Stories of The Hospitals Cup

This July, University College Dublin (UCD) will play host to teams representing 26 countries in the World Medical Football Championship (WMFC). Over 1,200 doctors will attend the associated 29th International Symposium of Medicine and Health in Sport. Hosting these events in Dublin is the culmination of a long tradition of association football in Ireland’s hospitals.

The Hospitals Cup

In 1948, a group of medics from the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, Dublin, approached Dr Barry Hooper of UCD with a proposal to establish an annual football tournament between teams representing the Dublin hospitals. Since 1906, the ‘Independent Trophy’ had been presented to the winner of an annual representative charity match played at Dalymount Park. Sponsored by the Evening Herald, gate receipts from the ‘Herald Hospitals Charity Cup’ were split between the Dublin hospitals. By the 1930s, the Herald charity match had fallen into abeyance. The Leinster Football Association gave the unused Independent Trophy to Dr Hooper to act as the prize for the newly formed ‘Hospitals Cup’ tournament.

In May 1948, in a replayed final at Tolka Park, Mercers beat the Mater by two goals to nil to become the first holders of the cup. The Irish Independent reported that the Mater frontline, featuring rugby international Karl Mullen, had been kept at bay by the ‘brilliance’ of ‘Rafferty’, the Mercers’ goalkeeper. According to Dr Terry Lavelle, a member of the winning Mercers’ team, ‘Rafferty’ was in fact a well-known Gaelic footballer playing under an assumed name. Playing soccer incognito was common in the Hospitals Cup in those early days due to the ban on GAA players playing or even watching ‘foreign’ games.

Presenting the Independent Trophy to the winning Mercers’ captain, Denis McFeely, Dr Hooper referred to the fact that at the turn of the 20th Century a team from the London hospitals played regular challenge matches against football clubs in Dublin. He expressed the hope that a team could be formed from the new tournament and an invitation to a challenge match issued to the London hospitals.

Mercers retained the Independent Trophy in 1949, followed by three wins in a row for Richmond Hospital. The dominance of RCSI-associated hospitals in those early years reflected the strength of football in the College at that time. Goals from RCSI medical student and inside-right Ray McClean contributed greatly to Mercers’ wins in the 1950s. Dr McClean, a noted civil rights activist, famously tended to the wounded and comforted the dying on the streets of the Bogside on ‘Bloody Sunday’.

With the backing of the Dean of the Dental School, Dr Jack Owens, talented sportsmen from several codes, including multiple All-Ireland winner Dan McCartan of Down, made the Dublin Dental Hospital unbeatable in the 1960s. The ‘Dents’ won an unparalleled six Hospitals Cup titles in a row between 1963 and 1968. The dental stranglehold on the Independent Trophy came to an end in 1969. The Richmond team, led by amateur soccer international Charlie Browne, beat the Dents 3-0 in the first round that year. In the 1970s, the Hospitals Cup was dominated by a St Vincent’s University Hospital/Mater rivalry, the UCD sister hospitals sharing nine titles between them. In the early 1980s, the tournament lapsed. Well-known Dublin medics Prof Conal Hooper, Dr Robbie Harrison, and Dr David Foley, re-established the competition in 1986. Company representative Mr Peter Cassidy took over the organisational reins in the 1990s. Apart from a three-year gap, necessitated by the recent pandemic, thanks to Peter’s dedication, the Hospitals Cup has been played every year since. To date, St Vincent’s has the most confirmed wins at 17, closely followed by Dublin Dental Hospital with 14 titles. In recent years, South/South West (Cork) Hospitals and University Hospital Waterford have come to prominence. The two Munster teams shared five titles between them on either side of the Covid break. The 2025 Hospitals Cup took place in Bushy Park, Terenure, Dublin, on Saturday 7 June. St Vincent’s Hospital beat University Hospital Waterford in the final.

Enduring tournament characteristics

Football is the ‘world game’. In hospital football in Ireland, the participation of people from different countries, working or training here, has always been prominent. Also, in any given hospital, the presence of someone interested enough to search for hidden football talent remains the key to success. St Vincent’s suffered a first round defeat to Connolly Hospital in the 2001 tournament. In the belief that regular football might unearth players and give us an edge the following year, Dr Rupert Barry and Dr John Seery founded a football club in the Hospital. Coached by the scorer of a famous solo goal against Alf Ramsey’s legendary England team, Freddie Strahan of Shelbourne FC, St Vincent’s Hospital FC went from strength to strength. Freddie’s personality and football knowledge drove the team on. Three Hospitals Cup wins in a row were followed by two United Churches Football League and three Leinster Senior League titles. Sadly, not long after presenting the Independent Trophy to the 2024 champions, Cork, Freddie passed away at St Vincent’s Hospital. Ní fheicfimíd a leithéid arís.

World Champions

Dr Nathan Wall and Dr Rory Durand are responsible for the current Hospitals Cup tournament format. All matches are played over a single day in Dublin. This has greatly facilitated participation by teams representing hospitals located outside the capital. Inclusivity bore fruit when players from outside Dublin made decisive contributions to Ireland’s first win in the WMFC in 2023.

In 2014, a group of St Vincent’s players formed the ‘Ireland Medical Football Team’ for Ireland’s first foray into the WMFC. In Long Beach, California, the team reached the quarter-finals losing 1-0 to the eventual winners, the Czech Republic.

In the 2023 WMFC, a defensive strategy orchestrated by UCD AFC coaches, Willie O’Connor and Rob Murray, combined with the organisational skills of Dr Gavin Keane were central to success. Due in no small part to the brilliance in goals of Dr Padraic McCarthy, victories over Brazil, Spain, Hungary, and the US were secured en route to the tournament final. In that final, played in Vienna in front of a large, partisan crowd, Ireland beat the holders, Great Britain, 1-0 and were crowned World Champions.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank tournament sponsors ‘MedicalAccountant.ie’ for supporting the Hospitals Cup. Also, thanks to photographer Sergio Jimenez de Santiago for documenting the tournament in recent years.