02-05-2025
Shelbourne's moment of a lifetime will live on in hearts and minds, and passed on in song
THE SONG HAS been sung with pride – maybe even still a little bit of disbelief – since the start of this League of Ireland season.
Shelbourne's visit to Shamrock Rovers last weekend was the perfect time for a powerful rendition from the away supporters.
On the final day we went to Derry
Needed just a goal and up stepped Harry
Rovers celebrated far too early
Shels went back to Tolka and had a party
It's not even been six months but perhaps a line-by-line explanation of the song to help with context is required as Shels prepare to return to the scene of their moment of a lifetime against Derry City tonight.
Line one - On the final day we went to Derry
Damien Duff took his side to the Ryan McBride Brandywell for the last game of last's season's Premier Division. It was the live game on RTÉ 2 and, as Shels were top and needed to match Rovers' result, the trophy headed north.
Slight problem: there was only one trophy.
One initial compromise within the FAI was to use a particular liquid resin that would help produce a 3D printed replica trophy to bring to Tallaght Stadium, where Rovers hosted Waterford.
Another problem: it looked brutal.
It was also perfectly plausible that Rovers would triumph in the most dramatic of title races. Not just that, Stephen Bradley would be the manager to win a five-in-a-row. He was already the first to win four on the spin but this would be something even more historic.
𝟭𝟮 𝗚𝗼𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗺𝗮𝘀 🎅🏻
On the 12th goal of Christmas Harry Wood scored the goal to make the Reds champions of Ireland 🎁#DublinsFinest | #Since1895 — Shelbourne FC 🏆 (@shelsfc) December 25, 2024
FAI staff scrambled for ideas and a search of one of the offices at Abbotstown HQ unearthed the old League of Ireland trophy – the one which the great Rovers side of the 80s lifted four times in a row.
It was cleaned and required minor repairs, so one embarrassment was avoided. Once in Derry, FAI staff had to run through their preparations and planning for a possible trophy presentation later that night. It was early in the day and with everything set up in the corner, one of those involved in operations recalled how former Derry boss Ruaidhdri Higgins appeared on the pitch, circling them as they walked through the presentation.
He had a face like thunder.
It was shaping up to become an epic night.
Line two – Needed just a goal and up stepped Harry
That's Wood, Harry Wood. He may or may not have taken to introducing himself like this since that moment, but no Shels fan would care if he did.
The time on the clock was 83 minutes and 59 seconds when Sean Boyd struck a free kick from the edge of the box.
It was 0-0 and a draw was not going to be enough given Rovers led 2-1 at home to Waterford.
'The strangest thing when I think back on that night is the realisation that time is not linear, it sounds stupid I know but if you've been fortunate to experience anything like that night in Derry in your life, you'll understand what I mean when I say time does not move in straight lines,' Darren Cleary, the club's media officer and supporter for more than 30 years, tells The 42 in a written message to try and best articulate his thoughts.
'In the search for the goal which was starting to feel desperate, with Rovers ready to roll out the presentation stand, time went at an ungodly quick speed. Minutes slipping into seconds, the clock going faster every time you asked someone near you 'what's left?'. Please don't let us lose to Rovers, Derry or worse a fucking clock.'
Darren Cleary (right) in the dressing room for the celebrations. Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO
The commentary from RTÉ's Des Curran is now part of Shelbourne lore, and the moment of a lifetime played out in seconds.
'Here is Sean Boyd. Into the wall, deflected! Maher saves! AND INNN — Shelbourne find the goal! Harry Wood! The jersey's off.'
83:59 – Boyd hits the free.
84:01 – Wood's rebound hits the net.
'When the breakthrough came, the Brandywell shook beneath our feet, time changed shape. It slowed, thickened, creeped, almost to a standstill. It doesn't make sense, I know. But if you've been there, you'll know. When the whistle goes, the next hour is a beautiful blur,' Cleary says.
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'The moment you wish could live forever vanished almost before it began. The greatest feeling life can offer… it was gone in the blink of an eye. Time went too quick. Minutes passed in seconds.'
If the pleasure was in that moment, the journey up from Dublin allowed for plenty of pain. The four or so hours it took a five-coach convoy from Tolka that day was nothing in comparison to the previous 18 years.
'Not even the most dramatic league title could matter more than saving Tolka Park,' Shane Dawson, one of the co-ordinators of the successful 'Save Tolka Park' campaign says.
'Without Tolka, there is no glory. No Harry Wood goal. No story to tell. But when I think back to that day in Derry, the euphoria remains unmatched. It's a high that I'll chase for the rest of my life.
'Promotion in Drogheda in 2019 was a milestone. It was an awakening of sorts for the club. The first match of 2007 felt significant too, merely because Shelbourne still existed [after the financial collapse following Ollie Byrne years]. But Derry? Derry was something else entirely. Unrivalled ecstasy.'
That's if you were one of the lucky 300 who could get an official ticket in the away end. The Brandywell was probably the worse venue for such a fixture from an away fan's perspective because of the reduced allocation.
Some of the travelling fans. Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO
In the week leading up to the game Derry officials also informed season ticket holders that they were not to pass on their seats to Shels fans. Their title challenge had already fallen by the wayside.
Gavin Doherty has organised one of the away coaches for not far off a decade since the First Division days.
He had a sold-out 51-seater and was one of several on board without a ticket. Even Olson, a fan who travelled from Sweden and went up on the bus, got it on the proviso he was covering the game for the Stockholm Gazette.
Doherty's connection with Shels is one many can relate to. Now in his late 30s, he was born in the Liberties and now lives with his wife 10 minutes from St Patrick's Athletic's Richmond Park. His father is from Westmeath and worked with a fella who used to play League of Ireland part-time in the early 1990s.
He was at Shels at the time and Doherty got the bug, but while his younger brother eventually drifted away for a time, he slowly became immersed in what it meant to be a Red in Drumcondra.
'My best mate was a groomsman at my wedding but I might not see him from November to February when the season is finished,' he says. 'Shels is the bond, that is how it was all built up, I wouldn't have made any of these friends only for Shels.'
The Damien Duff Effect may have enticed his brother back in recent years, but blood is not always thicker than water given he did not even qualify for a place on his brother's bus, let alone a ticket.
Gavin Dohery (right) with Mark Coyle on the night and (below) with his wife and son in Tolka Park at the homecoming.
'No hope, there was a long list of people that needed to be sorted before him.'
Some of the stories of the lengths some went to are comical, like the one from the supporter in the Reds Independent fanzine that described their search for one of the few paper tickets being sold in numerous outlets around Derry on the day of the game.
From newsagents to petrol stations and even a random Chinese restaurant, there was no luck, until eventually he managed to secure one… provided he donned a high viz bib and acted as a steward in the away end.
'The most Shelbourne thing possible would be a crushing disappointment. We'd endured it all before – drubbings in Monaghan, batterings in Cabinteely, even the lingering trauma of Limerick 37's Colin Scanlon,' Dawson says with a laugh.
'Some had tickets in the away end, others clung to media passes or home tickets, and a few had nothing. QR codes were bartered like currency. We even considered dropping the ticketless in Monaghan or Donegal to watch the game in a pub. But in the end, we stuck together.'
Line three - Rovers celebrated far too early
This isn't necessarily true, but all art deserves some leniency for greater impact and resonance.
There was too much tension to enjoy anything until the final whistles went. 'The game was utter torture. We watched in seats allocated for Shels staff in the stand, quite near Derry's most vocal support,' Cleary says.
Shels fans celebrate on the pitch. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO
'They were quick to let everyone know the score [when Rovers went 1-0 up after five minutes]. The only thing that would salvage their season would be ruining ours or winning the FAI Cup.
'There was an odd vitriol to the atmosphere on that side of the ground that you wouldn't usually associate with Derry. It hung heavy in the air. The air of hostility and contempt from the Derry fans on that side of the ground wasn't lost on anyone from the Shels side near them.'
And that partly explains why Wood was so keen to celebrate right in front of them with his jersey being waved above his head.
Over in the small corner where 300 away fans were supposed to be housed, the diligent and co-operative work of Derry stewards and officials allowed for the expansion of their section as numbers swelled closer to 500.
John Brennan, the Shelbourne Supporter Liaison officer, is another of those volunteers whose love of the club saw him take on that role a couple of years ago.
He is the brother of Dublin's two-time All Ireland winner Ger Brennan, a family steeped in red and blue from a corner just off Dorset Street.
Shane Dawson (left) with goalkeeper Conor Kearns after full-time. Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO
'I'm not quite like Ger, he loves to pray,' John says with a laugh. 'But I was wishing and praying we could get the job done.
'From where the club had been to what Damien Duff was about to achieve, it felt so hard to believe.
'That feeling when the final whistle goes, it is on a par with [Stephen] Cluxton putting the ball over the bar [in the All Ireland final] in 2011. That feeling, of course it was great for Ger and our family, but winning up in Derry is there with the greatest feeling ever experienced in sport.'
Line four – Shels went back to Tolka and had a party
Before the party there was the bus that went on fire.
Before there was the bus that went on fire there were the celebrations and a late exit.
As The 42 reported on the night, the lights the Ryan McBride Brandywell began to be turned off a little before 11.30pm.
Shelbourne had been crowned League of Ireland champions almost two hours earlier.
Damien Duff led his players and staff back into the centre circle. They linked arms as one. An unbreakable bond and relentless spirit endured as we edged towards the final midnight of the season.
The songs from the dressing room stopped. 'Graffiti on the walls' was no more, likewise a chorus of 'He's in your head, he's in your head, Duffer, Duffer,' from the players.
Generational Reds: John Brennan (right) with his father and son.
Sean Boyd had bottles of Heineken stuffed inside his socks. Goalscorer Harry Wood had Corona in one hand and his phone in the other as he FaceTimed home to Hull. Goalkeeper Conor Kearns sat on the pitch for about 25 minutes calling loved ones too. Mauro Martins had a Shels bucket hat on and Portugal flag draped around his shoulders. He was puffing on a lovely cigar.
A Cuban?
'No, my friend. Venezuelan. It is where my Dad is from.'
The fitness coach could finally relax.
Then there was Johnny Watson, the Shels kitman for long enough to know all of Tolka Park's deepest, darkest secrets. He walked proudly into the middle of the circle and was last to talk after Duff.
Watson's two sons were in there too. This was generational.
'I fucking love the bones off every one of you. Up the fucking Shels,' he roared.
It was the catalyst for a rendition of 'Championeeeeees.'
'If you think we are crazy in front of people, behind closed doors we are even crazier,' Duff told reporters just before that gathering in the middle of the pitch.
'There is no debating the best team won, we had numerous chances. The best team wins the league and that is us.'
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Shels fans in Derry, with former Dublin GAA star Dermot Connolly circled. Pic: Simon Crowe. Simon Crowe Simon Crowe
Duff also revealed on the pitch that Jose Mourinho had sent a pre-match video to his players. He attempted to video call him once the title was won but there was no answer and, as a forfeit, he had to pay €500 into the players' party kitty.
It began on the pitch in Derry. Sean Gannon, as he told the Second Captains podcast, had teeth marks on his forehead after colliding with a fan during the celebrations.
'After the goal I was just standing still, motionless for a few seconds,' Doherty says. 'I get stick about it even now but I think it was just disbelief, and maybe believing the goal would be ruled out for something.'
What followed was a release. 'I found myself, mid-RTÉ broadcast during an ad break, clutching Stuey Byrne in tears. He knew. He'd lived it too,' Dawson says of the former club captain, who would later meet the Shels players in a hotel bar on the outskirts of the city.
While Higgins may have patrolled the pitch in anger when the trophy presentation was being rehearsed, he still visited the Shels dressing room to congratulate Duff and his players after they lifted it for real.
'When the full time whistle went. My brother Ben, who produced the majority of the video output last season had gone on with the camera to capture the full-time scenes. I ran looking to find him. To give him a hug and to see his face. When I did find him it was a lovely moment,' Cleary says.
'Ben's face and the faces of every Shels fan I saw that night is something that I hope I remember forever. The faces you see every Friday night in Tolka, in grounds all over the country. Faces you'd known for years, that you instantly recognise yet in that moment they look completely different. Twisted in a kind of joy I had never seen before.'
And then a bus went on fire.
While Dawson and Doherty headed back on separate coaches, both filled with the gold ticker tape that had littered the pitches, one of the buses organised by Brennan and the club suffered engine failure on the journey home just outside Swords.
On board was former Dublin footballer Dermot Connolly, along with the parents and partner of forward John Martin.
Fans look back at one of the buses on fire.
Only the quick thinking of the driver, who realised something was amiss in his cabin, prevented a tragedy. Engine failure led to a fire and explosion. Doherty's bus picked up the 30 or so stranded passengers and they headed back for Tolka.
It was well after midnight by now, and the main stand in Drumcondra had also been filled with fans watching on big screens on the pitch.
By the time players and some staff also arrived closer to 3am, the bars in Tolka Park had been drunk dry. As Gardaí began to disperse the final stragglers, one bus had already been sent to another late bar in the city to stock up on drinks to keep the party going.
Thankfully, a Shels fan was running the bar and enough was ferried out of the busy venue and onboard. It then began to circle Drumcondra waiting for Gardaí and fans to leave.
Once they had, captain Mark Coyle led some of his teammates into the bar beneath the main stand.
It was bright before they left and then an official homecoming was hastily arranged by Cleary and other staff. A request to try and get the trophy branding and presentation that had been on hand in Tallaght was turned down by their rivals. Understandably so.
A sound engineer returning from a gig the previous night was asked to help with setting up a system on the pitch. Players joined Duff and his staff to savour the occasion with thousands of supporters.
That is when it really dawned on many of Doherty and Dawson's group of friends that they were becoming the older ones.
There has been a baby boom over the last few years and their infant kids were there for pictures. Indeed, Doherty will be organising the bus again for tonight's game but won't be travelling as it's his son's first birthday tomorrow.
Defender Paddy Barrett in front of the pink party bus - coincidentally a 2006 reg plate, the year of the club's last league title.
A week after winning the league, Brennan was at a family wedding in Lanzarote. And at Christmas he informed them that he and his wife were expecting their second child.
'Straight away the joke was 'it's either a Lanzarote baby or a Shels-winning-the-league baby'. If it's a boy maybe the middle name will be Damien.'
The memory of that night will never fade for Shels. It will live on in their hearts and minds and, of course, passed on in song.
