Monday 2 May
BBC One Northern Ireland, 10.40pm
Also on BBC iPlayer
East Belfast, in the past a place of industry and from where some music and sporting greats hail, played a key part in promoting the city on the world stage.
The terraced streets of east Belfast were also home to a close-knit working-class community and the less familiar story of Glentoran Football Club and its battle against the odds to be crowned Europe’s first champions.
In Belfast's Victory in Vienna: A Footballing Odyssey, presenter Holly Hamilton and author - and lifelong Glens fan - Sam Robinson who wrote "One Saturday Before The War" (the definitive account of the squad and its achievements) explore the fascinating story of the 1914 football team who won the inaugural Vienna cup.
Holly Hamilton with the Vienna Cup
In 1914 Glentoran - a group of part time footballers working men who worked in the city’s shipyards and- were one of the most successful teams in Ireland.
On the eve of World War One, the team left home to play in a tournament against Europe’s leading football teams. Most had never left these shores before this once-in-a-lifetime trip to Vienna, the cultural and entertainment capital of Europe.
Over one hundred years later, Holly and Sam retrace this incredible journey and explore how nothing, from an infamous pub crawl to a missing goalkeeper, would stand in their way of lifting what was arguably the first European Cup.
Glentoran’s tale of the underdog going all the way in Europe’s top competition barely registered in the newspapers of the day back in Belfast, but the Vienna Cup still has pride of place in the Oval’s board room.
The achievements of these men, some who then left Belfast for the trenches of World War One, remains an important part of the club’s history and folklore.
Belfast's Victory in Vienna: A Footballing Odyssey made by Clean Slate for BBC Northern Ireland, airs Monday 2 May at 10.40pm on BBC One Northern Ireland. Also available on BBC iPlayer.
Glentoran Chairman Stephen Henderson and Glentoran historian and author Sam Robinson with their hosts in Vienna
