Original, large single sheet soccer program for Belfast Celtic's first game on their tour of USA + Canada in 1949. This was for a game played in New York against a local select side:
This was the first ever tour to the USA by an Irish soccer side. This game caused significantly controversy back home in Belfast as the Belfast Celtic side paraded the Irish tricolour at the ground before the match.
More significantly, the tour marked the last hurrah of the great Belfast Celtic side as, despite being the most successful side in Irish soccer history, they withdrew from domestic football that summer following political crowd trouble at a game earlier in the season. Most expected their withdrawal would only be for a year or two but they never came back.
My favourite match worn shirt:
This is an Irish international soccer shirt from the 1920s, supplied to the team by the Athletic Stores in Belfast, a leading sports supplier of the era that still exists today. It is a heavy, woolen shirt. Until 1931, the Irish soccer side played in St Patrick's Blue rather than green.