Sport in Belfast
Watching and playing sports is an important part of culture in
Football
The
Four NIFL
Notable defunct clubs include Belfast Celtic F.C., one of the most successful teams in Ireland until it withdrew permanently from the Irish League in 1949. The club was refounded in 2019 when Sport & Leisure Swifts F.C. rebranded.
Gaelic football and hurling
Gaelic football is the most popular spectator sport in the island of Ireland.[6] Casement Park, in West Belfast has a capacity of 32,000 which makes it the second largest Gaelic Athletic Association ground in Ulster. It was named after Sir Roger Casement, one of the revolutionaries of the 1916 Easter Rising. Home to Antrim GAA, Casement was regularly host to finals in the Ulster Hurling Championship, which Antrim dominated before it was suspended. Football finals, traditionally have been played in Clones, County Monaghan.
Rugby Union
There are seven junior clubs in Belfast: Belfast Met, CIYMS, Civil Service, Cooke, Grosvenor, Instonians and PSNI; and six schools play rugby: Campbell College, Belfast Royal Academy, Grosvenor Grammar School, Methodist College Belfast, Royal Belfast Academical Institution and Wellington College.
Cricket
Belfast boasts Ireland's premier
At club level, Belfast has nine senior teams: CIYMS, Instonians and Civil Service North of Ireland are in the Premier League of the NCU Senior League; Cregagh and Woodvale are in Section 1; BISC are in Section 2; and Cooke Collegians, Dunmurry and Newforge are in Section 3.
Hockey
There are nine senior ladies' clubs:
and Cooke.