Commemorating 100 years of National League finals

By Cian Murphy

It is not quite the same tale that Hans Christian Andersen wrote 180 years ago, but as a story arc goes, the GAA’s National Leagues are the ugly duckling that became a swan.

This year marks the centenary of the first ever National League finals and as the competitions celebrate their 100th anniversary the once much maligned entity, for so long blighted by indifference, has enjoyed transformation and acceptance, and in the case of football, has been given a power and relevance that would have ruffled plenty of feathers in previous generations.

With more than 20 years’ service in Croke Park, the GAA’s Director of Club, Player and Games Administration, Feargal McGill, has seen how the competitions have evolved through his role on CCCC.

“The major factor in the transformation has been the playing of the league in the calendar year. It was traditionally the norm that the first three or four rounds would be played before Christmas, and it was completed then afterwards. But, when it was brought closer to Championship and in the calendar year it increased its significance,” he says.

“Another great significance to the league is that teams are playing against opposition of a similar standard and by and large we have had a meritocracy which has helped in terms of the competitiveness of matches.

“This allowed for the creation of divisions that allowed teams to make meaningful progress. Having different league finals for each division provides opportunities for players who may not otherwise have had as clear a pathway to Croke Park or silverware in the Championship. Watching my own county of Leitrim play in a league final in 2019 brought the county back to Croke Park for the first time since 1994. It was only the fifth time that Leitrim had played a senior competitive match at Croke Park. It was a huge occasion for the county, and people travelled back home from all over the world to be there.

“You can see the change in significance attached to the league in the attendance figures. There was a time when, 25 years ago, a crowd of 4,000 or 5,000 at a Division 1 league match was considered a big crowd. But we regularly have crowds that go into double figures now. People enjoy having league matches at the start of the year, it gives them the chance to get out and have something to go to. The biggest night of all was the Dublin-Tyrone match played at Croke Park under lights in 2009 which filled Croke Park and was an incredible night.

“Particularly in football, we have seen teams do the double of winning the league and carrying that form into the Championship and that has enhanced the competition’s reputation and another factor we have seen is the number of neutrals who will go to a game just for the chance to see a David Clifford or a Cian Lynch which has added to the attraction,” he added.

One final piece of the league transformation has been the service provided by TG4 over the last 25 years and their decision to champion the coverage of live league matches on Sunday afternoons.

“There was a time when all league games were at 2 o’clock on a Sunday. Now they are spread out across the weekend and the promotion of matches on TV has helped and TG4 has to take a lot of credit for that success,” adds McGill.

Last weekend would have been very satisfying for McGill and his colleagues on CCCC. The final rounds of football competition in particular had 26 of the 32 teams with something to play for and either a league final, promotion or relegation in the balance.

And of course, the biggest, most recent development has been the alignment of the Allianz Football league to the Championship where the Sam Maguire is made up of the eight provincial finalists and the next eight best placed teams in the Allianz Football League. With Kildare guaranteed Sam Maguiire status as 2025 Tailteann Cup champions, their relegation from Division 2 means that the loser of the Division 3 Down v Wexford league final on Saturday will be denied automatic Sam Maguire football – unless they upset the Championship odds and reach their provincial final.

Hurling does not have this level of intrigue and in comparison, its format has changed repeatedly to meet the demands of the game. But as has been shown by Offaly’s recovery and through the emergence of Kildare, the hurling league also offers teams a pathway towards the top table. Kildare hurling’s qualification for the 2026 Leinster Championship was clinched through the Joe McDonagh Cup win of last year but, before that, it was built on incremental progress made over time in the league.

Two future GAA Presidents, Cork’s Seán McCarthy and Limerick’s Liam Clifford promoted the idea of National Leagues at the Congress of 1925. Luke O’Toole the then General Secretary (Ard Stiúrthóir) headed a workgroup that presented the proposed new competitions on August 8, 1925, and the matches began that October.

The GAA that the Leagues were born into were in an Ireland embracing a new normal after more than a decade of economic war, world war, revolutionary war and civil war.

League games would help satisfy a demand for matches which attendances at games suggested was there. And for McCarthy and Clifford, improving the fortunes of hurling in lower tier counties was also a motivation.

Cork’s hurlers and the footballers of Laois were the inaugural champions in the finals of 1926, but the fact that there were no leagues played in the 1926/27 period did not augur well for the future.

After the death in office of Luke O’Toole in 1929, the appointment and lengthy stewardship of Pádraig Ó Caoimh as Ard Stiúrthóir until 1964 is something that GAA historians have long credited as being of huge significance to the development of the GAA in terms of administration, structures and in promotion of the games.

The leagues, through all their various formations, were given a permanent place in the calendar, and even when fuel shortages during the Emergency of the Second World War years from 1942-1945 scrapped a national competition, provinces still held their own league competitions.

Mick Mackey’s Limerick team of the 30s won a five in a row which underlined their superiority and popularity and similarly Mayo in the same era had a remarkable six in a row run of league success. Opting out in 1939/1940 they came back and won the 1941 final.

The Croke Cups were donated by the Archbishop to the GAA in 1896. They were used and presented to winners of different forms of knockout competitions but were settled on as the prizes for the league winners in 1926.

The football cup, however, went out of the GAA’s possession. A new cup called the New Ireland Assurance Cup was used for Division 1 football from 1929 and was replaced last year with a magnificent new cup named in honour of the late RTÉ Gaelic games broadcaster Micheal Ó Muircheartaigh – marking 100 years from the first ever games played in the league. Well known GAA antique dealer Tony Honan discovered the Croke football cup and with his co-operation it is currently on display in the GAA Museum in Croke Park.

The 2026 champions will receive a specially engraved medal commemorating the centenary of the league – the front of which has for some time been the crests of the four provinces, but originally was an old Irish image featuring harp, shamrock, wolfhound and round tower.

Starting a competition before Halloween and finishing it at Easter was never conducive to building form, but the calendar shift means few if any now regard the league as a hindrance rather than a help.

It is the gateway to inter-county life for generations of players, provides fans with a chance to see great players from counties in other provinces play in their back yard and has completed its transformation from an often unloved and undervalued entity to being one of the GAA’s crown jewels.