Glentoran

In August 1889, when Glentoran turned itself into a limited company, nobody thought to change the name — it had already stuck since the shipyard workers of Harland & Wolff formed the club in East Belfast in 1882, and it has stuck ever since. That East Belfast identity runs through everything the club has kept: The Oval, its ground since the early years, was built to hold 26,556 people, though safety rules and an ageing structure now cap it at 6,050. The Railway Stand got seats in 2000, and plans for a further rebuild went in during March 2021, but as of the 2024–25 season nothing beyond that has been built.

The green and white have stayed the club's colours through a run of silverware that stretches back to the 1890s — 23 league titles, the earliest in 1893/94, the most recent in 2008/09, and 21 Irish Cups, bookended by a win in 1913/14 and another in 2019/20. The League Cup has been won six times, the last in 2006/07. Finals have not always gone the other way: Glentoran lost the 2015/16 Irish Cup final 4–0 to Linfield, a scoreline that says something about how one-sided the fixture can turn even when both sides carry history.

That history is the point. Linfield is the opponent that defines Glentoran's season more than any trophy does — the Big Two derby, sometimes called the Bel Classico, has decided titles and settled grudges since before either club had a ground worth the name. Cliftonville and Crusaders fill out the rivalries that matter in Belfast football, but it is Linfield that the Oval crowd, however small these days, still turns up for.