The 2008–09 Irish Cup was the 129th 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 competition began on 25 October 2008 with the first round and ended on 9 May 2009 with the final. Linfield were the defending champions, winning their third consecutive Irish Cup the previous season after a 2–1 win over

Coleraine Coleraine ( ; from ga, Cúil Rathain , 'nook of the ferns'Flanaghan, Deirdre & Laurence; ''Irish Place Names'', page 194. Gill & Macmillan, 2002. ) is a town and civil parish near the mouth of the River Bann in County Londonderry, Northern I ...

in the 2008 final. This season they reached the semi-finals, but were defeated by

Cliftonville Cliftonville is a coastal area of the town of Margate, situated to the east of the main town, in the Thanet district of Kent, South East England, United Kingdom. It also contains the area known as Palm Bay. The original Palm Bay estate was ...

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...

went on to lift the trophy, beating Cliftonville 1–0 in the final. In doing so, they earned a place in the

second qualifying round The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds eac ...

of the 2009–10 UEFA Europa League.

Results

First round

The matches were played on 25 October and 1 November 2008.

Second round

The games were played on 22 November 2008.

Third round

In this round entered winners from the Second Round as well as all 17 teams from

IFA Championship The Northern Ireland Football League Championship (known as the Lough 41 Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the second level of the Northern Ireland Football League, the national football league in Northern Ireland. Clubs in the Championshi ...

. The games were played on 13 December 2008.

Fourth round

In this round entered winners from the Third Round as well as all 12 teams from

IFA Premiership The NIFL Premiership, known as the Danske Bank Premiership for sponsorship purposes, and colloquially as the Irish League or Irish Premiership, is a professional association football league which operates as the highest division of the Northe ...

. The games were played on 17 January 2009.

Replays

Fifth round

In this round entered the sixteen winners from the Fourth Round. The matches were played on 14 February 2009.

Quarter-finals

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Semi-finals

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Replay

Final

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2008-09 Irish Cup 2008-09 2008–09 domestic association football cups 2008–09 in Northern Ireland association football 2008 in Northern Ireland sport 2009 in Northern Ireland sport