Joseph James Ledwidge Sr. (8th June 1877 – 19th January 1953) was a

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

er, an Irish international soccer player and a cricketer. He won two All-Ireland medals playing with the

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 ...

Geraldines and later played with Shelbourne in the Irish League.Obituary, Evening Press, 20 January 1953

Early life

Ledwidge was born on Arran Quay,

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 ...

to Joseph William Ledwidge, a butcher, and Elizabeth Trulock. He married Molly Owens in 1910.

Sporting career

He had his first successes playing with the Geraldines' selection that won two All-Ireland titles for Dublin in 1898 and 1899. Ledwidge joined Shelbourne in 1901 when they played in the Leinster Senior League and played 51 times for them in the Irish League after they joined in 1904 until he left Shelbourne in 1909. He played for Shelbourne in their historic

Irish Cup The Irish Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly referred to as the Irish Cup (currently known as the Clearer Water Irish Cup for sponsorship purposes) is the primary Association football, football single elimination, knockout cup compet ...

final win over

Belfast Celtic Belfast Celtic Football Club was an Irish football club. Founded in 1891 in Belfast, it was one of the most successful teams in Ireland until it withdrew permanently from the Irish League in 1949. The club left the league for political reaso ...

in 1906 as well the cup final defeat to

Distillery Distillation, also classical distillation, is the process of separating the component substances of a liquid mixture of two or more chemically discrete substances; the separation process is realized by way of the selective boiling of the mixt ...

in 1905 and the cup final replay defeats to

Cliftonville Cliftonville is a coastal area of Margate in the Thanet District, Thanet district of Kent, England. It includes the Palm Bay, UK, Palm Bay estate, built in the 1930s with wide avenues and detached and semi-detached houses with driveways, gar ...

and

Bohemians Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to: *Anything of or relating to Bohemia Culture and arts * Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, originally practised by 19th–20th century European and American artists and writers. * Bohemian style, a f ...

in 1907 and 1908. He was the first man to win both a GAA All-Ireland and an IFA cup-winner's medal. Shelbourne_F

Ledwidge won an inter-league cap for the Irish League against the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

during the 1905-06 season. He also played soccer for

St. James's Gate F.C. St James's Gate Football Club is an Irish association football club based in Drimnagh/Crumlin, Dublin. They played in the League of Ireland between 1921–22 and 1943–44 and again from 1990–91 until 1995–96. Gate were the inaugural wi ...

He got his first international caps playing for

against

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

and

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

in the 1905-06 British Home Championship.

Post-sporting life

After his sporting career, he enlisted in the British army during World War One, and was a private in the 1st Battalion of the Royal Irish Fusiliers as well as a sapper in the Royal Engineers, seeing action in France at the

Battle of Passchendaele The Third Battle of Ypres (; ; ), also known as the Battle of Passchendaele ( ), was a campaign of the First World War, fought by the Allies of World War I, Allies against the German Empire. The battle took place on the Western Front (World Wa ...

. While serving in the latter, he received the

Distinguished Conduct Medal The Distinguished Conduct Medal was a decoration established in 1854 by Queen Victoria for gallantry in the field by Other ranks (UK), other ranks of the British Army. It is the oldest British award for gallantry and was a second level military ...

for conspicuous gallantry. Ledwidge was a great-great nephew of historian

Edward Ledwich Edward Ledwich LL.D. F.S.A. (1738 – 8 August 1823) was an Irish historian, antiquary and topographer. Life Ledwich was born in Dublin, the son of John Ledwich, a merchant. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, entering on 22 November ...

and 2nd cousin of notable Irish anatomist and surgeon Thomas Hawkesworth Ledwich. He worked for the Ordnance Survey office and later for the Land Commission before retiring. Joseph died in Dublin on 19 January 1953 and is buried in

Mount Jerome Cemetery Mount Jerome Cemetery & Crematorium () is situated in Harold's Cross on the south side of Dublin, Ireland. Since its foundation in 1836, it has witnessed over 300,000 burials. Originally an exclusively Protestant cemetery, Roman Catholics have a ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ledwidge, Joseph 1877 births 1953 deaths Burials at Mount Jerome Cemetery and Crematorium Dublin inter-county Gaelic footballers Irish association footballers (before 1923) Pre-1950 IFA men's international footballers Shelbourne F.C. players NIFL Premiership players Association footballers from County Dublin Gaelic footballers who switched code Leinster Senior League (association football) players Men's association football players not categorized by position