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The Galway County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association (Irish: Cumann Lúthchleas Gael Coiste Chontae na Gaillimhe) or Galway GAA is one of the 32 county boards of the GAA in Ireland, and is responsible for Gaelic Games in County Galway. The county board is also responsible for the Galway inter-county football, hurling, camogie and ladies football teams.

History

The first county in Connacht to organise also contested the first All Ireland hurling final in 1887. Galway provided a much needed boost to football in the 1930s and 1960s and hurling in the 1980s.

Gaelic football

In a county so well known for its race meeting, pedigree counts. Jimmy Duggan was on Galway football teams that lost three-in-a-row in the 1940s, his son Jimmy was on teams that lost three finals in four years between 1971 and 1974. Michael Donnellan was on the 1925 team that won an All Ireland by default, and the 1934 team which won it without question. His son, John Donnellan, was on the three-in-a-row teams of the 1960s and grandson Michael sent the pass to Padraig Joyce for a breakthrough goal to win the first of two All Irelands in a four year period in 1998. Led by Mayo-born manager John O'Mahoney, With outstanding performances from Ja Fallon and Michael Donnellan and a superbly taken goal from Padraig Joyce, Galway succeeded in 1998 and came back for an astonishing demolition of Meath in 2001 after losing the 2000 final in a replay to Kerry.

Football in Galway was set back by the defeat of the 1983 team by the depleted Dubs, down to 12 men after three were sent off. Galway struggled. That team had led the eventual All Ireland champions Offaly for most of the 1982 All Ireland semi-final, succumbing to a point from goalscorer Brendan Lowry. Depleted by four injuries and a fifth to free-taker Gay MacManus, Galway were well beaten in 1984, but near-misses in semi-finals against Tyrone in 1986 and Cork in 1987 (when Larry Tompkins forced a replay) left the county out of the reckoning until another three-point defeat at the hands of Tyrone in 1995. However, that return to the semi final stage after an eight year break was to be the catalyst for further breakthoughs.

Honours

  • All-Ireland Senior Football Championships: 9
    • 1925, 1934, 1938, 1956, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1998, 2001
  • All-Ireland Junior Football Championships: 4
    • 1985
  • All-Ireland Under-21 Football Championships: 2
    • 1972, 2005
  • All-Ireland Minor Football Championships: 5
    • 1986
  • National Football Leagues: 4
    • 1940, 1957, 1965, 1981
  • Connacht Senior Football Championships: 44
    • ??

Hurling

The story goes that a priest noticed that some of the Galway hurling team leaving mass early one Sunday morning, because they were on their way to Dublin to play a big match. He put a curse on them, that they would never win another All-Ireland (they were champions in 1923). Connacht's reaching the Railway Cup final in 1969 and holding Munster to a draw before succumbing in the replay boosted the game in the province but disaster followed, Galway losing to London in the 1969 championship and Connacht losing at home to Ulster in the preliminary round of the 1970 Railway Cup on a day they ran up 20 wides. By the time their hurlers were heavily beaten in 1975 and 1979 finals the curse was part of the folklore.

Then Castlegar won the All-Ireland Club Championship in 1980, Galway beat Munster in that year's Railway Cup final, in September Galway beat Limerick in a five-goal thriller to win the All-Ireland. John Fahy's Vocational Schools team won an unprecedented eight-in-a-row, Galway players won five more Railway Cups, Galway won minor titles in 1992 and 1994, under-21 in 1996, and Eugene Cloonan leads a new breed of hurler which has grown accustomed to crossing camans with Cork through under-age competition.

The youth and skill of the team which won All Irelands in 1986 (adding the League and Railway cup as well) and 1987 was suggestive of more to come. John Commins penalty and race back to the line was one of the great images indicating the spirit of the team. Galway were narrowly beaten by Tipperary in a controversial 1989 semi-final and Cork in the final of 1990, while the brilliance of the 1993 final defeat by Kilkenny is sometimes forgotten because of the drama that ensued in the following years. Galway clubs took three successive All Ireland titles in 1992-94 and Athenry three in 1997, 2000 and 2001.

Honours

  • All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championships: 4
    • 1923, 1980, 1987, 1988
  • All-Ireland Junior Hurling Championships: 2
    • 1939, 1996
  • All-Ireland Under-21 Hurling Championships: 8
    • 1986, 1991, 1993, 1996, 2005
  • All-Ireland Minor Hurling Championships: 7
    • 1983, 1992, 1994, 1999, 2000, 2004, 2005
  • National Hurling Leagues: 8
    • 1932, 1951, 1975, 1987, 1989, 1996, 2000, 2004

Camogie

Honours

  • All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championships: 1
    • 1997
  • All-Ireland Junior Camogie Championships: 4
    • 1988
  • All-Ireland Minor Camogie Championships: 7
    • 1997

Ladies' Gaelic football

Honours

  • All-Ireland Senior Ladies' Football Championships: 1
    • 2004
  • All-Ireland Junior Ladies' Football Championships: 1
    • 1985

External links


Gaelic Sport Governing Bodies | Sport in Galway

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Galway GAA".

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