- published: 10 Sep 2015
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The Football Association of Ireland Senior Challenge Cup (FAI Cup), known as the Irish Daily Mail FAI Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a knock-out association football competition contested annually by teams from the Republic of Ireland (as well as Derry City from Northern Ireland). Organised by the FAI (Football Association of Ireland), the competition is currently sponsored by the Irish Daily Mail. It was known as the Free State Cup from 1923 to 1936. Shamrock Rovers hold the record of most wins with 24.
The current holders are Dundalk, who beat Cork City in the Aviva Stadium on November 8, 2015. The game ended 1-0 to Dundalk with Richie Towell scoring the goal for Dundalk.
Since the early 1920s, all but a handful of FAI Cup finals were held at Dalymount Park, Dublin. Two replays in the 1920s were held at Shelbourne Park, the 1973 replay was held in Flower Lodge in Cork and the 1984 replay was in Tolka Park. However, since 1990, due to the lack of development of Dalymount, the final has been played at a number of different venues. From 1990 until 1997 it was played at Lansdowne Road stadium, from 1997–1999 back at Dalymount, from 1999 to 2002 at Tolka Park and from 2003 to 2006 back at Lansdowne Road. Due to the redevelopment of Lansdowne, the 2007 and 2008 finals were played at the RDS Arena. The 2009 final took place in Tallaght Stadium. Finals from 2010 onwards are to take place in the Aviva Stadium.
A cup is a small open container used for drinking and carrying drinks. It may be made of wood, plastic, glass, clay, metal, stone, china or other materials, and may have a stem, handles or other adornments. Cups are used for drinking across a wide range of cultures and social classes, and different styles of cups may be used for different liquids or in different situations.
Cups have been used for thousands of years for the purpose of carrying food and drink, as well as for decoration. They may also be used in certain cultural rituals and to hold objects not intended for drinking such as coins.
Names for different types of cups vary regionally and may overlap. Any transparent cup, regardless of actual composition, is likely to be called a "glass"; therefore, while a cup made of paper is a "paper cup", a transparent one for drinking shots is called a "shot glass", instead.
While in theory, most cups are well suited to hold drinkable liquids, hot drinks like tea are generally served in either insulated cups or porcelain teacups.