1 July 2026; Participants in action during the FAI Girls' National Pathways Programme at the FAI National Training Centre in Dublin. Photo by Shauna Clinton/Sportsfile
Dundalk feel like Dundalk again, after everything that’s happened over the last eight years that’s a result
James Callan, Columnist
If somebody had walked into the Lilywhite Lounge twelve months ago and suggested Dundalk would be sitting in the European places by the following summer, they’d probably have been laughed straight back out onto Carrick Road.
At that point, survival felt ambitious enough.The club had just been relegated for the first time in 16 years. Ownership uncertainty had become part of everyday conversation. Financial concerns were overshadowing football.
Supporters who’d spent years discussing flights to the Netherlands and Israel suddenly found themselves talking about licences, debts and whether the club could simply recover.
And yet here Dundalk are. Halfway through their first season back in the Premier Division, Ciarán Kilduff’s side have spent much of the year looking upwards rather than over their shoulder. Wins away to Shelbourne at Tolka Park and Bohemians at Dalymount have pushed them firmly into the European conversation.
Daryl Horgan has rolled back the years. Gbemi Arubi has emerged as one of the league’s breakout players. Eoin Kenny looks increasingly like a player capable of producing moments of magic (that Dalymount goal is evidence enough of that), while Tyreke Wilson seems to score a Goal of the Season contender every other week.
Nobody around Oriel is booking flights just yet. But they’re talking about them. And after the past two years of trouble and turmoil, that feels significant enough.
The Tolka win probably felt like the moment people started believing. Shelbourne had been champions. Tolka had reopened its Drumcondra Stand. Dundalk went there and won 3-2 in a game that felt chaotic, emotional and completely unlike something a newly promoted side was supposed to do.
Afterwards, Kilduff said his team were “on a good trajectory”. It wasn’t exactly Shakespeare, but it summed up the mood perfectly.
There was also Dalymount. Dundalk went behind early, lost Danny Mullen to injury, finished the game with 10 men and still won 2-1. Eoin Kenny’s winner, cutting inside and finding the top corner, was one of those goals that makes an away terrace briefly forget how to breathe.
The result moved Dundalk above Bohemians and into third place. The travelling support probably needed a minute or two to process it themselves. Some of them are possibly still watching replays.
19 June 2026; Aodh Dervin of Dundalk celebrates after the SSE Airtricity Men’s Premier Division match between Bohemians and Dundalk at Dalymount Park in Dublin. Photo by Ben McShane/Sportsfile
The funny thing is that Dundalk haven’t really behaved like a promoted team all year. They’ve scored five against Waterford. They’ve beaten sides expected to finish above them.
Nicked points off the champions on opening night. They’ve spent much of the season in the top half of the table. The squad isn’t particularly large, the budget isn’t among the division’s biggest and injuries have often left Kilduff with limited options, but they keep finding solutions.
Maybe that’s because this group has never really carried the fear that often follows relegation.
Daryl Horgan deserves enormous credit for that. At 33, he could easily have left. Plenty of players would have. Instead, he stayed through relegation, won promotion and has become the heartbeat of the side once again. His goals, assists and leadership have helped drag the club forward, while younger players openly talk about his influence in the dressing room. Aodh Dervin recently admitted that conversations with Horgan convinced him to stay at the club during the uncertainty.
Then there’s Arubi. Every successful Dundalk side seems to discover a player supporters quickly adopt as their own, and Arubi feels like this team’s version. Direct, fearless and improving almost weekly, he’s already attracted attention beyond Oriel Park.
Alongside him, Eoin Kenny looks increasingly like one of the league’s brightest young forwards. After the Dalymount win, Kilduff said he believed Kenny could eventually become a senior international. That’s not the sort of prediction managers throw around lightly.
And maybe that’s where the biggest surprise lies.
Nobody expected Dundalk to be talking about Europe this quickly.
Rewind 18 months and none of this looked particularly likely. Relegation in 2024 ended 16 straight years in the Premier Division. The football almost became secondary by that stage. There were ownership questions, financial concerns and enough uncertainty around the place that supporters weren’t really talking about league tables anymore.
That’s probably why this season has felt so refreshing.
For the first time in a while, people are talking about football again. They’re talking about Eoin Kenny’s finish at Dalymount. They’re talking about Tyreke Wilson producing another ridiculous strike. They’re talking about Arubi’s next move and whether Horgan has somehow discovered the fountain of youth somewhere around Blackrock.
Most importantly, they’re talking about Europe.
That’s what makes Kilduff’s role in all of this feel so fitting. He knows exactly what those Thursday nights meant because he lived them. He scored one of the biggest goals in the club’s history in Alkmaar and played in the side that convinced an entire town that European football wasn’t some distant dream.
Now he’s the one trying to guide Dundalk back towards those same conversations.
Nobody around Oriel is asking this side to become the 2016 team. That wouldn’t be fair on anyone. Robbie Benson isn’t walking through the gates. Richie Towell isn’t appearing out of nowhere and Stephen Kenny isn’t about to stroll back down the touchline, maybe for St. Pats but not for the County Louth side.
You can’t recreate one of the greatest teams Irish football has produced simply because supporters would quite like it to happen.
But this group has given people something they probably didn’t expect this quickly: belief.
Not that Dundalk are suddenly going to win the league or find themselves back in a European group stage next autumn. Just belief that the club is heading somewhere again.
Maybe that’s what being ‘back where they belong’ actually means. Not Europe itself. Not league positions. Not even trophies. Just supporters leaving Oriel arguing about possible away trips rather than whether the owner can keep the lights on.
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As the crowd drifts out onto Carrick Road after another summer evening this season, the conversations sound familiar again. Somebody mentions flights. Somebody starts looking at qualifying rounds. Somebody warns everyone not to get carried away. Nobody pays much attention.
After everything the club has been through, that might be the healthiest sign of all. A year ago, people around Oriel weren’t talking about Europe. They were talking about survival. Not the usual relegation kind. The Survival kind.
Now they’re checking coefficients, convincing themselves that booking annual leave in July is perfectly sensible behaviour and wondering whether they should renew the passport just in case.
Maybe Europe arrives this season. Maybe it doesn’t. But Dundalk feel like Dundalk again, and after everything that’s happened over the past couple of years, that might be the biggest result of all.
It’s Friday, so it’s League of Ireland duo of Darryl Geraghty and editor Cathal Dervan discussing all the news from around the league while looking forward to this weekend’s action.
Check our socials later (X here or insta here) to get the latest from the World Cup giraffes!
The key stories developing today
Premier Division leaders Shamrock Rovers have made another swoop on UCD with teenager Sean Murphy joining the likes of Adam Brennan, Luke O’Regan, Neil Farrugia and Liam Scales to Tallaght from Belfield.
Rovers boss Stephen Bradley told the Irish Sun: “Seán has been on our radar for some time. I saw him play for his school team some time back and kept tabs on him. Also Ronan Finn, during his time with UCD knew Seán quite well from training with him. So he’s one we’ve been really keen on for a while and Ronan has worked really hard to make it happen.”
European football chiefs won’t follow the example set by FIFA boss Gianni Infantino and red card players who cover their mouths in confrontations with opponents.
UEFA confirmed to the BBC on Thursday that they will not take up the option to use the law in the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League. The law change was the brainchild of Fifa president Gianni Infantino and was approved by the International Football Association Board (Ifab) in April.
The Lopes family are back in Miami as son Pico prepares to face Lionel Messi and Argentina in the World Cup round of 32 on Friday night - and proud mum Judie has told the Irish Independent that her son is ready for whatever comes his way at the Hard Rock Stadium.
Speaking before they left Dublin Airport on Thursday afternoon, Judie said: “He’s looking forward to it. He’s played against some of the best players in the world up to this as well.”
Manager John Caulfield has made it a hat-trick of new signings with a move for winger Dylan Connolly from Irish League side Glentoran, just a day after goalkeeper Connor Gleeson and defender Leigh Kavanagh moved to Terryland Park.
Now 31, the experienced Connolly has played with Shelbourne, Dundalk, Bohemians, Ipswich, Bray Wanderers, Wimbledon, Bradford, St Mirren, Northampton and Morecambe.
Veteran defender Trevor Clarke has left Shamrock Rovers for European chasing Dundalk after getting little or no game time all season with the champions.
Clarke, who played for Rovers early in his career before moves to Bristol Rovers and Rotherham United, could make his debut in Friday night’s Premier Division fixture against Shelbourne at Tolka Park.
