The 1977–78 Irish Cup was the 98th 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 began on 4 February 1978, and concluded on 29 April 1978 with the final. The defending champions were

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 ...

, after they defeated Linfield 4–1 in the 1976–77 final. However, Linfield gained revenge by knocking the holders out with a 2–1 win in the first round. Linfield went on to win the cup for the 31st time, defeating Ballymena United 3–1 in the final.

Results

First round

¹This tie required a replay, after the first game was a 2–2 draw.

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

²This tie was eventually decided by a penalty shoot-out in the second replay, after all three games ended as 1–1 draws.

Final

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1977-78 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 ...