December 11 1923
A meeting of the council of the IFA was held in the rooms last evening to discuss a letter from the Free State Association relative to certain proposals said to have been left in abeyance at the recent Liverpool conference between the two bodies.
The matter gave rise to considerable discussion, and Mr RS Holland (Derry) stated that in his opinion whatever could be done to bring about friendly relations between the two associations should be done at once. In his opinion the matters mentioned by the Free State FA, as left over by the Liverpool conference, should not be considered, but the conference should be held to discuss the situation broadly if the council thought it would benefit the game in Ireland.
Eventually Mr James H Small moved, and Mr F Russell seconded, that the letter of the Free State Association be acknowledged, and that the latter body should be notified that in the opinion of the IFA council there were no matters left in abeyance at the recent conference, but that if the Free State FA were anxious to meet the Irish Football Association they were prepared to discuss any matters which would assist the game in Ireland.
Meetings were held between the IFA and the FAI (known as the Football Association of the Irish Free State from 1923 to 1937) to re-unify soccer in Ireland yet again. Although efforts in 1924 and 1932 came close to healing the division, the barriers remained, and governance of soccer is still divided on the island.
The Nobel Awards – Mr WB Yeats Receives his Prize at Hands of King of Sweden
The King attended the ceremony of awarding the Nobel Prizes today. The 1922 and 1923 prizes for medicine were awarded on this occasion, and were both divided into two shares. Four out of seven recipients were present, including Dr Hill, of London, medicine, 1922, and Mr WB Yeats, literature. Prince William presided over a subsequent banquet.
WB Yeats, on receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923, became the first Irish recipient of the award. He was followed by George Bernard Shaw, Samuel Beckett and Seamus Heaney.
Bookmaker’s Clerk Sentenced to a Month for Assault
At the Dublin Police Court yesterday, Michael Doyle, a bookmaker’s clerk, was charged with having assaulted Mrs O’Neill, policewoman, by striking her a blow with his clenched fist on the head in Parnell Street on Saturday night last. Mrs O’Neill stated while in company with Policewoman Watters, the accused spoke to them and used obscene and insulting expressions. He then struck witness a blow of his clenched fist on the head.
There were just a handful of policewomen in the Irish Free State at its foundation, with the regular recruitment of women police or “Ban Gardaí” only beginning from the late 1950s onwards.