The winner of the league each season goes into one of the qualifying rounds of the CL. No Irish team have ever made it to the group stage though. Shelbourne came very close a few years ago, they went out to Deportivo in the last qualifying round.
The 2007 champions were in this year's CL. The 2008 champions will be in the 2009/10 CL.
There are other leagues that have similar calendars to ours (Russia is one I think).
Really? I thought they were no good. I remember like a year or two after they won the National Championship they started sucking. I was sure happy to be at College Park when they won though The riots, the burning of random shit, the girls flashing their titties, ahh that was nice