History
The first winners in 1876 were the Royal School, Armagh. When the Cup no longer had room to record the winners on it, the Cup was mounted on a wooden shield to which plaques were attached. In the centenary year of the competition after the 1976 final, the governors of Methodist College presented a new shield, as the original had no more room to record the winners. The Royal School won in 1977, thus claiming the place at the top of the new shield. The first wooden shield is on exhibit at the Ulster Branch offices at Ravenhill.
The first final to be played at Ravenhill was in 1924. Before that, finals were played at the Royal Ulster Agricultural Society grounds at Balmoral, the Ulster Sports Club grounds at Cross Parade in Belfast, and one final was even played at the Linfield Football Club ground at Windsor Park.
A total of seventeen schools have won the trophy at least once.
Although not widely known outside of Northern Ireland, the Schools' Cup is important within Ulster rugby. With no school 1st XV league, the Schools' Cup is the only competitive rugby played by the senior school teams.
The St. Patrick's Day final is televised live on BBC Northern Ireland, complete with half-time punditry and post-match interviews.
Read more about this topic: Ulster Schools' Cup
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“We don’t know when our name came into being or how some distant ancestor acquired it. We don’t understand our name at all, we don’t know its history and yet we bear it with exalted fidelity, we merge with it, we like it, we are ridiculously proud of it as if we had thought it up ourselves in a moment of brilliant inspiration.”
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“The history of men’s opposition to women’s emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of that emancipation itself.”
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