The competition was first played in the 1911–12 season after seven of the eight participating clubs left the IFA (only Linfield remained) after a dispute over money and founded the New IFA.

At the end of the season after many discussions, the dissident clubs returned to the IFA and the tournament was not held in 1912-13.

This involved a play-off between the two teams topping the table in the first of these seasons.

The format for the Gold Cup varied throughout its history, but most commonly it was organised on a knock-out basis.

From the late 1970s on the Gold Cup was sponsored by Hennessy, TNT (1984/85-1994/95), Sun Life (1995/96-1996/97) and Nationwide (1997/98-2000/01).