With an estimated 20,000 Derry City supporters making the trip to the Aviva Stadium on Sunday, the next generation of fans will get the chance to show their appreciation to the men who brought senior football back to Derry.
Commonly known as ‘the Gang of Four’, Terry Harkin, Eddie Mahon, Eamonn McLaughlin and TonyO’Doherty were the men who steered the Candystripes back to senior football and they will be admitted to the League of Ireland Hall of Fametomorrow afternoon.
Harkin – who played for Northern Ireland alongside the late, great George Best – was managing a shoe shop in the city where he was sharing his lunchtime sandwiches with Mahon. One day he said “why don’t we go down south and apply to the League of Ireland?”
The rest, as they say, is history.
The city’s descent into chaos in 1971 and ‘72, which included the never-to-be-forgotten horrific events of Bloody Sunday, led to clubs refusing to travel to the Brandywell after a Ballymena United team bus was burned, with Derry City playinghome games in Coleraine for a year before severing ties with the Irish League.
By 1984, the pattern of an annual plea for re-admittance to the Irish League, only for rejection each time, had seemingly left Derry City and a rather decrepit Brandywell further away than ever from a return tosenior football.
A telephone call was made to Derry native Jim McLaughlin, who was then managing a Shamrock Rovers team dominating the League of Ireland.
The Brandywell native was persuaded to bring his Hoops side to their spruced-up home ground for a friendly on Easter Saturday in 1984 against a hastily assembled DerryCity select. Thousands crammed into the Brandywell, with the Derryside holding the Dublin outfit to a 1-1 draw.
Gate receipts of £4,000 then helped ‘the Gang of Four’ court the Dublin media in the swankyBurlington Hotel.
The four men refused to take no for an answer, and after numerous meetings they received word from Uefa that they could make thisunprecedented switch and join the League of Ireland.
Suddenly, what had seemed like a pipe-dream now had momentum. And when the Irish FA signed off the cross-border initiative, Derry City’s 13 years in the wilderness were over.
The Candystripes’ first League of Ireland contest was on September 8,1985 as they defeated Home Farm 3-1 at a packed Brandywell. Theyhaven’t looked back since.
City’s chief executive Sean Barrett contacted the FAI and asked if it would be possible for theclub to place all four men into the Hall of Fame at tomorrow afternoon’s showpiece.
The association felt it was a great idea, especially as it’s coming towards the 40th anniversary of the club joining the League of Ireland.
Harkin, McLaughlin, Mahon and O’Doherty all hope to attend this afternoon’s final where they will be presented on the pitch to both sets of supporters at half-time.
The younger generation of City followers will be reminded that those four ex-Derry City players are the reason why they are at the Aviva Stadium cheering on their local team in 2024′s Irish soccer showpiece.