The 1976–77 Irish Cup was the 97th edition of the

Irish Cup The Irish Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly referred to as the Irish Cup (currently known as the Clearer Water Irish Cup for sponsorship purposes) is the primary Association football, football single elimination, knockout cup compet ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

's premier

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

knock-out cup competition. It began on 5 February 1977, and concluded on 23 April 1977 with the final. The defending champions were

Carrick Rangers Carrick Rangers Football Club is a semi-professional Northern Irish football club playing in NIFL Premiership. The club, founded in 1939, hails from Carrickfergus, County Antrim and plays its home matches at Taylors Avenue which is known as th ...

after they defeated Linfield 2–1 in the 1975–76 final - one of the biggest shocks in the Cup's history. However, this season they went out in the first round to eventual winners

Coleraine Coleraine ( ; from , 'nook of the ferns'Flanaghan, Deirdre & Laurence; ''Irish Place Names'', page 194. Gill & Macmillan, 2002. ) is a town and Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish near the mouth of the River Bann in County Londonderry, No ...

, who defeated Linfield 4–1 in the final to condemn the Blues to defeat in the Irish Cup final for the third successive season (a record that still stands), and the fourth time in five years. It was a repeat of the 1974–75 final two years earlier, which was also won by Coleraine.

Results

First round

Replays

Second replay

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Replays

Final

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1976-77 Irish Cup Irish Cup seasons

Cup A cup is an open-top vessel (container) used to hold liquids for drinking, typically with a flattened hemispherical shape, and often with a capacity of about . Cups may be made of pottery (including porcelain), glass, metal, wood, stone, pol ...