| Limerick GAA | |
| Crest: | Limerick GAA crest.jpg |
| Irish: | Luimneach |
| Nickname: | The Shannonsiders The Treaty County |
| Province: | Munster |
| Dominant Sport: | Hurling |
| Grounds: | Páirc na nGael, Limerick |
| County Colours: | Green White |
| Nhl Div: | Division 1A |
| Nfl Div: | Division 2 |
| Hurling Champ: | Liam MacCarthy Cup |
| Football Champ: | Sam Maguire Cup |
| Ladies Football: | Brendan Martin Cup |
| Camogie: | O'Duffy Cup |
The Limerick County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) (Irish: Cumann Lúthchleas Gael, Coiste Chontae Luimneach) or Limerick GAA is one of the 32 county boards of the GAA in Ireland, and is responsible for Gaelic games in County Limerick. The county board is also responsible for the Limerick county teams.
The county hurling team are the current All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship (SHC) title holders, and have the fourth highest total of titles, behind Kilkenny, Cork and Tipperary. The county football team was the first from the province of Munster both to win an All-Ireland Senior Football Championship (SFC), as well as to appear in the final.
As of 2009, there were 108 clubs affiliated to Limerick GAA — the third highest, alongside Antrim.[1]
Clubs contest the following competitions:
The senior competition's most successful club is Patrickswell, with 20 titles. Ahane has 19 titles.
See main article: Limerick county hurling team. Limerick's first outright success in hurling was achieved when the Kilfinane club defeated Kilkenny GAA club Tullaroan in the final of the 1897 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship (SHC). At that time, counties were represented by champion clubs.
Limerick won the 1918 All-Ireland SHC, then repeated the feat in the 1921 All-Ireland SHC when the team won the inaugural Liam MacCarthy Cup. The team that achieved those wins featured many players who contested eight consecutive Munster Senior Hurling Championship (SHC) finals (1917–1924 inclusive), a record that has never been equalled.
The team won five consecutive National Hurling League (NHL) titles during the 1930s, a record still unequalled. Those titles were won in 1933–34, 1934–35, 1935–36, 1936–37 and 1937–38. Limerick also won four consecutive Munster SHC titles, and remains the only team other than Cork to have done so. After winning All-Ireland SHC titles in 1934 and in 1936, another All-Ireland SHC title followed in 1940. The team from this era did much to raise the profile of the sport: whereas around 30,000 people attended the 1930 All-Ireland SHC Final, attendances had risen to 50,000 by the 1940 final and players such as the Mackeys (John and Mick), Ryans (Timmy and Mick), Clohesseys (Dave and Paddy), Bob McConkey and Paddy Scanlon were recalled for decades afterwards. Victory in 1940 left Limerick with six All-Ireland SHC titles and as the only team from outside the "big three" (Cork, Tipperary and Kilkenny) to have won more than one All-Ireland SHC title. Dublin had at that stage also six All-Ireland SHC titles but no native of that county had played on any of its winning teams. Limerick won a sixth NHL title in 1946–47 but success soon became a rarity.
Limerick won the 1970–71 NHL title and soon followed this by winning the 1973 All-Ireland SHC, its seventh title. Four further NHL titles followed that century: 1983–84, 1984–85, 1991–92 and, lastly, 1997.
The 2018 season concluded with Limerick winning the 2018 All-Ireland SHC, the team's first since 1973, with a 3–16 to 2–18 point defeat of Galway in the final.[2] The team built on this success, winning the NHL in 2019, 2020 and 2023, the Munster SHC in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 and the All-Ireland SHC again in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023.
Clubs contest the Limerick Senior Football Championship. That competition's most successful club is Claughaun with 14 titles.
See main article: Limerick county football team. thumb|1887 Limerick football team, All-Ireland championsLimerick won the first All-Ireland Senior Football Championship in 1887 and repeated this success in 1896, when it became the first non-Leinster team to beat the then all-conquering Dublin in a championship match.
Limerick currently play in Division 2 of the National Football League.
Between 1953 and 1964, Limerick did not play in the Munster Football Championship.
Limerick contested the All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship final of 1980, losing to Cork in a replay.[3] They first contested Munster championship in 1922-4, but the game struggled and had to undergo further revivals in 1932, 1947 and 1960, when Chris O'Connell, Carrie Gillane and Eithne Neville re-established it. This culminated in the county team's appearance in the All-Ireland Junior Camogie Championship of 1977 and Limerick's appearance in the All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship final of 1980, where they lost to Cork in a replay. Three Limerick clubs have won the All-Ireland Senior Club Camogie Championship, Granagh-Ballingarry (3), Ballyagran (1978) and Croagh Kilfinny(1975).
Notable players include All Star award winners[4] Rose Collins, Eileen O'Brien and Vera Sheehan,young player of the year for 2007 Niamh Mulcahy. and Vera Mackey, Agnes Hourigan from Ballingarry and Eithne Neville from Kilfinny who won All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship medals with Dublin in 1938 and 1957 respectively. Chris O'Connell and Agnes Hourigan served as president of the Camogie Association.
Under Camogie's National Development Plan 2010-2015, "Our Game, Our Passion",[5] five new camogie clubs were to be established in the county by 2015.[6]
Limerick have the following achievements in camogie.[7]
Limerick has a ladies' football team.