Olympia F.C. (Dublin)

Olympia

Full name	Olympia Football Club
Ground	Bellevue Lodge Grand Canal Inchicore Dublin
League	League of Ireland Leinster Senior League

Olympia Football Club was an Irish association football club, originally based in The Coombe, Dublin. In 1917–18 Olympia won a Leinster cup double, winning both the Leinster Junior Cup and Leinster Senior Cup in the same season. In 1921–22 they were also founder members of the League of Ireland.

In 1917–18, with team that included Jack McCarthy and Fran Watters, Olympia won both the Leinster Junior Cup and Leinster Senior Cup. In doing so they caused one of the biggest upsets in the history of Leinster football. After winning the Leinster Junior Cup they qualified for the Leinster Senior Cup. After receiving a bye in the first round, Olympia beat St James's Gate in the semi-final. In the final they faced Shelbourne. After Leinster Nomads, Shelbourne and Bohemians, Olympia became only the fourth team to win the Leinster Senior Cup. Up until now, Shelbourne and Bohemians had monopolised the competition between them, so it was something of surprise result when Olympia, with a goal scored by Fran Watters, defeated Shelbourne 1–0 in the final. According to Peter Byrne this also resulted in a popular giant killing chat – "Remember Olympia once beat Shels". In 1917–18 Olympia also reached the IFA Junior Cup final but lost to Raglan.

During the 1919–20 season, played against the background of the Irish War of Independence, Olympia were involved in controversial incident with Jacobs. After a Leinster Senior Cup game, a group of Jacobs players were found guilty of invading the Olympia dressing room. Two Jacobs players received lengthy suspensions from the Leinster Football Association as did an Olympia player when it emerged that Jacobs had been taunted for "playing (British Army) soldiers" in their team.

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