North of Ireland F.C.

{{Short description|Defunct Irish rugby union club, based in Belfast}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox rugby team | teamname = North of Ireland FC | image = NIFCCLOGO.jpg | imagesize = | union = [[Irish Rugby Football Union|IRFU]]<br />[[Ulster Rugby|Ulster]] | fullname = North of Ireland Football Club | nickname = | countryflag = Northern Ireland | countryflagvar = rugby | founded = {{start date and age|1868}} | region = | ground = Ormeau Road<br />[[Belfast]] | capacity = | chairman = | president = | captain = | coach = | url = | league = [[Ulster Senior League (rugby union)|Ulster Senior League]]<br />[[AIB League]] | season = | position = }}

'''North of Ireland Football Club''' is a former Irish [[rugby union]] club that was based in [[Belfast]], [[Northern Ireland]]. It was the first rugby club formed in what is now Northern Ireland and only two other clubs - [[Dublin University Football Club|Dublin University]] and [[Wanderers F.C. (rugby union)|Wanderers]] - were formed earlier anywhere else in all [[Ireland]].<ref>[http://www.irishrugby.ie/300_285.php www.irishrugby.ie] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131212215537/http://www.irishrugby.ie/300_285.php |date=2013-12-12 }}</ref><ref name="The Ireland Rugby Miscellany 2007">''The Ireland Rugby Miscellany'' (2007): Ciaran Cronin</ref> It was founded in 1868 by members of North of Ireland Cricket Club.<ref>{{cite journal |first=David |last=Hassan |url=http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/FootballStudies/2003/FS0601d.pdf |title=Rugby Union, Irish Nationalism and National Identity in Northern Ireland |journal=Football Studies |issue=1 |date=2003 |volume=6 |publisher=University of Ulster, Jordanstown}}</ref> NIFC also played in the first recorded rugby game in [[Ulster]] when they played a 20-a-side match against [[Queen's University RFC]].

Throughout its history, NIFC was one of the most successful clubs in Ulster rugby, winning eighteen [[Ulster Senior League (rugby union)|Ulster Senior League]] titles and eighteen [[Ulster Senior Cup]] titles. They also played several seasons in the [[AIB League]] before merging with [[Collegians (Belfast)|Collegians]] in 1999 to form [[Belfast Harlequins]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.irishrugby.ie/23_7866.php?PHPSESSID=2ef47a7b8ce5adc00dfe62c38c3d6740|title=www.irishrugby.ie}}{{Dead link|date=April 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

The club left its historic home on the Ormeau Road (one of the earliest international rugby venues in Ireland<ref>See references to Ireland's matches against Scotland from 1877 to 1889: [http://www.irishrugby.ie/18104_18114.php Ireland v Scotland - Head to Head Statistics] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120904033126/http://www.irishrugby.ie/18104_18114.php |date=2012-09-04 }}</ref>) after a series of sectarian arson attacks, including the burning of its pavilion. The club, with a mainly Protestant membership, was perceived as being "isolated in a zone of working-class nationalism".<ref>D. Sharrock, ‘Goodbye to all that, as the Belfast sporting club where W.G. Grace swung his bat uproots for Protestant sanctuary’, The Guardian, 13 August 1997, p. 6.</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first=Mike |last=Cronin |url=http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/ISS/ISS2201/ISS2201d.pdf |title="Catholics and Sport in Northern Ireland: Exclusiveness or Inclusiveness?" |journal=International Sports Studies |issue=1 |date=200o |volume=2 |publisher=Logos Verlag Berlin GmbH |archive-date=27 March 2009 |access-date=18 September 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090327122534/http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/ISS/ISS2201/ISS2201d.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Notable players== ''See also {{cat|North of Ireland F.C. players}}''

===Ireland=== The following NIFC players represented [[Ireland national rugby union team|Ireland]] at full international level. {| |- style="vertical-align:top" || * [[Stephen Blake-Knox]] * [[Robert Alexander (rugby player and cricketer)|Robert Alexander]] * [[Norman Brand]] * [[Ian Davidson (rugby union)|Ian Davidson]] * [[Thomas Gisborne Gordon]], the only one handed player in international rugby.<ref name = "Planet Rugby">{{cite news|url=http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2010/0503/1224269590998.html|title=Planet rugby|first=John |last=O'Sullivan|newspaper=[[Irish Times]]|date=3 May 2010}}</ref> * [[Gordon Hamilton (rugby union)|Gordon Hamilton]]<ref>{{cite news |first=Brendan |last=Cole |url=http://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/worldcup2007/moments1991.html |title=RTÉ Sport: 1991: Gordon Hamilton Scores |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070919040641/http://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/worldcup2007/moments1991.html |archive-date=19 September 2007 |publisher=[[RTÉ]] |url-status=dead }}</ref> * [[David Hewitt (rugby footballer born 1939)|David Hewitt]] * [[Des Scott]] || * [[Jack Kyle]] * [[Mike Gibson (rugby union)|Mike Gibson]] * [[Arthur Norman McClinton]] * [[Henry Neill]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ulsterbiography.co.uk/biogsN.htm|title=ulsterbiography.co.uk|website=www.ulsterbiography.co.uk|access-date=2008-10-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080705103505/http://www.ulsterbiography.co.uk/biogsN.htm|archive-date=2008-07-05|url-status=dead}}</ref> * [[Albert Stewart (rugby player)|Albert Stewart]] * [[Dolway Walkington]] * [[Hugh C. Kelly|Hugh Kelly]] (captain) |}

===British and Irish Lions=== The following NIFC players also represented the [[British and Irish Lions]].<ref name="The Ireland Rugby Miscellany 2007"/>

{| |- style="vertical-align:top" || * [[Tom McGown]]: [[1899 British Lions tour to Australia|1899]] * [[Ian Davidson (rugby union)|Ian Davidson]]: [[1903 British Lions tour to South Africa|1903]] * [[Arthur Norman McClinton]]: [[1910 British Lions tour to South Africa|1910]] * [[Norman Brand]]: [[1924 British Lions tour to South Africa|1924]] || * [[Robert Alexander (rugby player and cricketer)|Robert Alexander]]: [[1938 British Lions tour to South Africa|1938]] * [[Jack Kyle]]: [[1950 British Lions tour to New Zealand and Australia|1950]] * [[David Hewitt (rugby footballer born 1939)|David Hewitt]]: [[1959 British Lions tour to Australia and New Zealand|1959]], [[1962 British Lions tour to South Africa|1962]] * [[Mike Gibson (rugby union)|Mike Gibson]]: [[1966 British Lions tour to Australia and New Zealand|1966]], [[1968 British Lions tour to South Africa|1968]], [[1971 British Lions tour to New Zealand|1971]], [[1974 British Lions tour to South Africa|1974]], [[1977 British Lions tour to New Zealand|1977]] |}

===Ireland cricket team=== The following NIFC players also represented [[Ireland cricket team|Ireland]] at cricket. * [[Robert Alexander (rugby player and cricketer)|Robert Alexander]] * [[Neil Doak]]

==Honours==

*[[All-Ireland Cup (rugby union)|All-Ireland Cup]]: 1 **1934-35 *[[Ulster Senior Cup (rugby union)|Ulster Senior Cup]]: 18 ** 1884–85, 1892–93, 1893–94, 1894–95, 1895–96, 1896–97, 1897–98, 1898–99, 1900–01, 1901–02, 1907–08, 1919–20, 1929–30, 1934–35, 1938–39, 1954–55, 1968–69, 1972–73 *[[Ulster Senior League (rugby union)|Ulster Senior League]]: 18 (1 shared) ** 1891–92, 1892–93, 1893–94, 1894–95, 1895–96, 1896–97, 1897–98, 1898–99, 1900–01, 1901–02, 1908–09, 1920–21, 1926-27 (shared), 1945–46, 1954–55, 1958–59, 1965–66, 1991–92 *[[Ulster Junior Cup]]: 9 ** †1894-95, †1906-07, †1907-08, †1908-09, †1935-36, †1953-54, †1956-57, †1962-63, †1984-85

† Won by 2nd XV

==References== {{Reflist}}

[[Category:Rugby clubs established in 1868]] [[Category:Rugby union teams in Ireland]] [[Category:Rugby union teams in Northern Ireland]] [[Category:Belfast Harlequins]] [[Category:Rugby union teams in County Antrim]] [[Category:1868 establishments in Ireland]]