The two Irish cups did not bring surprises.
Dundalk won the League Cup. A compensation for otherwise weak season – they finished 11th in the league. The victory was not easy at all – the final ended at 2-2 tie. The replay was exactly the same – 2-2. Penalty shoot-out clinched the victory, but perhaps the losers deserve the final word: they were Cork Alberts. The short history of the club under this name makes them successful in peculiar way – two mid-table seasons in first division and cup final. That is all… and 1977-78 is the best ever season.
The FA Cup final opposed Sligo Rovers, having a good spell at that time period, to Shamrock Rovers, a traditional powerhouse in Irish football. Both clubs were ambitious to win, especially because they had relatively weak championship.
Sligo Rovers, champions very recently, were entirely out of the race for the title this year. So, the Cup was most desireable. They fought… they lost 0-1.
One more trophy collected by Shamrock Rovers, familiar story, season finished well after all.
Happy winners, whoever they were… as every other Irish team, Shamrock Rovers had no known players. Oops, not true – Johnny Giles was there, fresh from a spell Philadeplhia Fury, USA. A really big name in the Irish league, a star player of Manchester United, Leeds United, captaining the Irish national team for years. Surely he was making a big difference… except that he was 37-years old… the Irish predicament: big names played in Ireland only at the end of their careers, if at all. Giles stayed with Shamrock Rovers until 1983, which is quite a verdict on the strength of the Irish league: elsewhere was and is absolutely unlikely a player to kick the ball in first division and for a leading club when over 40.