Jimmy Jones

Jones scored three goals in the Irish League representative team which defeated the Football League 5–3 at Windsor Park in 1953, and played in three full international games for Northern Ireland, scoring once against Wales in Cardiff in the 1956 British Home Championship.

Belfast Celtic

Jones signed for Belfast Celtic in 1946 after playing football with Glenavon Juniors (the junior side of Irish League team Glenavon) in the Mid-Ulster League and Shankill Young Men in the Northern Amateur Football League. He was prolific at junior level, scoring 38 goals in 30 games for Glenavon Juniors and 50 goals in 30 games for Shankill Young Men. Jones made an immediate impact with Belfast Celtic. After spending his first season with the reserve side, he scored 62 goals in all competitions in the 1947–48 season for the senior side. Such was his ability that his club rejected a £16,000 offer from Newcastle United. During the following season, Jones had 27 goals from 19 games (including six hat-tricks), prior to an infamous match on Boxing Day 1948 with Linfield. At the end of the match, Linfield supporters invaded the pitch and Jones was chased onto terracing and stamped on until his leg was broken. Due to the outcry over this incident, Belfast Celtic resigned from the league at the end of the season and left football. Jones had surgery to save his leg (which left his right leg shorter than the left), but would not play again until March 1950. He was officially released from his Belfast Celtic contract on 1 March 1950, having scored 102 goals in 80 games. He signed for Irish Intermediate League side Larne on 5 March 1950. After just six days there, and prior to Larne's next match against Brantwood, he joined Fulham in the summer of 1950, where he…

Jones was born in his maternal grandmother's home in Keady, County Armagh, Northern Ireland, the only child of Thomas Jones, a police sergeant, and his wife Ellen (née Wilson). After education at Carrick Primary School and Lurgan Technical College, he served his apprenticeship as a mechanic, while making an impact as a footballer.

Jones met his wife, Cicely, at a badminton supper at his local church. Originally from County Kilkenny, she was training to be a nurse in Lurgan. They have two children, Jennifer and Trevor. Jones was also a dedicated motorcycle racer in summer and was seen regularly competing in the Ulster Grand Prix. Jones died on 13 February 2014, at the age of 85.