The 1998–99 Irish Cup was the 119th edition of the

Irish Cup The Irish Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly referred to as the Irish Cup (currently known as the Samuel Gelston's Whiskey Irish Cup for sponsorship purposes) is the primary football knock-out cup competition in Northern Ireland. Ina ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

's premier

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

knock-out cup competition. The last match was played on 20 April 1999. The final did not take place this year, for only the third time in the competition's history.

Glentoran Glentoran Football Club is a professional football club that plays in the NIFL Premiership. The club was founded in 1882. History Early history In 1914, Glentoran won the Vienna Cup, becoming the first United Kingdom team to win a European t ...

were the defending champions after winning their 17th Irish Cup last season, with a 1–0 win over

Glenavon Glenavon Football Club is a Northern Irish semi-professional football club that competes in the NIFL Premiership. Founded in 1889, the club hails from Lurgan and plays its home matches at Mourneview Park. Club colours are blue and white. Gar ...

in the 1998 final. This season they reached the sixth round, where they were defeated 2–1 by Cliftonville.

Portadown Portadown () is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The town sits on the River Bann in the north of the county, about southwest of Belfast. It is in the Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council area and had a population of a ...

won the cup for the second time, after Cliftonville were disqualified from the competition for fielding an ineligible player in the semi-final replay against Linfield. Linfield were not permitted to replace Cliftonville in the final, so Portadown were awarded the cup without the final being played.

Fifth round

Replays

Sixth round

Quarter-finals

Replays

Semi-finals

Replay

Final

On 29 April 1999, Cliftonville were disqualified from the competition for fielding an ineligible player in the semi-final replay against Linfield. The player in question had played for a junior club in an earlier round and was therefore ineligible. However, Linfield's protest came more than 48 hours after the tie (the usual deadline for protests), and as a result the

IFA IFA or Ifa may refer to: Organisations Economics * Independent financial adviser, a type of financial services professional in the UK * Index Fund Advisors * Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, representing actuaries in the UK * Institute of Act ...

did not allow them to take Cliftonville's place in the final.

were therefore awarded the cup without the final taking place.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1998-99 Irish Cup 1998–99 1998–99 domestic association football cups 1998–99 in Northern Ireland association football 1998 in Northern Ireland sport 1999 in Northern Ireland sport