Sligo GAA


The Sligo County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association or Sligo GAA is one of the 32 county boards of the GAA in Ireland, and is responsible for Gaelic games in County Sligo. The county board is also responsible for the Sligo county teams.
Sligo play in the Connacht Senior Football Championship but have only won three senior provincial titles, in 1928, 1975 and 2007. Sligo have never appeared in an All-Ireland final. The 1922 Championship is the closest they have come, defeating Roscommon, Mayo and Galway to win the Connacht title, and beating Tipperary in the subsequent All-Ireland semi-final that followed. However, "a flimsy technicality" led to a replay of the Connacht final against Galway, which Sligo lost.

Crest and colours

Sligo's team colours are black and white. Sligo's jerseys have alternated between black and white over the years. In the 1990s, Sligo opted for predominantly white shirts with black shorts with exceptions in 1995 and 1996 when they wore an all-black strip. In 2001, Sligo was fined by the GAA for not wearing their registered county colours and after a win over Kildare decided to make the all-black kit their first choice.
Sligo's crest features Benbulbin in the background, one of the iconic landmarks of County Sligo.

Kit evolution

Football

Clubs

are the most successful team in the history of the Club Championships in Sligo, with 20 senior titles to their name. The last of these was won in 2014.
St Mary's are Sligo's most successful club team in the Provincial and All-Ireland club series with three Connacht Senior Club Football Championship titles to their name. They also won the All-Ireland sevens title in 1980. They, along with Tubbercurry, dominated the club scene in Sligo over a fifteen-year period, with St. Mary's claiming eight championships to Tubber's three. The pairing contested the final on eight occasions, including five in succession, and these finals were tense and heated encounters. In recent years Tourlestrane have dominated Sligo club football.
St Mary's and Tubbercurry also jointly lead the roll of honour for the Under-21 Championships with Tubbercurry, having both won on 6 occasions as of 2015.
St Mary's lead the roll of honour for the Minor Championship, with 11 titles as of 2015, having won the previous 5 championships in succession.
Despite being one of the most celebrated clubs in the county, St Mary's remain one of the worst supported sides due to the dominance of soccer in Sligo town.
In the years since the dominance of St Mary's and Tubbercurry, there have been various winners of the county championship with Bunninadden, Coolera/Strandhill, Curry, Eastern Harps, Shamrock Gaels and Tourlestrane all claiming the Owen B. Hunt Cup during the past two decades. Other senior teams that have come close to winning the championship in the past few years include St John's and Easkey.
In 2005, Coolera/Strandhill won its first senior title in 98 years, having narrowly lost the 2000 final to Bunninadden, who at that time had not won a title in 109 years.
Much of the minor and underage successes within the county have seen Tubbercurry and St Mary's teams dominate this grade in recent years with many of the titles being won by either of Sligo town's two main club's in the past decade.
Sligo's club football scene is not dominated by any single team; there were no back-to-back winners since the St Patrick's team of 1988 and 1989, the longest out of any county in history, until Tourlestrane did the two in a row in 2016 and 2017.
In club football, no Sligo team has ever appeared in an All-Ireland Senior Club Football Championship final. St Mary's is the only Sligo team to have ever won the Connacht Senior Club Football Championship, having won it three times in 1977, 1980 and 1983. Eastern Harps, Curry and Tourlestrane have all appeared in Connacht finals.

2019 club football status

County team

Due to its much smaller population than both County Galway and County Mayo, the two dominant forces in the province of Connacht, and competition from professional League of Ireland soccer team Sligo Rovers in the county's capital town. The Sligo county football team have never been able to break from the shackles inherent in the provincial championship format. They have won only three Connacht championships, with about 50 years between each win. These championships came in 1928, 1975 and 2007.
Sligo have never appeared in an All-Ireland final. The 1922 Championship is the closest they have come, defeating Roscommon, Mayo and Galway to win the Connacht title, and beating Tipperary in the subsequent All-Ireland semi-final that followed. However an objection from Galway on what is described as "a flimsy technicality" led to the Connacht decider being brought to a replay, which Sligo went on to lose. Sligo met the same fate in the inaugural National Football League campaign of 1926, beating Laois to reach the final, only for Laois to object on the grounds of a Sligo player's name being misspelled; Sligo lost the replay. This gives Sligo the unique position of having qualified for an All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final and a National Football League Final, without ever having contested either.
In 1954, Sligo reached the Connacht final against Galway, only for an equalising goal in the final minute to be disallowed. In 1962, Sligo reached the Connacht final against Roscommon, and led for much of the match only to be blighted by a sudden string of injuries, miss a 50 while two points ahead in the final minute, and then gift soon-to-be All-Ireland finalists Roscommon a goal in what is considered "one of the great football tragedies in Connacht". In 1965, Sligo reached the Connacht final against Galway and gained a seven-point lead, only for one of their players to be "mysteriously sent to the full-forward spot", causing "the entire team momentum" and the match.
Since the 2001 introduction to the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship of a qualifier system for teams eliminated from their provincial championship, Sligo, despite historically having a poor record, has enjoyed some modest, though noteworthy, success. The new format together with a prolonged period of competing in Division 1 of the National Football League helped bring about an upward turn in the county's fortunes. In 2002, having narrowly lost the Connacht Senior Football Final to Galway, the defending All-Ireland champions, Sligo went on to defeat Tyrone in Croke Park, turning over a seven-point deficit in the process. A similar comeback against the eventual All-Ireland champions Armagh two weeks later led to a replay, but Sligo's run was halted when they had claims for a penalty in injury time of the second game turned down.
On 8 July 2007, Sligo claimed their first Connacht title since 1975 with a one-point victory over Galway. The following year they were trashed by Mayo and ended up in the Tommy Murphy Cup, after a league campaign that had seen them relegated to Division 4. Star player Eamonn O'Hara said he was embarrassed by the team's rapid decline back into mediocrity. On 27 June 2010, Sligo hosted Galway and led 1–8 to 0–2 at halftime but were shocked by an undeserved draw ending 1–10 each. The replay saw Sligo defeat the Tribesmen on the scoreline 1–14 to 0–16 to advance to the Connacht Senior Football Final. Once there, after all their hard work and continued misfortune, Roscommon defeated them by 0–14 to 0–13.
Sligo football descended to a new depth on 26 May 2013 when they were dumped out of the Connacht Championship by London in their first game. The scoreline was 1-12 to 0-14. This was London's first victory in the Connacht Championship since 1977. Lorcan Mulvey scored the vital London goal.
The county Vocational Schools team reached two All-Ireland finals in 1962 and 1963, losing both to Dublin City.

Ladies' football

Sligo ladies' football team have won one All-Ireland Junior title in 2006. managed at the time by Paddy Henry.
They are currently competing in the Intermediate Championship.
They have had a number of club provincial Junior titles as both St Nathy's and Drumcliffe have won and both have reached the All-Ireland Finals. St Nathy's are the strongest club side in the county at present, followed by Geevagh and St Michael's.

Hurling

Clubs

The Sligo Senior Hurling Championship is the main competition in the county.

County team

Sligo's county team would have not been considered a traditionally strong team in senior hurling, yet they have attained considerably more success than their football counterparts, with the county's most notable early achievements being an appearance in the All-Ireland Junior final in 1968, and the National League Division 3 title in 2005. From 2009 onwards however, Sligo's Hurling legacy was cemented in GAA history books with 3 All Ireland titles in just over a decade, back to back All Ireland victories amongst them.
In 2008, Sligo finally tasted All-Ireland success, albeit at the Third Tier level, when they claimed the Nicky Rackard Cup, the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship for Tier Three hurling counties. Sligo have done extremely well but did not get promoted due to losing playoff with Roscommon. Paul Seevers was most likely the county's greatest hurling playing for more the 20 years, he won 3 Railway Cups with Connacht as well as a Nicky Rackard Cup in 2008, he also represented Ireland in the Shinty International against Scotland in 2003. Sligo won the All-Ireland Minor 'C' Hurling Championship in August 1986, defeating Tyrone by 4 points in Croke Park. They won the U16 All-Ireland 'C' hurling title after they beat Tyrone in the Monaghan Centre of Excellence in 2012.
2018 was a signature year for Sligo hurling when both senior and minor teams brought national silverware back to the Land of the Shells. The Sligo senior hurlers achieved All-Ireland glory for the first time since 2008, then under Michael Galvin. Darragh Cox and Daithí Hand's men beat Lancashire in a Lory Meagher All-Ireland Final with a late last-minute goal to seal the winning points. Benny Kenny's under-17 squad, a few weeks later, beat Donegal in a convincing win to become All-Ireland Celtic Challenge Cup Champions in the Michael Feery Cup, beating Mayo, Roscommon and others along the way.
2019 brought more success in back to back All-Ireland Senior titles. Having been promoted to the Nicky Rackard Championship, they topped Group 2 eliminating favourites, Mayo, in a drawn game after beating Tyrone and Louth in previous games. Following on from a 2-21 to 2-17 victory over Warwickshire in Celtic Park, Sligo advanced to an All-Ireland Final in GAA HQ. Facing a heavily tipped Armagh side, Sligo became champions with an injury time goal by Gerard O'Kelly Lynch and a 'Roy of Rovers' point by young substitute Kieran Prior to turn around a three-point deficit in extra-time. James Weir, at 19 years of age and the youngest ever All-Ireland winning Captain, lifted aloft the Nicky Rackard Cup thus giving Sligo offivial recognition as a dual county.
The hurlers are scheduled to play in the 2020 Christy Ring Cup as a result.

Honours

All Irelands
Provincials
Leagues
Squad as per Sligo v Armagh, 2019 Nicky Rackard Cup Final, 22 June 2019

Camogie

Sligo camogie official Nuala Kavanagh refereed the 1965 All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship Final.
Under Camogie's National Development Plan 2010–2015, “Our Game, Our Passion,” three new camogie clubs are to be established in Sligo and a county board formed by 2015.