Very Early Football Association of Ireland Letter and Memora...

Hammer

€500

Very Early Football Association of Ireland Letter and Memorandum dated 7 December, 1921 to Emmet Dalton Seeking Recognition by the French Football Federation
 
Letter and detailed Memorandum Address, from the first chairman of the FAI, JF Harrison, to Commandant J.E. D’Alton, Chief Liaison Officer for Ireland, Gresham Hotel, Dublin. Dalton was the military liaison officer in the Treaty talks with the British. The letter seeks the support of Sean T. O. Cealligh TD in enlisting French Support for the recognition of the FAI. The attached confidential Memorandum goes into some detail about the reasons for the establishment of the FAI, and states that one of the principal reasons for the cessation of affiliation of most clubs outside Belfast and some in Belfast as ‘the Belfast Pogroms’ and goes on to say that those clubs “could no longer [to be ] associated with an organization officered and controlled by people whose political views were so bigotedly and diametrically opposed to theirs”.

The matter had reached crisis-point when in 1921, the FAI reneged on a promise to play the FAI Cup final replay between Shelbourne and Glenavon in Dublin and scheduled the match for Belfast. Shelbourne refused to comply and forfeited the Cup. A meeting of southern associations and clubs was arranged and on June 1 1921, the Football Association of the Irish Free State (FAIFS) was formed in Molesworth Hall in Dublin.
In January 1922, the convention had to consider the Anglo-Irish Treaty that had just been ratified and which divided nationalist opinion. It was held in Paris to emphasise Ireland's emerging status as an independent state to the rest of Europe. The proposed Irish Free State was to be created in December 1922.
The home nations' associations in England, Scotland and Wales persisted in their opposition to the FAI but the Association found an international ally in France.
The French responded positively to approaches from the FAI and sent one of their leading clubs, Athletic Club of Gallia, to Ireland in 1923 to play challenge matches.
In August 1922, FIFA accepted Ireland's application for membership and the FAI joined the international community.
It was another three years before Ireland fulfilled its first international fixture. An Irish Free State team competed in the 1924 Paris Olympics, but it did so under the auspices of the Olympic Council of Ireland.

A detailed and interesting document of historic importance in Irish Football.  (1)