The 1986–87 Irish Cup was the 107th 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 concluded on 2 May 1987 with the final.

Glentoran Glentoran Football Club is a professional football club based in East Belfast, Northern Ireland, that plays in the NIFL Premiership. The club was founded in 1882 and has since won more than 130 major honours. They are one of three Northern Iris ...

were the defending champions after winning their 12th Irish Cup last season, defeating

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 ...

2–1 in the 1986 final. They successfully defended the cup for the second year running, by beating

Larne Larne (, , the name of a Gaelic Ireland, Gaelic territory)Larne/Latharna
Placenames Database of Ireland. is a to ...

1–0 in the final. In doing so, they became the first club in 94 years to win three consecutive Irish Cups. Linfield were the last club to achieve it, winning the 1891, 1892 and 1893 finals. This season also saw the number of clubs involved in the competition reduced back to 16 due to the re-structuring of the league system. Only two clubs from outside the 14-club top flight took part, qualifying through preliminary rounds. Omagh Town and Tobermore United qualified to take part in the competition proper, but both clubs went out in the first round.

Results

First round

Replays

Quarter-finals

Replay

Semi-finals

Replay

Final

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1986-87 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 ...