Sirocco Works Football Club is a

Northern Irish The people of Northern Ireland are all people born in Northern Ireland and having, at the time of their birth, at least one parent who is a British Nationality Law, British citizen, an Irish nationality law, Irish citizen or is otherwis ...

intermediate football club playing in Division 1A of the

Northern Amateur Football League The Northern Amateur Football League, also known as the Northern Amateur League and often simply as the Amateur League, is an association football league in Northern Ireland. It contains 13 divisions. These comprise four intermediate sections: ...

. Established in 1924, the club is the longest existing club in all the intermediate and junior divisions in Northern Ireland.H. Johnstone & G. Hamilton (n.d.) ''A Memorable Milestone: 75 Years of the Northern Amateur Football League'', p. 217 The club currently play matches at Dixon Park in East

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

. The club also fields a second team in Division 3B of the Amateur League as well as several youth teams.

History

The club is historically linked to the Sirocco Engineering Works located on the east bank of the

River Lagan The River Lagan (; Ulster Scots dialects, Ulster Scots: ''Lagan Wattèr'') is a major river in Northern Ireland which runs from the Slieve Croob mountain in County Down to Belfast where it enters Belfast Lough, an inlet of the Irish Sea. The ...

in Belfast. Established in 1881, the company was one of the leading makers of

rope A rope is a group of yarns, Plying, plies, fibres, or strands that are plying, twisted or braided together into a larger and stronger form. Ropes have high tensile strength and can be used for dragging and lifting. Rope is thicker and stronger ...

in the world before focusing on the

tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of south-western China and nor ...

industry and supplying the local

Harland and Wolff Harland & Wolff Holdings plc is a British shipbuilding and Metal fabrication, fabrication company headquartered in London with sites in Belfast, Arnish yard, Arnish, Appledore, Torridge, Appledore and Methil. It specialises in ship repair, ship ...

shipyards. It was one of the biggest employers in Belfast and from this spawned the Sirocco Works Football Club. The club joined the Amateur League in 1924 and is the longest-serving member of that league, in unbroken membership ever since. It originally played its home games in Castlereagh, before moving to Warnock Park in the 1950s and the Dixon Park, Belfast.H. Johnstone & G. Hamilton (n.d.) ''A Memorable Milestone: 75 Years of the Northern Amateur Football League'', p. 218 The success of the football club mirrored that of the engineering firm with the majority of the club's trophies won in the 1930s and 1940s. From 1934 up to 1940, the club won six back-to-back league titles and numerous cups. The 1938/39 season saw the club claim four honours including the league title, Border Regiment Cup and Clarence Mayes Cup. The club also won the Steel and Sons Cup, becoming the first amateur side to lift this trophy. The times following

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

saw the decline of industry in Belfast. Similarly the football club started to struggle in the League. By 1960 the club picked up their last notable honour for the next 20 years, an appearance in the final of the Border Cup. In 1999 came the death knell for the Sirocco Engineering Works as the site was closed to be redeveloped. Despite the closure of the parent Sirocco engineering plant, board members of the football club decided to continue under the Sirocco name. The club won Division 1B in 2007–08. Sirocco subsequently won promotion back to 1A in 2016/17 and were runners up in the 2017/18 Clarence Cup Final and 2018/19 Steel & Sons Cup Final.

Honours

Intermediate honours

* Steel & Sons Cup: 1 ** 1938–39 *

: 8 ** 1926–27, 1934–35, 1935–36, 1936–37, 1937–38, 1938–39, 1939–40, 1947–48 * Clarence Cup: 6 ** 1925–26, 1926–27, 1938–39, 1943–44, 1945–46, 1947–48 * Border Cup: 6 **1936–37, 1937–38, 1938–39, 1941–42†, 1944–45, 1945–46 † Won by 2nd XI

Notes

External links

Sirocco Works Official Club website

nifootball.co.uk
- (For fixtures, results and tables of all Northern Ireland amateur football leagues) {{Football in Northern Ireland Association football clubs in Northern Ireland Association football clubs established in 1924 Association football clubs in Belfast Northern Amateur Football League clubs 1924 establishments in Northern Ireland Works association football teams in Northern Ireland