1896–97 Irish League
football league season
The 1896–97 Irish League was the 7th edition of the Irish League, the highest level of league competition in Irish football.
The league comprised six teams, an increase from the four of the previous season. Glentoran won the championship for the second time.
Season summary
After two seasons of historically low numbers of just four teams, two teams were elected into the league for the 1896–97 season: Celtic (who from 1901 onwards would become more commonly known as "Belfast Celtic") and the North Staffordshire Regiment, the second British Army team to compete in the league after the Lancashire Fusiliers who competed in the 1891–92 season. Neither side had a ground, meaning all their matches were played at their opponents' grounds.
“1896–97 Irish League” enters the record as football league season. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Irish, League and football can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“1896–97 Irish League” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Irish, League and football provides the most credible route into that argument.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2053865. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1896, 1901 and 1891.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “1896–97 Irish League”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow 1896–97 Irish League primary sources, 1896–97 Irish League archive and Irish research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “1896–97 Irish League”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “1896–97 Irish League” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.