During the third quarter of the nineteenth century, and following the adoption of a set of official rules in 1868, rugby football began to spread quickly throughout Ireland, resulting in the formation of several other clubs that are still in existence, including NIFC (1868); Wanderers (1869); Queen's University (1869); Lansdowne (1873); Dungannon (1873); County Carlow (1873); UCC (1874); and Ballinasloe (1875) which amalgamated with Athlone to form Buccaneers.

That same year Ireland's first home match, also against England, was held at Leinster Cricket Club's Observatory Lane ground in Rathmines, as Lansdowne Road was deemed unsuitable.

[12][13] Following a six-year period of defeats, in 1881 Ireland finally achieved their first test victory, beating Scotland at Ormeau in Belfast, following a late drop goal from John C Bagot.

[15] Ireland's first test match victory at Lansdowne Road on 5 February 1887, was also their first win over England, with the final score of two goals to nil.

In the 1890s, Rugby was primarily a game for the Protestant middle class; the only Catholic in Edmund Forrest's 1894 team was Thomas Crean.

Such was the level of interest in the visit of the first New Zealand team to Dublin in November 1905 that the IRFU made the match the first all-ticket rugby international in history.

In the autumn of 1969, the Irish Rugby Football Union appointed a coach for the national team for the first time, the role went to Ronnie Dawson.

The 1972 Five Nations Championship was not completed when Scotland and Wales refused to play in Ireland following threatening letters to players, purportedly from the IRA.

[25][26] At the inaugural 1987 Rugby World Cup, victories over Tonga and Canada saw Ireland through to the quarter-finals, where they were beaten 33–15 by joint hosts Australia.

The start of the professional era was disappointing for Ireland, who finished bottom of the Five Nations Championship three years in succession (1996, 1997 and 1998) and lost to Italy three times, at home (29–37) and abroad (12–22 and 22–37).

The 2003 Six Nations Championship saw Ireland lose to England in the Grand Slam decider at Lansdowne Road, ending a home unbeaten run that stretched to 10 tests since September 2002.

[43] In January 2016, having been sacked by England a month prior, Andy Farrell was appointed defence coach replacing Les Kiss.

With many first-choice players selected to tour with the British & Irish Lions, Ireland took a development squad into their summer games that year, which included a 55–19 win over the USA, and a 2–0 test series victory against Japan.

In November 2017, Ireland moved to third in the world rankings following their biggest-ever win over South Africa, 38–3, and victories over Fiji and Argentina.

[51][52] The 2019 Rugby World Cup ended in disappointment for the Irish, who opened their campaign with a rousing 27–3 win over Scotland,[53] but were felled the following round in a shock 12–19 defeat to tournament hosts Japan.

[56] 2020 saw Ireland's first Six Nations campaign under former defense coach Andy Farrell, who replaced Joe Schmidt after the World Cup, interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ireland's fourth-round game against Italy was delayed until October that year, with the Irish recording a 50–17 win, going on to a 27–35 defeat against France to finish the truncated tournament in 3rd place.

In this changed environment Ireland would have an indifferent campaign, once again finishing 3rd with wins over Italy (48–10), Scotland (27–24) and England (32–18), after losing their opening two matches to France (13–15) and eventual champions Wales (16–21).

[58] Ireland played most of the game against Wales down to 14 men after veteran flanker Peter O'Mahony became the first Irish player to be red carded in a Six Nations match, for a foul on Wynn Jones in the 14th minute.

Ireland finished the season with an 8–2 record, following a clean sweep in the Autumn Nations series, defeating Japan (60–5), New Zealand (29–20) and Argentina (53–7).

[67] Ireland subsequently won their matches against eventual champions South Africa and against Scotland 36–14 at Stade de France.

[72] On 13 July 2024 Ireland defeated World Champions South Africa (24–25) with a last minute drop goal in Kings Park, Durban earning a series draw, 1-1.

In January 2014, the IRFU signed a deal with Canterbury for the supply of Ireland's playing and training kit from November 2014 until 2020,[75] which was then extended to 2024.

The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) owned Croke Park (an 82,500 capacity stadium), was made available for Ireland's two home games against France and England in 2007.

In the 2007 World Cup Ireland played in the so-called "Group of death" with hosts France, Argentina, Namibia and Georgia.

[103] Ireland went into the 2023 Rugby World Cup as the top-ranked team and started their campaign with a bonus point 82–8 win over Romania.

Ireland won their third ever Grand Slam in the 2018 Six Nations Championship with a 24–15 win over England at Twickenham on St Patrick's Day.

[106] Ireland beat Scotland on 16 March 2024, to become back-to-back Six Nations outright champions for only the third time in history, emulating the class of 1949 and 2015.

On 26 January, Jack Aungier was called up as injury cover at prop, with Tadhg Furlong suffering a recurrence of a calf strain in training and being ruled out of Ireland's opening match against England.

[149] On 16 February, Gavin Coombes, John Hodnett, Diarmuid Mangan, Stuart McCloskey, Jacob Stockdale and Nick Timoney were called up to the squad ahead of Ireland's Round 3 Six Nations match against Wales.