Liffey Wanderers F.C. is an Irish soccer (association football) club based in

Ringsend Ringsend () is a Southside (Dublin), southside inner suburb of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is located on the south bank of the River Liffey and east of the River Dodder, about two kilometres east of the city centre. It is the sou ...

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

. Their senior team play in the

Leinster Senior League Senior Division The Leinster Senior League Senior Division is the top division of the Leinster Senior League. It is organized by the Leinster Football Association. Together with the Munster Senior League Senior Premier Division, it forms the third level of th ...

. They also regularly compete in the

FAI Cup The Football Association of Ireland Senior Challenge Cup (FAI Cup), known as the Sports Direct FAI Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a knock-out association football competition contested annually by teams from the Republic of Ireland (as well as D ...

, the

FAI Intermediate Cup The FAI Intermediate Cup (), also known as the FAI Umbro Intermediate Cup and the Pat O'Brien Intermediate Challenge Cup, is a cup competition organized by the Football Association of Ireland for intermediate association football clubs from the ...

, the

FAI Junior Cup The FAI Junior Cup is a cup competition organized by the Football Association of Ireland for junior association football clubs from the Republic of Ireland. The inaugural winners were Brideville. The competition's most successful club is Fairvie ...

and the Leinster Senior Cup.

History

Foundation and early history

One of Ireland's oldest football clubs, Liffey Wanderers were formed in 1885 on

Pearse Street Pearse Street () is a major street in Dublin. It runs from College Street in the west to MacMahon Bridge in the east, and is one of the city's longest streets. It has several different types of residential and commercial property along its le ...

(then called Great Brunswick Street). Founding members were dockworkers from

Dublin Port Dublin Port () is the seaport of Dublin, Ireland, of both historical and contemporary economic importance. Approximately two-thirds of Ireland's port traffic travels via the port, which is by far the busiest on the island of Ireland. Locatio ...

. Writers Aileen O'Carroll and Don Bennett have described the club as being at the 'centre of the athletic tradition of the docklands' in its early years. The club was favoured by dockworkers from

South Dublin South Dublin () is a county in Ireland, within the province of Leinster and the Eastern and Midland Region. It is one of three successor counties to County Dublin, which was disestablished for administrative purposes in 1994. South Dublin Cou ...

leading to its clubhouse being attacked by gangs and rival fans from North Dublin. Officials and club members had frequently to carry their own goal-posts to the 'away' venues, as well as sometimes having to fight off attempts by rival club supporters to make off with them. Stewarding at football games in nineteenth-century Dublin was very often carried out by ''jarvies'', fifty or sixty 'hard' men, who kept over-enthusiastic supporters clear of the touch-lines by means of horsewhips.

"Golden Era"

Playing in the regional Leinster Senior League, then a ''de facto'' second-tier of football in Ireland, the early years of the twentieth century would see success for the Liffey's. The club claimed the Junior Combination Cup in the 1904–05 season, and won the Empire Cup (an All-Ireland Junior Cup) three times in-a-row between 1904 and 1906. Liffey's were allowed to keep the trophy to commemorate the achievement, and today it sits in FAI headquarters on permanent display. A member of the Cup winning side in those years was future

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

international and

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

manager Patrick O'Connell, then just a teenager.

Decline

The club remained a ''junior club'' in the Leinster Senior League and never stepped up to senior-level in the Irish League. The effects of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, the

Irish War of Independence The Irish War of Independence (), also known as the Anglo-Irish War, was a guerrilla war fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (1919–1922), Irish Republican Army (IRA, the army of the Irish Republic) and Unite ...

and the

Irish Civil War The Irish Civil War (; 28 June 1922 – 24 May 1923) was a conflict that followed the Irish War of Independence and accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State, an entity independent from the United Kingdom but within the British Emp ...

between 1914 and 1923 were heavily felt by clubs like ''Liffey's'' as they lost many men to enlistment, recruitment and fatalities, and so the club went into hibernation. Following the

partition of Ireland The Partition of Ireland () was the process by which the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (UK) divided Ireland into two self-governing polities: Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland (the area today known as the R ...

, ''Liffey's'' were re-established in 1924. They kept their junior status and did not join the newly established

League of Ireland The League of Ireland is a national association football Sports league, league consisting of professional clubs in the Republic of Ireland and Derry, Derry City in Northern Ireland. It is governed by the Football Association of Ireland. It was ...

in 1921. ''Liffey's'' were immortalised in 1922 when Irish author

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...

mentioned the club in his epic novel

Ulysses Ulysses is the Latin name for Odysseus, a legendary Greek hero recognized for his intelligence and cunning. He is famous for his long, adventurous journey home to Ithaca after the Trojan War, as narrated in Homer's Odyssey. Ulysses may also refer ...

. Roughly around 1940, the club went dormant for a second time, only to be re-established in 1945 by former players and other aficionados of waterfront football.

Later developments

In 2010, Wanderers went out of existence for a third time. They were reformed in 2013 and entered the Leinster Senior League's sixth tier. On 17 May 2015, Wanderers lifted their first

, beating Sheriff YC 2–1 in extra-time at the

Aviva Stadium Aviva Stadium, also known as Lansdowne Road (, ) or Dublin Arena (during UEFA competitions), is a List of stadiums in Ireland by capacity, sports stadium located in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, with a capacity for 51,711 spectators ...

. In what was their first ever appearance in the Cup's final stage, Lee O'Connor and Stephen O'Callaghan both scored to bring the trophy Wanderers' way. Two years later, on 13 May 2017, Wanderers claimed the

in what was, again, their debut appearance in a cup final. They won after beating

Cork "Cork" or "CORK" may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Stopper (plug), or "cork", a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container *** Wine cork an item to seal or reseal wine Places Ireland * ...

side Cobh Wanderers at the Aviva Stadium 5–4 in a penalty shootout after the score was tied at 2–2 at the end of extra-time. Goals from Clayton Maher and Aidan Roche and five out of six penalties scored in the shoot-out ensured the cup went to Dublin. In May 2018, the club beat

Dublin Bus Dublin Bus () is an Irish State-owned enterprise, state-owned bus operator providing services in Dublin. By far the largest bus operator in the city, it carried 145 million passengers in 2023. It is a subsidiary of CIÉ, Córas Iompair Éireann ...

to cap off a fifth straight promotion since their re-emergence in 2013, thus enabling them to play in the Leinster Senior League's Sunday Senior Division. The club announced on the same day that their original, historic club-house in City Quay would be returning to the club after many years.

Notable former players

Ireland internationals

Two Liffey Wanderers F.C. players represented

at full international level. * Patrick O'Connell * Peter Warren

Honours

*Junior Combination Cup **''Winners'': 1904–05: 1 *Empire Cup **''Winners'': 1904, 1905, 1906: 3 *

**''Winners'': 2016–17: 1 *

**''Winners'': 2014–15: 1

References

{{reflist, 2 Ringsend Leinster Senior League (association football) clubs Association football clubs in Dublin (city) 1885 establishments in Ireland Association football clubs established in 1885 Former Athletic Union League (Dublin) clubs Ulysses (novel)