Cliftonville 2-0 Knock: the first recorded match between two Irish clubs (1879)
Cliftonville beat Knock 2-0 in Belfast on Saturday 1 November 1879, recorded as the first match ever played between two Irish association football clubs and as Cliftonville’s first win. The club had been formed that September by the Belfast draper John McAlery, the first association club in Ireland, and McAlery then helped found Knock to give it an Irish rival.
The road to that Saturday ran through a defeat by a rugby side and a heavy loss to touring Scots, and a national association followed within a year.
Key Facts
- Played on Saturday 1 November 1879 in Belfast, where Cliftonville beat Knock 2-0. Cliftonville’s own club records list it as the club’s first ever win.
- It is the earliest recorded meeting between two Irish clubs. Cliftonville were the first Irish association club, and McAlery founded Knock to give it a rival, both in 1879.
- Cliftonville were founded in September 1879 by John McAlery, a draper who had taken up the game in Scotland. Cliftonville were the first association club formed in Ireland.
- Cliftonville’s home was the Cliftonville Cricket Club ground in north Belfast, which the club used until it moved across to Solitude in 1890.
- Cliftonville’s first ever fixture, weeks before Knock, was a 1-2 home defeat by the Quidnuncs, a side of local rugby players playing an unfamiliar code.
- The Irish Football Association was formed at Cliftonville’s invitation on 18 November 1880, when seven clubs met in Belfast, barely a year after the Knock match.
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A Belfast draper, a new game and a first club
McAlery and the 1878 exhibition match
John McAlery was a draper serving his time in the Belfast trade and one of the game’s early pioneers in Ireland. Cliftonville’s own story has him discovering football on honeymoon in 1878 and coming home hooked. The date cannot be right, though: he did not marry until 1879, so the honeymoon detail is foundation myth rather than fact.
What is firmer is that McAlery helped bring the game itself to Belfast. On 24 October 1878 he organised an exhibition match between two Scottish sides, Caledonian and the celebrated Queen’s Park, the day association football is reckoned to have arrived in Ireland. It was staged at the Ulster Cricket Ground, where Queen’s Park won 3-1 before a crowd of around 400.
Cliftonville, formed September 1879
A year on, McAlery turned that audience into a club. Cliftonville, the first Irish association club, was formed in September 1879, playing out of the Cliftonville Cricket Club ground that stayed its home until the move to neighbouring Solitude in 1890. That opening season was a hard schooling. Cliftonville’s first fixture, on 29 September 1879, pitched them against the Quidnuncs, a side of local rugby players, who won 2-1 on an almost waterlogged pitch. Caledonian then returned to Belfast that October and beat the new club 9-1.
Cliftonville Knock and the first all-Irish fixture
Cliftonville Knock: the first win over another Irish side
Everything before 1 November 1879 had been Cliftonville against opponents who were either not a football club or not Irish: the Quidnuncs were rugby players, and Caledonian and Glasgow were touring Scots. Needing rivals for his new club, McAlery had helped found Knock, and that changed both counts, giving Cliftonville a fellow Irish association side to play. The older club won 2-0, its first recorded victory. Because Cliftonville were the first Irish association club and those earlier opponents were either rugby players or visiting Scots, the record treats this Cliftonville Knock meeting as the first between two Irish clubs, not merely the first involving Cliftonville.
| Date | Opponent | Result (Cliftonville first) | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 29 September 1879 | Quidnuncs | Cliftonville 1-2 | Local rugby side; Cliftonville’s first fixture |
| October 1879 | Caledonian | Cliftonville 1-9 | Touring Scottish side |
| 1 November 1879 | Knock | Cliftonville 2-0 | First win; earliest recorded meeting of two Irish clubs |
How soon the Irish Football Association followed
The pace of what came next is the real measure of that Saturday. Within thirteen months the loose activity of a few Belfast clubs had a governing body. On 18 November 1880, at Cliftonville’s invitation, seven clubs met at the Queens Hotel in Belfast and formed the Irish Football Association to organise, govern and promote the game in Ireland, the fourth national association after England, Scotland and Wales. The Irish Cup began the following season, with Knock among the earliest entrants.
READ MORE: The Belfast rivalries that grew out of these first clubs →
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Cliftonville v Knock 1879
Who played in the first match between two Irish football clubs?
Cliftonville and Knock played in what the record treats as the first match between two Irish football clubs, on 1 November 1879 in Belfast. Cliftonville, formed that September, were Ireland’s first football club, and McAlery soon helped found Knock to give them an Irish rival. Cliftonville won the meeting 2-0. Both clubs went on to help found the Irish Football Association in 1880.
What was the score in the Cliftonville v Knock match of 1 November 1879?
Cliftonville beat Knock 2-0. It was Cliftonville’s first recorded victory, following an opening defeat by a rugby side and heavy losses to touring Scottish clubs. Contemporary records do not preserve the individual scorers.
On what day of the week was the Cliftonville Knock match of 1879 played?
The Cliftonville Knock match was played on a Saturday, 1 November 1879. Saturday was already the standard day for club fixtures in the British and Irish game. The result, Cliftonville 2-0 Knock, is dated to that day. It fell about five weeks after Cliftonville’s first ever fixture in late September.
Where was the Cliftonville v Knock match of 1879 played?
The match was played in Belfast, at Cliftonville’s home ground. In 1879 that was the Cliftonville Cricket Club ground in the north of the city, which the club used until relocating to nearby Solitude in 1890. The records list the fixture as a Cliftonville result without naming the exact enclosure, so the ground is inferred from the club’s home of the period rather than stated in the match record itself.
Why is Cliftonville 2-0 Knock in 1879 historically important?
It is recorded as the first match ever played between two Irish association football clubs. Every earlier Cliftonville fixture had been against a rugby side or against visiting Scottish clubs, so Knock was the first Irish football club they could face. That match therefore marks the point at which club football in Ireland became a contest between home sides rather than an exhibition. Within a year the clubs involved had formed a national governing body.
Who was John McAlery and how is he linked to the Cliftonville Knock match?
John McAlery was the Belfast draper who founded Cliftonville in September 1879 and is credited with bringing association football to Ireland. He had encountered the game in Scotland and, in 1878, helped organise the exhibition match between Queen’s Park and Caledonian that introduced the code to Belfast. By founding Cliftonville he created one of the two clubs in the 1 November 1879 fixture, and he is also credited with helping found their opponents, Knock.
Was the 1 November 1879 fixture against Knock Cliftonville’s first ever match?
No. Cliftonville’s first fixture came weeks earlier, in late September 1879, when the Quidnuncs, a local rugby side, beat them 2-1. Heavy defeats to touring Scottish sides followed through October. The Knock match on 1 November was their first win, and their first against another Irish club.
Who were the Quidnuncs that Cliftonville played before Knock in 1879?
The Quidnuncs were a side of local rugby players, not a football club. They won 2-1 on a waterlogged pitch. Because they were a rugby side, the fixture does not count as a meeting of two football clubs, which is why the later Knock match, not this one, is treated as the first all-Irish club fixture.
What was the 1878 exhibition match that led to the Cliftonville Knock fixture?
On 24 October 1878, John McAlery organised a match in Belfast between the Scottish clubs Queen’s Park and Caledonian to demonstrate association football. It was staged at the Ulster Cricket Ground, where Queen’s Park won 3-1. The exhibition is generally treated as the moment the game arrived in Ireland, and Cliftonville followed as the first Irish club less than a year later.
When was the Irish Football Association formed after the 1879 Cliftonville Knock match?
The Irish Football Association was formed on 18 November 1880, a little over a year after the Cliftonville Knock match. Seven clubs met at Cliftonville’s invitation, at the Queens Hotel in Belfast. It made Ireland one of the earliest national football associations, after England, Scotland and Wales.
Was Knock a genuine football club when it played Cliftonville in 1879?
Yes. Knock was an association football club formed in 1879, set up with McAlery’s help to give Cliftonville an Irish rival. It went on to be among the founding members of the Irish Football Association. That status as a bona fide Irish club is what lets the record treat the 1 November 1879 match, which Cliftonville won 2-0, as the first between two Irish clubs.
Is Cliftonville the oldest football club in Ireland?
Yes. Cliftonville, formed in September 1879, is recorded as the earliest association club in Ireland and is the country’s oldest football club. It still plays at Solitude in north Belfast, the ground it moved to in 1890. Knock, its opponent on 1 November 1879, was founded soon after to give Cliftonville a rival.
Cliftonville Knock, where Irish club football starts
Set aside the honeymoon story and the gaps in the old records, and a plain fact remains: on 1 November 1879, two Irish clubs met on a football pitch for the first time, and one of them won 2-0. From that Saturday the game in Ireland had its own contests, its own oldest club, and within a year its own association. You can follow more first days like it through our On This Day series.
Sources: Cliftonville FC, History Ireland, Ulster History Circle, Outside Write.
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