None of the players had ventured to leave the pavilion. A suggestion from Peter Nellies [the Hearts wing-half making his Scotland debut]that the bags containing the players’ uniform should be sent off and would help to throw dust in the eyes of those who waited to mob them, was quickly adopted.
The rumour spread that the Scottish players had been smuggled out of the ground by a back entrance. Thousands still waited around the principal thoroughfare in the hope of seeing the trouble through.
Apart from the incident that excited their passion at the close of the match, Dublin was disappointed. Ireland had not followed the humiliation of England by repeating the dose at the expense of Scotland.
What had actually happened in the interior of the pavilion? An undercurrent of suppressed excitement pervaded the Scottish officials who stood by the players – President A.M. Robertson, Vice-President Duncan Campbell, Treasurer Tom Steen, and two stalwart members of the R.I.C. guarded the person of Scotland’s left-winger.
A state of siege existed. For over an hour the players could not venture forth. They were arrayed in their football clothes. By and by they left in sections.
A plucky Irishman offered to exchange clothes with the Sheffield Wednesday left winger, who will remember to his dying day his experience at Dalymount Park. He [George Robertson] emerged in the company of the two R.I.C. men and the three S.F.A. officials. Wearing a soft hat, light trousers, and heavy overcoat, and sporting a walking-stick, the man who once delighted Motherwell football people managed to escape. His disguise was complete. The other man ran the gauntlet dressed in football pants, jersey and boots. About 150 policemen were about, and 1,000 people hanging around.
It was the intention of the officials to visit the Mater Infirmorum hospital, where the injured spectator had been conveyed. Instead, they drove to the Mountjoy Police Station and waited there for three-quarters of an hour until the Irish officials arrived on the scene, headed by Secretary John Ferguson, Mr Wilton of Derry, and Mr Tom Green, barrister, along with the injured youth, who is employed as an assistant in a local medical college.
Nothing more was heard of the affair. The Irish Council had quietly drawn up a legal agreement before they arrived, undertaking to compensate the aggrieved youth for any expenses or damage caused by his accident on the field of play.
The remnants of the team had got away from the ground safely, some of them driving with the Irish players. Frank Thompson, the Irish left winger, was hit on the jaw with an orange.
Ireland’s Frank Thompson
Four Belgian horses were attached to a brake that was followed all the way to the Metropole Hotel by a howling band. In the entrance hall where I awaited their arrival, I saw a big fellow I recognised among the ringleaders at Dalymount, prominent among those who savagely attacked John Walker before our eyes. The Swindon back doubled up in the hall, suffering acute pain. He had been kicked in the abdomen. A red mark on the brow testified to the strength of a blow aimed at his face. Brownlie, [Robert] Mercer and some others shook with excitement as they fought their way to safety.
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