lights were funded through what we would now refer to as crowd funding and inviting some of the bigger teams over. Initial notices suggested that the lights would be in place by September 1961, which was then extended to October and ultimately until February of 1962. In the words of Club Secretary Andy Kettle, as quoted by Ryan Clarke in his recent series on Dalymount, it also meant that Bohs could “invite many top clubs to Dublin from time to time”. The first of which ended up being Arsenal, though they weren’t first choice. But before these glamour matches could be paid Kettle had to deal with some level of internal dissent from Bohs members about the level of expenditure and even had to engage in a little bit of what might be termed “crowdfunding” in the modern parlance. Kettle elaborated in the Dublin Evening Mail that the club had “approached their bankers, the Munster and Leinster Bank, their members, players, traders, FAI and League of Ireland for financial assistance”, before adding “Bohs are keeping open their fund and will only be to happy to receive any further contributions. No matter how small…”The inaugural floodlit match saw Arsenal beat Bohemians 3-8. Dalymount's record attendance was put at 48,000, for an Irish international game against England on 19 May 1957. A similar crowd attended the first entry of an Irish team into the European Cup, when Shamrock Rovers played Manchester United in 1957. The record attendance at the venue for an FAI Cup Final is 45,000, achieved when Shamrock Rovers beat Bohs in 1945. The ground saw the international debuts of players such as Liam Brady, Johnny Giles and Denis Irwin. Decline However, by the 1980s, Dalymount had been sidelined by the more modern and larger Lansdowne Road rugby union ground for Irish football internationals. Parts of the ground had also become somewhat dilapidated, some of terracing was in bad shape – with grass growing on it in places – and one access route to the ground (behind the old "Tramway End") had been cut off completely. In February 1985, when Ireland played the then World Champions, Italy, at Dalymount Park, it was clear that the old ground could not accommodate the 40,000 or so spectators who turned up to see the game. Fans had to be passed down to the sidelines to avoid being crushed and serious questions were raised