Bohemian FC is delighted to confirm that we will host Czech side Bohemians Praha 1905 in the last international club friendly that will be held in Dalymount Park before the stadium’s redevelopment.
The first-ever meeting between the clubs will take place at 3pm on Saturday September 26 during the international break, with tickets now on sale from tickets.bohemians.ie.
Club president Matt Devaney said: “We are delighted to be welcoming our namesakes from Czechia to Dalymount Park.
“For those of us supporting Bohs for a long time, we always held out hope that the two Bohemians clubs might be drawn to play each other in European competition.
“Unfortunately that hasn’t come to pass yet, but we feel that the last international club friendly to take place in Dalymount Park before its redevelopment is a really fitting send-off for the ground we all love so well. It promises to be a special occasion for both sets of supporters, and we look forward to welcoming visiting supporters from Prague.”
Director of Bohemians Praha 1905, Darek Jakubowicz, said: “We are delighted that this match is happening. Dalymount Park is a famous Irish stadium, and its resemblance to Ďolíček is more than obvious. It will undoubtedly be an unforgettable experience for both Bohemians clubs.
“I believe that during this international break, when league football is paused, our fans will enjoy making a trip to Ireland’s beautiful capital. Two historic Bohemians clubs will face each other in an international friendly for the first time in history. This is a fantastic highlight for the season that we all welcome – players, coaches, and fans alike.”
The aspiration of the sides playing each other crystallised in late March when club member and volunteer Kevin Brannigan was in Prague, in his professional capacity with the Second Captains podcast, to conduct an interview alongside Ken Early with the iconic Antonín Panenka ahead of Ireland’s ill-fated World Cup play-off against Czechia.
Now honorary president of Bohemians Praha 1905, Panenka is an immortal figure in world football after his famous Euro 1976 final-winning penalty for Czechoslovakia against West Germany – a penalty technique now known the world over as ‘a Panenka’.
Brannigan explains: “While thousands of Ireland fans in Prague were concentrated on the Fortuna Arena ahead of the play-off, we travelled a few tram stops away to conduct the interview with Antonín Panenka at the Ďolíček Stadium, the stadium of Bohemians Prague.
“As well as the obvious – sharing the same name – there were other parallels between both clubs. Their stadium is similar to Dalymount in that it is an iconic old ground surrounded by houses, big floodlights, and set to be redeveloped for a more modern stadium, bringing with it all the nostalgia Bohs fans are feeling about the redevelopment of Dalymount Park.”
It was an unusual interview for a podcast that primarily broadcasts through English – this one being conducted with Panenka’s friend acting as translator. But the pull of one of only two men to have a move in football named after him – the Cruyff Turn being the other – meant a language barrier would not prove insurmountable.
This wasn’t Panenka’s first interview about that penalty kick and, with 2026 marking 50 years since Czechoslovakia’s Euro 1976 glory, it surely won’t be the last.
But as this particular interview wound down, Panenka enquired whether either of his interrogators knew of the Dublin Bohemians.
Brannigan adds: “I said, ‘yes, we should play a friendly!’ Emails and numbers were exchanged and here we are today.”
While this will be Bohemians Praha 1905’s first visit to Dalymount Park, the old lady of Dublin 7 has previously hosted Czech visitors, including three Ireland internationals against the Czechoslovakian national team.
Club historian Gerry Farrell explains: “Connections with that part of the world continued through the lifetime of Bohemians, the first Czech visitors to Dalymount were DSV Saaz from the town of Žatec near the German border. They arrived in Dublin in January of 1934 and were defeated 1-0 by a strong Bohs side with Irish international Plev Ellis netting the winner – that Bohs side went on to win the title that season.
“Some 30 years later, there was another Czech visitor to Dalymount, this time it was the famous Dukla Prague side who visited in December 1965. Dukla would go on to become Czechoslovak First League winners that season and featured the 1962 Ballon D’Or winner Josef Masopust in their side. Dukla would run-out as comfortable 5-0 winners in front of 15,000 fans in Dalymount.
“There is also more than just a name that connects us with our visitors. During Bohemians’ first foray in the Cup Winner’s Cup in 1970 the club were drawn against TJ Gottwaldov from the Czech town of Zlín.
“Our well-travelled club President, Liam Rapple had a Czech connection with the Bohemians Prague club. In a newspaper report which revelled in the Cold War parlance of the time leading with the headline ‘Bohemians bank on spy behind the ‘Curtain’’ – there was a report from the unnamed Bohemians Prague official who watched Gottwaldov’s defeat to Slavia Prague a week before they were due to play the first leg in Dalymount.
“Rapple’s man in Prague picked out veteran defender Štefan Hojsík, winger Vlastimil Kučera and ominously the young attacker Zdeněk Nehoda as those who performed best in their 1-0 league defeat. Sadly this inside info wasn’t enough and Bohs would go out 4-3 on aggregate to Gottwaldov!”
What’s in a name?
Farrell adds: “Ciarán Priestley notes in his recently republished Bohemians history Enduring legacy of an idle youth that it is difficult to ascertain the precise inspiration behind the adaptation of the name ‘Bohemians’ as the most suitable for the new club.
“Certainly, the term ‘Bohemian’ was often used in the contemporary parlance of Dublin culture and society, as was mentioned the theatre seems to have been an influence there as well because ‘The Bohemian Girl’ by Balfe was the most popular opera and this seems to have received kind of constant cultural references.
“Certainly, we can see how the ideal of living an unconventional lifestyle focused around the pleasures of art, sport and culture might appeal to the young men who created the Bohemian Football Club – the Dublin version – in 1890.”
