The Finglas area underwent tremendous change during the late 1950’s and early 60’s when Dublin Corporation built upon the lands west of the North Road which at that time had belonged to the Fitzpatrick family of Kildonan House.
Unfortunately this increase in housing was not met with adequate services to cater of the rapidly growing population of the newly built West Finglas. There were none of the necessary amenities such as shops, schools and churches and many of the original tenants felt isolated and alienated on moving into the new estates.
The residents took things into their own hands and in 1962 formed the “West Finglas Tenants Association” or “WFTA” as it soon became known. The tenants association was the first one of its kind and soon became a massive organisation of local strength that gave the new residents an organisation through which they could air their grievances.
The association in time began organising various sports activities and was one of the founding members of the Community Games organisation. Through its sports section WFTA ran the "Road Leagues" and many people from the area will recall the very successful leagues that ran for the summer months and it was this level of interest that lead to the creation of the first teams for WFTA who eventually entered the schoolboys leagues during the 1966 to 67 season.
With Larry Watson, Tommy Conroy, Tommy Nolan, George Hubbard and Jack Lynch to name just a few of the men who started the football club under the association it became such a large part of the association during the 1970’s that the club had to break away from the tenants association and continue its work as an independent club.
While most people will associate Kildonan Road with the club, WFTA did not have use of Kildonan in its early days and those old enough to remember will recall sports and soccer being played on the area presently occupied by Coláiste Eoin and the Church on Cappagh Road. There are also many amusing tales of matches played in Dunsink Lane when a small caravan was used as a changing facility and had to be pulled from nearby Deanstown over to the pitches.
During the 70’s the club had teams in all age groups from under 12 upwards (there were no younger age groups back then) and many younger players played 3 or 4 years under 12’s before eventually playing in their own team so to speak. The 1977 to 78 season was a memorable one back then with league titles won by every age group from 12’s to 16’s while our 2nd & 3rd 12’s also won titles.
Unfortunately the club did not sustain this level of involvement within the community and in the early 80’s had only one or two teams in schoolboys football. If it wasn’t for the commitment of men like Paddy Doody, Paddy Costello and Eddie Christie the club may well have drifted out of schoolboys football.
With the lack of teams in the area the club revived the Road Leagues in 1983 and from 1983 on the club began to see some revival in schoolboys football in the Finglas West area.
Our present secretary John Fox, along with Ciaran “Gitsy” Gorman done some great work during the five years that the leagues were run and indeed some of our present managers began working in schoolboys football after becoming involved in the road leagues during the 80’s. Among them are Colin Mc Cowen who ran a very successful Mc Kelvey Celtic schoolboys side before eventually coming into WFTA.
The success of the revived road leagues was evident in the formation of new teams within the club and the 90’s brought many more successes and the club’s first premier division title arrived in 2000.
Recent League & Cup Successes Include
o National/S.F.A.I. Cup Finalists Under 13
o National/S.F.A.I. Cup Finalists Under 15
o National/S.F.A.I. Cup Under 16 Winners
o D.D.S.L. Under 16 Premier Winners
o D.D.S.L. Paul Mc Grath Cup Winners
o D.D.S.L. Under 17 Premier Winners
o F.A.I. Under 17 Cup Finalists
o D.D.S.L., Tab Cup Winners
o D.D.S.L., Under 18 Super Runners Up
o D.D.S.L., Thunder Cup Finalists
o Numerous 7 a Side trophies and awards, including overall
Fair Play award for small sided teams in 2001.
Club Crest
In 2009 the club commissioned a new crest to represent the club and the Finglas area.
After many different ideas and sketches thrown forward it was decided to use the “Raven” a well known symbol of the Finglas area within our crest.
Our new crest represents a modern version of a “Raven” in attack mode surrounded by a circle representing a football. This modern symbol we hope will in time become well known and recognised as representing the club and also the Finglas area.
