All-Ireland Senior Club Hurling Championship

Action from the 2009 semi-final between De La Salle (white and red) and Cushendall (maroon)

Since the foundation of the Gaelic Athletic Association in 1884, challenge, exhibition and tournament matches between clubs on an inter-county level were commonplace. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Glen Rovers of Cork and Ahane of Limerick regularly clashed in off-season games. In the 1950s the Cork Churches Tournament came to be recognised as the unofficial All-Ireland Club Championship. The tournament was an initiative by the then Bishop of Cork and Ross, Cornelius Lucey, to raise money to build five new churches in the fast developing suburbs of Cork. Participation was by invitation and was extended to the country’s current best hurling teams. This tournament lasted for five years, however, by the 1960s there was a growing appetite for a similar competition. In 1965 the Munster Council organised the Munster Senior Club Hurling Championship.[1] Following the success of this provincial championship, Donegal, Galway and Wexford put down a motion for the introduction of All-Ireland club championships in both codes at the GAA's Congress in 1969. The motion was successful and the competition eventually began in 1970-71.

Ollie Canning won four All-Ireland medals with Portumna.

The difficult nature of qualifying for the All-Ireland Championship via the individual county and provincial championships has meant that individual clubs have rarely dominated for prolonged periods of time, however, there have been exceptions.

The first decade of the All-Ireland Championship was dominated by the “big three” clubs from Cork, with Blackrock, Glen Rovers and St. Finbarr’s sharing every All-Ireland title bar one between 1972 and 1979. Blackrock became the preeminent team of the championship by winning three All-Ireland titles from four final appearances during this time. Glen Rovers and St. Finbarr’s claimed two titles apiece during the same period.

The second decade saw a greater spread of counties represented, with the club champions of Antrim, Cork, Galway, Kilkenny, Tipperary and Wexford all claiming the All-Ireland title. Kilkenny clubs were dominant by winning five championship titles between 1981 and 1991. Ballyhale Shamrocks won three of these titles with victories in 1981, 1984 and 1990.

The resurgence of non-traditional teams at inter-county level was also prevalent in the club championship during the 1990s. Galway clubs came to the fore during this decade, with Sarsfields becoming the first team to retain the All-Ireland title with back-to-back wins in 1993-94. Their success was followed by Athenry who won a lone title in 1997 before claiming back-to-back championships in 2000-01. Clare clubs, buoyed by the inter-county success of the county team, claimed All-Ireland titles in 1996 and 1999.

Offaly club Birr became the most dominant team at the turn of the century. Between 1995 and 2003 the club became the first to win four All-Ireland titles, however, this record was bettered by Ballyhale Shamrocks who won a record-breaking fifth championship in 2010. Portumna of Galway dominated the new century by winning four All-Ireland titles between 2006 and 2014.

The All-Ireland Championship has always been played as a single elimination tournament whereby once a team loses they are eliminated from the championship. Participation is open to the four champion clubs of the four provinces of Ireland and has largely remained the same since the inaugural championship in 1971, however, there have been some minor changes throughout.

In 1976 the All-Ireland Championship was extended to five clubs as the winners of the London Senior Hurling Championship were allowed to enter. They entered the All-Ireland series at the newly-created quarter-final stage and played one of the four provincial champions in rotation. This system lasted until 2004. Since then the London champions have contested the All-Ireland Intermediate Club Hurling Championship.

After several years of being regarded as the most uncompetitive of the four provincial championships, the Connacht Championship was discontinued in 2009. This has meant that the Galway champions represent the province unopposed and gain automatic entry to the All-Ireland semi-final stage.

• Most wins: 8:
  • Ballyhale Shamrocks (1981, 1984, 1990, 2007, 2010, 2015, 2019, 2020)
• Most consecutive wins: 2:
  • Sarsfields (1993, 1994)
  • Athenry (2000, 2001)
  • Birr (2002, 2003)
  • Portumna (2008, 2009)
  • Cuala (2017, 2018)
  • Ballyhale Shamrocks (2019, 2020)
• Most appearances in a final: 9:
  • Ballyhale Shamrocks (1979, 1981, 1984, 1990, 2007, 2010, 2015, 2019, 2020)
• Most appearances in a final without ever winning: 5
  • Rathnure (1972, 1974, 1978, 1987, 1999)
• Most appearances in a final without losing (streak): 8
  • Ballyhale Shamrocks (1981, 1984, 1990, 2007, 2010, 2015, 2019, 2020)

The most successful team of each decade, judged by number of All-Ireland Senior Club Hurling Championship titles, is as follows:

• 1970s: 3 for Blackrock (1972-74-79)
• 1980s: 2 for Ballyhale Shamrocks (1981–84)
• 1990s: 2 each for Sarsfields (1993–94) and Birr (1995–98)
• 2000s: 3 for Portumna (2006-08-09)
• 2010s: 3 for Ballyhale Shamrocks (2010-15-19)
• 2020s: 1 for Ballyhale Shamrocks (2020)

Top three longest gaps between successive championship titles:

• 29 years: Loughgiel Shamrocks (1983-2012)
• 23 years: James Stephens (1982-2005)
• 17 years: Ballyhale Shamrocks (1990-2007)