Midland Athletic Football Club was an Irish association football club. During the 1920s they played in both the

League of Ireland The League of Ireland ( ga, Sraith na hÉireann), together with the Football Association of Ireland, is one of the two main governing bodies responsible for organising association football in the Republic of Ireland. The term was originally use ...

and the Leinster Senior League. Despite the name, the club was based in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

and not the

Midlands The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Mercia, Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in ...

. Like several fellow early League of Ireland clubs, such as St James's Gate,

Jacobs Jacobs may refer to: Businesses and organisations * Jacob's, a brand name for several lines of biscuits and crackers in Ireland and the UK * Jacobs (coffee), a brand of coffee *Jacobs Aircraft Engine Company, former American aircraft engine compa ...

, Fordsons and

Dundalk Dundalk ( ; ga, Dún Dealgan ), meaning "the fort of Dealgan", is the county town (the administrative centre) of County Louth, Ireland. The town is on the Castletown River, which flows into Dundalk Bay on the east coast of Ireland. It is hal ...

, Midland had their origins as a factory or

works team A works team (sometimes factory team, company team) is a sports team that is financed and run by a manufacturer or other business. Sometimes, works teams contain or are entirely made up of employees of the supporting company. Association footb ...

. They were originally the football team of the

Midland Great Western Railway The Midland Great Western Railway (MGWR) was the third largest Irish gauge () railway company in Ireland. It was incorporated in 1845 and absorbed into the Great Southern Railways in 1924. At its peak the MGWR had a network of , making it Irela ...

based in

Broadstone, Dublin Broadstone () is one of the three neighbourhoods that make up present-day Phibsboro in Dublin, Ireland. The most southerly of these, it begins just two kilometres north of Father Mathew Bridge at Ormond Quay. The area is triangular, bounded by ...

. The club celebrated its 50th anniversary of its founding by holding a golden jubilee dinner in Moran's Hotel, Dublin on 10 December 1955. The occasion was noted in a Dublin newspaper with a photograph of the team and officials who represented them in the 1909–10 season.

History

Early years

Midland Athletic were founded in

1904 Events January * January 7 – The distress signal ''CQD'' is established, only to be replaced 2 years later by ''SOS''. * January 8 – The Blackstone Library is dedicated, marking the beginning of the Chicago Public Library system. * ...

and among its founding members was a young

Joe Wickham Joe Wickham (1890 in Phibsboro, Dublin – 3 November 1968 in Katowice, Poland) was the General Secretary of the Football Association of Ireland from the 1930s until his death in 1968 at the age of 78. He took over from Jack Ryder in 1936, having ...

. Wickham played as a centre-half with Midland Athletic and started his career as a football administrator when he became the club secretary.''Irish Times'', 15 May 1964

Leinster Senior League

In 1921–22 Midland Athletic were playing in the Leinster Senior League. Other teams in this league this season included

Shamrock Rovers Shamrock Rovers Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Ruagairí na Seamróige) is an Irish association football club based in Tallaght, South Dublin. The club's senior team competes in the League of Ireland Premier Division and it is the most su ...

, Bohemians B, St James's Gate B,

Bray Unknowns Bray Unknowns Football Club was an Irish association football club based in Bray, County Wicklow. During the 1920s and 1930s the Unknowns were the dominant football club in Bray, playing in the League of Ireland for nineteen seasons from 1924 ...

, Shelbourne United,

Pioneers Pioneer commonly refers to a settler who migrates to previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited land. In the United States pioneer commonly refers to an American pioneer, a person in American history who migrated west to join in settling and dev ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Kings County is the most populous Administrative divisions of New York (state)#County, county in the State of New York, ...

, Merrion, Glasnevin, CYMS and Richmond.

League of Ireland

The 1922–23 season saw the

expand from eight to twelve teams. After Frankfort and

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams (philanthropist), Georg ...

dropped out, Midland Athletic became one of six new teams to join the league. The others were

, Shelbourne United,

Athlone Town Athlone Town Association Football Club () is an Irish football club from Athlone who are playing in the League of Ireland. The club is the oldest in the League as it was founded in 1887. First elected to the League of Ireland in 1922, they pl ...

and Rathmines Athletic. During their two seasons in the League of Ireland Midland played their home games at The Thatch in

Whitehall, Dublin Whitehall () is a Northside suburb of Dublin City, Ireland. Whitehall is a residential area on the northern outskirts of Dublin's inner city, located near the M1 motorway leading to Dublin Airport, Swords and Belfast. It's situated between ...

. Midland eventually finished in 9th place in 1922–23 and 10th and last place in 1923–24. Midland Athletic also played in both the 1922–23 and

1923–24 FAI Cup The FAI Cup 1923–24 was the third edition of Ireland's premier cup competition, The Football Association of Ireland Challenge Cup or FAI Cup. The tournament began on 5 January 1924 and concluded on 17 March with the final held at Dalymoun ...

s. On both occasions they were knocked out in the first round by the eventual winners,

Alton United Alton United F.C. is a defunct Irish football club who were based in Belfast, Northern Ireland and played in the Falls District League. During their time in the Falls District League, Alton United played their home matches in the Falls Road area ...

and

respectively. At the end of the 1923–24 season Midland Athletic were not re-elected. They were replaced in the league by

. FAI Cup

Rsssf The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF) is an international organization dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around the ...

League of Ireland Stats

Source:

Notable former players

Ireland

The following Midland Athletic players represented

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

and/or the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...

at full international level. * Tom Davis

FAI official

References

{{League of Ireland clubs Association football clubs established in 1904 1904 establishments in Ireland Association football clubs in Dublin (city) Defunct League of Ireland clubs Former Leinster Senior League clubs Midland Great Western Railway Railway association football teams in Ireland