The 1979–80 Irish Cup was the 100th 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 ...

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'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 2 February 1980, and concluded on 26 April 1980 with the final. The defending champions were

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, after they had won the cup for the 8th time the previous season, defeating

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 ...

3–2 in the 1978–79 final. However, Portadown gained revenge by knocking the holders out in the first round with a 2–1 win. Linfield won the cup for the 32nd time, defeating

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding ...

2–0 in the final.

Results

First round

¹This tie required a replay, after the first game ended as a 1–1 draw.
²This tie required two replays, after the first games ended as 1–1 and 0–0 draws.

Quarter-finals

³This tie required a replay, after the first game ended as a 0–0 draw at Glenavon.
⁴This tie required two replays, after the first games ended as 1–1 and 0–0 draws.

Semi-finals

⁵This tie required a replay, after the first game ended as a 1–1 draw.

Final

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1979-80 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 ...