Dublin Senior Hurling Championship

The Dublin Senior Hurling Championship (Irish: Craobh Sinsear Iomána Átha Cliath) is an annual hurling competition organised by the Dublin County Board since 1887 for the top hurling clubs in County Dublin, Ireland. The winners of the competition qualify to represent their county in the Leinster Championship and, if successful, go on to compete in the All-Ireland Championship. Over the years, non-traditional clubs have been allowed to compete in the Dublin Championship such as regional teams and third-level club, UCD, who have won the competition on several occasions. In its inaugural year, the competition was won by the Metropolitan Hurling Club.^[1]

The 2011 tournament was won by Ballyboden St Endas who beat O'Tooles in the final by 3-12 to 0-09.^[2]

History

Origins (1882-1887)

The organisation of hurling clubs in Dublin predates the foundation of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). In 1882, Michael Cusack attended the first meeting of the ‘Dublin Hurling Club’, formed ‘for the purpose of taking steps to re-establish the national game of hurling’. In September 1883, more than a year before the GAA was founded, Cusack began to organise hurling practices in the Phoenix Park in Dublin on Saturday afternoons. The game had long been lost to the city and to most of the remaining parts of the country as well. – As a consequence, just four men turned up on that first Saturday. Slowly the numbers grew, with intrigued spectators joining in. Eventually, Cusack had sufficient numbers to found ‘Cusack's Academy Hurling Club’ which, in turn, led to the establishment of the Metropolitan Hurling Club. Cusack then established a hurling club in his school on Gardiner Place in October 1883. Immediately, the two clubs began to play matches against each other. A report, written by Cusack, records a game’ played in December 1883: ‘"During the third and fourth quarters the hurling became so fast and furious, the goals were so threatened on the one hand and defended on the other, that spectators expected to be called on after each charge to help the disabled to Steeven’s Hospital.’" On Easter Monday 1884, the Metropolitans played Killimor, in Galway. The game had to be stopped on numerous occasions as the two teams were playing to different rules. It was this clash of styles that convinced Cusack that not only did the rules of the games need to be standardised, but that a body must be established to govern Irish sports.^[3][4]

On Saturday, 1 November 1884, the GAA was founded in Hayes' Hotel, Thurles, County Tipperary.^[5] Michael Cusack was among the founding members present that day. From then on, Gaelic games adopted a more structured approach and were governed in each county by a separate body known as the county board. The Dublin County Board was set up in 1886 and within a year had organised a hurling competition known today as the Dublin Senior Hurling Championship. In 1887, the first Dublin Senior Hurling Championship was played out and was won by the Metropolitans, previously formed by Cusack in 1883.

Records and statistics

The most successful club in the history of the Dublin Senior Hurling Championship has been Faughs who have won the competition on 31 occasions, their last title captured in 1999. St Vincents, who are the most successful football club in Dublin, are second with a total of 13 titles, their last in 1993. The record for most consecutive titles is held by Commercials, Garda and more recently Ballyboden St Endas who each secured a five-in-a-row between the years 1895-99, 1925-29 and 2007-2011 respectively.^[6]

Current champions, Ballyboden St Endas, have won 5 consecutive titles since 2007 and contested a total of 8 finals in the last 10 years. In 2009, they won the double, claiming both the hurling and football championship. This was the first time that a Dublin club had won the double since St Vincents had achieved it in 1981.^[7]

Roll of honour

• No competition: 1888, 1902.^[6]

• ^A: Eoghan Ruadhs Hurling Club and St Oliver Plunketts Football Club amalgamated to form St Oliver Plunketts/Eoghan Ruadh GAA.

• ^B: St Columbas Hurling Club and St Agnes Football Club amalgamated to form Crumlin GAA.

Finals

References

External links

• Friends of Dublin Hurling
• The official Dublin GAA website
• The official Leinster GAA website
• The official GAA website

See Also