In the Beginning
Many different forms of football have been played in this country for hundreds of years. It is believed the game was first brought to these shores by the Romans who had adapted it from the Turks and Greeks, who themselves were influenced by the Chinese. Played under many different regulations, or codes, it wasn't until the College or Cambridge rules were devised in the 1840's and the Football League formed in 1863 that the game, as we know it today, was finally established.
In Scotland, Association Football, as it became known, was usually played only in the West of the country. In Edinburgh, Rugby was still the established game but in December 1873, a Queen's Park XI and a side called Clydesdale, acting as missionaries for the new code, played an exhibition game at Raimes Park, now Victoria Park in Leith, watched by a crowd of only a few hundred.
Many of those watching from the sidelines left to form their own teams and very soon several sprang up in the city playing under the new Association rules: Third Edinburgh Rifles; Hanover; Thistle; Brunswick St Bernard's; St Andrews; to name a few. Not long after, a group of young men from the Canongate and Cowgate area of the city, including Michael Whelehan and Malachy Byrne, formed their own team playing in their local park. The team was quickly taken under the wing of the Catholic Young Men's Society, or CYMS, which was based at the local St Patrick's Church in the Cowgate, who offered the Irishmen training and changing facilities. The local priest, Father Edward Hannan, was quick to recognise playing football was better for his young parishioners than drinking in the local pubs, and became, in effect, the team's first manager.
Formed by Catholic Irishmen or the descendents of Irishmen who had come to Edinburgh during the great Irish Potato Famines of the nineteenth century, Hibernian, as they were now known, were initially refused entry into the local Edinburgh Football Association and the Scottish Football Association because the club were not recognised as Scottish. After several unsuccessful attempts to gain entry, their persistence was eventually rewarded and they were allowed to join both associations in 1877, although they were prohibited from entering the Scottish Cup that first season. They were, however, allowed to enter the Edinburgh Cup competition.