The 1890–91 Irish League was the inaugural edition of the Irish League, the highest level of league competition in Irish

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 ...

organised by the

Irish Football Association The Irish Football Association (IFA) is the governing body for association football in Northern Ireland. It organised the Ireland national football team (1882–1950), Ireland national football team from 1880 to 1950, which after 1954, became t ...

. For this season, the league used a double round-robin format, where teams played each other both home and away once. It comprised eight teams, and was won by Linfield.

Formation

On 14 March 1890, on the invitation of J. W. Gordon, representative from eight clubs - Clarence,

Cliftonville Cliftonville is a coastal area of Margate in the Thanet District, Thanet district of Kent, England. It includes the Palm Bay, UK, Palm Bay estate, built in the 1930s with wide avenues and detached and semi-detached houses with driveways, gar ...

Distillery Distillation, also classical distillation, is the process of separating the component substances of a liquid mixture of two or more chemically discrete substances; the separation process is realized by way of the selective boiling of the mixt ...

, Glentoran, Linfield, Milford, Oldpark and

Ulster Ulster (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); t ...

- met in the Belfast Estate Office of Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava. Within fifteen, minutes, the league was constituted. The twelve attendees of the meeting were W. McNeice, J. R. Spiller, W. Finlay, W. Couser, J. McClatchley, S. Monroe, J. McKnight, C. Birkby, J. Torrans, J. W. Gordon, J. Henderson and W. S. Dawson. The first officials appointed were W. McNeice (chairman), W. Finlay (treasurer) and J. W. Gordon (honorary secretary).

Teams and locations

League standings

Results

Top goalscorers

References

External links

Northern Ireland - List of final tables (RSSSF)

Irish Premier League Website

{{DEFAULTSORT:1890-91 Irish League 1890-91 1890–91 domestic association football leagues 1890–91 in Irish association football