Name: George Faber SheehanBorn: Dublin
Died:
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Position: Forward
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Representative Honours: Ireland: 3 Full Caps (1899-1900).
Club Honours: (with Bohs) Irish Cup Runner-Up 1899/00; Leinster Senior Cup Winner; Leinster League Champion.
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Club Career:
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Teams
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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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Bohemians
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Amateur
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TOTALS
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£-
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Biography:
In the late 1890s Bohemians bowed out of the Irish Cup at the semi-final stage in 1898 and 1899 before making the Final in 1900. Desperate to wipe out the memory of their 10-1 defeat by Linfield in the 1895 Final at Solitude, the Dubliners once again travelled to Belfast. With George Sheehan as captain The Bohs put up a great resistence before losing out 2-1 to Cliftonville at Grosvenor Park - the captain scoring a consolation goal fifteen minutes from time.
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Bohemians however were the dominant side in Dublin football, their record in the Leinster Senior Cup almost perfect as they claimed eight of the first eleven editions of the competition, Sheehan scoring in four consecutive finals from 1895 to 1898. Also featuring in the Bohemians side of the 1890s were two of Sheehan's brothers. All three of the Sheehan's had been schooled at the Belfast Mercantile Academy and were present at the inaugral meeting of the Bohemian club.
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Capped for the first time in at Parkhead against Scotland in March 1899, Sheehan was a member of a team badly weakened by the absence of six "Anglos" who failed to secure release from their clubs and, despite some lively forward play, slumped to a 9-1 defeat. Sheehan was appointed captain for Ireland's visit to Llandudno for a 2-0 defeat by Wales the following February.
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Come March 1900, with Dublin due to host its first football international, it fell to a rugby ground, Lansdowne Road to provide the venue for the auspicious occasion. The visit of England caught the public's imagination as recorded in the Freeman's Journal:
As the day fast approaches for the last of Ireland's international matches for the present season against England, interest in the even increases. The match in which his Excellency Earl Cardogan, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland has graciously consented to give his patronage, will be the first ever association international played in Dublin and takes place at Lansdowne Road on St. Patrick's day. Judging by the manner in which tickets for both the stands and ground are being disposed of, the attendance promises to rival in extent, any previously recorded for a similar match in Ireland.10,000 turned up to watch an Irish side, featuring Sheehan as captain and the only southern-based player, lose out 2-0 in a match described by the Irish Times as "the best exhibition of football ever witnessed in Dublin," though "the world's best centre forward" was not among the scorers.
As to the game, there can be no disguising the fact that it promises to provide the best exhibition of classic football ever witnessed in Dublin. Both teams are good ones - Reilly, the matchless Portsmouth goalkeeper, Archie Goodall, the Derby County half-back and Gara, the Preston forward, being included in the Irish side, but it must be said the English team possesses a decided superiority. Thus a great game is in prospect. Mr G.O. Smith, the world's best centre forward, captains the English team.
A medical doctor by day, Sheehan played in the first ever match at Dalymount Park when Bohemians defeated Shelbourne 4-2 on 7th September 1901. He had long since retired by the time Bohemians finally claimed the Irish Cup in 1908 with another win over Shelbourne at the same venue.
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Ireland Cap Details:
25-03-1899 Scotland A L 1-9 BC
24-02-1900 Wales... A L 0-2 BC
17-03-1900 England. H L 0-2 BC
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Summary: 3/0. Won 0, Drew 0, Lost 3.
Comments
Mr. George Sheehan.
"Mr. George Sheehan, the ex-Bohemian and Irish International footballer, died in a Paris nursing home Christmas Eve. He had been bad health for over a year.
George was one of three brothers who helped to found the Bohemian Club, and he and his brother Willie, who was centre forward, played many occasions for Leinster.
An outside right of rare physique, allied to exceptional ability, George gained International honours in 1900 against England, the match being played at Lansdowne Road, when England won by 2-0. On joining the Royal Army Medical Corps, the late Mr. Sheehan severed his connection with Leinster football. He served in the Boer campaign and the recent great war, and rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel before he retired over a year ago through ill-health. "