Glentoran to win its first Irish Cup. It won the Irish Cup for a second time in 1954, beating Glentoran again, and for a third time in 1964 – that year also winning the Gold Cup – despite the club's conversion to part-time status after the abolition of the maximum wage in 1961. This led to the club's first entry into European competition, in the 1964–65 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, in which it was beaten by Steaua Bucharest 5–0 on aggregate. The club won the 1964–65 Irish League and subsequently became the first Irish League team to win a European tie over two legs, beating FK Lyn 8–6 on aggregate in the 1965–66 European Cup. Derry did not complete the next round, as the Irish Football Association (IFA) declared its ground was not up to standard, after a game had been played there during the previous round. Derry suspected sectarian motives, as it played in a mainly nationalist city and so had come to be supported largely by Catholics. The IFA, Belfast-based, was dominated by Protestants and it was widely suspected that it would rather have been represented by a traditionally unionist team. Relations between the club and IFA quickly deteriorated. There had been no significant history of sectarian difficulties at matches in the first 40 years of the club's history, but in 1969 the Civil Rights campaign disintegrated into communal violence, which were followed by 30 years of the Troubles. Despite the social and political unrest, Derry reached the Irish Cup final in 1971, in which it was beaten 3–0 by Distillery. As the republican locality surrounding the Brandywell saw some of the worst violence, numerous unionist-supported clubs were reluctant to play there. The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) ruled the zone unsafe for fixtures. With no other feasible local ground available, Derry had to travel to the majority unionist town of Coleraine, over away, to play its "home" games at the Showgrounds. This situation lasted from September 1971 until October 1972 when, faced with dwindling crowds (most Derry fans were unwilling to travel to Coleraine due to the political situation and the longer journey) and dire finances, the club formally requested permission to return to the Brandywell. Despite a new assessment by the security forces concluding that the Brandywell was no longer any more dangerous than any other league ground and a lifting of the security ban, Derry's proposal