St James's Gate FC

Early years

The club was founded in 1902. The prime mover behind forming the club was John Lumsden, then serving as a medical officer at St James's Gate Brewery. The club first gained national recognition in 1909–10 when they won both the Leinster Senior League title and the Irish Intermediate Cup. In 1919–20, with a team that included Charlie Dowdall, Paddy Duncan and Ernie MacKay, Gate won four trophies – the Leinster Senior League title, the Irish Intermediate Cup, the Leinster Senior Cup and the LFA Metropolitan Cup.

First League of Ireland era

In 1921–22, together with Shelbourne, Bohemians, Jacobs, Frankfort, Olympia, YMCA and Dublin United, Gate became founder members of the League of Ireland. Like Gate, the other seven founding members had spent the 1920–21 season playing in the Leinster Senior League. Gate initially emerged as one of the strongest teams in the league and in their debut season won a treble. In addition to winning the inaugural league title, they also won the 1921–22 FAI Cup and the 1921–22 Leinster Senior Cup. This season proved to be the highlight of Gate's time in the League of Ireland. In 1939–40 they won a second league title, however after finishing in last place in 1943–44 they failed to gain re-election. It had been suggested that the reason for this was the club announcing its intention to revert to amateur status. However, when the vote was being taken, the representative for Shamrock Rovers stated, "the St. James's Gate club has not full control over their own finances, as any profit made during the season goes to the Guinness Athletic Union and is therefore lost to football." The other clubs were also known to be unhappy that members of the Guinness Athletic Union did not have to pay into home matches, depriving those clubs of their share of gate receipts.

Placings

Season	Pts	Place	Season	Pts	Place

1921–22	23	1st	1933–34	13	8th
1922–23	25	5th	1934–35	27	2nd
1923–24	20	5th	1935–36	19	10th
1924–25	17	6th	1936–37	23	5th
1925–26	11	8th	1937–38	27	5th
1926–27	12	9th	1938–39	23	4th
1927–28	14	7th	1939–40	36	1st
1928–29	14	6th	1940–41	21	5th
1929–30	11	9th	1941–42	19	5th
1930–31	18	10th	1942–43	18	6th
1932–33	10	11th	1943–44	3	8th
1932–33	17	6th

Records

Stat	Opponent	Score	Competition	Date
Record Win	Jacobs	8–0	1929–30	24 August 1929
Record Defeat	Waterford Cork United Shamrock Rovers	0–7 0–7 0–7	1931–32 1943–44 1943–44	22 November 1931 19 December 1943 27 December 1943

Source:

Second League of Ireland era

In 1990–91 Gate joined the League of Ireland First Division, replacing Newcastlewest. In 1995, the club was taken over by a consortium. Only one year later, however, just before the start of the 1996–97 they pulled out of the league, unable to meet their financial responsibilities. They were replaced by St. Francis.

110th Anniversary Tournament

To celebrate their 110th anniversary, in July 2012 the club hosted a tournament.

Semi-finals

14 July 2012

Ballymena United	1–1 Ballymena won 5–3 after penalties	Port Talbot Town
White, 90	(Report)	???, 6