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big-mo
14-08-2015, 07:19 AM
Earlier this month Hibernian Football Club celebrated the 140th anniversary of their founding and to commemorate that occasion I yesterday decided to undertake a small project on Facebook. (I have now decided to also put it on the.net.)

I am going to post a year in the life of the club each day until the end of the year, 140 days.

The information will be extracts from my ‘Hibernian History Handbook’ which I published a few years ago; the first entry covers the build up to the founding of the club. If I miss a day, please prompt me. I hope you enjoy this project.

So here goes –


Day 1.


1836- 21st June, Edward Joseph Hannan was born in Ballingarry, County Limerick, Ireland. As a young man, he decided to become a priest and studied at the seminary in Dublin. Edward was a dedicated academic but after his ordination, his bishop gave him options of where his calling should take him. One was to continue with his academic studies in Dublin, the other was to set his sights further afield and travel to Scotland to help minister for the large Irish community that had emigrated following the Irish famine; Hannan opted for the latter. (Eight million people emigrated from the Emerald Isle between 1801 and 1920.)


1854 - Michael Whelahan was born in Kilglass, County Rosscommon, Ireland to Patrick and Bridget Whelahan.


1858 – Patrick and Bridget Whelahan and their 10 year old daughter Maria and 4 year old son, Michael arrived from Ireland and walked all the way from Glasgow to Edinburgh. During the journey, Bridget gave birth to their second daughter but the baby died within sight of their new home as they crossed Blackford Hill. They found accommodation at 5 College Wynd, one of the side streets off the Cowgate. They shared that address with 12 other families; a total of 43 people lived there.


1861 - 17th August, the 25 year old, Edward Joseph Hannan, moved from Dublin to Edinburgh and was installed as a junior curate in St Patrick’s parish in the Cowgate.


1865 - 5th October, Fr Hannan founded a teetotal Catholic Young Men’s Society (CYMS) at St Patrick’s church. (Hannan’s uncle, the Right Reverend Monsignor Richard B. O’Brien DD VG, Dean of Limerick, had founded the CYMS in 1849).


1869 - Fr Hannan raised a phenomenal sum of around £8,000 and he had convinced the council to sell them land in St Mary’s Street. On this land they built St Mary’s Hall. On the 2nd April 1869, the Lord Provost laid the foundation stone. The hall cost £4,930 to build.


1871 - Fr. Hannan was appointed as parish priest of St Patrick’s.


1875 - Michael Whelahan grew-up a keen member of Hannan’s CYMS and partook in many of the activities that were available, especially the athletic ones. When Michael was 21, he went to watch football matches played out in The Meadows by some of the newly formed teams. Michael Whelahan suggested to Fr Hannan that perhaps some of the members of the parish could form a couple of teams and have a ‘kick-about’.
On the 6th August, a football team was formed. There was then a debate about what the team should be called, with many suggestions including:- The Catholic Young Men’s Society Football Club, which was soon discounted as being too long-winded. St Patrick’s, Harp, Shamrock, Emerald and Celtic were all suggested and dismissed. Whelahan thought about it and remembered that the Ancient Order of Hibernians had been absorbed into the CYMS, (Hibernians was the ancient Roman word for the people of Ireland), and he then proposed the name Hibernians and this was accepted as a fitting name.


However playing a game of football was not as simple as turning up and playing, many other teams also played on the available spaces andthey did not take kindly to that these ‘upstarts’ that had just turned up and started playing on ‘their’ pitch, and what’s more, they were Irish! To get around this the Hibernians players would go out and play their games at 6:30 in the morning, resorting on occasions to bringing along some of their burly navvie supporters who ensured that their games were not disrupted.


Meanwhile Hannan and Whelahan had gone about attempting to organising games against other teams, but before that could happen they would have to get the football club on an official footing. To do that,
Fr. Hannan approached the Edinburgh Football Association (EFA) but they side-stepped the issue and their reaction was to refer them to the Scottish Football Association, the SFA’s reply was short and sharp, - “We are catering for Scotsman, not Irishmen”.

EFA member teams were then banned from playing Hibernians.


Hibernians played practice matches between themselves and with other non-EFA registered teams in the East Meadows, on a site near the Sick Children’s Hospital.

On Christmas Day 1875, the first recorded game was played against the first EFA team that ignored the ban, Heart of Mid-Lothian, ‘the Mid-Lothian’ won 1-0.

Peevemor
14-08-2015, 07:30 AM
Great stuff! :aok: What's the facebook link?

Ronniekirk
14-08-2015, 07:35 AM
Good read Big Mo .Look forward to tomorrow's instalment . Love reading about Hibs History ,and how we overcame predjidice ,and took on the system to achieve Social Justice . :flag:

The Harp
14-08-2015, 07:37 AM
Great idea big-mo, good luck with it. Will enjoy getting a daily dose of Hibernian for the rest of the year.
God Bless the Hibs!

matty_f
14-08-2015, 07:53 AM
Cracking idea,well done :agree:.

Billy Whizz
14-08-2015, 08:27 AM
Look forward to it

Kato
14-08-2015, 08:36 AM
Don't want to seem picky, Mo, but the use of the name "Hibernians" is a touchy subject at the moment. I was always if the understanding the name has always been Hibernian, that was I'm the club minute books and on all the stationary. Only the press used the term, much like they pluralised, and still do, Hearts.

Apart from that, superb stuff.

big-mo
14-08-2015, 08:46 AM
Don't want to seem picky, Mo, but the use of the name "Hibernians" is a touchy subject at the moment. I was always if the understanding the name has always been Hibernian, that was I'm the club minute books and on all the stationary. Only the press used the term, much like they pluralised, and still do, Hearts.

Apart from that, superb stuff.

That is covered later in the History so keep reading -

big-mo
14-08-2015, 08:47 AM
Great stuff! :aok: What's the facebook link?

You should find it under Maurice Dougan

Billy Whizz
14-08-2015, 08:47 AM
You should find it under Maurice Dougan

Don't do Facebook Mo