Mystery as Irish football found washed up on Welsh beach

While a football missing its intended target may be nothing new, an Anglesey family were surprised to find a ball washed up 80 miles from its home on the other side of the Irish Sea.

12-year-old Celyn was searching for driftwood on his local beach at Porth y Nant with his father, Andrew, when they made the discovery nestled between some rocks on Easter Sunday.

But suspecting it had been left behind by visitors, upon closer inspection they were shocked to see that emblazoned on the side was Finglas United Under-12s – a youth team based in a north western suburb of Dublin.

Andrew, 47, who runs a campsite nearby, said: “The beach is at the bottom of our fields at Pengraig and isn’t the easiest place to get to.

“I saw this football and booted it towards Celyn, only later realising where it had come from as it’s not somewhere you’d expect to see a ball.

“A google search later and we saw it belonged to a team in Dublin which was quite a shock and not what I expected.

“I wouldn’t like to think how long it had been in the sea…. we’ve found ropes and things like that washed up before but never a football.”

It is not known how the ball ended up in the Irish Sea, but Andrew said, “the ball is quite battered but was good enough for us to have a kickabout with”.

Finglas’ under-9s found success at a youth tournament in Blackpool over the weekend, and joked that “a bit of shooting practice” may be required for the under-12s group.

“There’s missing the target,” the club wrote on Facebook, “and then there’s the football ending up in Wales missing the target”.

Andrew added: “It’s had quite a response on Facebook, I’m sure its too battered for the club to use again but it would be nice to see it return home.”