Irish football at Copenhagen House

A correspondent told Hone in 1826 that in fine weather Irishmen played football every Sunday afternoon in the fields between Oldfield’s dairy and Copenhagen House near Islington, from three o’clock until dusk. As at home in Ireland, the sides were picked county against county. Wrestling bouts broke out to hold up the two men racing for the ball, so that their friends could carry it to the goal, and the winners raised a great shout. The writer added that as a boy in a west of England village he had seen football played in the church field on Sunday mornings before service.