At the tail end of the 19th Century Distillery were one of the leading teams in Irish football, and one of their stars was the winger Giddy Baird...Name: Gideon Baird
Born: 1 June 1877, Belfast
Died: 7 August 1897, Isle of Man (age 20)
Height:
Weight:
Position: Outside-Right
Representative Honours: Ireland: 3 Full Caps (1896); Irish League: 2 Caps (1895); Ulster Inter-Provincial Representative.
Club Honours: (with Distillery) Irish League Champion 1895/96; Irish Cup Winner 1895/96; Co. Antrim Shield 1895/96; City Cup Runner-Up 1895/96.
Club Career:
Clubs
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Seasons
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Signed
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Fee
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League
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FA Cup
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Other
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Linfield Swifts
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1893/94
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Distillery
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1894/95-1896/97
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c/s-1894
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*35/11
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TOTALS
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£10,000
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35/11
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Biography:
Giddy Baird played at outside-right in all three of Ireland's Home Nations Championship matches during the 1895/96 season. That same season he was a regular in the Distillery team that picked up three trophies, the Irish League, Irish Cup and Co. Antrim shield.
Baird began his playing career with Linfield Swifts as a 16 year-old and must have impressed Distillery when they played the Swifts in a Charity Cup match on the 14th April 1894 as they signed him for the next season. Of the eleven goals scored by Baird for the Whites, seven were scored in the successful 1895/96 Irish Cup campaign - four in an 8-0 win over Milltown in the 4th round, one each in the 5th round and semi-final and another in the 3-1 Final win over Glentoran.
Giddy's brother William also played Irish League football as an outside-left with Cliftonville and Linfield from 1893/94 to 1896/97. The pair faced each other in the 1895/96 City Cup play-off, but it was William who finished victorious, Linfield triumphing 2-1 and thus denying Giddy a fourth winner's medal that season.
In the summer of 1897 Giddy Baird was tragically killed in an accident on the Isle of Man. This was latest in line of tragedies to befall the Baird family. He was pre-deceased by three sisters (Maggie, Minnie and Minnie) who all died in infancy, and his brother William would die two years after Giddy, aged just 23.
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| Baird's grave at Belfast City Cemetery. |
Ireland Cap Details:
- 29-02-1896 Wales... A L 1-6 BC (18 years, 273 days)
- 07-03-1896 England. H L 0-2 BC
- 28-03-1896 Scotland H D 3-3 BC
Irish League Representative Appearance Details:
- 09-11-1895 Football League A D 2-2
- 11-11-1895 Liverpool FC A L 1-5
Summary: 2/0. Won 0, Drew 1, Lost 1.
Representative Appearance Details:
- 07-12-1895 Ulster 5-2 Leinster [1 goal] (Grosvenor Park)
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