers would escort us over the Queens Bridge where we'd meet up with another escorted Glens crowd who'd come over the Albert Bridge from the Woodstock and Cregagh, and up Laganbank Rd. By this time, especially for a big Saturday match, there could be up to a couple of thousand.
We'd then be escorted through the city centre to Crumlin Rd - where, and this is true, we'd be joined by hundreds of Bloomen from the Shankill, all quite peacefully - the Blues were banned from even playing at Solitude at that point - and then through Old park to Cliftonville Road to Solitude.

It was the homeward journey that the trouble always started - if not at the ground during the match. The crowd back was usually a lot smaller as some of them, included the temporary Linfield allies, had melted away to do whatever they had to do (you could usually hear them taking the fight to the Chickenville support somewhere in the near distance).

I remember one midweek Co Antrim Shield game, that some of we Bangor lads realised that if we split from the crowd at Central Station there was a train in 15 minutes and it would get us home quicker than walking up the N’Ards Rd and catching our bus home at the Arches like we usually did.

Very bad decision.
As soon as we split off, there was a crowd of Leftfooters from the Markets waiting for us. We got chased into the station and got onto the deserted platforms and shut the platform security gates behind us, only for some poety bastard of a station worker open the gates for about thirty of them to let them on to the platforms. There's was only about seven of us. We managed cross the tracks, up the other tube walkway into the main station again, to get through to the bogs and lock ourselves in.
They started to blatter down the door as we held it shut from inside.
It was an eternity - but probably only a few minutes - until an army patrol arrived and we heard an English voice tell us it was safe to come out.
We told him to fúck off as we suspected a trick.
It wasn't until we heard yelps of pain that we tentatively opened the door to see the army boys wailing the shíte out of some of the Markets scum they'd caught. :))

We then started to go after the wee station cúnt who'd opened the gates for them.
But the army guys shoved us off and the nearly empty train had arrived (it was now about half ten at night on a wet winter Wednesday in the city centre) and they shoved us on it.

As it trundled off eastwards the adrenaline was still kicked in and we regaled each other with personal heroic tales of how we valiantly held a ravening band of poets at bay Rorkes Drift style.
Ignoring the obvious fact that our brave last stand was all of us cowering, and in one case almost blubbering (I ..um...also had a toothache....er...honest) and holding shut a door in a station bog.
Click to expand...
I remember going to Solitude in the late 70s to bolster the numbers and help out the glenmen,we would get off the bus at oxford street and wait for them and dander through town together and as you say meet up with the rest of the blue men on the Crumlin road.
Serious disorder at some of them games and then at the bottom of castle Street in town,waiting for the poets.
Absolutely despise Cliftonville,nearly as much as the GlensB-)
 

This was a mental day back in 1990 when the "cliftonville" fans went to Windsor to support Donegal Celtic against Linfield in the Irish cup. The good old days when the police were allowed to crack a few heads without the threat of suspension or losing their job.
 
bluewonder said:

This was a mental day back in 1990 when the "cliftonville" fans went to Windsor to support Donegal Celtic against Linfield in the Irish cup. The good old days when the police were allowed to crack a few heads without the threat of suspension or losing their job.
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Thats crazy
 
Willie D. said:
I have very vivid memories of my first visit to Solitude, it was as a14 year old Ballymena United fan to attend the 1970 Irish Cup Final against Linfield. At the time both clubs protested because the final wasn't at the Oval, which would have held a far bigger crowd. As it was the crowd was restricted to 16,000 and the ground was absolutely packed. Linfield won 2-1, both goals scored by Phil Scott, his grandson the current blues player Jordan Stewart is the spitting image of him. There was a lot of bother outside the ground after the game between Linfield fans and some of the locals, with the result that Linfield were banned from going there until relatively recently.
Pre-troubles Belfast really was a very different place. My three aunts moved up from rural Co. Antrim to work there and one of them managed a shop in Sandy Row for many years. My brother and I used to call with her and as early teenagers we walked all over Belfast, up the Donegal Road, across the Falls to the Shankill, through the Markets. Van Morrison's album, Astral Weeks, always reminds me of those days.
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Willie D. said:
I have very vivid memories of my first visit to Solitude, it was as a14 year old Ballymena United fan to attend the 1970 Irish Cup Final against Linfield. At the time both clubs protested because the final wasn't at the Oval, which would have held a far bigger crowd. As it was the crowd was restricted to 16,000 and the ground was absolutely packed. Linfield won 2-1, both goals scored by Phil Scott, his grandson the current blues player Jordan Stewart is the spitting image of him. There was a lot of bother outside the ground after the game between Linfield fans and some of the locals, with the result that Linfield were banned from going there until relatively recently.
Pre-troubles Belfast really was a very different place. My three aunts moved up from rural Co. Antrim to work there and one of them managed a shop in Sandy Row for many years. My brother and I used to call with her and as early teenagers we walked all over Belfast, up the Donegal Road, across the Falls to the Shankill, through the Markets. Van Morrison's album, Astral Weeks, always reminds me of those days.
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Was at that game in Linfield end and had my first taste of cs gas.

would add Derry City alongside Cliftonville as having a proud history pre 1970
 
bluewonder said:

This was a mental day back in 1990 when the "cliftonville" fans went to Windsor to support Donegal Celtic against Linfield in the Irish cup. The good old days when the police were allowed to crack a few heads without the threat of suspension or losing their job.
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Aye throughly enjoyed that day,watching the cops knock fcuk out of them.
More entertaining than the game to be honest.
And then chasing them about the city centre.
The good old days indeed,when the *** knew their place.
 
Was that the day a Linfield supporter got onto the pitch and booted one of the DC players? Same day as a hand grenade was thrown over the wall?
 
Willie D. said:
I have very vivid memories of my first visit to Solitude, it was as a14 year old Ballymena United fan to attend the 1970 Irish Cup Final against Linfield. At the time both clubs protested because the final wasn't at the Oval, which would have held a far bigger crowd. As it was the crowd was restricted to 16,000 and the ground was absolutely packed. Linfield won 2-1, both goals scored by Phil Scott, his grandson the current blues player Jordan Stewart is the spitting image of him. There was a lot of bother outside the ground after the game between Linfield fans and some of the locals, with the result that Linfield were banned from going there until relatively recently.
Pre-troubles Belfast really was a very different place. My three aunts moved up from rural Co. Antrim to work there and one of them managed a shop in Sandy Row for many years. My brother and I used to call with her and as early teenagers we walked all over Belfast, up the Donegal Road, across the Falls to the Shankill, through the Markets. Van Morrison's album, Astral Weeks, always reminds me of those days.
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I was at that final as well only supporting Linfield.

I was waiting on a bus to go up the road at the end of the match just as the trouble started. I was in the middle of it just as a bus came and I jumped on getting me out of it.

It got really nasty afterwards.
 
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