Club Everton : About Us
CLUB EVERTON ATHA CLIATH, to use its full official title, was founded in 1971, and entered the U16 division of the Dublin
Schoolboys League playing home games at pitch No. 4, Fairview Park, until promotion to junior ranks meant a move elsewhere.
It also saw the club joining the Amature Football League, starting at the ground floor, Division 4, and with a new
home at distant Castleknock, a pitch now no longer in existence. Surrounded as it then was, by high thorn hedges, the annual
cost for new footballs was actually greater than the rental of the pitch!
In those days, we enjoyed a good relationship with the great Merseyside club, Everton FC, through the good offics of their Promotions Manager, Mr. David Exall and his assistant Mr. Bill Townsend.
Many trips were made across to the UK, on one of which, versus The Rose, Wavertree, we would
play and win our first "real" junior game. That was in 1974. One positive outcome of this friendship
was donation by Everton of our annual Player of the Year award, named to honour their then retiring centre-half and world cup player, the Brian Labone Trophy.
In 1976, we moved to the pitch which would be home to the club for as many years, 17, St Anne's Park. Here, under the tutelage of manager Johnny Sheridan, we would progress in time to the AFL Major Division, taking the Div 1A and Div 1 titles along the way.
By now, we had truly left the schoolboy ranks behind and were fielding two junior teams weekly. We were also
thankfully, garnering for ourselves a reputation for playing quality football, a status which we hold still dear!
Our next move brought us to Dardistown, where, under stewardship by Greg Hill, our Saturday side would reach the Premier Division,
and a remarkable but frustrating string of four runner-up spots in a row! A clubman since his twelfth year, Greg retired in 2003.
The transition period since then has been one of major re-organisation, focused now on Sunday football in Division 1A. Our member composition, with several players from mainland
Europe, reflecting the new Ireland, bodies we feel, much promise for the future.
Through it all runs the special passion for continuance of the special ethos which marks out Club Everton!