Bohemian Football Club or Bohs as they’re more commonly known, have been in operation since 1890. A fully member owned, the club has been using its community team to empower underrepresented groups and ensure that football can be accessed and enjoyed by all. Their Community work reached 10,000 people in 2022, while their 5 pillars ensure that their community and fans champion. Education and Empowerment, Rehabilitation, Climate Justice and Sustainability and Anti-Discrimination and Inclusion.
Just some of the programmes within these pillars include:
- Working with current and ex-prisoners from the nearby MountJoy Prison,
- Climate justice and sustainability programmes.
- Providing their women’s teams equal access to essential facilities as their men’s team do
- European recognised access programs for people with disabilities
- An education and empowerment programs and groups for their Pride programmes for their LGBTQ+ members.
It’s an incredibly interesting read from one of the most progressive clubs in all of Irish sport. I interviewed their community manager James Flanagan to find out more
1. Can you give me a brief history of Bohemian FC and where the club stands now in terms of its size and your membership model?
Established in 1890, Dublin’s Bohemian Football Club, or Bohs, is one of the oldest clubs in Irish football. The club is 100% fan-owned and aims to use football as a force for good in society. Rooted in a history of active citizenship, the club’s membership has grown rapidly over the last decade; from a historical base of 400 to nearly 2,500 members in 2023.
2. The club has always been a community-based club. Can you explain more about the 5 pillars of your community engagement strategy and some of the advances you’ve made in this area?
Our strategy focuses on 5 areas of work. They are:
Health and Wellbeing,
Education and Empowerment,
Rehabilitation,
Climate justice and Sustainability
Anti-discrimination and Inclusion.
Despite the extensive scope of areas we engage in as a football club, we have actively worked in all of them for several years. Last year alone our activities reached over 10 thousand people in our community.
Championing health and wellbeing should be a vital part of any football club’s operations. Given the concerning statistics on rising obesity levels in Ireland, we are committed to providing programmes that cater to everyone. We currently run a very successful walking football programme and our team recently participated in the Walking Football Champions League in Newcastle.
Our aim is to involve young members of our community with the club’s values through collaboration with local schools. Instead of running ad-hoc coaching sessions, we focus on meaningful engagement through various initiatives like Women in Football programmes, talks and discussions on Pride and educational tours throughout the year.
For many years now, our Community Director, Thomas Hynes, has been working with Mountjoy Prison on rehabilitation projects. We recently started a new EU funded rehabilitation programme in partnership with several European clubs and this is still a key priority for us going forward.
More recently, we have become known for our work in climate justice and sustainability led by Sean McCabe. The work is breaking new ground, bringing another dimension to the football club through programmes focused on community wealth building through climate action. Community wealth-building challenges traditional economic development practises by funnelling wealth into the local economy and placing control in the hands of local people via a cooperative structure.
Finally, through initiatives like our Football Unites Us Programme, matchday initiatives with refugees and asylum seekers, and our supporter’s group GayBohs work on Pride, we are dedicated to promoting diversity, equality, and inclusion in order to build a more just and equitable community.
3. The advancement of the women’s game in Ireland has seen a huge increase in recent times. Have you seen an impact in the club already and how do you plan to harness the impact that the World Cup will have on young girls in the area?
It is good to finally see progress being made in advancing the women’s game in Ireland. With Dublin Bus, we have released a joint manifesto ‘Together We’re in A Different League’ manifesto, focused on elevating women’s football at Bohemians. Our women’s national league team now has equal access to high-quality training facilities at Dublin City University’s High-Performance Centre. We also offer women in football programmes to our partner primary schools, aiming to inspire young girls to participate and excel in the sport. Through our underage teams and school initiatives, we believe in nurturing talent and providing opportunities for girls to thrive in the game.
4. With Mountjoy Prison being close by the stadium, the club does a lot with prisoners and those who have previously spent time in prison. Can you explain more about what work the club does with this community?
We take great pride in our strong community engagement, and one important aspect of this is our partnership with Mountjoy Prison, which is close to Dalymount Park. We recognise the challenges faced by prisoners and those who have spent time in prison, so we have established various programmes to support their rehabilitation and reintegration into society. Recently, we’ve introduced two new initiatives at Mountjoy: the “Football Works” programme, a football rehabilitation programme aimed at using the sport to promote positive change and personal growth among inmates, which is dedicated to providing opportunities for recently released prisoners to reintegrate into the local community.
The other programme is the Spark, this is a Pobal-funded initiative based in Dublin 7 that aims to enable local communities to build local wealth through climate action. Rehabilitation is a key part of this project and we are committed to delivering training for prisoners in bike mechanics and solar power
5. The club goes to huge lengths to work with the disability community. Can you tell us more about the work the club does with the disability community and some of the achievements of these programmes?
We want to provide opportunities for all our members and their communities. Our Amputee Team, founded in 2018, was one of the pioneering teams in the Amputee National League. It includes players from various parts of Ireland, even as far as Donegal, and boasts several international players, with five representing their country at the Amputee World Cup 2022 in Turkey. The team has achieved great success, clinching the league title in both 2020 and 2022 and earning a spot in the upcoming Amputee Champions League in 2023.
Additionally, our Blind Football Academy, launched in 2020 as one of the first hubs in Ireland, has been flourishing as the Eastern Hub for the country. It now has 16 children from five different counties participating and training every two weeks. Our commitment to inclusion is also demonstrated through our Football for All initiative, introduced in 2021, making us the first League of Ireland club to have an FFA team. Over 25 children train with us weekly, and we were honoured to be part of the inaugural Special Champions League in The Netherlands in 2021.
To enhance accessibility and inclusion, we launched the Bohs Disability Supporters Association, the first official Disabled Supporters Association in Ireland, during the CAFE (Centre of Accessibility Football in Europe) Week of Action in 2021. This independent supporters group collaborates closely with our Disability Access Officer (DAO), Irvine Ferris, to make Dalymount Park and our club the most inclusive and accessible environment possible. We were the first club to launch audio description commentary for visually impaired fans in Ireland. The initiative started in 2019 and has been running ever since in Dalymount Park.
6. The impact of Covid-19 has had a drastic effect on some of the communities the club works with. Can you explain some of the impacts and what the club has done post pandemic to integrate these communities into the club even more?
Times have been difficult for everyone post covid and we need to ensure that those who may have lost some confidence due to the pandemic feel they have safe spaces to engage in. We have a strong link with our local social prescribers who have been referring people directly into our programmes.
Also, during Covid 19, we moved the Audio Description service online so that fans with a vision impairment would not miss a game. The online service became a huge success with listeners reaching up to 1,000 for some games. In 2022, the club won the Total Access award from CAFÉ (Centre for Accessibility in Football Europe) for this.
7. Are there any other initiatives within the D&I framework that the club works with that we haven’t mentioned yet?
Our work on Pride and LGBTQ+ equality started with our members. Specifically, our fan group GayBohs. GayBohs started with a flag in 2016 and the fact that they were so nervous hanging that flag the first night confirmed that there was indeed a huge issue with LGBTQ inclusion in sport, and especially in football. While they are primarily a supporters group, they have become activists.
As LGBTQ+ supporters they are very aware of how hostile the terraces and stands of football are to minorities – having heard racist, misogynistic and homophobic abuse being hurled around casually.. The GayBohs flag and group was the starting point in a conversation about making the club more inclusive for LGBTQ+ people.
The first step was to fly the Pride flag at Dalymount., Since then, GayBohs have worked with the club on a host of ideas to make Bohs a more inclusive club and to make Dalymount Park a more inclusive space for all Bohs fans.
In 2022, we became the first professional football team from the League of Ireland to march in Dublin Pride. This is a landmark moment as the club aims to become more inclusive and welcoming primarily for queer male footballers, as many still keep their sexualities hidden. On the day over 200 club officials, players, ex-players and members marched proudly behind the Bohs flag.
In the lead up to the march, the club unveiled a new rainbow mural in Phibsborough. This was a roaring success, and we were delighted to continue our attendance with a larger party this year in Pride 2023, along with holding a panel discussion in Dublin City Centre on Queer Visibility in Football.