The 2002–03 Irish Cup was the 123rd 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 3 May 2003 with the final. Linfield were the defending champions, winning their 36th Irish Cup last season after a 2–1 win over

Portadown Portadown ( ) is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The town is based 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 ...

in the 2002 final. This season Linfield reached the quarter-finals, but went out to Omagh Town.

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 ...

were the eventual winners, in what was their first appearance in the final in 17 years. The last time they had done so was in

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, when they were defeated 2–1 by

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 ...

. It was the same opposition but a different outcome this time. A 1–0 victory over the Glens, who were appearing in the final for the fifth time in eight years, was enough to seal Coleraine's first Irish Cup win in 26 years. The last time they had won the competition was in 1977.

Results

First round

Second round

Third round

Third round (A)

Fourth round

Fifth round

Larne Larne (, , the name of a Gaelic Ireland, Gaelic territory)Larne/Latharna
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received a bye into the sixth round.

Replays

Sixth round

Replay

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2002-03 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 ...