Bohemian Football Club
Also written as Bohemian FC, Bohemians.
The club
Bohemians were founded on 6 September 1890 at the Phoenix Park Gate Lodge in Dublin, by members of Bell's Academy, the Royal Hibernian Military School, medical students and others. They play at Dalymount Park in Phibsborough on the north side of the city, a ground that now holds 4,500. The club is owned outright by its members. The colours are red and black, adopted in 1894, and the club answers to Bohs, the Gypsies and Dublin's Originals. Their rivalry with Shamrock Rovers is the sharpest in Irish football. Since the 2010s Bohemians have made an explicit left-wing political identity part of the club's public character, working with Focus Ireland and Amnesty International among others.
Bohemians were founder members of the League of Ireland in 1921, having previously played in the all-Ireland Irish Football League. They remained strictly amateur until 1969.
Recent seasons
The League of Ireland runs on the calendar year. Bohemians finished second in 2020, fifth in 2021, sixth in 2022, sixth again in 2023, eighth in 2024 and fourth in 2025, in a Premier Division of ten clubs throughout.
The 2026 season has been considerably better. After 27 matches, updated to 9 August 2026, Bohemians were third with 44 points from 12 wins, 8 draws and 7 defeats, scoring 42 and conceding 31. Shamrock Rovers led on 54 and St Patrick's Athletic were second on 47. Bohemians also recorded the division's biggest away win of the season, 4-0 at Sligo Rovers on 14 February 2026, and its longest winning run, five matches, and longest unbeaten run, ten. The season's largest crowd was the 21,472 who watched Bohemians draw 0-0 with St Patrick's Athletic at the Aviva Stadium on 8 February 2026, a fixture the club moved out of Dalymount.
Honours and landmarks
Bohemians have won the League of Ireland eleven times, in 1923-24, 1927-28, 1929-30, 1933-34, 1935-36, 1974-75, 1977-78, 2000-01, 2002-03, 2008 and 2009. They have won the FAI Cup seven times, most recently in 2008, the League of Ireland Cup three times, the League of Ireland Shield six times and the Setanta Sports Cup in 2010. They won the all-Ireland Irish Cup in 1907-08. Their 33 Leinster Senior Cups are a record. They are the fourth most successful club in League of Ireland history, and the only club to have won all four domestic doubles available in Irish football.
The 2008 title was taken with 85 points and a 19-point winning margin, both records for a 33-game League of Ireland season. Evan Ferguson made his debut for the club at 14 years and 337 days, against Derry City on 20 September 2019, the youngest player Bohemians have fielded. Glen Crowe is the club's record league scorer with 133 goals; Tommy Kelly holds the appearance record with 575.
Notable scorelines
Record victory: 11-0 against Grangegorman in the Leinster Senior Cup final on 26 December 1946. Record league victory: 10-1 against University College Dublin at home on 16 August 2019. Record league defeat: 0-7 away to Shamrock Rovers on 5 February 1955. In the professional era the heaviest league defeat is 0-5 to St Patrick's Athletic on 6 December 1996.
European record
Bohemians first played in Europe in 1970. Across all UEFA competitions they have played 73 matches, winning 17, drawing 17 and losing 39, scoring 61 and conceding 123. They have beaten eleven different clubs from nine countries.
The result the club measures itself by is the elimination of Aberdeen from the UEFA Cup in August 2000, set up by a 2-1 win at Pittodrie in which Bohemians scored twice late to overturn a 1-0 deficit. It was the first time an Irish club had beaten British opposition away from home in Europe. They have also beaten Rangers, and won away at Kaiserslautern, and drawn with Rangers, Newcastle United, Sporting CP and Dundee United.
Their biggest European aggregate win came in the 2008 Intertoto Cup, 9-3 against Rhyl, including a 5-1 single-leg win, though they went out of that competition on away goals to Riga after winning the second leg 2-1. In the 2009-10 Champions League they drew 1-1 away to Red Bull Salzburg on 16 July 2009 and lost the home leg 1-0 on 22 July. The worst night of the modern era followed a year later: a 1-0 home win over The New Saints on 13 July 2010 was undone by a 4-0 defeat in Wales on 20 July, after which manager Pat Fenlon called the performance disgraceful.
In the 2021-22 Conference League, playing home ties at the Aviva Stadium, Bohemians beat Stjarnan 4-1 on aggregate and F91 Dudelange 4-0, both home legs finishing 3-0. In the third qualifying round they beat PAOK 2-1 in Dublin on 3 August 2021, Ali Coote scoring twice, then lost 2-0 in Thessaloniki on 12 August to go out 3-2. That 2021-22 campaign remains their fullest Conference League run: six matches, four won, one drawn, one lost.
Quotes
- "The past month has been a very special time for everyone involved with the club - players, staff and supporters." - Alan Reynolds, Bohemians manager, on the club website, 5 August 2026. https://bohemians.ie/preview-bohemians-v-fc-midtjylland/ - "We are facing a calibre of opposition our group of players has never faced before." - Alan Reynolds, Bohemians manager, on the club website, 5 August 2026. https://bohemians.ie/preview-bohemians-v-fc-midtjylland/ - "This will be a step up like no other for us. We have our own game-plan and have looked at ways we believe we can hurt them but they are a very, very good team." - Alan Reynolds, Bohemians manager, on the club website, 5 August 2026. https://bohemians.ie/preview-bohemians-v-fc-midtjylland/ - "We knew they would throw the kitchen sink at us and they did." - Alan Reynolds, Bohemians manager, on the penalty shootout win in Kosovo, on the club website, 5 August 2026. https://bohemians.ie/preview-bohemians-v-fc-midtjylland/ - "We will need the support we have had over the past number of weeks to continue and to be even louder still." - Alan Reynolds, Bohemians manager, on the club website, 5 August 2026. https://bohemians.ie/preview-bohemians-v-fc-midtjylland/
Right now (2026/27)
Alan Reynolds has managed Bohemians since March 2024. Dawson Devoy is the captain. The striker Paddy Madden, 36, rejoined the club this year, almost sixteen years after leaving it. Colm Whelan has eight league goals, level with Tommy Lonergan of Waterford and Harry Wood of Shelbourne. Douglas James-Taylor has been the club's scorer in Europe.
The European run is the longest Bohemians have had since 2021. In the first qualifying round of the Conference League they beat St Joseph's of Gibraltar 2-0 on aggregate, winning 2-0 at Dalymount Park on 9 July 2026 through a Douglas James-Taylor penalty on the hour and a Connor Parsons goal in stoppage time, then drawing 0-0 at Europa Sports Park on 16 July. In the second qualifying round they beat Ballkani. Bohemians won the home leg 2-1 on 22 July, James-Taylor scoring on 76 minutes and Ross Tierney at the death after Toni Domgjoni's penalty had put Ballkani ahead; they then lost 3-2 after extra time in Pristina on 30 July, James-Taylor again from the spot and Patrick Hickey on 88 minutes forcing the tie to 4-4, and won the shootout 5-4 with Colm Whelan, Dawson Devoy, Cian Byrne, Dayle Rooney and Jordan Flores all converting.
They are now in the third qualifying round against Midtjylland, and the tie has gone badly. Bohemians lost the first leg 2-0 at home on Thursday 6 August 2026, played at Tallaght Stadium rather than Dalymount Park, before a crowd of 6,085. Franculino Djú scored on 28 minutes and Valdemar Byskov on 77. The second leg is at the MCH Arena in Herning on Thursday 13 August 2026, with Matteo Marcenaro of Italy refereeing. The winners play the winners of Rijeka against Ilves in the play-off round on 20 and 27 August.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohemian_F.C. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_League_of_Ireland_Premier_Division https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:2026_League_of_Ireland_Premier_Division_table https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_UEFA_Conference_League_qualifying_(first_and_second_round_matches) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_UEFA_Conference_League_qualifying_(third_and_play-off_round_matches) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_UEFA_Conference_League_qualifying https://bohemians.ie/preview-bohemians-v-fc-midtjylland/ https://bohemians.ie/striker-paddy-madden-returns-to-dalymount-park/
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.