BBC programme reveals how Glentoran ruled Europe in 1914
The astounding tale of Glentoran’s triumph in the Vienna Cup on the eve of the 1st Environment War will be retold in a BBC A person Northern Eire programme on Monday night time.
‘Belfast’s Victory in Vienna: A Footballing Odyssey’, which airs at 22:40 BST on BBC 1 NI and will be readily available on BBC iPlayer, is offered by Holly Hamilton and Glens historian Sam Robinson.
East Belfast, in the previous a spot of industry and from exactly where some songs and sporting greats hail, played a key aspect in promoting the metropolis on the earth stage.
The terraced streets of east Belfast were being also household to a shut-knit doing work-class community and the less common story of Glentoran’s struggle from the odds to be topped Europe’s very first champions.
In 1914 the crew – a group of portion time footballers operating adult males who worked in the city’s shipyards and – were being a single of the most profitable teams in Ireland.
The crew left home in Could to play in a event in opposition to Europe’s top soccer teams. Most experienced under no circumstances remaining Ireland before this when-in-a-lifetime trip to Vienna, the cultural and enjoyment cash of Europe.
In excess of 100 a long time later on, Holly and Sam retrace this extraordinary journey and discover how practically nothing, from an notorious pub crawl to a lacking goalkeeper, would stand in their way of lifting what was arguably the 1st European Cup.
Glentoran’s tale of the underdog likely all the way in Europe’s major levels of competition hardly registered in the newspapers of the working day back in Belfast, but the Vienna Cup continue to has pleasure of position in the Oval boardroom.
The achievements of these adult males, some who then left Belfast for the trenches of the 1st Globe War, stays an significant aspect of the club’s record and folklore.