stitched gold shamrock crest, lace-up collar, long sleeved, two interior labels for “Lee” KNITWELL, WEARWELL Made in Ireland and ELVERY’S of DUBLIN MADE IN IRISH FREE STATE

Note: The following lots pertain to John ‘Jimmy’ Buchanan of the Irish Free State.

They come from a poignant and important period for both the nation and the sport.

Football in Ireland had, since 1880, been controlled by the Irish Football Association (IFA). Shortly after the Irish War of Independence and the country’s partition, a rival Football Association of Ireland (FAI) was set up to govern football in the newly formed Free State.

Disputes between members of the IFA and the FAI dated back several years, the former perceived by the latter as a Northern-based Unionist body.

Further to these disputes, in the South, popular British sports such as football were treated with a degree of suspicion, the Gaelic Athletic Association going as far as to ban its members from playing or watching the ‘foreign’ game.

Whilst to this day, something of a divide lingers, the importance of the creation of the FAI cannot be overstated. In the face of adversity, it fought to popularise the sport in a newly liberated country, setting the foundations for today’s Republic of Ireland team.

Anything relating to those early years of Free State football should be viewed as rare and highly collectable. Relatively few fixtures were played before the team changed from the Free State to Éire (1936), and then to the Republic of Ireland (1956).

Disputes between the FAI and the IFA continued long after the partition and relate back to those changes. Before the FAI was formally recognised by the Home Nations, and indeed for some time after, both Associations claimed legitimacy over the island of Ireland. As a result, players were selected on a national basis, with at least 38 representing both the North and South. This was until FIFA intervened, implementing restrictions based on the border, this following both teams’ appearance at the 1950 World Cup.

It was during the early years of the FAI, Jimmy Buchanan pulled on the national shirt to represent that newly reborn nation. The shirts and caps offered relate to a few of those games, presenting a rich and important insight into the development of the sport.

Whilst it remains difficult to say which matches the shirts were worn in, the caps, with their embroidered detail, open a door into two historic fixtures.

The first comes from an Irish Free State XI vs. a Scottish Junior League XI, played on the 10^th February 1934 at Brockville Park in Falkirk. The Scottish Junior League had begun an annual fixture with the Free State in 1927, an important milestone for the newly formed Association. The Irish team was selected from a league pool, with Buchanan playing for his local side Glenview at the time.

The second comes from a game dubbed ‘Ireland vs. England’, played at Dalymount Park in Dublin on Easter Monday 1936 (poignantly, just two decades after the Easter Rising). The game was in fact played by a Free State select XI and players from the Birmingham & District County FA, it being much easier to promote as an Ireland vs. England youth international. Ultimately, England won 3-0, with an interesting aside noting ‘no anthem to be played’ (clearly for political reasons).

The fact that caps were bestowed shows how seriously these junior fixtures were taken, Buchanan pulling on that emerald green jersey to represent his country. Indeed, if we look inside the shirts, we see the relatively novel stamp, MADE IN THE IRISH FREE STATE. This perfectly captures the political and historical charge of each object, standing out triumphantly as signifiers of the growth of the nation and the sport.

Buchanan was a gifted player and was selected by the FAI on several occasions. At club level, he played for teams including Glenview, Bohemians and Bray Unknowns. Reputedly, there was interest from England, with possible trials offered for Spurs and Arsenal. Ultimately though, a decision to stay in his home country and play in that newly formed Irish League was the more appealing one.

This lot offers a rare opportunity to own an important instance of Irish and footballing history.