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Shelbourne in 1908.
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amateur’ who played the game for love rather than
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He joined the British Army in 1915 and served with
the Royal Garrison Artillery and in January 1917,
aged 34, was killed in action on the Western Front.
Sloan helped Bohemians become one of the big
names in Irish football, which was something Dick
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The son of a rope merchant from the Shankill,
Moore was a talented left half who combined
military life with a football career. He played for
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achieve the league and cup double in 1891.
Moore saw service in the Great War with the Royal
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Greece in 1918.
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whose lives ended prematurely as a result of the
Great War.
Hiriam McKee, known simply as Hymie, started
playing for Cliftonville as a teenager. He appeared
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just 16.
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Cliftonville performances attracted much press
attention and he played three times for Ireland.
Away from sport he trained to be an accountant
and he moved to Canada. In 1916 as the war
continued on the Western Front he enlisted with
the Canadian Infantry and saw action in France.
He died a century ago in November 1916. His
Commonwealth headstone carries his name and
is marked by the Canadian maple leaf. It also has a
simple inscription which reads ‘ever remembered
by his loving mother’.
Hymie McKee, Dick Moore, Barney Donaghey and
Harold Sloan had much in common. They were
sportsmen and soldiers who were pioneers of the
game but who in later years became the forgotten
heroes of Irish football.
;SVHW
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Stephen Walker is the author of
Ireland’s Call: Irish Sporting Heroes
who fell in the Great War
(published by Merrion Press).
Twitter @Irelandscall15
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Courtesy of Burnley FC
Dick Moore
Clipping from Belfast Evening Telegraph
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Picture by Bill Brown
www.irishfa.com41