Watching and playing sports is an important part of culture in Belfast, Northern Ireland where almost six out of ten (59%) of the adult population regularly participate in one or more sports.[1] Belfast has several notable sports teams playing a diverse variety of sports including football (Windsor Park being the home of the Northern Ireland national football team as well as Linfield F.C.), rugby (including at Ravenhill's Kingspan Stadium, home of former European champions Ulster Rugby), traditional Irish Gaelic games, and North American sports such as American football and ice hockey (at the SSE Arena where the multiple time Elite Ice Hockey League champion Belfast Giants are based.
The Belfast Marathon is run annually on May Day, and attracted 14,300 participants in 2007.[2] Cycling, triathlon and athletics are also popular as both participation and spectator sports, with the first two stages of the 2014 Giro d'Italia starting from Belfast City Centre, and the annual high profile Belfast International Cross Country event being held in the grounds of Stormont Castle every year until 2009. The Stormont Estate is also one of the four home grounds for the Ireland cricket team, alongside Bready, Malahide and Clontarf, and also hosts the Northern Cricket Union provincial teams.
The Northern Ireland national football team, ranked 54th in the February 2019 FIFA World Rankings[3] plays its home matches at Windsor Park. Belfast was the home town of the renowned Northern Irish footballer, George Best who died in November 2005. On the day he was buried in the city, 100,000 people lined the route from his home on the Cregagh Road to Roselawn cemetery.[4] Since his death the City Airport has been named after him and a trust has been set up to fund a memorial to him in the city centre.[5]
Notable defunct clubs include Belfast Celtic F.C., one of the most successful teams in Ireland until it withdrew permanently from the Irish League in 1949. The club was refounded in 2019 when Sport & Leisure Swifts F.C. rebranded.
The Ulster Reform Club is historically linked to billiards in Belfast since it opened in Royal Avenue in 1885. The Old Billiard Room is a 70ft by 30ft Billiard Room, which was designed to house four full-size tables.[12] This room remained the primary billiards facility until 2007 when it became a function room.[13] Previous club bedrooms also were turned into two adjoining snooker rooms with full-size Burroughes & Watts billiard tables.[14]
Pool
The Belfast Interpool League is a competitive pool league. The league remains exceptionally active, having over 575 registered players across 20 teams.[15]
Pool is also enjoyed across many customers bars in Belfast, including Lavery's, Robinson's, The Botanic Inn, Kosy Social Club and the Crafty Elk.[16][17]
Gaelic football and hurling
Casement Park, in West Belfast has a capacity of 32,000 which makes it the second largest Gaelic Athletic Association ground in Ulster. It was named after Sir Roger Casement, one of the revolutionaries of the 1916 Easter Rising. Home to Antrim GAA, Casement was regularly host to finals in the Ulster Hurling Championship, which Antrim dominated before it was suspended.
The governing body called the Northern Cricket Union oversees cricket in Belfast. Belfast boasts Ireland's premier cricket venue at Stormont, Belfast. The Ireland cricket team plays many of its home games at this venue, which, in 2006, also hosted the first ever one-day international (ODI) between Ireland and England. In 2007, Ireland, India and South Africa played a triangular series of one-day internationals at Stormont, and in 2008 the qualifying tournament for the ICC World Twenty20 was held there.
Belfast is represented in the Elite Ice Hockey League by Ireland's first professional ice hockey team, the Belfast Giants. The game was brought to Belfast by Canadian businessman Bob Zeller in 2000.[22] The team won the British Ice Hockey Superleague Championship in 2002 and were crowned the Elite League Champion in 2006.[23] Ex-NHL star Theo Fleury played for the team and was named the most valuable player in the league during his time there.[22] Home matches are played at the Odyssey Arena and watched by up to 7000 fans.
Darts
The Odyssey Arena is a key venue for professional darts. Since 2008, it has been a staple stop for the PDC Premier League, attracting nearly 10,000 fans annually.
The Odyssey has a nine-darter reputation. On 26 February 2026, local Belfast talent Josh Rock hit a perfect nine-darter during Night 4 of the Premier League in front of a deafening home crowd, in a moment he described as a "dream come true."[24][25]
In 2025, the team of Josh Rock and Daryl Gurney won the PDC Darts World Cup for Northern Ireland for the first time. They beat Wales 10-9 in a dramatic final.[26]
The North Club in north Belfast is a venue for the Belfast and District Men's League and serves as a major hub for disability darts, hosting the World ParaDarts European Trophy.[27]
The Northern Ireland Volleyball has several women's and men's Volleyball teams from Belfast, including Fireblades, Belfast Wolves and Queen's University Belfast that play in the Premier League.[29][30][31] There are also Divisions 1 and 2.
Lawn bowls became a formalized sport in Belfast at the start of the 20th century. The "Belfast Parks" Era seen the rapid growth of the sport. The Northern Ireland Bowling Association was established in 1910 following a meeting of local clubs. These were Ormeau, Ballynafeigh, Shaftesbury, and Falls and Woodvale and they met at 67 High Street, Belfast.[34]
Belmont Bowling Club Founded in 1877, Belmont is one of the oldest and most prestigious clubs in the city.[35] Other Belfast bowls clubs include Dundonald, Cliftonville, NI Civil Service, Tullycarnet and Balmoral.
Belfast Indoor Bowls Club is located Shaws Bridge and is the main facility for bowls. The club frequently hosts the British Isles International Series, including the March 2026 edition.[36]
Dodgeball
The Dodgeball Northern Irish Super League consists of separate men's and women's competitions. The league is governed by British Dodgeball. It acts as the primary qualification route for Northern Irish clubs entering the British Championships. Ballyhackamore, in east Belfast, has the strongest and most successful women's and men's dodgeball teams. The Ballyhackamore Amazonians and the Ballyhackamore Barbarians won their respective leagues in 2025, marking a season double for Ballyhackamore.[37][38]
The national team are known as the Northern Ireland Knights, and typically play their home games and train at Queen’s University Belfast Physical Education Centre in Botanic Avenue and the Newforge Sports Complex, south Belfast. They qualified for the inaugural Dodgeball World Cup in Manchester in 2016.
In 2018, the Northern Ireland Knights achieved bronze at the Dodgeball World Cup at Madison Square Garden, New York.[39][40] The Knights won the 2023 Dodgeball European Championships held in Osijek, Croatia, beating Austria in the final.[41] At the 2025 European Championships 2025, they won a historic "double gold" winning both the Men’s Cloth and Mixed Cloth European titles.[42]
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