James Hasty (1936 – 11 October 1974) was a Northern Irish

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who is best known for his time playing as a forward for

Dundalk Dundalk ( ; ) is the county town of County Louth, Ireland. The town is situated on the Castletown River, which flows into Dundalk Bay on the north-east coast of Ireland, and is halfway between Dublin and Belfast, close to and south of the bor ...

between 1960 and 1966. He was nicknamed 'the One-Armed Wonder' because he had lost his left arm in a workplace accident prior to his career in football. He was murdered in a sectarian killing in Belfast in October 1974 during

the Troubles The Troubles () were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted for about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it began in the late 1960s and is usually deemed t ...

Early life

Jimmy Hasty was born in Belfast in 1936 and was raised in the Sailortown area of the city. In July 1950, when he was 14 years old, he lost his left arm in an industrial accident on his first day at work at Jennymount Mill in Belfast. He later received £1,200 in compensation.

Career

Hasty played for several junior football clubs in the Belfast area during the late 1950s, before joining Newry Town in the Irish League second tier in October 1959. He scored twice on his debut for Newry against Derry City Reserves and went on to be Newry's top goalscorer with 38 goals as they went on to win the 1959–60 Irish League B Division. He started the following season in the same vein, scoring a further 17 goals, including four in a 5-1 win over Crusaders Reserves in his final game for Newry before being transferred to Dundalk in November 1960. His reputation as a prolific goalscorer with Newry, who had learned to use his injury to his advantage on the pitch, had attracted Dundalk Director Jim Malone. When Malone saw Hasty play, he was so confident in his ability that he offered to personally cover the cost of the signing in front of a sceptical board. Hasty made a scoring debut against Cork Celtic at

Oriel Park Oriel Park is a UEFA Category 2 football stadium located on the Carrickmacross Road in Dundalk, Ireland. The stadium is the home ground of Dundalk Football Club and is owned and operated by the club on land that has been leased from the Casey ...

, and scored six more goals in the next four league matches. Five weeks after his debut, he scored the only goal in the Leinster Senior Cup final, Dundalk's second time winning the competition. He quickly became a star attraction, with spectators flocking to league grounds all over Ireland to see him play, and his goals helped Dundalk challenge for a League title for the first time in over a decade. His second season was disrupted by injury but he recovered and was the top scorer in the side that won the League in 1962–63, which was the club's first title in 30 years. The following season, in a

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

tie away to

FC Zürich Fussballclub Zürich, commonly abbreviated to FC Zürich or simply FCZ, is a professional football club based in Zurich, Switzerland. The club was founded in 1896 and has won the Swiss Super League thirteen times and the Swiss Cup ten times. ...

, he assisted the first goal and scored the second in a 2–1 win, which was the first away victory by an Irish side in European competition. He went on to be joint top-scorer in the league that season, with Dundalk finishing as runners-up, and he scored the opening goal in the Top Four Cup final as they won the competition for the first time. After two injury-plagued seasons, Hasty was released at the end of the 1965–66 season. He made 170 appearances in all competitions in his six seasons at Dundalk, scoring 103 goals (59 goals in 98 League appearances). He won League, Top Four Cup and Leinster Senior Cup medals and is the sixth-highest goalscorer in the club's history. After leaving Dundalk, Hasty joined

Drogheda Drogheda ( , ; , meaning "bridge at the ford") is an industrial and port town in County Louth on the east coast of Ireland, north of Dublin. It is located on the Dublin–Belfast corridor on the east coast of Ireland, mostly in County Louth ...

for one season before retiring. Both his final appearance and his final goal in the League of Ireland came in February 1967, when he scored for Drogheda against the Dundalk side that would go on to win the League that season.

Later life

Hasty had remained living in Belfast during his League of Ireland career and was living in Hillman Street and working at a betting shop near Belfast Docks at the time of his death. He was shot dead on Brougham Street in Belfast on the morning of 11 October 1974 while he was walking to work. The killing was claimed by

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 Cr ...

paramilitaries calling themselves the 'Ulster Protestant Action Group'. No one was ever charged with his murder. Hasty has been the subject of documentaries on

RTÉ (; ; RTÉThe É in RTÉ is pronounced as an English E () and not an Irish É ()) is an Irish public service broadcaster. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, ...

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

, and

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

TV.

Honours

Dundalk *

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 ...

: 1 ** 1962–63 * Top Four Cup: 1 **1963–64 * Leinster Senior Cup: 1 **1960–61 * LFA President's Cup: 2 **1963–64, 1964–65 Newry Town *

Irish League B Division The NIFL Premier Intermediate League (Known as the Playr-Fit NIFL Premier Intermediate League for sponsorship reasons) is the third level of the Northern Ireland Football League, the national association football league in Northern Ireland, and th ...

**1959–60

References

1936 births 1974 deaths Men's association football forwards Dundalk F.C. players Expatriate men's association footballers from Northern Ireland Expatriate men's association footballers in the Republic of Ireland League of Ireland players Newry City F.C. players Association footballers from Belfast Men's association footballers from Northern Ireland People killed during The Troubles (Northern Ireland) Deaths by firearm in Northern Ireland {{NorthernIreland-footy-bio-stub