Once In A Life Time

[orielabu]

Once In A Lifetime, a documentary by Square 1 Productions about Dundalk FC’s 1979/80 European Cup campaign will be broadcast on August 6 at 9pm on Setanta Sports Ireland.

Here’s a link to the Video Promo.

https://medium.com/@McLaughlinGavin/dundalk-fc-1979-80-once-in-a-lifetime-884bdb4fff0a

[nigel-harps1954]

It's free to view on Setanta too. Don't need to be subscribed to watch it.

[Nesta99]

Oriel was looking its finest for this show! Interesting backdrop done for the Linfield game, even if there wasnt a huge amount of new footage of the first leg. It is inconceivable for such a game to go ahead these days, with Shels move of a home leg to Tranmere as a more recent example. Impressive HD footage of 1979-80 terraces, turn-styles and barriers at Oriel, totally realistic of the era! Plenty of game time on camera for the Linfield 'away' game in Holland. Very little said about the infamous Tommy Mc miss late in the home leg! A great story that we were the width of a post from a 1/4 final v Real Madrid but i'm still not sure it was that good a chance to steal through.

[nigel-harps1954]

Watched it this morning. Great viewing, and a wonderful insight to just how awful it was for everyone involved with that Linfield game. Incredible to hear it from the players perspective, the game being played on a third of the pitch because nobody wanted to go near the rioting going on.

[Dunny]

Was bull****ing with the oulfella last night after the programme(which was top notch btw) and the stories he was telling were crazy.
eg: Outside the ground the rioting continued and then some lad pulls a gun from his pocket and starts waving it at Linfield fans,guards wrestle him to the ground but meanwhile and just yards away a full blown riot continues.Crazy stuff

[Professor K]

Great doc.

[TonyD]

I meant to watch this but just clean forgot it was on. Anyone know if Setanta will repeat it ?

[Martinho II]

watched it today. had read what happened in Oriel in Linfield in Jim Murphy's book but the clip coverage was jaw droppin to say the least!superb documentary and agree that DK was superb on it!

[dieseldlk]

One of the best sports documentaries i've seen. Heard stories of that night in oriel over the years.

[Dunny]

For anybody that missed it ;)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_RipCoBJdw

[Nesta99]

People are saying it was the best sports documentary ever...it was very good no doubt, but best ever? (my Lilywhite tinted specs must have slipped for a bit :P)

There have been so many stories told of that evening and season but few have seen any footage. I was a little disappointed that there wasnt more footage of the Linfield game as the same clip was repeated a few times. Putting the context or backdrop of the politcal issue up north showed a very different 'El Paso' era and was key to an interesting show. How the fixture was held in Dundalk is anybodies guess when you consider Shels home game against Rangers was moved and in more politically stable era. What made it was the first hand accounts from Jim Murphy, Mick Lawlor, and Dermot Keeley - its sad that Tommy McConville isnt around to talk about 'that miss' against Celtic with a 1/4 final and Real Madrid just a matter of inches away.

Ive seen more footage from Parkhead myself which I hoped to see again but it wasnt there and I cant track down the clips I saw before again. I know its RTE but surely there were cameras in Oriel for the Linfield game recording the whole match, and also from the Celtic game to see how 18k spectators were jammed in to the ground which is not that different and no bigger than it is today. It was fantastic though to see clips from Holland, I handn't seen or known there was footage around.

8mm clips from Malta were taken by one of former board members I think and have been on DundalkFC.com for years.

All in all thoroughly enjoyable show and certainly highlighted how the 'troubles' effected the southern border towns and especially Dundalk and DFC that night. The fact that it was about my club makes the best sports documentary for me. Old college pals from my eh ...study.. days in England I made them watch it and they enjoyed it (mostly History students) as much for the social/political issues.

[TonyD]

Finally got to watch it last night. I enjoyed it, but it seemed overly concerned with the Linfield match, and the political situation of the time, rather than the cup run as a whole. (I accept that they probably saw this as the "angle" to hang it on) I agree with Nesta that it suffered from lack of footage of the Linfield and Celtic games. Crazy to think there were only 32 teams in the european cup at the time and teams were only a couple of nice draws away from a potential quarter final.

[Nesta99]

. Crazy to think there were only 32 teams in the european cup at the time and teams were only a couple of nice draws away from a potential quarter final.

Ah yes! Make sure to explain competition structure in 1980 in case people in a modern context become overly impressed!! Regardless I bet you wish it was a St Pats story :p and no matter what Dundalk FC reached the last 16 of the European cup (and CWC too I think ha!) which always raises an eyebrow and an interest!

[TonyD]

Ah yes! Make sure to explain competition structure in 1980 in case people in a modern context become overly impressed!! Regardless I bet you wish it was a St Pats story :p and no matter what Dundalk FC reached the last 16 of the European cup (and CWC too I think ha!) which always raises an eyebrow and an interest!

Relax, I wasn't having a go, or trying to knock Dundalk in any way. And yes, of course I would be bigging it up if it was Pats. It was a different era, that's all I was saying. The reality is though that Irish clubs have gone through 2 rounds against teams of the standard of Linfield and Hibernians in recent years, and still been only in the third qualifying round. It's tougher now, but again, that's not knocking Dundalks achievement, it's just a fact.

[Sheridan]

That was pretty good. Lack of archive was a fatal flaw. RTÉ are allowed to charge extortionate fees for the use of their archive, so that's where fingers should be pointed. Strange that they chose the same name as one of the most well-known football documentaries of all time.