Flag Football is a Non-Contact Coed/Mixed version of American Football Similar to Tag Rugby, where players wear a flag attached to their waist which must be pulled off in order to tackle them. Scoring is as American Football, although under current rules there is no kicking, and is played on a smaller field with 5 players (In the Irish Flag Football League of the 1990s there were seven players per team and kicking was allowed.

Irish Flag Football League & Blitzes

The first Flag Football Leagues in Ireland were in Northern Ireland in the mid-1980s. Then in 1991 members of the Dublin Tornadoes American Football Team started a league in Dublin to grow the game. The league became the Irish Flag Football League with addition of teams in Greystones, Co. Wicklow, and lasted until 2000.

From the mid-1980s to 2000, there were two separate development bodies under the IAFA/AFAI: The Northern Ireland American Football Association & Irish council of American Football (Republic of Ireland) charged with developing Flag Football, Junior Football & 8-a-side DV8 Football.

Flag Football was restarted in 2001 as a series of Challenge Games held Nationally. This grew into a National Series of Blitzes, with approximately four Bowls held annually until the formation of the second Irish Flag Football League in 2007, this time a National one. It lasted two seasons before the blitz system was re-introduced. All of these iterations of Flag Football Leagues and Tournaments were under numerous Irish Flag Football Association banners.

In 2014 the Irish American Football association took over the running of Flag Football, and the Irish Flag Football League was re-instated, with the League named the Emerald Bowl Conference. A second level, the Glas (Green) Bowl Conference is being introduced in 2019.

Other Flag Football

A number of other Flag Football Competitions have taken place in Ireland besides the Irish Flag Football League & Blitzes, and International Competitons. The most prominent of these would be the Junior Flag Football & Two-Touch Football (prior to Ireland getting Flags from America, teams had to rely on a system whereby the ball carrier was ‘tackled’ if he was touched with two hands. There has also been College / University and Schools Flag Football Tournaments, and Indoor Flag Football Tournaments (the rules differ due to the walls of the Indoor Hall impinging on play).

In addition to the Northern Ireland American Football Association Flag Football League (1985 to 1986) and the Irish Flag Football League (Greater Dublin Area) which started in 1991-92, there have been a number of Summer Bowls and Summer Leagues which have been run by various regional development bodies such as the Jack Daniels Summer Bowl, held in aid of Third World charities, the Irish Collegiate American Football Association Summer Bowl (1993-1994) and the Irish Flag Football Association Summer League (1995-1997).

E-Football Ireland

Madden NFL Console Game, Fantasy Football and Prediction Leagues are popular forms of E-Football.