The Lansdowne Road football riot occurred during a friendly

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

match between 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 the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. ...

and

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

Lansdowne Road Stadium Lansdowne Road Stadium ( ga, Bóthar Lansdún, ) was a stadium in Dublin owned by the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) that was primarily used for rugby union and association football matches. The stadium was demolished in 2007 to make way f ...

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 ...

, Ireland on 15 February 1995.

Match

The last time England had played Ireland at Lansdowne Road was a

UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying Group 7 Standings and results for Group 7 of the UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying tournament. Group 7 consisted of England, Poland, the Republic of Ireland and Turkey. Final table Results ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- Goalscorers ReferencesUE ...

match on 14 November 1990. After that match, there were clashes between some Irish and English fans and the Gardaí on

O'Connell Street O'Connell Street () is a street in the centre of Dublin, Ireland, running north from the River Liffey. It connects the O'Connell Bridge to the south with Parnell Street to the north and is roughly split into two sections bisected by Hen ...

in Dublin. Before the 1995 friendly match, the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) held talks with

the Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world a ...

(FA) to review security arrangements to avoid a similar episode. The FA was offered 4,000 out of approximately 40,000 tickets, for English fans. In pubs near Lansdowne Road stadium some English fans chanted " No surrender to the IRA", "Fuck the Pope" and " Clegg is innocent". Irish fans were goaded, spat on and attacked. Pub staff found

British National Party The British National Party (BNP) is a far-right, fascist political party in the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in Wigton, Cumbria, and its leader is Adam Walker. A minor party, it has no elected representatives at any level of UK gover ...

literature left behind and in some cases pro-

Loyalist Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British C ...

graffiti in toilets. The match began at 6:15 pm, and after 22 minutes, David Kelly scored a goal for Ireland. When a

David Platt David Andrew Platt (born 10 June 1966) is an English former professional football coach and player, who played as a midfielder. Born in Chadderton, Lancashire, Platt began his career as an apprentice at Manchester United before moving to Crewe ...

goal was disallowed for England in the 26th minute due to Platt being offside, some of the English fans began throwing debris down into the lower stands, including parts of benches which they had ripped out earlier in the match. When this happened, the

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other tit ...

immediately stopped the game, and brought the players off the pitch. When

Jack Charlton John Charlton (8 May 193510 July 2020) was an English footballer and manager who played as a defender. He was part of the England national team that won the 1966 World Cup and managed the Republic of Ireland national team from 1986 to 199 ...

, the Irish manager and former England player, walked off the pitch, the mob shouted "

Judas Judas Iscariot (; grc-x-biblical, Ἰούδας Ἰσκαριώτης; syc, ܝܗܘܕܐ ܣܟܪܝܘܛܐ; died AD) was a disciple and one of the original Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ. According to all four canonical gospels, Judas betr ...

, Judas." The fans in the lower stands then spilled out onto the pitch to escape the missiles from the English fans. Some Irish fans had mistakenly been put into the area where the English fans were when the FA returned a number of tickets to the FAI.

Details

Riot

After the teams left the pitch, the frequency of missiles intensified, and after 12 minutes, the game was called off, and the fans were evacuated, with the exception of 4,500 English fans, who were kept in the stadium until the

Garda Public Order Unit The Garda Public Order Unit – commonly known as the ''Garda Riot Squad'' – is a unit of the Garda Síochána, Ireland's police force, that deals with public disorder, including riots and protests. Staffing and training All gardaí assigned ...

tried to escort them out, at which time more violence broke out. The Gardaí were slow to reach the area where the rioters were, and there was some confusion as to the exact location of the English fans between the Gardaí and the stewards. 20 people were injured during the rioting, and 40 were arrested.

Reaction

The rioting was condemned on both sides of the

Irish Sea The Irish Sea or , gv, Y Keayn Yernagh, sco, Erse Sie, gd, Muir Èireann , Ulster-Scots: ''Airish Sea'', cy, Môr Iwerddon . is an extensive body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the C ...

. England manager

Terry Venables Terence Frederick Venables (born 6 January 1943), often referred to as El Tel, is an English former football player and manager, and an author. During the 1960s and '70s, he played for various clubs including Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Queen ...

said, "It was terrible. I have no words strong enough to describe how we feel about this. There could be repercussions." Jack Charlton said, "I have seen a lot in football but nothing like this. It is a disaster for Irish football but I didn't want the game abandoned because what do you do with 2,000 English fans running around the town? The English fans were being bombarded by some of their own. And they brought out the worst in some of ours." The rioting brought into question England's hosting of

Euro 1996 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in England from 8 to 30 ...

, with Ireland's

Minister of State Minister of State is a title borne by politicians in certain countries governed under a parliamentary system. In some countries a Minister of State is a Junior Minister of government, who is assigned to assist a specific Cabinet Minister. I ...

for Youth and Sport, Bernard Allen asking, "How can people from Ireland and from other countries go to England and expect to be safe watching matches in the presence of people like those who were here tonight?" The Garda handling of the match was criticised in the press when it was revealed that the Gardaí had been informed of the plans of some of the English fans to cause trouble by the British

National Criminal Intelligence Service The National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) was a United Kingdom policing agency. Following the Police and Criminal Justice Act 2001, NCIS returned to direct funding by the Home Office in 2002 and was a non-departmental public body. On 1 A ...

(NCIS). The decision to seat the English fans in an upper tier was also questioned in the press.

Investigation

After questions were raised about the conduct of the Gardaí, former

Chief Justice of Ireland The Chief Justice of Ireland ( ga, Príomh-Bhreitheamh na hÉireann) is the president of the Supreme Court of Ireland. The chief justice is the highest judicial office and most senior judge in Ireland. The role includes constitutional and admini ...

, Thomas Finlay was appointed to investigate the events. He found that the rioting was entirely caused by the English fans without any provocation. The investigation found that the head of the NCIS had offered help to the Gardaí in dealing with the hooligans, an offer which the Gardaí refused. Gardaí failed to act on a warning that 20 supporters of the England team who wore insignia of

Combat 18 Combat 18 (C18 or 318) is a neo-Nazi terrorist organisation that was founded in 1992. It originated in the United Kingdom, with ties to movements in Canada and the United States. Since then it has spread to other countries, including Germany ...

were travelling to the match. The segregation of the fans was also found to be insufficient, and this was found to be a contributory factor to the incident.

Future meetings

The next meeting between the two sides would not take place until Wednesday 29 May 2013, a friendly at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

, and the next meeting in the Republic of Ireland was on Sunday 7 June 2015 at Dublin's

Aviva Stadium Aviva Stadium (also known as Lansdowne Road) is a sports stadium located in Dublin, Ireland, with a capacity for 51,700 spectators (all seated). It is built on the site of the former Lansdowne Road Stadium, which was demolished in 2007, and ...

. Both games passed without major disturbances.

References

{{England national football team matches Riots and civil disorder in Ireland 1995 in Ireland Association football hooliganism 1995 riots 1994–95 in English football 1994–95 in Republic of Ireland association football England national football team matches Republic of Ireland national football team matches February 1995 events in Europe Politics and sports International association football matches