IN 1958, THERE was something of an identity being established in the state of Northern Ireland, 37 years after the signing of the Treaty.
However, it was something of a confused identity. The north was a place of embedded discrimination and gerrymandering of voting boundaries to ensure political domination for Unionism.
But aside from the usual skirmishing in the height of the summer, it was a peaceful region.
Within that context, the first Irish team to qualify for a World Cup Finals, the Northern Ireland side in 1958, was a side made of all sections of the community.
Younger generation might struggle to grasp certain elements such as when the Football Association of Ireland was formed to split from the Irish Football Association, the ‘southern’ side were informed they would have to go by ‘Republic of Ireland’, whereas the northern side retained the name, ‘Ireland.’
Indeed, it stayed that way until 1973 and the wholesale adaptation of the ‘Northern’ prefix was a sign of a culture war of it’s time.
Step away from all that, and what you had with the team of 1958 was a truly remarkable group of people.
The manager Peter Doherty came through, like so many, at Glentoran in Belfast before progressing to Blackpool and being sold for the heft fee of £10,000 (€12,000) to Manchester City in 1935. A year after arriving, his 30 goals won City their first league title and he won the Golden Boot.
Peter Doherty as a Blackpool player. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
Winding down his playing days, he took on the role of player-manager of Doncaster Rovers, and also took on the Northern Ireland job as a part-time concern in 1951.
There, he was able to gather a group of decent players, beginning with the man he had brought to ‘Donny’ in goalkeeper Harry Gregg.
Elsewhere, there was Billy Bingham, a flying winger with a habit of getting to the byline and flinging in crosses that would land with snow on top. Striker Jimmy McIlroy had matinée looks and was already a God at Burnley’s Turf Moor, later having a stand named in his honour.
There were other, quirky angles. There was Wilbur Cush who looked more like a powerlifter but still carved out a big career at Leeds Untied. Fay Coyle – father of Derry City legend Liam – flitted around the panel. Derek Dougan was a mere teenager when he was brought in the squad.
Gerry Morgan was a former international who had spent a bit of time in England and became a cult hero at Linfield. He just might be the inspiration for the comedian James Young’s music-hall ditty, ‘I’m The Only Catholic on the Linfield Team.’
You can listen to it on Spotify. This is not a recommendation.
He would later emerge as a character, comedian and trainer for Doherty with a habit of mixing in some eau de Cologne into his bucket for sponging down injured players.
Two personalities stood out more than the rest, however.
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Harry Gregg was suffering from injuries sustained in the Munich Air Disaster that happened in February of that year. Eight Manchester United players, among 23 in total who perished in the crash as they were taking off from Munich Airport after playing Red Star Belgrade in the European Cup.
Gregg became a hero, pulling at least six people clear of the wreckage, continually returning to rescue more.
Harry Gregg tips a shot around the post against West Germany. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
The emotional torment of that alone weighed heavily.
The other was Danny Blachflower, a most unusual character.
Born with a gift for talking, he would clash with club officials over matters of football and labour relations.
When at Barnsley, he attempted to change his contract so that he would have permission to train midweek with the ball, when the culture of that time was to starve players of ball contact, so their appetites were keen on a Saturday.
When Barnsley offered him more money, he suggested they share it around the entire squad.
He indulged himself in journalism as a sideline. His most famous line was adopted by the Tottenham Hotspur club he captained and is a fixture at their new stadium.
‘The great fallacy is that the game is first and last about winning,’ Blanchflower wrote.
‘It’s nothing of the kind. The game is about glory. It is about doing things in style, with a flourish, about going out and beating the other lot, not waiting for them to die of boredom.’
He would later embark on a long career with the Sunday Express. Once taking part in a television discussion in 1962, he said, “Words have rather a meaning for me, a personal meaning, and I find great conflict in journalism, because I find I’m working with people who, according to the demands of their own employment, are working with mechanical words, you know.
“They’ve got to find words to fit the type, they’ve got to shorten the space to fit… and this is a conflict which I don’t enjoy.”
Asked if there was a similarity in football, he answered, “No, we don’t have so much discipline on the football field, because the football field is a place of great freedom.
“Nobody can sub-edit your work out there or change it. Once you’re committed to it, you’re committed to it.”
You wonder how he might have fared on The Overlap with Meeks and Wrighty.
Danny Blanchflower with George Best, whom he brought out of international exile in the late '70s. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
The 1958 World Cup was also the first time the world caught a glimpse of a 17-year-old Pelé. Funny thing, but his record as the youngest player to have played at the World Cup would be later claimed by Shankill manchild Norman Whiteside in 1982 when he was a mere 17 years and 41 days when he played for Northern Ireland against Yugoslavia.
Up to this point, the main battles involving soccer were fought between the IFA and the FAI over players. Even back then, there was skulduggery.
An example came in 1946 when the FAI organised an Iberian Tour and called up Northern Ireland players Jackie Vernon, Jimmy McAlinden, Billy McMillan and Paddy Sloan.
In getting to Sweden 1958, they had to top a qualifying group that included Italy and Portugal. Even the game against Italy at home became known as ‘The Battle of Belfast’ with scenes at the end of a proper set-to.
The team had form around this time. They shared the 1957-58 British Home Championship with England, and beat the English 3-2 in Wembley in their meeting, as well as drawing with Scotland and Wales.
They opened their World Cup account with a 1-0 win over Czechoslovakia. Argentina delivered a dose of reality with a 3-1 win.
In the final round, they actually took the lead twice against defending world champions West Germany with two goals from Peter McParland. That draw meant they had to face the Czechs again two days later in a play-off in Malmö after they had somehow stuffed Argentina, 6-1.
Peter McParland challenges for the ball against Czechoslovakia. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
Another two goals from McParland would do the trick after extra-time in the play-off.
But the squad was already wearing thin. Harry Gregg was injured and had to be replaced in the play-off by Norman Uprichard.
Even after beating the Czechs, they had to wait on Uprichard getting medical treatment and the team bus did not return to the hotel until 5am, allowing for a few hour’s sleep and then packing for a 214-mile trek across Sweden to Norrköping.
Naturally, none of this had been factored in by the IFA in their planning for the tournament. The whole venture became ragged. They had just two days to prepare for the World Cup quarter-final against France, and one of those days was to be spent on a team coach while the French players were able to relax for four days.
Uprichard and Bertie Peacock had no chance of playing through injury. Alf McMichael, Willie Cunningham, Wilbur Cush and their one goalscoring threat in Peter McParland were injured.
Harry Gregg, who had been using a cane to help with walking for days beforehand, tossed it aside to tog out.
The IFA were allowed to send for players. But with skinflints sensibilities they had forced manager Doherty to bring a mere 17 players. By the quarter-final, nine were either completely ruled out or else severely hampered with injury.
But then again, it wasn’t as if they were spoiled with options.
“They hadn’t the resources,” said Billy Simpson, a Rangers forward who had been ruled out before the tournament with injury himself.
“We were nearly bringing the trainer on, old Gerry Morgan.”
The words of Blanchflower were quoted in The Northern Whig newspaper; ‘The boys can win. They have performed miracles, but the human body can only take so much punishment.’
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Playing in front of 11,800, Northern Ireland had scant support but they had a local boy, Bengt Jonasson, who hung around their training camp and hotel, captivated by the players. After some time, he was brought into the inner sanctum and was a guest of their dressing room.
Mickey McColgan and Leslie Nicholl were another pair who decided to jack in their jobs for the summer and follow the team’s progress. Most of the time, they would sleep in a tent. Occasionally, they managed to cadge rooms in the hotels the team were staying in.
Somehow, they made it around Sweden on a single moped, right up to the point they crashed on the journey from Tylösand, sustaining broken bones and twisted ankles. Even their small number of fans were on the injury list.
Their relationship with the locals in Halmstad meant they had an adopted fan club, who sang Irish songs in the stands, ‘When Irish Eyes Are Smiling’ among their repertoire.
Injured or not, the footage from this game shows Harry Gregg pulling off save after save. His bravery tested constantly.
They had chances, notably through McParland, but a combination of fluffing a chance from a quickly-taken free and the ball coming off the goalkeeper’s arm from a bullet header, meant the French survived.
Just Fontaine, the leading scorer through the tournament with 13 goals in all, grabbed two in the second half as the French won 4-0.
The dream was over.
At the celebratory banquet, Harry Gregg went and found young Bengt Jonasson, sobbing outside the hotel and brought him in. Gregg himself had to conquer his fear of flying to get home. Blanchflower remained on in Sweden to conduct media duties.
Both men were named on the official Team of the Tournament.
A few months later, they played England in Belfast and drew 3-3. However, within a couple of years, the fall-off with the team was acute. After defeat to Wales in 1962, Doherty resigned as manager.
Among some of the players, their own careers took off. Billy Bingham scored in every round of the FA Cup for his club Luton Town in 1959, right up to the final when they were beaten by Nottingham Forest.
Jimmy McIlroy led Burnley to a league title the following season; 1959-60.
And one year on from that, Blanchflower was the fulcrum of a Tottenham Hotspur side that won The Double of league and FA Cup.
He and McIlroy would meet in the following year’s FA Cup final and Bingham would win a league with Everton, before going on to revive Northern Ireland’s fortunes and bring them to the World Cup finals of 1982 and ’86.
Given their lack of depth and poor planning, it was a miracle they went as far as they had. It would never be repeated.
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Some kind of miracle: The forgotten story of Northern Ireland at the 1958 World Cup
IN 1958, THERE was something of an identity being established in the state of Northern Ireland, 37 years after the signing of the Treaty.
However, it was something of a confused identity. The north was a place of embedded discrimination and gerrymandering of voting boundaries to ensure political domination for Unionism.
But aside from the usual skirmishing in the height of the summer, it was a peaceful region.
Within that context, the first Irish team to qualify for a World Cup Finals, the Northern Ireland side in 1958, was a side made of all sections of the community.
Younger generation might struggle to grasp certain elements such as when the Football Association of Ireland was formed to split from the Irish Football Association, the ‘southern’ side were informed they would have to go by ‘Republic of Ireland’, whereas the northern side retained the name, ‘Ireland.’
Indeed, it stayed that way until 1973 and the wholesale adaptation of the ‘Northern’ prefix was a sign of a culture war of it’s time.
Step away from all that, and what you had with the team of 1958 was a truly remarkable group of people.
The manager Peter Doherty came through, like so many, at Glentoran in Belfast before progressing to Blackpool and being sold for the heft fee of £10,000 (€12,000) to Manchester City in 1935. A year after arriving, his 30 goals won City their first league title and he won the Golden Boot.
Winding down his playing days, he took on the role of player-manager of Doncaster Rovers, and also took on the Northern Ireland job as a part-time concern in 1951.
There, he was able to gather a group of decent players, beginning with the man he had brought to ‘Donny’ in goalkeeper Harry Gregg.
Elsewhere, there was Billy Bingham, a flying winger with a habit of getting to the byline and flinging in crosses that would land with snow on top. Striker Jimmy McIlroy had matinée looks and was already a God at Burnley’s Turf Moor, later having a stand named in his honour.
There were other, quirky angles. There was Wilbur Cush who looked more like a powerlifter but still carved out a big career at Leeds Untied. Fay Coyle – father of Derry City legend Liam – flitted around the panel. Derek Dougan was a mere teenager when he was brought in the squad.
Gerry Morgan was a former international who had spent a bit of time in England and became a cult hero at Linfield. He just might be the inspiration for the comedian James Young’s music-hall ditty, ‘I’m The Only Catholic on the Linfield Team.’
You can listen to it on Spotify. This is not a recommendation.
He would later emerge as a character, comedian and trainer for Doherty with a habit of mixing in some eau de Cologne into his bucket for sponging down injured players.
Two personalities stood out more than the rest, however.
Harry Gregg was suffering from injuries sustained in the Munich Air Disaster that happened in February of that year. Eight Manchester United players, among 23 in total who perished in the crash as they were taking off from Munich Airport after playing Red Star Belgrade in the European Cup.
Gregg became a hero, pulling at least six people clear of the wreckage, continually returning to rescue more.
The emotional torment of that alone weighed heavily.
The other was Danny Blachflower, a most unusual character.
Born with a gift for talking, he would clash with club officials over matters of football and labour relations.
When at Barnsley, he attempted to change his contract so that he would have permission to train midweek with the ball, when the culture of that time was to starve players of ball contact, so their appetites were keen on a Saturday.
When Barnsley offered him more money, he suggested they share it around the entire squad.
He indulged himself in journalism as a sideline. His most famous line was adopted by the Tottenham Hotspur club he captained and is a fixture at their new stadium.
‘The great fallacy is that the game is first and last about winning,’ Blanchflower wrote.
‘It’s nothing of the kind. The game is about glory. It is about doing things in style, with a flourish, about going out and beating the other lot, not waiting for them to die of boredom.’
He would later embark on a long career with the Sunday Express. Once taking part in a television discussion in 1962, he said, “Words have rather a meaning for me, a personal meaning, and I find great conflict in journalism, because I find I’m working with people who, according to the demands of their own employment, are working with mechanical words, you know.
“They’ve got to find words to fit the type, they’ve got to shorten the space to fit… and this is a conflict which I don’t enjoy.”
Asked if there was a similarity in football, he answered, “No, we don’t have so much discipline on the football field, because the football field is a place of great freedom.
“Nobody can sub-edit your work out there or change it. Once you’re committed to it, you’re committed to it.”
You wonder how he might have fared on The Overlap with Meeks and Wrighty.
The 1958 World Cup was also the first time the world caught a glimpse of a 17-year-old Pelé. Funny thing, but his record as the youngest player to have played at the World Cup would be later claimed by Shankill manchild Norman Whiteside in 1982 when he was a mere 17 years and 41 days when he played for Northern Ireland against Yugoslavia.
Up to this point, the main battles involving soccer were fought between the IFA and the FAI over players. Even back then, there was skulduggery.
An example came in 1946 when the FAI organised an Iberian Tour and called up Northern Ireland players Jackie Vernon, Jimmy McAlinden, Billy McMillan and Paddy Sloan.
In getting to Sweden 1958, they had to top a qualifying group that included Italy and Portugal. Even the game against Italy at home became known as ‘The Battle of Belfast’ with scenes at the end of a proper set-to.
The team had form around this time. They shared the 1957-58 British Home Championship with England, and beat the English 3-2 in Wembley in their meeting, as well as drawing with Scotland and Wales.
They opened their World Cup account with a 1-0 win over Czechoslovakia. Argentina delivered a dose of reality with a 3-1 win.
In the final round, they actually took the lead twice against defending world champions West Germany with two goals from Peter McParland. That draw meant they had to face the Czechs again two days later in a play-off in Malmö after they had somehow stuffed Argentina, 6-1.
Another two goals from McParland would do the trick after extra-time in the play-off.
But the squad was already wearing thin. Harry Gregg was injured and had to be replaced in the play-off by Norman Uprichard.
Even after beating the Czechs, they had to wait on Uprichard getting medical treatment and the team bus did not return to the hotel until 5am, allowing for a few hour’s sleep and then packing for a 214-mile trek across Sweden to Norrköping.
Naturally, none of this had been factored in by the IFA in their planning for the tournament. The whole venture became ragged. They had just two days to prepare for the World Cup quarter-final against France, and one of those days was to be spent on a team coach while the French players were able to relax for four days.
Uprichard and Bertie Peacock had no chance of playing through injury. Alf McMichael, Willie Cunningham, Wilbur Cush and their one goalscoring threat in Peter McParland were injured.
Harry Gregg, who had been using a cane to help with walking for days beforehand, tossed it aside to tog out.
The IFA were allowed to send for players. But with skinflints sensibilities they had forced manager Doherty to bring a mere 17 players. By the quarter-final, nine were either completely ruled out or else severely hampered with injury.
But then again, it wasn’t as if they were spoiled with options.
“They hadn’t the resources,” said Billy Simpson, a Rangers forward who had been ruled out before the tournament with injury himself.
“We were nearly bringing the trainer on, old Gerry Morgan.”
The words of Blanchflower were quoted in The Northern Whig newspaper; ‘The boys can win. They have performed miracles, but the human body can only take so much punishment.’
Playing in front of 11,800, Northern Ireland had scant support but they had a local boy, Bengt Jonasson, who hung around their training camp and hotel, captivated by the players. After some time, he was brought into the inner sanctum and was a guest of their dressing room.
Mickey McColgan and Leslie Nicholl were another pair who decided to jack in their jobs for the summer and follow the team’s progress. Most of the time, they would sleep in a tent. Occasionally, they managed to cadge rooms in the hotels the team were staying in.
Somehow, they made it around Sweden on a single moped, right up to the point they crashed on the journey from Tylösand, sustaining broken bones and twisted ankles. Even their small number of fans were on the injury list.
Injured or not, the footage from this game shows Harry Gregg pulling off save after save. His bravery tested constantly.
They had chances, notably through McParland, but a combination of fluffing a chance from a quickly-taken free and the ball coming off the goalkeeper’s arm from a bullet header, meant the French survived.
Just Fontaine, the leading scorer through the tournament with 13 goals in all, grabbed two in the second half as the French won 4-0.
The dream was over.
At the celebratory banquet, Harry Gregg went and found young Bengt Jonasson, sobbing outside the hotel and brought him in. Gregg himself had to conquer his fear of flying to get home. Blanchflower remained on in Sweden to conduct media duties.
Both men were named on the official Team of the Tournament.
A few months later, they played England in Belfast and drew 3-3. However, within a couple of years, the fall-off with the team was acute. After defeat to Wales in 1962, Doherty resigned as manager.
Among some of the players, their own careers took off. Billy Bingham scored in every round of the FA Cup for his club Luton Town in 1959, right up to the final when they were beaten by Nottingham Forest.
Jimmy McIlroy led Burnley to a league title the following season; 1959-60.
And one year on from that, Blanchflower was the fulcrum of a Tottenham Hotspur side that won The Double of league and FA Cup.
He and McIlroy would meet in the following year’s FA Cup final and Bingham would win a league with Everton, before going on to revive Northern Ireland’s fortunes and bring them to the World Cup finals of 1982 and ’86.
Given their lack of depth and poor planning, it was a miracle they went as far as they had. It would never be repeated.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
1958 AND ALL THAT Northern Ireland the first World Cup