'Found Negatives' Tells A Story Of A Bizarre 1950s Charity Football Match

A fascinating and bizarre exhibition of Irish sports photographs called 'Found Negatives' is opening this Friday a stone's throw from Dalymount Park and Balls.ie is delighted to be supporting it.

Have you ever wondered what is the sporting link that binds writer Myles na gCopaleen, actor Noel Purcell, Grand Slam rugby winner Karl Mullen and Kevin O'Flanagan, the only man to play for Bohs, Arsenal, the Republic of Ireland and the Irish rugby team? 

Luke McManus, who's produced 'Found Negatives' tells us that actually the men are all bound by one surreal charity football match.

It's quite an involved story that starts at Dalymount, then journeys via Lwr Abbey Street to Oxfam on Georges Street through the Dingle Peninsula and back to Phibsboro Shopping Centre.
The photos were a mysterious find - they were taken by a commercial photographer in Abbey Street but then handed into Oxfam on Georges Street where Michael Kelly decided to hold onto them.

Now living in Castlegregory in the Dingle Peninsula, Michael scanned them in a decade later and put them up online in an attempt to find out what they hell they were. Someone recognised the spire of St Peters Church in the background - identifying the stadium as Dalymount. But why the costumes and the bizarre tableaus?

Turns out that this was basically the 1950s equivalent of SoccerAid - an annual charity match between the press world and the theatre world called Inkblots & Crackpots. In the days before television, this was a massive draw attracting crowds of up to 20,000 to watch a pantomime version of soccer.

A man called Terry Connaughton has since unearthed two programmes for the 1952 and 1953 editions of Inkblots and Crackpots - and there's quite a roll call of household names of the time taking part including legendary Irish Times editor Robert Smyllie, Myles Na gCopaleen, acting legends Jack MacGowran and Noel Purcell and sportsmen like rugby Grand Slam winner Karl Mullen and Kevin O'Flanagan as well as famous jockey Aubrey Brabazon whose triple Gold Cup victory at Cheltenham in '48, '49 and '50 on Cottage Rake and double Champion Hurdle wins on Hatton's Grace in 49 and 50 is generally regarded as the moment when Irish punters first fell in love with the Cheltenham Festival.

So this show brings the negatives back to where they first were captured - Phibsboro - into a new gallery int he Phibsboro Shopping Centre.

We will be joined by a selection of Dalymount, Bohemians, and stage related junk shop finds by another charity shop archaeologist Brian McMahon, whose collection is lovingly documented on his www.brandnewretro.ie website and in his monthly column in Totally Dublin