Founded in the Queens Hotel, Belfast back on 18th November 1880 the Irish Football Association is the fourth oldest governing body in the world behind the other three home associations.

This inaugural meeting was at the behest of the Cliftonville club - the oldest in Ireland - who gathered clubs from Belfast and the outlying districts together with a view to creating a unifying constitution and set of rules along the lines of those adopted by their Scottish counterparts some seven years earlier.

The aims of this fledgling, but ambitious, body were to promote, foster and develop the game throughout the island.