Peter Rafferty (born November 7, 1948) is a retired Northern Irish

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played in the Irish League with

Distillery Distillation, or classical distillation, is the process of separating the components or substances from a liquid mixture by using selective boiling and condensation, usually inside an apparatus known as a still. Dry distillation is the heati ...

, Linfield, Ards and Crusaders in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. He won 1 international cap for

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 ...

. He also won two caps for the Irish League representative team. He made his Irish League debut in April 1967 for Distillery as a centre-forward, but established himself the following season as a centre-half. He won an

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 ...

winners' medal with the Whites in 1971. In total he made 262 appearances for Distillery, turning out in every position including goalkeeper, before he was signed by Linfield in December 1973. Nicknamed the "Bald Eagle" by the Linfield supporters, he made 331 appearances in nine seasons for the Blues, winning five Irish League titles, three Irish Cups, one

City Cup The City Cup was a rugby league competition involving Australian premiership teams. The post season tournament was a regular feature in the years 1912–1925. City Cups were also played in 1937, 1942 and 1959. The inaugural city cup was contested ...

, two Gold Cups, four Ulster Cups, three

County Antrim Shield The County Antrim & District Football Association Senior Shield (more commonly known as the County Antrim Shield) is a football competition in Northern Ireland. The competition is open to senior teams who are members of the North East Ulster Foo ...

s and 1

Tyler Cup The Tyler Cup was an association football competition played between clubs in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The competition ran from 1978 to 1980, and was similar to the earlier Blaxnit Cup, North-South Cup, Dublin and Belfast In ...

. He was the

Ulster Footballer of the Year The Ulster Footballer of the Year is the older of two association football player of the year awards in Northern Ireland. (The other is the Northern Ireland Football Writers' Association award.) It is awarded by Castlereagh Glentoran Supporters ...

for 1976–77. He finished his career with a season at Ards and two at Crusaders.

Sources

* M. Brodie (ed.), ''Northern Ireland Soccer Yearbook 2009-2010'', p. 102. Belfast:Ulster Tatler Publications
Northern Ireland's Footballing Greats
NIFL Premiership players Ulster Footballers of the Year Lisburn Distillery F.C. players Linfield F.C. players Ards F.C. players Crusaders F.C. players Living people 1948 births Northern Ireland men's international footballers Irish League representative players Men's association football defenders Association footballers from Belfast Men's association footballers from Northern Ireland {{NorthernIreland-footy-bio-stub