In a country that traditionally favors Gaelic football, hurling and supporting the English Premier League, Ireland’s own Premier Division has hardly captured the national sporting conscious. The league’s UEFA coefficient currently puts them at 41st, behind countries like Latvia, Albania and Georgia.
Clubs that have traditionally dominated the League of Ireland, such as Dundalk, Bohemians and Shelbourne FC have all also flirted with financial disaster — putting their very existence in jeopardy whilst barely treading water.
Accordingly, Ireland has hardly ever registered any club success on the European level. In 2011, Shamrock Rovers qualified for the group stages of the Europa League, the first time an Irish club had ever achieved such a feat. They were knocked out after accumulating six losses in their six matches with a total goal difference of minus 15.
Now, five years on from that achievement, Dundalk, the back-to-back champions of Ireland, have eclipsed that mark.
After defeating Icelandic champions Fimleikafelag Hafnarfjaroar (yeah, that’s right) in the second qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League, they pulled off the shock of the third round by defeating Belarusian champions BATE Borisov 3-1 on aggregate, including a comprehensive 3-0 victory at home in Ireland.
Now, Dundalk are only a two-legged playoff away from reaching the UEFA Champions League group stage. No Irish club has ever advanced this far, and, while they’ve already guaranteed Europa League group play should they lose, they are approaching their playoff against Polish club Legia Warsaw with optimism and belief.
“Were we to progress that would really be a sensational result and would give hope to every club in Ireland and every small club in Europe,” said Dundalk manager Stephen Kenny.
“We want to show that over the two legs and create a massive result for football in Ireland — transform the landscape of football in Ireland by getting a result that will really give confidence to every player in Ireland.”
The first leg on Wednesday has been moved from Dundalk’s Oriel Park, capacity 4,500, to Dublin’s Aviva Stadium, capacity 51,700. Dundalk are hoping that the entirety of the Irish capital will get behind their achievement like they do with the Irish national team.
For a club that nearly folded only four years ago, Dundalk’s achievement is a fairy tale matched only by St. Patrick’s banishment of snakes from Ireland.
Should Dundalk achieve the unthinkable against BATE, the celebrations will surely eclipse those witnessed on the celebration day for Ireland’s foremost patron saint.
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