Rare Limerick football relic resurfaces over 80 years after printing

A RARE piece of Limerick FC memorabilia has unexpectedly come to light as a result of an impromptu attic clear-out last month.

82-year-old Tony O’Driscoll stumbled upon a rare piece of Limerick FC history when he found a match-day programme issued the same year he was born.

The relic – issued for a Limerick vs Shamrock Rovers game played at the Markets Field - was published as the club’s first-ever Souvenir Programme on January 2, 1944.

Whilst in attendance at Crescent College Comprehensive SJ and CBS Sexton Street, Tony was an “avid Limerick FC supporter” and recalled “great days” spent attending many of the club’s home games with friends, or accompanying his dad.

Originally from O'Callaghans Mills, County Clare, Tony is now based in North London, where he began growing his extensive collection of match programmes after a second football club close to his newfound home – Tottenham Hotspur FC – won his loyalty.

Tony said he unknowingly purchased the 12-page Limerick FC relic in the late 1960s, while looking to add to his collection of over 3,000 Tottenham programmes.

“I attended a Football Programme Fair in London hoping to find some from my ‘missing’ list of Spurs programmes. No luck in that! But on the way out I spotted a small bundle of Republic of Ireland home programmes, and I thought to myself, ‘these could be interesting’.

“When I got home I deposited them in a drawer and eventually transferred them to the attic. The programme was someplace in the middle of that bundle, and I was completely unaware of its existence until October 15 this year,” Tony shared.

The programme contains advertisements from some of Limerick city's historic businesses, including JH Irwin Jewellers and Clancy’s Electrical.