Lansdowne Road football riot

Match

The last time England had played Ireland at Lansdowne Road was a UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying Group 7 match on 14 November 1990. After that match, there were clashes between some Irish and English fans and the Gardaí on O'Connell Street in Dublin. Before the 1995 friendly match, the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) held talks with the Football Association (FA) to review security arrangements to avoid a similar episode.

In pubs near Lansdowne Road stadium some English fans chanted "No surrender to the IRA", "Fuck the Pope" and "Clegg is innocent". Irish fans were goaded, spat on and attacked. Pub staff found British National Party literature left behind and in some cases pro-Loyalist graffiti in toilets.

The match began at 6:15p.m., and after 22minutes, David Kelly scored a goal for Ireland. When a David Platt goal was disallowed for England in the 26thminute due to Platt being offside, some of the English fans began throwing debris down into the lower stands, including parts of benches which they had ripped out earlier in the match. When this happened, the referee immediately stopped the game, and brought the players off the pitch. When Jack Charlton, the Irish manager and former England player, walked off the pitch, the mob shouted "Judas, Judas". The fans in the lower stands then spilled out onto the pitch to escape the missiles from the English fans. Some Irish fans had mistakenly been put into the area where the English fans were when the FA returned a number of tickets to the FAI.

Details

Riot

After the teams left the pitch, the frequency of missiles intensified, and after 12 minutes, the game was called off, and the fans were evacuated, with the exception of 4,500 English fans, who were kept in the stadium until the Garda Public Order Unit tried to escort them out, at which time more violence broke out. The Gardaí were slow to reach the area where the rioters were, and there was some confusion as to the exact location of the English fans between the Gardaí and the stewards.

Reaction

The rioting was condemned on both sides of the Irish Sea. England manager Terry Venables said, "It was terrible. I have no words strong enough to describe how we feel about this. There could be repercussions." The Garda handling of the match was criticised in the press when it was revealed that the Gardaí had been informed of the plans of some of the English fans to cause trouble by the British National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS).

Investigation

After questions were raised about the conduct of the Gardaí, former Chief Justice of Ireland, Thomas Finlay was appointed to investigate the events. The segregation of the fans was also found to be insufficient, and this was found to be a contributory factor to the incident.

Future meetings

The next meeting between the two sides would not take place until Wednesday 29 May 2013, a friendly at Wembley Stadium, and the next meeting in the Republic of Ireland was on Sunday 7 June 2015 at Dublin's Aviva Stadium. Both games passed without major disturbances.

References

References

1. Cusack, Jim. (16 November 1990). "Gardaí to investigate disturbances after football international". [[The Irish Times]].
2. Quinn, Philip. (23 December 1994). "Security summit for England tie". [[Irish Independent]].
3. (17 February 1995). "Segregation nightmare that became a bloody coup for far-right hatred". The Independent.
4. McCormack, Michael. "Scannal: More than a Game". [[RTÉ]].
5. Humphries, Tom. (16 February 1995). "A night when aggression and abuse take over the football". [[The Irish Times]].
6. Moore, Glenn. (16 February 1995). "England fans in football riot". The Independent.
7. "England v Republic of Ireland: Riot marred Lansdowne Road friendly". BBC News.
8. Thomsen, Ian. (17 February 1995). "England's Likely to Keep Championships, but Soccer's Losing a War". The New York Times.
9. Ingle, Sean. (25 May 2013). "Rioting, violence and shame – memories of Ireland v England in 1995". The Guardian.
10. (5 April 1995). "Irish police did not accept help". The Independent.
11. (29 May 2013). "England 1 Rep of Ireland 1". BBC Sport.
12. (7 June 2015). "R. of Ireland 0-0 England". BBC Sport.