So I was in Dublin yesterday

Took the LUAS Green Line from Stephens Green to Dundrum and it struck me:

People always give out about the amount of Dublin based clubs (nonsense imo but that's another thread) yet here I was in a large part of Dublin with no football for miles.

Look at the three Northside clubs, they're all within spitting distance of one another.

Now I know St. Pats are very much associated with Inchicore/Cabra area and Bohs have been playing in Dalymount for the past thousand years.

But look at Shels - Dwindling fanbase, ground they don't own falling down around their arse, would it be worth their while looking at moving to the southside??

I mean I presume there was interest there once upon a time, one of the stops is Milltown.

And Shels are from Ringsend day one anyway so it's not like they'd be abandoning tradition.

Any place in the area that would be viable??

Discuss the issues.

I thought December 8th was the day the muckers come up?

I think you kind of answered your own question. Two of the country's biggest clubs were founded in the stretch you're talking about, and both left.

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Originally Posted by SkStu

I thought December 8th was the day the muckers come up?

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I was buying drugs and weapons.*






*and a Thomas the Tank Engine playset in Hamleys

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Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin

I think you kind of answered your own question. Two of the country's biggest clubs were founded in the stretch you're talking about, and both left.

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So Louis Kilcoyne was right?! :p

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Originally Posted by Lim till i die

So Louis Kilcoyne was right?! :p

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Haha, no but the cost of running a club in such a densely-populated and plush part of the city would make it very difficult to create anything sustainable. It was those economic forces that made it so attractive for the Kilcoynes to gut the club and ruin it for a quarter of a century. Hell, Bohs are a fan-owned club and they were still enticed to give up their home by the same economic forces. And these are clubs who are/were embedded in the area - it would be nigh-on impossible for a club to put down roots there. The trend in Dublin and around the world is for clubs to move outside of urban centres due to high prices and congestion.

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Originally Posted by Lim till i die

Took the LUAS Green Line from Stephens Green to Dundrum and it struck me:



.

Now I know St. Pats are very much associated with Inchicore/Cabra area and Bohs have been playing in Dalymount for the past thousand years.

.

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Cabra is to Inchicore as Southill is to Moyross. There is a direct tunnel between Inchicore and Cabra but no direcr bus,

Maybe he meant Ballyfermot... I hope...

But for the current proximity of Bohs and Shels I always felt that Dublin's clubs were in decent spots and had most of the city covered when it was mooted that Bohs were heading NW.

It seems to be a longstated passion of most of the older Shels fans to see the club return to Ringsend.

I love the stories of the days in D4 when they and Shams played out of Ringsend and families split and bunting was out in force and they came up against each other.

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Originally Posted by Lim till i die

I was buying drugs and weapons.*






*and a Thomas the Tank Engine playset in Hamleys

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My AK-47 toting, drug addled trainiac, there is indeed a logic in your argument. Shels are a club whose future is in serious doubt. Their stadium which they long sold is becoming a death trap and their fan base is dying off. Since moving to the Drumcondra venue in the late 1960s, they have failed to make any inroads into the local community there to get any decent kind of support or backing. Unless they move back to Southside, the only option is a slow death or merge with Bohs.

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Originally Posted by Lim till i die

Took the LUAS Green Line from Stephens Green to Dundrum and it struck me:

People always give out about the amount of Dublin based clubs (nonsense imo but that's another thread) yet here I was in a large part of Dublin with no football for miles.

Look at the three Northside clubs, they're all within spitting distance of one another.

Now I know St. Pats are very much associated with Inchicore/Cabra area and Bohs have been playing in Dalymount for the past thousand years.

But look at Shels - Dwindling fanbase, ground they don't own falling down around their arse, would it be worth their while looking at moving to the southside??

I mean I presume there was interest there once upon a time, one of the stops is Milltown.

And Shels are from Ringsend day one anyway so it's not like they'd be abandoning tradition.

Any place in the area that would be viable??

Discuss the issues.

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Former Irish Glass bottle site available if shels and/or shams (or any other club) have cash to buy it from NAMA and cash to build a stadium (the site was once mooted as posible location for Berties National Stadium pipedream)

Meanwhile, back in the real world, can we take it from posts on here that any club will crowds less than Shels are doomed and must merge with the nearest club or suffer unavoidable decline ?

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Originally Posted by Lim till i die

Look at the three Northside clubs, they're all within spitting distance of one another.

Now I know St. Pats are very much associated with Inchicore/Cabra area and Bohs have been playing in Dalymount for the past thousand years.

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3 Northside clubs?? Pats..Cabra???

During one of my visits to Dublin I went for a walk down to the docks and across into Ringsend. A very nice area by the look of it, and I noticed a nice little sports stadium with a running track that would make an excellent home for a Dublin LoI soccer club. There is no reason that a well-run club there can't attract a lot of the young IT workers who work and live not far from the area. Not all of these are into rugby despite their social class, many are foreign who would have no interest in that game and would be natural soccer fans. Surprising Shelbourene would not move there. Who own's Shels now by the way ?

wonder88. That is Irishtown Stadium. Owned by Dublin Corporation I think. I don't think there are covered stands.

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Originally Posted by wonder88

During one of my visits to Dublin I went for a walk down to the docks and across into Ringsend. A very nice area by the look of it, and I noticed a nice little sports stadium with a running track that would make an excellent home for a Dublin LoI soccer club. There is no reason that a well-run club there can't attract a lot of the young IT workers who work and live not far from the area. Not all of these are into rugby despite their social class, many are foreign who would have no interest in that game and would be natural soccer fans. Surprising Shelbourene would not move there. Who own's Shels now by the way ?

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I think Shels used to play in Ringsend Stadium back in nineteen-diggeties. Wasn't there talk of a move back a few seasons ago?

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Originally Posted by wonder88

During one of my visits to Dublin I went for a walk down to the docks and across into Ringsend. A very nice area by the look of it, and I noticed a nice little sports stadium with a running track that would make an excellent home for a Dublin LoI soccer club. There is no reason that a well-run club there can't attract a lot of the young IT workers who work and live not far from the area. Not all of these are into rugby despite their social class, many are foreign who would have no interest in that game and would be natural soccer fans. Surprising Shelbourene would not move there. Who own's Shels now by the way ?

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We were to build a stadium on Irishtown Stadium (the running track) back in the thirties. Can't find the article.
Don't forget we used to play in Shelbourne Park also.

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Originally Posted by PartySaint

3 Northside clubs?? Pats..Cabra???

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The rest of us Dubs just let it go.

There is a monument on Milltown Road dedicated to the sixty years the Hoops played there. Lets not forget that at the height of the 4-in-a-row, crowds were never more than 1500.

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Originally Posted by BonnieShels

The rest of us Dubs just let it go.

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I didn't want to be accused of supporting a Northside club

And also didn't want Lims to show up in Cabra the night we play them in Richmond :)

You wouldn't want most decent people ending up in Cabra at the best of times... :)

I'm surprised nobody had tried to set up/move a club to Dun Laoghaire. Huge catchment area here with closest clubs being UCD and Bray, who wouldn't be really competing for the same fans. See quite a few Rovers and Bray fans about so there is an appetite for LOI football here