The Táin Óg League was the brainchild of GAA Games Development staff Padraig Dowdall, Ryan Gaffney, and Aidan Morgan who recognised that the biggest challenge faced by many counties is that they just don’t have enough teams to play meaningful competitions. Their idea was to wipe away county and provincial boundaries and bring together the scattered hurling strong-holds in the developing counties under the one umbrella.

With the enthusiastic backing of former GAA Hurling Development Manager, Martin Fogarty, the Táin Óg League began as an U-13 competition in 2018 that featured 29 teams. Fast-forward just four years later, and you have 69 teams competing at U-13 level, 73 at U-15 level, and 59 at U-17 level.

2022 will also be the first year that senior club team equivalent of the Táin Óg League, the Cúchulainn League, will be played with 65 teams taking part.

“There are 266 teams across 104 clubs from 15 counties taking part with 28 clubs fielding in the four grades at U-13, U-15, U-17, and senior which is absolutely fantastic,” says the GAA’s National Development Competitions Coordinator, Ciaran Kearney.

“There's no doubt now that the Táin Óg League is what's driving the development of hurling in so many of these developing counties.”