The 1998–99 Irish Cup was the 119th 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. The last match was played on 20 April 1999. The final did not take place this year, for only the third time in the competition's history.

Glentoran Glentoran Football Club is a professional football club based in East Belfast, Northern Ireland, that plays in the NIFL Premiership. The club was founded in 1882 and has since won more than 130 major honours. They are one of three Northern Iris ...

were the defending champions after winning their 17th Irish Cup last season, with a 1–0 win over Glenavon in the 1998 final. This season they reached the sixth round, where they were defeated 2–1 by

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 ...

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 ...

won the cup for the second time, after Cliftonville were disqualified from the competition for fielding an ineligible player in the semi-final replay against Linfield. Linfield were not permitted to replace Cliftonville in the final, so Portadown were awarded the cup without the final being played.

Results

The following teams were given byes into the first round: 1st Bangor Old Boys, Ballynahinch United, Bangor Amateurs, Civil Service, Dromara Village, Dromore Amateurs, Drummond United,

Hanover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

, Harland & Wolff Sports, Killymoon Rangers, Larne Tech Old Boys, Laurelvale, Magherafelt Sky Blues,

Portstewart Portstewart () is a small seaside town in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 7,854 people in the 2021 United Kingdom census. It is a seaside resort, neighbouring both Coleraine in County Londonderry and Portrush in Cou ...

, Queen's University, Rathfriland Rangers, Seapatrick,

Sirocco Works Sirocco Works, officially Sirocco Engineering Works, was an engineering firm based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The site is located beside Short Strand, adjacent to Bridge End and River Lagan. It was founded by Samuel Cleland Davidson in 1881 unde ...

, UUJ and Wellington Recreation.

Preliminary round

Replays

First round

Replays

Second round

Replays

Third round

Replays

Fourth round

Replay

Fifth round

Replays

Sixth round

Quarter-finals

Replays

Semi-finals

Replay

Final

On 29 April 1999,

were disqualified from the competition for fielding an ineligible player in the semi-final replay against Linfield. The player in question had played for a junior club in an earlier round and was therefore ineligible. However, Linfield's protest came more than 48 hours after the tie (the usual deadline for protests), and as a result the

IFA IFA or Ifa may refer to: Organisations Economics * Independent financial adviser, a type of financial services professional in the UK * Index Fund Advisors * Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, representing actuaries in the UK * Institute of Act ...

did not allow them to take Cliftonville's place in the final.

were therefore awarded the cup without the final taking place.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1998-99 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 ...