Like several fellow early League of Ireland clubs, such as St James's Gate, Midland Athletic, Fordsons and Dundalk, Jacobs had their origins as a factory or works team.
[2] They remained active as a football club until at least the late 1960s, playing in the round of sixteen of the 1968–69 FAI Cup.
During the 1919–20 season, played against the background of the Irish War of Independence, a group of Jacobs players were found guilty of invading the dressing room of their opponents, Olympia, after a Leinster Senior Cup game.
[5] In 1921–22, together with Shelbourne, Bohemians, St James's Gate, Frankfort, Olympia, YMCA and Dublin United, Jacobs became founder members of the League of Ireland.
In the 1921–22 Leinster Senior Cup Jacobs were finalists, losing 1–0 to eventual treble winners, St James's Gate.