A Family Affair

List of brothers to appear for (Northern) Ireland:

Players		Clubs	Career	Caps	Same Match
Hamilton	William Drummond	Dublin Association	1885	(1)	85 Wal
	Willoughby James	Dublin Association	1885	(1)
Baxter	Robert Anderson	Distillery	1887	(1)
	Samuel Nathaniel	Cliftonville	1887	(1)
Crone	William	Distillery	1882-90	(12)	89 Sco 90 Wal
	Robert	Distillery	1889-90	(4)
Gillespie	Shaw	Hertford	1886-87	(6)
	John	West Down	1889	(1)
Torrans	Sam	Linfield	1889-01	(26)	93 Sco
	Robert	Linfield	1893	(1)
Gordon	Willie	Linfield	1891-93	(7)
	Tom	Linfield	1894-95	(2)	} 95 Eng
	Hugh	Linfield	1895-96	(3)
McClatchey	John	Distillery	1886	(3)
	Thomas	Distillery	1895	(1)
Sherrard	Joe	Limavady	1885-88	(3)
	Willie	Cliftonville	1895	(3)
Pyper	James	Cliftonville	1897-1900	(7)	97 Wal Sco 00 Eng
	John	Cliftonville	1897-02	(9)
McKee	Hiriam Walton	Cliftonville	1895	(3)
	Frederick	Cliftonville, Belfast Celtic	1906-14	(5)
Campbell	John	Cliftonville	1896	(1)
	James	Cliftonville	1898-04	(14)
Burnison	Joe	Distillery	1901	(2)
	Sam	Distillery	1908-13	(8)
Scott	Billy	Linfield, Everton, Leeds C.	1903-13	(25)
	Elisha	Liverpool, Belfast Celtic	1920-35	(31)
Jones	Jack	Linfield, Hibernian, Glenavon	1930-38	(23)	34 Eng Wal
	Sam	Distillery, Blackpool	1934	(2)
Blanchflower	Danny	Barnsley, Aston Villa, Tottenham	1950-63	(56)	all 12
	Jackie	Manchester Utd	1954-58	(12)
Crossan	Eddie	Blackburn Rovers	1950-55	(3)
	John	Sparta Rotterdam, Sunderland, Manchester City, Middlesbrough	1960-68	(24)
Irvine	Bobby	Linfield, Stoke City	1962-65	(8)	63 Pol Spa 65 Wal
	Billy	Burnley, Preston, Brighton	1963-72	(23)
Hunter	Victor	Coleraine	1962-64	(2)
	Allan	Blackburn Rovers, Ipswich Town	1970-80	(53)
Whitley	Jeff	Manchester City, Sunderland	1997-05	(20)	98 Spa
	Jim	Manchester City	1998	(1)
Evans	Jonny	Manchester United	2006-24	(112)	10 Mon
	Corry	Manchester Utd, Hull City, Blackburn Rovers	2009-date	()
McLaughlin	Conor	Preston, Fleetwood	2011-21	(43)	14 Uru
	Ryan	Liverpool	2014-18	()

Charles	Shea	-	2022-date		24 Blr
	Pierce	-	2024-date

Notes:

Played together

• The Hamilton brothers, William Drummond and Willoughby James were the first brothers to play for Ireland when they both played in the forward line against Wales on the 11th April 1885.
• William and Robert Crone played together against Scotland 9/3/1889 and against Wales 8/2/1890.
• Sam and Robert Torrans played for Ireland vs Scotland on 25/3/1893.
• Tom and Hugh Gordon played for Ireland vs England on 9/3/1895. Willie Gordon had already played for Ireland 7 times from 1891-1893 and the Gordons were therefore the first and only set of three brothers to play for Ireland, though not together in one match.
• John and James Pyper, both Presbyterian Ministers, played together for Ireland on three occasions vs Wales 6/3/1897, Scotland 27/3/1897 and England 17/3/1900.
• Jack and Sam Jones played in the half-back line vs England 20/10/1933 and Vs Wales
  4/11/1933.
  
• Jackie Blanchflower played twelve times for Ireland (1954-1958). On every occasion he played his elder brother Danny also played. On one of these occasions vs Wales in Belfast 20/4/1955 Wales fielded two sets of brothers John and Mel Charles and Ivor and Len Allchurch.
• Jim Whitley played vs Spain in Santander on 3/4/1998, while his brother Jeff came on as a sub in the 90th minute.
• Jonny and Corry Evans played their first Northern Ireland match together against Montenegro on 11/8/2010 when Corry came on as a half-time sub. This was Jonny's 21st cap and Corry's 5th.
• Conor and Ryan McLaughlin both came on as a sub in a 1-0 friendly defeat in Uruguay on 30/5/2014. It was Ryan's debut and Conor's second cap.
• When the Evans brothers started and the McLaughlin brothers came on as substitutes in a friendly against Costa Rica on 3/06/2018 it was the first time that two sets of brothers appeared on the pitch at the same time for Northern Ireland.
• Pierce Charles' started on his debut vs Belarus on 12/10/2024 alongside his elder brother Shea who was winning his 20th cap

Goalscoring Brothers

• Joe Sherrard vs Wales 12/03/1887 and Willie Sherrard vs Wales 16/03/1895 were the first brothers to score goals for Ireland.
• John Pyper vs Wales 06/03/1897 and James Pyper vs Scotland 27/03/1897 were the first brothers to score goals for Ireland in the same season. James also scored a goal v England on 05/03/1898.

List of father-son internationals for (Northern) Ireland:

• Matt Wilson (1884) and Robert Wilson (1888)
• Jimmy Ferris (1919-1928) and Ray Ferris (1949-1951)
• Fay Coyle (1956-1958) and Liam Coyle (1989)
• Victor Hunter (1962-1964) and Barry Hunter (1995-1999) (Barry was therefore also nephew of Allan Hunter)
• Jimmy Feeney (1947-1950) and Warren Feeney (1976)
• Warren Feeney (1976) and Warren Feeney Junior (2002-date) (consequently three generations of the same family won international caps)

Other (Northern) Ireland international relatives:

• Brothers Shaw (1886-1887) and John Gillespie (1889) were cousins of Robert John Hunter (1884)
• Bob McIlvenny (1890-1901) was the uncle of Pat McIlvenny (1924)
• John Houston (1912-1914) and William Houston (1932) were step-brothers.
• Brothers Jack (1930-1938) and Sam Jones (1934) were nephews of the Burnison brothers who played for Ireland - Joe (1901) and Sam (1908-1913).
• When Jack and Sam Jones played in the half-back line vs Wales on 4/11/1933 the half-back line was completed by their brother-in-law Billy Mitchell.

By George Glass.

(Northern) Ireland Brotherly XXII
Billy & Elisha Scott; Billy & Bob Crone, Danny & Jackie Blanchflower, Jack & Sam Jones, Jonny & Corry Evans, Rab & Sam Torrans; Jack & James Campbell, Jeff & Jim Whitley, Eddie & Johnny Crossan; William & Willoughby Hamilton; Joe & Willie Sherrard

(Northern) Ireland Father-Son XI
Vic Hunter (father); Matt Wilson (f), Jim Feeney (f); Bob Wilson (son), Barry Hunter (s), Ray Ferris (s); Warren Feeney Sr (f&s), Warren Feeney Jr (s), Fay Coyle (f), Liam Coyle (s), Jim Ferris (f)