European Champions

**Lux Interior** · 08/12/2006, 5:01 PM

taken from tonight's 'Belfast Telegraph'

By By Eddie McIlwaine

Irish League football club Glentoran is soon to figure in a big screen movie.

The script for the romantic comedy has been written and Ian Kennedy of Straight Forward Productions is now putting a cast together in a film about the team he has followed since he was a little boy.

The storyline will centre around the 1913-14 season when Glentoran, against all the odds, went into Europe and returned with the Vienna Cup after winning a major competition against top teams, including Hertha Berlin.

"The Glens qualified for Europe after winning the Irish Cup," says Kennedy, who is still a dedicated Oval supporter.

"They beat everyone in sight on the continent to return with this trophy.

"Everybody thinks the first team from the British Isles to win in Europe was Glasgow Celtic. Wrong - it was Glentoran, the **** and Hens, from east Belfast."

And the Vienna Cup still sits today in the trophy cabinet at the Oval where the club's chief executive, Stafford Reynolds, has been researching events of that incredible season just before World War I broke out.

The script for the movie, which will be called The Game Above All - the Glentoran motto - has been written by Damon Quinn, Michael McDowell and Tim McGarry, the team responsible for the hit Give My Head Peace television series.

"It's an amazing story of how these part-time footballers, most of whom worked in the shipyard, went away from home for the first time and returned with a mighty important cup," explains Kennedy.

"The writers have produced a wonderful script and have woven a fictional tale of love and intrigue and romance around the team and their exploits.

"Remember, these young players, like David Lyner, one of the stars, were visiting Europe for the first time in their lives and at a time when a world war was looming. What they achieved was a fairytale. When we heard the facts about the Glens in that memorable season we could hardly take it all in," admits scriptwriter Quinn.

"So we set about adding to the story with Glentoran's approval and we believe we have come up with a romantic comedy every football fan and every film fan will love."

The Straight Forward production is being backed by the Northern Ireland Film and Television Commission and shooting will begin on location in the spring.

Sorry, Bohs, we were first .......

"5000 fans crammed into two steamboats, that set sail from Belfast to see the plucky Glens take on the cream of Europe ..... "

**el punter** · 08/12/2006, 5:35 PM

Sounds great, looking forward to seeing it.

**Fortuna1886** · 08/12/2006, 7:09 PM

Christ on a scooter, next thing you know some clown with diddies will be running up a flag in honour of it....

**-lamb-** · 08/12/2006, 7:48 PM

its all good if it puts irish league football back into peoples' minds.
looking forward to seeing it.

**Fortuna1886** · 08/12/2006, 10:30 PM

Seriously? Have you ever seen Give my head peace.....

**Lux Interior** · 08/12/2006, 10:48 PM

Originally Posted by Fortuna1886

Christ on a scooter, next thing you know some clown with diddies will be running up a flag in honour of it....

Or, thompo, we could have a big bedsheet glorifying a failed hoolie group

**Fortuna1886** · 08/12/2006, 10:59 PM

Nowt to be with me, I merely paint with light and record such banners.....

**Lux Interior** · 08/12/2006, 11:10 PM

Originally Posted by Fortuna1886

Nowt to be with me, I merely paint with light and record such banners.....

I ain't saying nuffin' - Ive heard TOO much this week

**Stanley Chan** · 08/12/2006, 11:14 PM

Failed hoolie group.......more like one that never showed!!

**Lux Interior** · 08/12/2006, 11:27 PM

Originally Posted by Stanley Chan

Failed hoolie group.......more like one that never showed!!

I hear they're auditioning for the movie in Vicky Park.

Spielberg has been appraoched with ILM in line to recreate the famous match against Hertha Berlin and the sight of those massive steamboats chugging up the Lough with the VC in tow.

Special split screen technology will show the urchins from der shankull boltholes head-to-toe in their lumpy beds inventing UEFA, just to 'discredit' our achievement. Expect Tom the Shipyard Sweep to be the frst to utter the warcry "FTB".

Trailblazers, mate.

**Raheny Red** · 09/12/2006, 12:15 AM

Any links to this??

**Lux Interior** · 09/12/2006, 12:22 AM

Originally Posted by Raheny Red

Any links to this??

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/ne...cle2056516.ece

**Thunderblaster** · 14/12/2006, 7:14 PM

It is amazing to learn that info on Glentoran. Are there any sites on that historic achievement by Glentoran? Belfast must have seen some of its greatest celebrations ever.

**DmanDmythDledge** · 14/12/2006, 9:04 PM

Good question for a pub quiz.

**BleusAvantTout** · 14/12/2006, 11:18 PM

More spin on this story than at Radio Caroline!!!

**wws** · 15/12/2006, 11:15 AM

saw a flag at the crusaders game and was wondering wot the fook the story was with it

i thought it was the glens austrian supporters club

or some Ultravox fan

**Not Brazil** · 15/12/2006, 1:40 PM

Originally Posted by Thunderblaster

Belfast must have seen some of its greatest celebrations ever.

Not quite.

Details of this "mysterious" competition, are somewhat "hazy" apparantly.

From a link on the Official Glentoran site:

Taken fron the 'Oval Review' of season 1972/73

THIS, the first European tournament Glentoran competed in, has always held a certain fascination for me. The little knoledge I had about it was third-hand information I had gleaned from the memories of the 'old hands' on the unreserved terraces. However, during the close-season I decided to try and obtain a few facts about this 'mysterious'

trophy, and what better way than to talk to someone who was there.

Davy Lyner, the only surviving member of that team was only too willing to help.

"It was a great team," he says, "Perhaps one of the finest to wear the Red, Green and Black of Glentoran."

The team that toured the Continent, and eventually lifted the cup was:-

Murphy, McCann, Annesly, Ferrett, Scraggs, Emerson, Lyner, Lindsay, Napier, Boyd, Lindsay.

This incidentally was the team which also won the Irish Cup for the first time in Glentoran history, beating the old enemy, Linfield 3-1 at Grosvenor Park.

The basis on which the Vienna Cup was organised is rather hazy

, but it appears that various national cup-winners, amongst them Burnley and Glasgow Celtic, were invited to Austria were soccer was really booming.

After several tough games the Glens went on to meet an Austrian Select XI and Lyner recalls that before a huge crowd which included the mayor of Vienna, Glentoran won a thrilling game by two goals to one.

Upon receiving the cup, Glentoran officials and players along with their English and Scottish counterparts on the continent in 1914, beat a hasty retreat for home as the war cloouds moved in. Winner's medals were promised to the players by the Austrian officials, but with the outbreak of war a few weeks later, their promise was never kept.

Lyner, whose signing on fee for Glentoran was 10/- came up from the Seconds, with the immortal half-backs Ferrett, Scraggs and Emerson. He was transferred to Manchester Utd., with whom he spent one season, before moving on to Kilmarnock. It was during this time with these two clubs that he won most of his many full 'caps' for Ireland mostly in the outside-left position.

Note: Davy retained an avid interest in the fortunes of Glentoran until he passed away a some years later.

Did anybody in Belfast even notice at the time?