Louth GAA

Louth GAA

Irish:	Lughbhadh An Lú
Nickname(s):	The Wee County
Province:	Leinster
Dominant sport:	Gaelic football
Ground(s):	DEFY Páirc Mhuire
County colours:	Red   White
Executive
Chairman:	Seán McClean
County teams
NFL:	Division 2
NHL:	Division 3A
Football Championship:	Sam Maguire Cup
Hurling Championship:	Lory Meagher Cup

The Louth County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) (Irish: Cumann Lúthchleas Gael, Coiste Chontae an Lú) or Louth GAA is one of the 32 county boards of the GAA in Ireland, and is responsible for Gaelic games in County Louth.

It over sees competitions such as the Louth Senior Football Championship (SFC), Louth Intermediate Football Championship (IFC) and Louth Junior Football Championship (JFC), in which clubs compete to determine which of them are top dog.

The county board is also responsible for the Louth county teams. The county football team won the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship (SFC) in 1910, 1912 and again in 1957, so it can lay claim to as many titles as Mayo (although Mayo took a good few decades longer to get going and are content enough with the three, judging by recent efforts).

The officials who have chaired the Board since the establishment of the Gaelic Athletic Association are named below.

Elections for chairman, as well as other positions, take place at the board's annual convention and are held at headquarters in Darver. The maximum term under current county board rules is five years for any position.

Clan na Gael's Peter Fitzpatrick T.D., served as chairman from 2020–2023. Fitzpatrick is a former player and captain of the county football team. He also managed the team from 2010–2012, the highlight of his tenure being Louth's first appearance in a Leinster Senior Football Championship final for 50 years in 2010. As chairman Fitzpatrick brought in, first, Mickey Harte and, then, Ger Brennan as managers of the county football team, ensuring progression and a rise from the basement of Division 4.

In 2010, the Drogheda Gaelic football club, O'Raghallaighs, tabled a motion for convention calling for the Boyne Valley Cable Bridge symbol to be removed from the Louth GAA crest because of the bridge's main location being in the neighbouring county of Meath; this led to the county crest being changed to a simpler version.^[1]

Clubs contest the Louth Senior Football Championship. That competition's most successful club is Newtown Blues, with 23 titles.

Dundalk Young Irelands is the county's oldest GAA club.^[2] The club represented Louth in the first All-Ireland Football final which was played at Beech Hill on 29 April 1888 against Limerick Commercials.^[3]

The earliest recorded inter-county football match took place in 1712 when Louth faced Meath at Slane.^[4] A fragment of a poem from 1806 records a football match between Louth and Fermanagh at Inniskeen, Co Monaghan.

When Louth GAA sent the team into training in Dundalk for the 1913 Croke Memorial replay under a soccer trainer from Belfast, the move caused more than a ripple through the Association. For thirty years full-time training in bursts of a week or so before a big match were common. After that the two or three times a week gatherings became more popular.

Between 1945 and 1953 Louth and Meath met 13 times. The crowds got bigger and bigger each time as they played draw after draw in the Championship. The attendance of 42,858 at a thrilling 1951 replay remained a record for a provincial match other than a final for forty years the four match series between Meath and Dublin in 1991. The rivalry with Meath has never fizzled out, as witnessed by a stirring Leinster SFC semi-final in 1998. Nor has controversy, as witnessed by Graham Geraghty's "wide" 45th minute point.

In 1957 showband star Dermot O'Brien was late for the All-Ireland SFC final and joined the team when the parade was completed. Prior to the game O'Brien had captained the side in the semi-final success, when the regular captain Patsy Coleman had been injured very early in the season, leaving O'Brien to resume his previous role as captain. Coleman today still has the match ball. O'Brien played a key role as Louth beat Cork with the help of a goal from Sean Cunningham with five minutes to go. As both Cork and Louth wear Red and White, on that day Louth wore the green of Leinster, while Cork wore the blue of Munster. Dermot O'Brien died on 22 May 2007.

Eamonn McEneaney was manager from 2006 to 2009 and guided them to their most recent success, the O'Byrne Cup when they defeated DCU in the 2009 final played in the Gaelic Grounds in Drogheda.

On 27 June 2010, Louth reached their first Leinster SFC final in 50 years. During the decider, which was played on 11 July that year, anger and controversy erupted when, during the 74th minute of the match against Meath, a goal was awarded by the referee after brief consultation with only one of the match umpires (although close circuit camera evidence shown on RTÉ Two's coverage of the game proved that the ball was carried over the line by a Meath player). However, Meath received the 2010 Leinster Title and the cup. More on that in the main article linked above.

Clubs contest the Louth Senior Hurling Championship. That competition's most successful club is Naomh Moninne, with 22 titles.

The Louth hurling team competes in the Nicky Rackard Cup, an extension of the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship. The Louth hurlers finished as runner-up to London in the 2005 final at Croke Park, and to Sligo in 2008. In 2016, they competed in the Lory Meagher Cup, defeating Sligo in the final 4-15 to 4-11, and Fermanagh in the 2020 final by 2-19 to 2-08.^[5]

Louth won the 2022 Lory Meagher Cup to become the first team to win that competition on three occasions.^[6]

Louth has the following achievements in hurling.

Aidan Kerrigan from Ballyoughter, County Wexford has worked with the Louth county hurling team.^[7]

Louth contested two All Ireland senior finals in 1934 and 1936, captained by Rose Quigley from Darver, where Fr Tom Soraghan was zealously promoting the game. Kathleen and Nan Hegarty two of her Darver team-mates were leading players of the decade.

Notable players include junior player of the year winner in 1982 Vivienne Kelly.

Under Camogie's National Development Plan 2010-2015, "Our Game, Our Passion",^[8] Carlow, Cavan, Laois, Louth and Roscommon were to get a total of 17 new clubs by 2015.^[9]

Louth have the following achievements in camogie.

• All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship runners-up: 1934, 1936

Louth has a ladies' football team.^[10]

• Mulligan, Fr.John (1984). The GAA in Louth - An Historical Record.

• Mulligan, Fr.John (2000). The GAA in Louth - An Historical Record (updated).

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Louth GAA.

• Louth on Hoganstand.com
• National and provincial titles won by Louth teams
• Louth GAA site