By Mark O'Neill-Cummins
The new North/South Setanta Cup, which begins this week, is a welcome addition to the domestic soccer calendar. The €150,000 on offer to the winning team is unprecendent in Irish soccer while the chance to see their team take on the best teams from across the border is sure to appeal to fans of the clubs involved.
Although clubs from both the eircom League and Irish League have met in friendly and European games in recent years, it's nearly a quarter of a century since any type of all-Ireland competition has taken place. The most recent competition was the Tyler Cup, last won by Linfield in 1981. However, you have to go back to 1941 for the very first cross border cup.
The Dublin and Belfast Inter City Cup, featuring the top six teams from north and south, was first won by Dundalk, who beat Shamrock Rovers 1-0 at Dalymount Park in 1941-42. The competition continued through the war years and came to an end with the 1948-49 cup, which was won by Shamrock Rovers. The Hoops were very much the Inter City Cup kings, also winning it in 1943, 1946 and 1947.
The most interesting of their wins was the victory of 1943 when they drew 2-2 on aggregate with Bohemians. The first leg took place at Windsor Park in Belfast and Bohs won 2-0 thanks to two strikes from the legendary Kevin O'Flanagan.
The second leg took place just 24 hours later at Dalymount Park. This time, Rovers won 2-0 through goals from Terry Clarke and Paddy Coad and were awarded the trophy having had more corner kicks, 19 to Bohs' 9, over two legs.
Other winners of this competition included Bohemians and the now defunct Belfast Celtic.
The next competition to bring north and south together was the simply named North-South Cup. Linfield won the first event in 1961 but the competition was discontinued after Glenavon's victory of the following year.
Just before 'The Troubles' began to take hold in Northern Ireland, another cross border cup started. The Blaxnit Cup was first won by Shamrock Rovers in 1968, who beat Crusaders 3-2 on aggregate. Coleraine won the following two stagings of the event, while other winners included Linfield, Cork Hibernians, Glentoran and Ards, who won the last cup in 1974.
Late that year, Portadown won the new Texaco Cup with Waterford winning the second and last the following year. Earlier in the decade, Texaco had sponsored a cup which also featured teams from England and Scotland but Irish teams didn't make a major impression in this.
Cross border action was back in 1978 with the Tyler Cup which was competed for by the top four sides from both leagues. Shamrock Rovers took the first final with a 1-0 win over Finn Harps thanks to a goal from one time Leicester City star Steve Lynex. Other winners of this cup were Athlone and Linfield.
Of the Setanta Cup hopefuls, Linfield, Portadown, Glentoran and Shelbourne have seen it all before but for Cork City and Longford, it's a whole new ball game. With live television coverage and huge prize money of offer, there's bound to be many thrills and spills before the final on May 21.
