Ladder and Plank - The Brief History of Fearon's Athletic

I remember fondly my Grandad bringing out his scrapbook of newspaper clippings and cartoons, enthusiastically describing the various sports stories from long ago, to me, his young wide-eyed grandson. What fascinated me most were the clippings relating to an old Leinster League football club, Fearon’s Athletic. 

With those memories as my guide, I recently made the trip down to the little wooden house in my Nanny’s back garden, and in a black sack I found the old scrapbook, its strong musty smell catching in the back of my throat, and began my attempt to breathe life back into this forgotten club.

Fearon’s Athletic was formed in 1936 by the building firm of the same name based in Crumlin, which was owned by my Grandad’s uncle P.F. Fearon. This connection was represented in their large crest which featured a ladder and plank on a white shield, in an ‘X’ formation.

The club had initially planned to enter into the Senior GAA ranks in Dublin, but a failure to attain senior status lead them down the football route instead. They also ran a very successful athletics team, a tennis section, and had plans to dip their toes into boxing. While the majority of the members were employed by the building firm, they were an open club and membership was not confined to employees.

They were a club with lofty ambitions, and a well-known football writer of the time, who went under the pseudynom of ‘Socaro’, described them as ‘enterprising and ambitious’. They had built themselves a home ground at Green Lanes (now Greenlea Road, behind the grounds of Terenure College RFC) in Terenure that was valued at around £3,000. They applied for membership to the Free State League for the 1936/37 season. 

With Reds United resigning from the top division, the club came up against Shelbourne, who had been banned two seasons previously, in their fight for Free State League status. Shamrock Rovers tabled a motion to reinstate Shelbourne, an admirable act of camaraderie between two rival clubs from Ringsend, and the Free State League Management Committee carried the motion unanimously. 

Despite this early setback, Fearons rose to prominence through their initial achievements at Leinster Senior League level. A quote from a publication of the time reflects the club’s early successes, ‘Seldom has a sporting organisation crashed the limelight to the extent of Fearon’s Athletic. In its first season it has put on the field two soccer teams that are unbeaten in their own sphere, and ever soared higher with success, while Fearon’s runners have scored spectacular wins on the cross-country fields, the club taking championship honours in the novice and junior classes’.

This success continued throughout the 1936/37 season as they emerged as champions in the Leinster Senior League. Perhaps even more impressive was their run in that season’s Free State Cup (now the FAI Cup). In the first round they defeated league club Bray Unknowns. 2,500 came out to Green Lanes to watch a Fearon team, who were ‘superior in all departments’, romp to a 4-1 win. In the quarter-finals they won again against Free State League opponents when they defeated Cork 1-0 in a replay. 

One newspaper described the game as ‘the poorest Cup-tie ever played in Cork’, where ‘a huge crowd watched the two teams floundering about on a sticky pitch’. Despite this messy affair, the game still made history. With Longford Town already qualified for the semi-finals, the victory for Fearons meant that it was the first time two Leinster Senior League teams had reached the semi-finals of the Free State Cup.

Unfortunately their run would end their when they were beaten 4-0 by St. James Gate at Dalymount Park. In the Free State Intermediate Cup, the club went one further and reached the final, but again they were defeated, this time by Longford Town.

The team featured a variety of characters such as ‘Battler’ Molloy, ‘Hookey Leonard’, Christy ‘Boy’ Robinson, and ‘Bossie Reid’. Their nick-names are truly a vestige of a bygone era, and to even read them aloud can help transport oneself back to the world of 1930’s Ireland. 

Christy ‘Boy’, manager of Fearons, was an experienced League of Ireland player and had been part of the legendary Bohemians team of the 1927/28 season that won the League, the Free State Cup, the Shield, and the Leinster Senior Cup. He also had the honour of scoring Bohemians’ first ever goal in the Free State Cup. 

He was selected for the Irish squad which went to the 1924 Paris Olympics, and scored one goal in his international career, against Estonia. Along with his brother Jeremiah ‘Sam’ Robinson, who also played on that famous Bohs team, they became the first brothers to play for Ireland after the FAI had split from the IFA.

The brothers were also heavily involved with the IRA. Christy was a Commander in the raid which lead to the capture of Kevin Barry and his subsequent execution (the first in the War of Independence). Sam went on to be part of Michael Collins’ infamous ‘Squad’.

‘Hookey’ Leonard was the star player of the side, while also working for the building firm. ‘He Plays-to Please’ wrote the Irish Independent of him in 1936, and he had also been described as ‘one of the most dangerous left wings in English soccer’. He had been a club hero for Cowdenbeath in the Scottish top flight, before going on to be sold to Sunderland for around £5,000. He helped the Black Cats on their way to an F.A. Cup semi-final, starring alongside the revered Jimmy Connor. 

During his time at Fearons he was described by their trainer, Stephen ‘Dickie’ Murray, as the best inside forward in the Free State. Murray went further again to passionately describe his skills, ‘Hookey makes an outside left. He made Connor of Sunderland. He knows the art of changing defence to attack. He can spread eagle a defence with that drive down the middle or to the wing that the backs least expect’. It is said that Leonard could have played for Scotland had he shown more dedication to football than he did to the drink.

The aforementioned Murray was very successful in his own right, and clearly a major influence on the team’s early successes. The Irish Independent described him as ‘one of the most celebrated soccer trainers of the pre-war period’. He rose to prominence as coach of Dolphin, with whom he won two Leinster Leagues and two Metropolitan Cups, before being elected into the Free State League in 1930/31. He then guided them to victory in the Leinster Cup in 1931/32, and second place in the league in his last season before he left for Fearons.

The season after he left they finished 10^th. His philosophy on the game centred on team-work, ‘You want eleven men in a soccer team. A star or two if possible, but every man able to pull his weight. That’s what we have. I could name Free State League clubs with only seven, eight, or nine players. The others are stop-gaps’.

After their first season, Fearons changed their name to Terenure Athletic, a name which they kept for two seasons.  Under the new moniker they managed to win the Intermediate Cup in 1938/39, defeating Cork Bohemians 4-1 in Dalymount Park. It is then that the history of Fearon’s Athletic really begins to fade. Terenure Athletic merged with Brideville for the 1939/40 season.

Although they played at Green Lanes still, the league would not allow them a double-barrelled name and were resigned to keeping Brideville as the club’s official title. Although they did register as a company under the name Brideville and Terenure Athletic Football Club, Ltd.. With Brideville being a Free State League club at the time, one could argue that Fearons did achieve their goal of being admitted into the top echelon of Irish football, albeit in contrarious fashion.

Despite their brief history, Fearons managed to create a curious piece of Irish football history for themselves. Their immediate success for a newly formed club was very impressive, but it is unclear what exactly caused their sharp dissolution into obscurity. There are reports of a split in the club, with many players signing for Dickie Giles’, father of Johnny, Distillery. It is also possible that it was not financially viable for the building firm to invest in the club anymore.

When Brideville and Terenure Atletic Football Club, Ltd. were struck off the registrar of companies in 1952, Fearons truly became a forgotten club and all links to current League of Ireland football were gone. What can be said for certain is that there is a strong hint of wistfulness and ‘what if?’ to their story. They were a club with seemingly good foundations and lots of ambition, but like many other new clubs it was not to be.