The Bank of Ireland Celtic Challenge was established in 2016 and is the only competition in hurling that has teams from all 32 counties participating.

For 2018, a total of 41 teams with over 1,200 players will play in 135 games - including 5 Finals - as part of the Bank of Ireland Celtic Challenge 

• The Bank of Ireland Celtic Challenge is a competition for players, aged 16 and 17 years old, who are not participating in Leaving Cert Examinations during May and June 2018. 41 teams will participate in the competition.
• The programme will run from Wednesday 2nd May to Saturday 30th June 2018.
• The ethos of the competition is a developmental one, where an 8 week programme of meaningful games is supplemented by a 1 to 1 ratio of games to training.
• Each team will play a minimum of 5 games through a programme that is structured on the basis of Group Stages, Preliminaries (Quarter-Finals) and Play-Offs (Semi-Finals).
• The Group Stages will consist of 8 Groups of teams selected on a geographical and developmental basis. Matches at the Group Stages will be played on Wednesdays.
• After the Group Stages, teams will be graded on foot of their performance and will be assigned to 1 of 5 Divisions prior to participating in the Preliminaries (Quarter-Finals) and Play-Offs (Semi-Finals) where they will play against opposition of a comparative developmental level.
• 5 Finals will be played on Saturday June 30th 2018 in Bord na Móna O'Connor Park, Tullamore.

The aim of the competition organisers is to keep improving the competition year after year - as part of this extensive reviews are conducted with all those who participate - see Review Documents available to download below.  

For a full overview of the operation of the competition please see the 2018 Operations Manual available to download below.

If you are a player, coach or parent and are looking for more information about how to get involved please contact: Caoimhe Ní Néill caoimhe.nineill@gaa.ie; 01 865 8622