'Tee-total Hibs, Hearts in the pub' - recalling the first Edinburgh derby as Christmas Day landmark looms

Neither does its placing halfway down a single column on page seven of The Scotsman suggest history had been made.

Nevertheless, it’s there. One of very few written accounts of the first match between Hearts and Hibs which took place on Christmas Day in Edinburgh 150 years ago.

“HIBERNIAN v. HEART OF MIDLOTHIAN. - Played in the East Meadows and resulted in a win for the Heart of Mid-Lothian of one goal to nothing. The Mid-Lothian played with three men short for the first twenty minutes. Cavanagh and Byrne played well for the Hibernian - J. Wylie and Laidlaw for the Mid-Lothian.”

A decent win for the Jambos (as they were certainly not known in 1875) considering they were missing three players at the start of the game. Why the trio were late is not explained, nor is the identity of the goalscorer revealed.

But the occasion is marked on the site of the game on Edinburgh’s south side. And so it should be. The information board at the start of Jawbone Walk, where the Meadows borders Melville Drive has, unfortunately, been plastered with posters and stickers but scrape away the detritus and some more details are revealed of this historic first derby.

Tee-total Hibs, Hearts in the pub

“Boys guarded the best of several pitches until kick-off while two sticks with a tape on top served as a goal,” it reads.

It adds that “tee-total Hibs donned their white shirts with the emblem of a harp in a local school”. Hearts, meanwhile, did not share this commitment to abstinence. They changed into their white strip - no change kits in 1875 - at Anderson’s Tavern in West Crosscauseway “where they no doubt also celebrated their victorious goal after the game which was watched by a crowd of hundreds”.

The fixture’s longevity is remarkable and perhaps beyond compare. In Auld Foes, an excellent history of the Edinburgh clubs published in 2023, author James Stephen describes it as “the world’s oldest football rivalry” and is mystified as to why more is not made of this.

It stretches to over 600 matches having begun in the Victorian age when Benjamin Disraeli was prime minister and Edinburgh-born Alexander Graham Bell was in the process of developing a sound-powered telephone.

The teams collide again at Easter Road on Saturday and no-one will be phoning it in. How could they? This is the match that matters more to the people of Edinburgh than any other, the ultimate adjudicator to decide who is the city’s top dog.

Hearts’ first captain is chased up Causewayside

Hearts are currently leading the Premiership, the first time they have occupied first place at Christmas since 1991, and they will remain there on Saturday evening regardless of the result in Leith. But how Hibs and their supporters would dearly love to puncture their oldest rivals’ title ambitions. A home win would be a fitting way to bring the curtain down on the club’s own 150th anniversary celebrations.

Hearts pre-date them, founded officially in 1874 although some make the claim it was actually a year earlier. Hibs’ arrival gave birth to the rivalry and it was something that benefited both sides, even if there were some early flashpoints. Tom Purdie, Hearts’ first captain, was chased to Causewayside by a “mob of roughs” after his team had beaten Hibs in the fourth replay of the 1878 Edinburgh Association Cup final at Powburn.

But both clubs soon came to realise that theirs was a symbiotic relationship.

“The formation of Hibernian Football Club in Edinburgh in 1875 was a good thing for Heart of Midlothian,” wrote Albert Mackie in his seminal club history, The Hearts, published in 1959. “It supplied that local competitive keenness which was necessary not only to draw supporting crowds, but also to raise the standard of play.”

Hibs’ early days were not easy, of course. Their roots were in the Cowgate area of Edinburgh, known then as Little Ireland because of the high number of Irish immigrants fleeing poverty and starvation at home. Born of the Catholic Young Men’s Society, the football club was founded jointly by Father Edward Hannan, a curate at St Patrick's Church in the Cowgate, and Michael Whelahan, who would become the first captain and whose great, great, great grand nephew, is Pat Stanton.

The Irish origins were made clear. They were named Hibernian, their badge was the harp and the motto Erin go Bragh (Ireland Forever).

Not well received in the city of John Knox

In the city of John Knox this was not well received in certain quarters and the newly founded Hibernian were not welcomed into the nascent Scottish football fraternity. It’s what makes the game on Christmas Day 1875 so important because not only was it the first derby, it was Hibs’ inaugural match.

Hearts, recognising the benefits of the rivalry, defied the authorities to play the game. The Edinburgh Football Association had rejected Hibs’ application for membership and so had the Scottish Football Association, which is reported to have said: “We are catering for Scotsmen, not Irishmen.”

Clubs were advised not to play against the Irish newcomers but Hearts ignored the advice and became Hibs’ unlikely allies.

Interestingly, that first derby took place on Christmas Day which at that time was still a working day in Scotland. In The Scotsman of December 27, 1875, the same edition that contains the 47-word match report, an editorial notes that: “Christmas Day seems to have been observed all over England with a good deal of festivity, and even in Scotland this desire to make it a holiday was perhaps more marked than hitherto.”

The wait went on for a few more decades. It wasn’t until 1958 that Christmas Day was made a public holiday in Scotland, another legacy of Knox, perhaps.

Long after that football continued to be played in Scotland on Christmas Day when it fell on a Saturday, as had been the case in 1875.

That first derby remains a pivotal moment in the history of both clubs and 150 years on, the rivalry remains as vibrant as ever.