Cliftonville FCCliftonville FC are the oldest football club in Ireland, and its foundation directly sparked the organisation of the entire Irish game. The club was founded on 20 September 1879 in north Belfast by a young businessman, John McAlery, who had become captivated by association football while on his honeymoon in Scotland the previous year. It was McAlery, now known as the father of Irish football, who nineteen months later, on 18 November 1880, brought about the creation of the Irish Football Association, the fourth-oldest governing body in the world, after England, Scotland and Wales.
Cliftonville were also founder members of the Irish League in 1890, the same year the club began playing at Solitude, its home ground ever since. Despite its pioneering role in organising Irish football, the club remained amateur until the 1970s, and had to wait until 1906 for its first Irish championship, repeating the feat four years later in 1910. That early period of success was followed by an exceptionally long drought - the club did not win another title until 1998, eighty-eight years later, before confirming its revival with back-to-back championships in 2013 and 2014.
Known as The Reds, the club can boast eight Irish Cup victories and the distinction of being among the very few sides in the league's history never to have been relegated from the top flight. Cliftonville maintain fierce local rivalries, most notably the North Belfast derby with Crusaders, as well as traditional fixtures against Linfield and Glentoran. In the 1880s the club even competed in the English FA Cup, a little-known but symbolic episode reflecting Cliftonville's unique place in the history of British and Irish football.
