Due to the replay against Finn Harps taking place on Tuesday. The Supporters Club meeting will be brought forward 24hrs to Monday the 20th of September!
by the1903
On Tuesday the 21st of September, we go ahead with our first face to face meeting! The meeting will take place at Oriel Park from 7:30pm and will be for MEMBERS ONLY. New members registration available 6:00 to 7:00 for people with cash payments only. Membership is also available online – https://the1903.ie/membership/
Agenda for the night:
– Chairman’s address
– Interaction with owners
– Committee expansion/vacancy
This is our first face to face and most crucial meeting to date. In this awful season on and off the field, we the supporters must organise ourselves, our town, and our community to rebuild and make Dundalk FC our community project now more than ever. We encourage all Dundalk FC supporters to join up and attend this meeting. Together we are stronger, our voices louder, and the synergy of our actions more powerful.
Hope to see yous all there!
For more info please contact: info@the1903.ie
Dundalk legends Dermot Keely, Martin Lawlor and Tom McNulty have gotten behind the 1903 Supporters Club (SC). All three have been talking to the Committee and linking in with much needed membership and their full support.
For the younger lilywhites it’s hard to imagine just how central to the history of our club these three are, so having them on board in these difficult times is a real boost and an example to those of us contemplating jumping into the quay!
DERMOT
Dermot won doubles with us as both a player and manager. Uncompromising doesn’t really capture Dermot as our centre half and captain in the double winning year of 1979. The songs about Dermot from ‘D Shed’ were legendary as he and Paddy Dunning took on all comers. Dermot was good enough to play for Celtic but he wouldn’t shave his beard for Billy McNeill (proper order too). He played with lesser clubs too but he repeated his playing success with a double as our Manager as well. Dermot is currently watching events through his fingers (like the rest of us) from Lanzarote.
MARTIN
‘The Hulk’! The Hollywood version of the superhero was a slip of a man compared with Martin. The Lawlor family also produced Mick and Robbie for Dundalk, fine footballers all, and Martin played for us 570 times and in 4 different defences.
McConville, Keely, Dunning and Lawlor were a back four to be reckoned with and Martin also had a rocket shot on him. In recent days Martin described it as an honour to be involved in the 1903. The honour is all ours Martin.
TOM
The Scotsman from Hamilton was described by ‘memory man’ Jimmy Magee as the best LOI player he had ever seen. Tom still lives in Dundalk and was quick out of the blocks to join the 1903 describing it as an essential development.
Tom scored goals that won titles in deciders against both Cork and Galway but his array of skills make him stand out. Clearly he could score, he was super fit, he was an extremely intelligent player, he was fiercely determined and had a bit of a Hamilton ‘Oldtown’ dig in him too!
In this dreadful season of ineptitude on and off the pitch we can feel sorry for ourselves and simply bemoan what has gone wrong. That’s an option. Alternatively we can look at it as the season that we the fans get ourselves, our town and our community organised to rebuild and make Dundalk FC our community project.
Dermot, Martin and Tom are leading by example. C’mon lilywhites, sign up…..
I (Brendan Ogle – Chairman) just had a long call with Bill Hulsizer:
Q – ‘is the club for sale?’
A – ‘everything is for sale on the right terms. But that does not mean we are selling, and if we do sell it will be on terms, and to people, who can do a better job for Dundalk Football Club than we can’
The call was to be introductory. I was determined to take the man as I met him. I found him forthright, friendly, wanting the best for Dundalk FC, fair to others, and self critical. I enjoyed the call. Some others things that were discussed:
– He believes we should be aiming for Cat 4 stadium, not Cat 3.
– Completely welcoming of the Supporters Club and I constantly made the point that whoever owns Dundalk, now are in the future, a strong Supporters Club should exist anyway. It should always have existed
– Thinks the next 3 games are ‘massive’ with Harps one the most massive
– Never picked team, or tried to, but used to give opinions which he realised were being interpreted as him trying to pick team. So he stopped giving opinions
He is clever. He understands that there can be cliques or ‘clans’ capable of holding us back. He doesn’t trust the FAI or believe that they have Dundalk’s best interests at heart. He is ferociously ambitious and frustrated. He admitted to making mistakes.
He has three cares in this order:
1 – Dundalk FC
2 – Those fans who wear the shirts and scarves of Dundalk FC
3 – The best for the LOI, which he says he cares less about as time goes on and that FAI should get out of it other than administration
He pointed out that the team that finished last in the Danish league gets more prize money than the team that wins our league.
I made the point that the Supporters Club needs to exist and be strong whoever the owner is. Complete agreement and support on that. I felt it was a positive meeting and I have met many people in the past from Taoisaigh, Ministers, CEO’s etc. It is what it is. He is who he is. Some might criticise me even for talking to him. I see that as our role. And it was a good talk.
We have to build this club people. Lee McConville has addressed the glitches now so please join and get others to do so. It’s up to us. We are the permanent feature here. Let’s build with that in mind?
Today I had what was intended to be an introductory meeting between myself as ‘1903’ Chair and Dundalk FC. I met first with Jim Magilton, then with Jim & Paddy Casey, and then with Paddy alone. Aaron Lawless also joined us for a short time.
Firstly I found Jim Magilton to be open, honest, critical including self critical, and very very positive about working with the supporters club. We agreed that it would be a short term aim to avoid relegation and remove instability in the club between now and the end of the season. Anything in the Cup is a big added bonus. Regarding ‘instability’, we discussed instability about player contracts (obviously only in general, no actual players were discussed. That would be wholly inappropriate and is not our role), owners plans and communications, and instability in the fans relationship with the club and the owners. These were general discussions but open and honest.
The owners knew this meeting was taking place and had ensured in advance that Ailish passed on their regards and best wishes to the club and its new members.
I told Jim a bit of history about previous Supporters Clubs & groups and emphasised that ‘The 1903’ wanted to be ‘Permanent’ and ‘Positive’.
With regards to the relationship between the Football Club and Supporters Club I said we neither wanted to be a plaything of the FC and would not be, or completely separate either. We wanted to be independent but working in partnership for the all round good of the town and community and Dundalk FC.
I asked that they provide Oriel Park for our first face to face meeting. They agreed.
I suggested linking in with the Dundalk Brass Band, local clubs and schools re mascots, and working intensively on a better match day experience.
They advised of major improvements in the bar and food areas and asked us to help build the experience and atmosphere with them.
We agreed to put particular focus, a kind of ‘test’ to a new match day experience for the Shamrock Rovers match on 7 October. We also agreed to a monthly meeting going forward where a wider committee would attend if possible.
As I was leaving Paddy made it clear that video and publicity is available to us.
All in all a good day. ‘From little acorns…..’
Brendan Ogle
Chairperson
So after months of work we are ready. We have democratically agreed fundamental, far reaching and longstanding aims and objectives. We have elected our founding committee. We have opened dialogue with the football club on stadium development and other matters. But we haven’t even started yet!
Today we launch our website and membership system. It’s time TO JOIN.
When you join the club you will gain access to the membership section and we will begin our work together. In the coming weeks you will be assigned a membership number on a unique 1903 ‘Founding Member Certificate’ for your wall in your home. We hope to have our first actual formal meeting together, in person, as soon as we have the members and health guidelines allow.
We can choose now to split and to leave our beloved football club outside of our control or our help, or we can instead get together, get mobilised and get active. We can decide to do the ‘Dundalk thing’ and pull together now to secure our clubs existence with our community and fan base working together becoming our clubs guarantor, it’s future.
Let’s get started. Dundalk fans uniting and mobilising for the future? What’s not to love?
Mon Da Town