Linfield Football Club is a professional football club based in Belfast, Northern Ireland, which plays in the NIFL Premiership – the highest level of the Northern Ireland Football League. The club was founded in 1886 as Linfield Athletic Club and in 1905 moved into their current home of Windsor Park, which is also the home of the Northern Ireland national team. The club's badge displays Windsor Castle, in reference to the ground's namesake.
Cliftonville Football & Athletic Club is a Northern Irish, semi-professional association football club playing in the NIFL Premiership – the top division of the Northern Ireland Football League. The club was founded in September 1879 by John McAlery in the suburb of Cliftonville in north Belfast. It is the oldest football club in Ireland and celebrated its 140th anniversary in 2019. Since 1890, the club has played home matches at Solitude. Cliftonville contests the North Belfast derby with nearby rivals Crusaders, and also has local rivalries with Linfield and Glentoran. The club has won the Irish League Premiership five times outright including one shared title, the Irish Cup eight times and the Irish League Cup five times.
Crusaders Football Club is a professional Northern Irish football club, playing in the NIFL Premiership. The club, founded in 1898, is based in north Belfast and plays its home matches at Seaview.
Moyola Park Association Football Club is an intermediate, Northern Irish football club playing in the NIFL Premier Intermediate League. The club, founded in 1880, hails from Castledawson, near Magherafelt, County Londonderry, and plays its home matches at the Mill Meadow, which has an artificial "3G" surface. Club colours are royal blue and yellow. They are currently managed by Mervyn Pattison. The club won the inaugural Irish Cup in 1881.
The Irish Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly referred to as the Irish Cup is the primary football knock-out cup competition in Northern Ireland. Inaugurated in 1881, it is the fourth-oldest national cup competition in the world. Prior to the break-away from the Irish Football Association by clubs from what would become the Irish Free State in 1921, the Irish Cup was the national cup competition for the whole of Ireland.
The Northern Ireland Football League Cup, also known colloquially as the Irish League Cup, is a national football knock-out cup competition in Northern Ireland open to all member clubs of the Northern Ireland Football League. It is the third-most prestigious competition in domestic Northern Irish football after the NIFL Premiership and Irish Cup. It should not be confused with the Irish League Floodlit Cup which ran from 1987–88 to 1997–98. Unlike the Irish Cup, the League Cup does not have a berth for UEFA Europa Conference League qualification. The cup has been operated by the Northern Ireland Football League since the 2013–14 season when it took over the administration from the Irish Football Association (IFA), after which the cup was renamed to the Northern Ireland Football League (NIFL) Cup.
Solitude is a football stadium in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is the oldest football stadium in Ireland, and the home ground of Ireland's oldest football club, Cliftonville. The stadium holds 6,224, but is currently restricted to 2,530 under safety legislation.
The Ireland national football team represented the island of Ireland in association football from 1882 until 1950. It was organised by the Irish Football Association (IFA), and is the fourth oldest international team in the world. It mainly played in the British Home Championship against England, Scotland and Wales. Though often vying with Wales to avoid the wooden spoon, Ireland did win the Championship in 1914, and shared it with England and Scotland in 1903.
CIYMS Hockey Club is a hockey club based at C.I.Y.M.S. Sports Club, Circular Road, Belfast. Home fixtures are played on a sand-filled artificial surface. The club was founded in 1896 as Cliftonville and was one of the founding members of the Ulster Hockey Union. The 1st XI currently plays in the Ulster Senior League. The first reported match was played against North Down at Comber in November 1896 where an eight-goal to nil loss was recorded. In 2018, the club changed its name to CIYMS.
Ulster Football Club is a defunct Irish association football club that was based in Ballynafeigh, Belfast. It was initially founded in 1877 as a rugby club, but later switched codes to association football. It was subsequently a founding member of the Irish Football League in 1890. The club later switched back to rugby and continued playing into the 1930s.
Cliftonville Cricket Club was a cricket club in Northern Ireland, playing in the NCU Senior League.
Ormeau Cricket Ground was a cricket ground in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The first recorded match on the ground was in 1867, when North of Ireland played an All-England Eleven in a non first-class match. In 1926, the ground hosted its first first-class match between Ireland and Wales. Eight further first-class matches have been played on the ground, the last of which was in 1999 between Ireland and Scotland. The first List A match held on the ground came in the 1996 NatWest Trophy between Ireland and Sussex, which resulted in a Sussex victory by 304 runs. The second and to date last List A match to be played there came in the 1999 NatWest Trophy when Ireland played the Essex Cricket Board, which Ireland won by 2 wickets. In 1987, the ground hosted a Women's One Day International between Ireland women and the Australia women, which resulted in a 110 run victory for Australia women.
The North Belfast derby is the name given to football matches between Cliftonville and Crusaders who play in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The two are separated by around 1.5 miles with Cliftonville based at Solitude on Cliftonville Road and Crusaders at Seaview on the Shore Road.
The Antrim Road is a major arterial route and area of housing and commerce that runs from inner city north Belfast to Dunadry, passing through Newtownabbey and Templepatrick. It forms part of the A6 road, a traffic route which links Belfast to Derry. It passes through the New Lodge, Newington and Glengormley areas of Northern Ireland amongst others.
Crumlin Star Football Club is an intermediate, Northern Irish association football club based in Belfast, and playing in the Premier Division of the Northern Amateur Football League. The club plays in black.
The 2013–14 NIFL Premiership was the sixth season of Northern Ireland's national football league in this format since its inception in 2008, the 113th season of Irish league football overall, and the first season of the league operating as part of the newly-created Northern Ireland Football League. The season began on 10 August 2013 and concluded on 26 April 2014.
The 2013–14 Northern Ireland Football League Cup was the 28th edition of Northern Ireland's secondary football knock-out cup competition, and the first season under the control of the Northern Ireland Football League. It was contested by the 12 members of the NIFL Premiership and the 30 members of the NIFL Championship. The competition began on 13 August 2013 and ended on 25 January 2014 with the final. The competition was without a principal sponsor up until the final, as Irn Bru ended their sponsorship following the conclusion of the 2012–13 competition. WASP Solutions became the Cup's new sponsor in January 2014.
The 1881–82 Irish Cup was the second edition of the premier knock-out cup competition in Irish football. The competition began in January 1882 with the first round and ended on 13 May 1882 with the final. Queen's Island won the tournament for the only time in their brief history, including eliminating the holders Moyola Park in the quarter-finals.
John McCredy McAlery was an Irish association football pioneer. His accomplishments include organizing the first ever properly organized football match in the history of Irish football in 1878, founding the first Irish football club in 1879, helping found the Irish Football Association in 1880, and wearing the captain's armband in Ireland's first ever international match in 1882. He is known as the "father of Irish association football."
William 'Bill' Morrow was an Irish footballer who played in the 1880s, most notably for Moyola Park. He was a winner of the inaugural Irish Cup and earned three caps for Ireland.
