Glenavon were the first team ever to represent Northern Ireland in any of the four competitions, when in the first round of the 1957–58 European Cup they played out a 0–0 draw against Danish side AGF in Aarhus, Denmark on 11 September 1957.
Linfield hold the record of the most participations in the European Cup/Champions League by any Northern Irish club to date, having appeared in 27 seasons of the competition up to and including 2012–13.
Participation in the secondary competitions began with Glentoran in the 1962–63 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup against Spanish side Real Zaragoza.
Glentoran hold the record of the most participations in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup/UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League by any Northern Irish club to date, having appeared in 21 seasons of the competition.
UEFA had allowed the matches to take place in neutral countries but that was not financially viable for Glenavon, so they were left with no option but to withdraw.
[1] A similar issue arose the following season when in the first round of the 1961–62 European Cup, Linfield were drawn to face another East German team, Vorwärts.
To date, this is the only occasion that a club from outside the top division of football in Northern Ireland has represented the country in European competition.
In the second qualifying round they were drawn to face Skoda Xanthi of Greece and won the first leg 1–0 away from home despite being massive underdogs for the tie.
After earning a score of 2.833 during the 2020–21 European campaign, Northern Ireland will remain as the 42nd best association in Europe out of 55 for the second consecutive season.
They have yet to play against teams from Armenia, Austria, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein, Moldova and Russia; and Northern Irish clubs have never been paired with each other.