The club was founded in September 1879 by John McAlery in the suburb of Cliftonville in north Belfast and are the founders of football in Ireland.

Cliftonville contests the North Belfast derby with nearby rivals Crusaders, and also has local rivalries with Linfield and Glentoran.

was announced on 20 September 1879 in notices in the Belfast News-Letter and Northern Whig, which asked "gentlemen desirous of becoming members" of the "Cliftonville Association Football Club (Scottish Association Rules)" to communicate with John McAlery, a young Belfast businessman and manager of the "Irish Tweed House", Royal Avenue, and later with premises in Rosemary Street, or R.M.

The first meeting took place on 18 November 1880 at Queen's Hotel, Belfast, presided over by John Sinclair, from which the Irish Football Association was formed.

[8] The inaugural meeting of the Irish Football League was held on 14 March 1890 in the Belfast Estate Office of the Marquess of Dufferin and Ava with M. McNeice (Cliftonville) as its first president.

Eight clubs agreed to participate: Cliftonville, Clarence, Milford, Oldpark, Distillery, Glentoran, Ulster and Linfield.

[3] Being an all-amateur team until the early 1970s,[10] Cliftonville subsequently played a minor role in Northern Irish football as professionalism took hold.

In front of 18,000 spectators, the largest attendance for many years, Cliftonville beat Portadown 3–2 with goals from John Platt, Mike Adair and a late winner from Tony Bell.

Under manager Marty Quinn, a player from the cup-winning side of 1979, Cliftonville won the Irish League in 1997–98 for the first time in 88 years at Solitude after a 1–1 draw against Glentoran.

UTV's coverage of the post-match wait in the home changing-room, which erupted in celebration once the title win had been confirmed, brought the Reds' victory to a wide audience.

After the Cliftonville players returned to the Solitude pitch, Reds Captain Mickey Donnelly lifted the Irish League trophy.

Since then the Reds have progressed, with a fifth-place finish in 2005–06 under new manager Eddie Patterson, (who replaced Liam Beckett), and his Assistant Tommy Breslin.

Cliftonville beat Dinaburg of Latvia in the First Round of the 2007 UEFA Intertoto Cup, the home leg was played at Windsor Park, Belfast and finished 1–1 with Kieron O'Connor scoring the Cliftonville goal, on his competitive debut and the away leg was played at the Celtnieks Stadium in the Latvian city of Daugavpils.

During the 2007–08 campaign Cliftonville's performances in the first half of the season had seemed to make them genuine title contenders, spending much of the early and middle part of the season top of the table, going top with five games to go, however a poor run of form in the final fixtures of the campaign ended their hopes of winning the biggest prize in local football.

This time being drawn against Danish giants Copenhagen, the home leg took place at Mourneview Park, Lurgan and resulted in a 4–0 defeat with the return leg two weeks later held in the Danish National Stadium, Parken Stadium and the result again was unfavourable – this time a 7–0 defeat.

They won the County Antrim Shield and reached the Irish Cup final, 30 years since their previous victory in the competition.

The season was a success on a personal note for captain Chris Scannell, who finished top goalscorer in all competitions, and won the coveted Ulster Footballer of the Year trophy.

The 2010–11 season began with a 1–0 aggregate win over Croatian side HNK Cibalia in the second qualifying round of the Europa league.

In the 2021–22 season, Paddy McLaughlin guided the club to a strong second-placed finish, taking the title race with Linfield down to the wire.

On 13 March 2022 Cliftonville won its sixth League Cup against Coleraine at Windsor Park in a thrilling final that ended 4–3 to the Reds in extra time.

Ronan Hale scoring a brace in extra time and his brother and captain Rory picking up the man of the match award.