🇮🇪 Cork Hibernians (Rep of Ireland)
Cork Hibernians were a League of Ireland side formed originally by the Ancient Order of Hibernians and had played under that name when they played their football in the Cork Athletic Union League. A football club based in Cork, one of many and one of two that will feature in this book, they entered the League of Ireland after having success in the FAI Intermediate Cup, winning it in the 1951/52 season. It would be their first bit of silverware for Cork Hibs, as they were commonly known and It wasn’t until 1957 when they did change their name to Cork Hibernians, coinciding with their entry to the League of Ireland, replacing another Cork club, Cork Athletic. The club themselves also turned semi-professional, and planned to be one of the top sides in the league, not content on just making up the numbers.
The club played at The Mardyke from 1957 up until 1962, when they made the move to Flower Lodge, a stadium that had a capacity of 28,000 at the time. The club hadn’t won anything while at The Mardyke, and still only had a handful of Munster Senior League titles, and Munster Senior Cup triumphs, alongside their FAI Intermediate silverware. In fact, Cork Hibs first season in the League of Ireland was a bit of a disaster, with the club finishing rock bottom, with only six wins to their name all season. They also suffered a humiliating defeat to Cork rivals, Evergreen United, losing at home, 7-2. Evergreen would go on to win the home game 2-1 and have a far more successful season, finishing 3rd, behind the two dominant Dublin sides, Shamrock Rovers, and Champions that season, Drumcondra AFC.
Not to be deterred, Cork Hibs improved on their 12th place finish, and in the 1958-59 seasons they placed 9th, even though they won one less game then the previous season, with only five wins in total. Evergreen finished 2nd, beaten by five points to the title by Shamrock Rovers. Jack Morley ended up being Cork Hib’s top goal scorer that season with nine goals, coming joint 9th in the scoring charts. Their progress continued into the next season, as they finished in a respectable 6th place, but it was the name change of Evergreen that caught the eye that season. Evergreen, who had come second the previous season, had changed their name to Cork Celtic, and once again had come runners up for the second season in a row, this time behind Limerick. But it was the start of a big rivalry in the city of Cork, with both teams having the counties name in their title, they were both vying to be the top club in the city and over the next few years, their games would attract thousands of fans to the Mardyke and the Flower Lodge. In the first season as Cork Hibs v Cork Celtic, it was the latter who gained the bragging rights that season, as they drew 3-3 in one game but beat Cork Hibs in the other, 2-1. The clubs also dominated the goalscoring charts, with Cork Celtics, Austin Noonan picking up the golden boot award that season, scoring 27 goals, whilst Cork Hibs striker, Tommy Collins had to settle for second place with 21 goals. Cork Celtic player, Donal Leahy, was a close third with 20 goals for Cork Celtic that season. John Lynch was Cork Hibs second top goal scorer with ten goals scored. A combined total of 78 goals were scored by the four men. Cork football was definitely on the up and was proving to be an exciting watch, with the locals being entertained by attacking football at the time. Cork Hibs even won a game that season by ten goals to one when they beat Transport at the Flower Lodge.
However, the 1961-62 season was a bit underwhelming when it came to Cork Hibs, as they finished 9th and their goal scoring exploits had somewhat dried up, with none of their players making it into the top ten of the goal scoring charts. Donal Leahy of Cork Celtic had finished the top goal scorer that season, but even Cork Celtic failed to make an impact in the league that season, finishing 4th place, seven points behind the winners, Drumcondra. Cork Hibs improved in the 1962-63 season, finishing 5th. But were still waiting on their first win over Cork Celtic, having lost to them twice that season again. Cork Celtic went on to lose out on the title to Shelbourne that season in a Championship play-off, losing 1-0.
A 6th place finish followed the next season, and yet again, they failed to beat their city rivals, drawing the away game but losing the home game, 1-0. A 6th place finish followed in the 1963-64 season, with another two failed attempts at trying to beat Cork Celtic gone by. They did, however, have the league’s joint top goal scorer in their ranks with Johnny Kingston notching up a total of 18 goals, level with Eddie Bailham of Shamrock Rovers and Jimmy Hasty of Dundalk.
The 1964-65 season was a huge one for the club but not because they won the league. No, they came 4th that season, which was an improvement and was their highest finish up until that date. The big success was that they finally beat Cork Celtic, at home, 1-0. They also finished above them for the first time, and the Cork Hibs fans could feel the tide was finally turning. Jack Fitzgerald, the former Waterford striker, had joined them that season and ended up being their top goal scorer with ten goals. He was obviously a hugely influential player, as his former side, Waterford, finished rock bottom that season. Although that was to be dramatically revered when Waterford went on to win the title the next season, and had two of the leagues top goal scorers playing for them, in Mick Lynch who topped the charts with 17 that season, followed by his team mate, Shamie Coad who hit the back of the net 14 times. Toney Allen was Cork Hibs top goal scorer that season with 12 goals and they finished a disappointing 10th out of 12. However, they did finish above Cork Celtic who finished 11th that season, only above Drogheda United, whose only win all season was against Cork Hibs when they won, 2-1 at home.
The 1966-67 season was one to forget with the club finishing 9tj with the next season not looking much better with a 10th place finish. The 1968-69 season saw a huge improvement and it was largely down to the controversial acquisition of the former Cork Celtic striker, Carl Davenport, who in the previous season had been the leagues top goal scorer whilst wearing the Cork Celtic jersey. This time, he had helped Cork Hibs finish 3rd, their highest ever league position, scoring 13 goals for them. The 1969-70 saw the same being done again, with the club finishing 3rd with the help of cult hero, Dave Wigginton goals. He finished only second to Finn Harps man Brendan Bradley that season. They had also gotten closer to the top spot, only finishing three points behind that season’s champions, Waterford.
It was a sign to come as the next saw Cork Hibs finally win their first League of Ireland title. The 1970-71 season saw the club lift the trophy, after beating Shamrock Rovers, 3-1 at Dalymount Park on the 25th April, 1971. The attendance that day was 28,000 and they saw Miah Dennehy score two while Dave Wigginton added the third. Mick Lynch was the goal scorer for Shamrock Rovers. They had won their first title, but also had done it before their city rivals, Cork Celtic, who had not won one in that name.
They almost made it back-to-back titles, coming runners-up the next season, but being beaten by Waterford by four points. They did, however, manage to get their hands on some silverware, winning their first FAI Cup that season, when they beat Waterford in the final at Dalymount, to deny them of a double that season. The hero once again was Miah Dennehy, who scored a hat trick to settle the game, 3-0. It would be history in the making, as Dennehy would become the first player to ever score a hat trick in the FAI Cup final. Tony Marsden finished the leagues joint top goal scorer alongside Alfie Hales of Waterford, with both strikers scoring 22 goals each.
The next season was another good one for the club, as they won back-to-back FAI Cups, beating Shelbourne at the Flower Lodge, 1-0. This was after the two sides had drawn 0-0 at Dalymount in the first game, which meant a reply was needed to decide the faith of the cup. It meant the club qualified for the 1973-74 Cup Winners Cup. Their league form had dipped a little bit, with the club finishing 4th that season, but it was the prospect of playing in Europe that got the Cork Hibs fans excited.
The club were drawn against Czechoslovakian side, Banik Ostrava and the first leg would be played away, on September 19th, 1973, at the Stadion Beroe. The League of Ireland club lost 1-0 that night thanks to a 25th minute goal from Albrecht. It meant the Irish club still had hope going into the second leg. It was thought the tie would bring in a bumper crowd to the Flower Lodge, but this wasn’t the case. Instead, only 4,519 saw Cork Hibs lose the game, 2-1 and lose the tie 3-1 on aggregate. The tie itself was put to bed early on when Albrecht scored in the 4th minute while Tondra scored in the 55th to make it 3-0 on aggregate. Carl Humphries reduced the deficit in the 64th minute, but the damage had been done, with Cork Hibs’ European run coming to an early end.
The 1973-74 season was a decent one for Cork Hibs, as the finished 3rd in the table, however, their city rivals, Cork Celtic, finally lifted the league title, to make sure their was no difference between the clubs in regards title triumphs. However, that seemed to be it in regards the two clubs title ambitions. The 1974-75 season saw Cork Hibs finish 4th, while Cork Celtic finished 7th, a mighty fall from their title winning exploits the season before.
Despite remaining a top five side the following season in the 1975-76 season, finishing fifth, the club folded before the start of the 1976-77 season, when due to financial difficulties and dwindling crowds, they could no longer field a team. Even the signing of former England international, Rodney Marsh, couldn’t attract the crowds and the gate receipts to keep the club alive and so they were replaced in the league by another Cork club, Albert Rovers.
The clubs was nearly revived back in 1985, when former manager Amby Fogerty tried to use the Cork Hibernian name and compete in the newly formed League of Ireland First Division, however the Munster FA refused the club a chance to play at Turners Cross due to them not being able to afford the lease, and so Cork Hibs have remained a memory since.