Sam Robinson recounts here how just this month two iconic pieces of Glentoran history came home to the Bet McLean Oval.
The one thing I have learned when it comes to the history of Glentoran Football Club is that everything comes to those who wait.
If you are prepared to wait long enough.
The best stories start with a kind hearted person turning up out of the blue, carrying a bag.
Almost since the first mention of swans on a flooded Oval pitch in the lyrics of the ancient Glentoran melody The Pride of the County Down, we had searched high and low for a photograph of those same swans on the war-torn ground.
The search lasted decades, to no avail until one day, three years ago, a man turned up at the gates of the shipyard and asked to speak to lifelong Glenman and Yard veteran Robert Childs. The man was carrying a bag and in the bag, a large envelope.
"We found these photographs", he told Robert. "They were my father’s; would they be of any used to you?" he asked. Robert knew exactly what the significance of the imagery was. And all of a sudden, there they were, seven professionally taken images of the devastated home of Glentoran FC, bombed almost (but not quite) into submission by Hitler's Luftwaffe on the 4th of May 1941. After years of searching, we had proof in black and white of the legendary swans on the Oval lake.
Last week once again, a lady turned up at the Glentoran Superstore with a bag. Her name was Chloe Dunwoody and she had travelled from Canada with her family to visit relatives in Belfast. Her father Andrew, a Glentoran supporter had travelled too in the hope of donating two artefacts to the club. Sadly, and incredibly, he had passed away suddenly during the visit, and so his daughter arrived at the Bet McLean Oval to fulfil his wishes. She spoke to Glentoran director Ruth McCreery.
From the bag, Chloe produced two pennants.
All of a sudden two of the most significant Glentoran artefacts were back in their spiritual home after 56 years.
Two strands in the fabric of the heritage of Glentoran are known by generations of supporters young and old. Glentoran's trailblazing tour of America to pioneer association football, and a European Cup game against Benfica, arguably at the time, the greatest club side in the world. Both events took place in 1967.
As is still the case, as a gesture of sporting bonhomie, traditionally, pennants were exchanged by teams before the commencement of a game between the two club captains.
The game against Benfica was played both home and away with the rule of away goals counting double invoked in the event of a draw. In 1967, Glentoran players all had other jobs, in the shipyard, as teachers, factory workers, steeplejacks etc. When they were drawn against the mighty Benfica of Portugal, no one gave them a chance. In Belfast, the game at the Oval was played in front of an estimated 40,000 people. Remarkably it ended in a 1-1 draw a fact almost every Glentoran supporter knows. On the 4th of October 1967, Glentoran played Benfica in Lisbon Portugal, again in front of an enormous crowd. That game ended in a 0-0 draw, one of Benfica's worst results in European football.....and undoubtedly part-time Glentoran's best. Benfica only qualified because of their away goal in Belfast. They would go on to reach the final.
Unbelievably, The red pennant Chloe so kindly donated to the club, was the one presented by the Benfica captain Coluna to the Glentoran captain John Colrain before the game in Portugal at the Stadio da Luz.
The second pennant Chloe produced, is one of perhaps ten taken by the team to America that same year, when Glentoran playing as the Detroit Cougars (representing the city of Detroit) and travelled across the United States and Canada along with other teams from around the world to introduce "soccer" to American fans.
This same part-time team from Belfast played in Detroit, Boston, Chicago, New York, Toronto, San Francisco and Los Angeles. To cross America in the late 60s during the era of flower power and the Summer of Love, was a dream for working class lads from Belfast.
The trip is etched into the folklore of Glentoran. The man who helped organise both events was the much loved and well respected Glentoran secretary Billy Ferguson, the uncle of Andrew Dunwoody. Many vestiges of Glentoran history have been curated lovingly by officials through the decades. None more so than the Vienna Cup which only survived the Blitz because of the Glentoran Chairman Joseph Shaw's pride in its winning. It stayed on his own sideboard whilst the Oval burned.
Last week, the Benfica and Detroit Cougars pennants came back to east Belfast. The need for a dedicated Glentoran museum because more necessary by the day. There is simply nowhere to accommodate the phenomenal array of artefacts which relate to this great club and the generosity of the people who keep heading into the east......carrying bags.
I'm sure you'd like to join with me in expressing our deepest condolences to Chloe and the Dunwoody family at this sad and difficult time and also in thanking her for a simply wonderful gesture.
Football continues to come home, and that's real history right there.
Sam Robinson
