Timeline

City of Armagh Rugby Club is one of the oldest clubs in Ireland.

Records exist of games being played in the early 1870's but the accepted date of the Club's foundation is 1875.

Shortage of players led to a break in activities in the late 1890's but the Club re-emerged after a couple of years and went on to win a rare double in 1910 - Towns and Junior Cup in the same season.

In 1920 after five years inactivity during the war years, Armagh entered the senior league but after two seasons were prevailed upon by the Ulster Branch to step down again.

Success continued, however, at junior level with five cups being won between 1928 and 1939, and three sides being put on the field. Bobby Barnes, then at Trinity College Dublin achieved a rare double in 1933 when he played for Armagh in the Town's Cup in January and for Ireland against Wales in March, being on the winning side on both occasions.

After another wartime break Armagh resumed their junior status in 1945, going on to win the Towns Cup in 1947. Other cup victories include the Town's Cup in 1951 and 1971, Junior Cup in 1965 and Past Player's Cup in 1958 and 1965.

By 1961 the necessity to acquire new headquarters was more and more apparent. A new pavilion was built on the Mall to accommodate cricket and rugby clubs in 1964 but the pitch remained a problem. Once the Palace Grounds became available the Club eagerly moved, with the first game being played on 8 September 1973.

Three Prunty pitches were laid and training lights installed. Originally the Mall was to be used as a spare pitch but inevitably everything was centralised at the Palace Grounds and the old rugby pitch became a cricket pitch. With six teams now turning out (and an occasional seventh) all the new pitches were fully occupied, and thoughts turned to promotion to senior status.

Not until 1981, however, was that goal achieved.

Meanwhile, cups and leagues were being won, for example in 1965 the Junior and Past Player's Cups were won and only a penalty goal gave Dungannon victory in the Town's Cup final to spoil a treble. In 1972 the Club presented the Mall Trophy to be competed for by the winners of the Junior, Towns, Past Players and McCrea Cups in a single day Saturday tournament. The winner could thus be acclaimed as Ulster Junior Champions.

Unfortunately, while the other three cup winners could easily be established, the Past Player's cup (for sectional junior league winners) tended to run late in the season and the I.R.F.U at the time were adamantly opposed to rugby in May. On at least one occasion the late Leeman Allen, Armagh's guiding force for many years, calculated that Dublin would be unlikely to hear of Armagh events and the tournament went ahead on the first Saturday in May. City of Armagh won the Mall Trophy four times.