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16.08.1979 at 15:00
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Attendance: |
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Basque Country |
4 - 1
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League of Ireland |
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Referee: |
Friendly / no team-match |
On 16th August 1979 a historic football match took place at San Mames stadium, home to Athletic Bilbao, between the Basque national team, Euskal Selekzioa (Basque Selection) and a League of Ireland XI. Originally established in 1937, Euskal Selekzioa played its first match in Paris on 26th April, ironically on the same day that Gernika was bombed by the Nazis. The team was subsequently banned during the Franco dictatorship.
Following the death of Franco in November 1975 the match with the League of Ireland XI marked the first time it played under the name of Euskal Selekzioa since the Spanish Civil War. The game was played amidst growing conflict within the Spanish state as it made its ‘transition to democracy’ in the post Franco era.
Euskal Selekzioa — The Civil War years
Euskal Selekzio was originally established in 1937 at the height of the Spanish Civil War by, amongst others, the Basque President, Antonio Aguirre, who played for Athletic Bilbao in the 1920s. Its purpose was to travel the world countering Fascist propaganda and to tell of the suffering of the Basque people.
Basque children at Stoneham refugee camp in England
In April 1937, Euzkal Selekzioa, kitted out in the colours of the Basque national flag of red, white and green, embarked on an exhaustive international tour that saw them play in France, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Norway, Denmark, the Soviet Union, Mexico, Cuba, Argentina and Chile.
Euskal Selekzioa, 1937
Ironically, the team’s first match of the tour, against Racing Club Paris, was played on 26th April 1937 — the day the German Condor Legion bombed the Basque town of Gernika, killing over 1,500 people and destroying the town. The team subsequently helped to raise funds during its tour for Basque refugee children forced to flee the country following the bombing.
By 1939 the civil war had ended and so commenced an almost 40 year dictatorship. During the early years of the dictatorship Franco’s mission was to consolidate power and create one ‘unified Spanish nation’ with the purpose of crushing any aspirations that the Basques had towards independence. In order to achieve this he set out to destroy all non-Castilian forms of language and culture.
In the Basque Country this meant that the public use of the Basque language, Euskera, and the teaching of it in schools was banned; Basque cultural societies and language publications were suppressed and a decree was passed requiring the Spanish translation of all Basque names into the civil registries and the removal of inscriptions in Euskera from gravestones. Public displays of the Basque national flag, the Ikurriña, were also prohibited.
Gernika in the aftermath of the bombing by the German Condor Legion
In 1941, the Basque Country’s most successful football club, Athletic Bilbao, founded in 1898 by a combination of Basque students who had returned from studying in England and miners and ship yard workers who had migrated to Bilbao from the north of England, was forced to change its name to the Spanish variant ‘Atletico’ Bilbao. Meanwhile, Euskal Selekzioa was effectively banned, playing just twice between 1939 and 1975.
The re-establishment of Euskal Selekzioa and an invite to Ireland
In 1979 Euskal Selekzioa was re-established and the League of Ireland was invited to send a team to play in Bilbao. The invitation was accepted and it was agreed to send a League of Ireland XI to play at San Mames stadium in August, after which the Irish side would travel to Seville for a two match tournament. However, the decision to accept the invitation met with some controversy and was dismissed as a “mission of high folly” by some in the Irish media.
Irish Times sports journalist, Peter Byrne, criticised the decision to accept the invitation given that the League was committed to a pre-season friendly with English League champions Liverpool, while the League of Ireland champions Dundalk were preparing for a European Cup encounter with Linfield at the end of August. With Johnny Giles preparing the League of Ireland team for the Liverpool game, it was initially proposed that Dundalk manager Jim McLaughlin would take charge of a ‘B’ selection for the trip to the Basque Country.
However, Dundalk refused to release McLaughlin, or any of its players for the tour, and Bohemians manager, Billy Young, was given the task instead. Notwithstanding the difficulties presented to him, Young was credited with selecting a side that ‘mixed experience and youth’ and which included four full internationals.
The Basque Selection that faced the Irish side in San Mames , 1979
The Basque side was jointly managed by Jesus Garay and Andoni Elizondo, both of whom had long and successful careers with the two big Basque clubs, Athletic Bilbao and Real Sociedad respectively. They selected a strong squad comprising players drawn primarily from their two former clubs. One of the other Basque clubs, Osasuna, refused to allow its players participate, on the grounds that it did not wish to enter, what it termed, the arena of politics.
As preparations for the match were being made, politically the Spanish state was going through a protracted period of political and social conflict during its ‘transition to democracy’. 1979 proved to be one of the most intense years of that conflict.
1979: The Basque ‘Year of Lead’
The ‘transition’ was a deeply contested process involving the creation of a new constitution and proposed Statutes of Autonomy for the Spanish state’s ‘nationalities and regions.’ However, the new Constitution, was based on ‘the indissoluble unity of the Spanish Nation, the common and indivisible homeland of all Spaniards’ and many in the Basque Country were opposed to a process that fell far short of full independence.
This opposition manifested in an escalation of actions by the armed group ETA — Euskadi Ta Askatsuna (Basque Homeland and Freedom). ETA was founded in 1959 and by 1974 had split into two distinct organisations. While both wings remained committed to armed struggle, ETApm (politico-militar) favoured the building of a mass base through a unified political and military strategy, whereas ETAm (militar), while acknowledging the need to build a mass base, proposed to continue operating as a separate clandestine armed group.
Members of ETAm, 1970s
In its 1979 New Year statement ETAm announced that it was launching a campaign against the Spanish military hierarchy. Days later the organisation shot dead the military governor of Madrid. On 25th May, the organisation carried out one of the most audacious attacks in its history. The day before Spanish Armed Forces Day was due to take place ETAm ambushed a car as it drove towards the Spanish army headquarters in Madrid, killing all of its occupants — a Spanish army general, two colonels and their military driver.
Amongst those killed was General Gomez Hortiguela, who had been decorated by Franco for his service during the civil war and was the most senior military officer killed by ETA. The attack was described in the Irish Press as “timely, planned and cleanly carried out.” The attack forced the cancellation of the Armed Forces Day. On the day of the funerals, where those in attendance gave the fascist salute, repeatedly chanted Franco’s name and called for the return of a military dictatorship, a bomb exploded at a café in Madrid frequented by members of the fascist New Force Party, whose headquarters was close by, killing eight people.
Aftermath of the ETAm ambush of General Gomez Hortiguela in Madrid
In the summer of 1979 ETApm launched a bombing campaign targeting Spanish holiday resorts to put pressure on the Spanish government to improve the conditions of 100 ETApm prisoners being held at a prison in Soria, north of Madrid and their ultimate transfer back to the Basque Country. Following a weekend in which eight bombs exploded at holiday resorts in Benidorm, Fuengirola and Marbella, the Irish Independent reported that “sunny Spain” was quickly being turned into a “Belfast in the sun!”
In mid-July ETApm entered negotiations with the Spanish government and suspended its bombing campaign, however following the government’s reneging of the deal agreed, the campaign resumed, with tragic consequences. On 30 July, five civilians were killed in bomb attacks at Madrid airport and at an underground railway station. Several days later ETApm issued a statement regretting the deaths and announcing an end to its bombing campaign. Several years later, it negotiated individual pardons for its remaining imprisoned members and dissolved the organisation.
The football match was due to take place on 16th August during the week of the annual Bilbao festival, Aste Nagusia (Big Week). In a series of gun attacks in the days leading up to the game ETAm shot dead four members of the police and Guardia Civil in Bilbao. Two police men were shot dead in the district of Elorrieta, a member of the Guardia Civil was shot near Bilbao airport, while in the Bilbao neighbourhood of Portugalete a policeman was shot.
Following the shootings ETA issued a statement vowing to continue its armed struggle until the Spanish government agreed to an immediate amnesty for Basque prisoners, the legalisation of all political parties, the removal of Spanish armed forces and police from the Basque Country and the adoption of Euskera as the official language of the Basque Country.
On the social level, on 12th August, over 30,000 people marched to the site of a proposed nuclear plant at Lemoniz, a coastal town 25 miles north of Bilbao, demanding its closure. Earlier that summer, a young woman from San Sebastian, Gladis del Estal Terreno, aged 24, had been shot dead by a member of the Guardia Civil at a protest in Navarre opposing the Lemoniz site.
Tribute to Gladis del Estal Terreno
It was reported that after remonstrating with a member of the Guardia Civil who had struck Terreno with the butt of his rifle, he loaded the gun and shot her in the head. In the aftermath of her killing there was serious rioting in all of the main Basque cities and the following week ETAm planted a bomb at the site in Lemoniz, killing one of the workers. Efforts to build the plant were finally abandoned in 1984.
A victory for Euskal Selekzioa
As the political temperature was rising considerably, it was no surprise that such an important historic occasion for Basques would have a strong political element. The match itself was organised in order to raise funds for Bai Euskarari (Yes to the Basque language), a campaign dedicated to the promotion of the Basque language, which had been banned throughout the Franco dictatorship. Forty thousand fans packed into San Mames in what was described as a carnival atmosphere. Surviving members of the Basque national team, who had travelled the world in the 1930s raising funds for refugee children following the bombing of Gernika, were presented to the crowd before the match and fans were entertained with traditional Basque music and dance.
The match was kicked off by two of the surviving members of the Civil War era team. However, plans to sing the Basque anthem, Gernikako Arbola (The Tree of Gernika) which given the links the match had to that seminal event in Basque history, was specifically chosen for the occasion, were scuppered by the governor of the province of Bizkaia, who banned its playing. The mayors of the four Basque provincial capitals of the southern Basque Country, who were seated in the Presidential box, left in disgust and sat elsewhere in the stadium.
Bilbao Festival, 1979
There was a lively atmosphere throughout. The Ikurriña was on prominent display throughout the stadium and there were frequent chants calling for amnesty for Basque political prisoners and independence for the Basque Country. It was reported that the biggest cheer of the game was reserved for José Angel Iribar, the legendary Athletic Bilbao goalkeeper and captain of the club. Iribar, a founding member of the pro- Basque independence left political party Herri Batasuna, entered Basque legend when as captain of Athletic he carried the banned Ikurriña with the captain of Real Sociedad during a derby match between the two Basque clubs in 1977. While Iribar was being substituted late in the first half, chants of “Como Iribar, no hay ninguno. Iribaer, Iribar conjonudo” (“There is only one Iribar. Iribar, Iribar, he is fucking great”) rang around the stadium.
Jose Angel Iribar carrying the banned Ikirruna in 1977
Euskal Selekzioa won the match comfortably by four goals to one. The Irish side’s only goal was scored by 17 year old Ronnie Whelan, who on his return to Ireland left his club Home Farm and signed a contract with Liverpool, where he went on to have a hugely successful career winning six English First Division titles and a European Cup. Following the game José Angel Iribar, captain of the Basque team, was presented with the trophy and it was estimated that up to 10 million pesetas was raised for the Bai Euskarari campaign.
It was the year the Pope arrived at Phoenix Park to over 1.25 million people.
There was more strife as the Troubles continued, north and south of the border. Over half a million was lost to the exchequer in industrial action. The punt left the sterling and joined the European Monetary system. Jack Lynch resigned to be followed by Charles Haughey and a group from Dublin rode high in the charts complaining about Mondays. 1979 was that year.
Also in 1979, in a northern bolt hold of Spain - Bilbao to be exact - a small band of Ireland’s best, a select XI would play a game of football against a select Basque XI. But what was so special about that game?
Well, it wasn’t the Spanish national football team, but the unofficial national team of the Basque Country (Euskadiko Futbal Federakundea). It was a game that is still remembered today some 38 years later, for the significance was far more than a game of football.
For Spain, it was a time of great upheaval, slowly emerging out of 45 years of dictatorship under ‘Francoismo’.
Franco’s rule in Spain had left an indelible mark on the psyche of the people. Spain, like Ireland was in state of flux, no more so than the newly autonomous regions of the Basque Country, Cataluña, Galicia and Valencia, all
unified by a unique language and culture.
Top row, left to right: Arkonada, Villa, Alesanco, Zelaieta, Eskalza, Kortabarria, Iribar.
Bottom row: Zamora, Satrustegi, Dani, Alonso and Txetxu Rojo
Democracy was fragile, the restoration of the King and open elections proved controversial, no more so than the Basque Country, where in 1979 they voted out of the constitution and elections recognising neither the King or the
national parliament in Madrid. To compound things further the Basque national football federation decided to hold its first autonomous football match.
It seemed only natural that they would reach out across the Bay of Biscay to its northern brethren in Ireland to come and participate in that first game. Ireland dutifully accepted and on August 16th, the League of Ireland select XI travelled to Bilbao and in front of a capacity crowd at the Athletic Bilbao’s San Mames Stadium they took their place in history.
For Pat Nolan, the occasion took on an extra, and sadly, poignant significance. In August of 1979, shortly before the team left for Spain, Pat’s father passed away. He told Pat that it was vital he went. He made the journey and was determined to make the game matter.
"I know some of the lads also felt the same way, but we didn’t take this game lightly. We weren’t going there just to make up the numbers," he says.
A Limerick United regular, Pat Nolan would turn out for a select League of Ireland XI on a number of occasions, notably against Maradona in '82 and the great Brazilian side of the early eighties.
"Back then it wasn’t much fuss. You’d get the phone call from the FAI to tell you’d been selected and the next thing you’re going to wherever," he tells me.
"Looking back I didn’t really appreciate the significance of this game. I was 23 at the time. I do now"
What greeted Pat Nolan was wall of noise, he also recalls the warm reception that he and his teammates received
once in Bilbao.
"I remember looking at our Captain Johnny Fulham as we scanned the stadium and it was literally a wall of green and red. It was surreal, then they began to sing the Basque national anthem."
The national anthem proved to be something of a moot point. Joseba Gotzon is a local football historian from Bilbao. He tells me that the occasion meant a lot to the Basques and especially that it was against Ireland: "We have a kind of kindred unity with the Irish, call it historical and of course political."
Johnny Walsh's commemorative plaque of the game
The politics he refers to was brought into sharp focus once the national anthem started playing - the Spanish national anthem that was.
"The head of the Basque National Federation was Carlos Garkotxea. He was Navarrese. He took exception to
the fact the crowd started booing the national anthem and with that he got out of his seat, said nothing and left the VIP box, never to return."
It didn’t help maters either that shortly before the game - five minutes before to be precise there was a "bomb" threat and for a moment confusion ensued.
"Word had come through that there was a possible bomb left inside the stadium, but most ignored it and carried
on singing the Basque national anthem’," says Gotzon.
Today things like this would be unheard of, even the slightest hint of a terrorist threat (The nascent Basque separatists ETA were only then making their presence felt) would be cause for alarm and an evacuation. For Pat Nolan, he sensed nothing was amiss: "There was whistling and I remember a load of fireworks. I recall some of the lads were just smiling, but it felt more of a carnival atmosphere than anything else."
General view of the new San Mames Stadium. Picture by Adam Davy EMPICS Sport
The Game
Ireland’s team consisted mostly of the League’s best at that time, some notable names, but most were taken from Bohemians, Sligo, Dundalk and Shamrock Rovers. There was a spot for the then little unknown Ronnie Whelan who was playing for Home Farm at the time. He would play again a few days later against a Liverpool XI in Dublin, enough it seems for Bob Paisley to be impressed to sign the young man a few months later. The manager was Billy Young who had overseen the bulk of the League’s select XI. However, his opponents were the cream of the
region making up the two power house clubs of Athletic Bilbao and Real Sociedad.
"The Euskadiko Selekzioa was a great honour so the competition was fierce," claims Joseba Gotzon.
"We had some very notable players at that time. There was the captain Jose Angel Iribar, Dani, Villa and Satrusegi and others. These players would go on to be capped many times for Spain also and appear in the World Cup in 1982."
Also in the team would be the father of the current Spanish International and ex-Liverpool, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich player Xabi Alonso, Miguel Alonso.
"The game started badly for us, we were down 2-0 after 20 minutes and staring at a possible humiliation, and then Ronnie got one back," says Nolan.
José Angel Iribar, Sánchez Arminio and Johnny Fulham. Image by Carlos Extabe
"We hung in there and of course we couldn’t play them off the park, we held our own".
Into the second half the Basques added two more as Dani scored his second to make the score in the end 4-1 to the Basques. What Nolan recalls is something that today would be seen as something paradoxical when I
mentioned it to him.
"We wore blue shirts that day, Marcus, with a big Shamrock crest". Having studied history, I pointed out to Pat, "You know the last time Irishmen wore blue in Spain was under Eoin O’Duffy, under his infamous Blueshirts and it was he who was supporting Franco’s forces in 1937."
The strange vagaries of history is what makes for good drama and here their were a plenty and Ireland have
never played in a blue strip before or since. Having left the field to an ovation Pat Nolan recalls the reception afterwards: "We were ushered into a massive function hall by the Mayor and we were given a silver plate, to celebrate the game. Sometimes I could punch myself because I don’t have it or any mementos from other games."
The plaque still stands in proud of place however in the home of Johnny Walsh. The legacy of the game is still remembered by most. I go into an Athletic Bilbao bar opposite the San Mames stadium and start to chat
with some of the locals, one fanatical Athletic supporter begins to tell me how that game gave the region confidence and feeling of self-identity that was denied under Franco’s rule.
"It was brave of the Irish to come here," says one, "They obviously have their own problems, but we greatly appreciated it and to be honest it wasn’t more of a game of football but of a beginning of something."
Joseba Gotzon agrees: "We played Russia, Mexico and other teams after that, but the game against Ireland will always stand out as it was the first time we were Euskadiko Selezioa (Basque Selection)."
This stands today as a rule for those who play for both Athletic Bilbao and Real Sociedad choose the majority of players only from the Basque region, a way of preserving their identity and culture. For Nolan, although the souvenirs and the gala have all gone it’s the memories that will forever stand.
"I was talking to an old pal the other day and I said 'You can have all the caps, you can have all the medals, but if you don’t have the memories then you’ve got nothing."
Well this is one game that will live long in the memory. |
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