The 2005 League of Ireland season began on Friday 18 March 2005, and ended with the FAI Cup Final on Sunday 4 December. This season saw the Premier Divsision expanded to include twelve teams with the First Division now reduced to ten. This was the opposite to what it had been before. The league's management committee also announced changes regarding the prize money for the season. The total fund was increased from €100,000 to around €450,000. At the end of the season, Cork City became league champions, but were beaten in the cup final by Drogheda United.
Famous quotes containing the words league and/or ireland:
“He will deliver you from six troubles; in seven no harm shall touch you. In famine he will redeem you from death, and in war from the power of the sword. You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, and shall not fear destruction when it comes. At destruction and famine you shall laugh, and shall not fear the wild animals of the earth. For you shall be in league with the stones of the field, and the wild animals shall be at peace with you.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Job 5:19-23.
“Life springs from death and from the graves of patriot men and women spring living nations.... They think that they have pacified Ireland. They think that they have purchased half of us and intimidated the other half. They think that they have foreseen everything, think they have provided against everything; but the fools, the fools, the fools, they have left us our Fenian dead, and while Ireland holds these graves Ireland unfree shall never be at peace.”
—Patrick Henry Pearse (1879–1916)