A county is a geographic region within Gaelic games, controlled by a county board of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) and originally based on the 32 counties of Ireland as they were in 1884. While the administrative geography of Ireland has since changed, with several new counties created and the six that make up Northern Ireland superseded by 11 local government districts, the counties in Gaelic games have remained largely unchanged.
However, the county as used in Gaelic games does not always and everywhere cover precisely the same territory as the traditional county. Particularly in the first 50 years of the Association but also in more recent times, there are many examples of clubs based in one of the administrative counties being allowed to participate in the leagues or championships of a neighbouring county. There are also instances where the official county boundary does not coincide precisely with the county as used in Gaelic games, for example where a club is based on a parish that crosses the county border. While in most cases the name of the county as used in Gaelic games is the same as that of the current or former administrative county, there have been exceptions: Derry has never used the official county name of Londonderry, and the board of the county then officially known as Queen's County changed its name in 1907 to Leix and Ossary, later becoming Laois. Each county board is responsible for organising GAA club fixtures within the county, and for the promotion and development of Gaelic games and the other objectives of the Association.
The county can also refer to the inter-county teams fielded by each county board. While in general any county, and only a county, is eligible to compete in the provincial and national championships and leagues, and almost all do so, again there can be anomalies: in the National Hurling League, for example, a team representing Fingal — a sub-region of the GAA county of Dublin, corresponding to the modern administrative county of Fingal — previously competed against other counties.
Since the inception of the county system, there have been changes to the respective regions of control of the overseas units. In Ireland the concept of the county is very strong and changing the county boundary is extremely controversial. In 2002 a proposal to divide Dublin in two was quickly and strongly opposed.[1]
List of every county board
The following is a list of the 32 county boards in Ireland and the 14 county boards outside of Ireland.
Listed below are the 32 county boards based in Ireland and the provincial council to which each is affiliated to. Connacht have five affiliated county boards, Leinster have twelve, Munster have six and Ulster have nine. Also provided is a map showing the location of the province, i.e. north, south, east, west.
Listed below are the 14 county boards outside of Ireland and the provincial council to which each is affiliated to. Seven county boards are affiliated to Britain and three county boards are affiliated to North America (an unofficial province). The remaining four county boards are not affiliated to any.
Counties as used in Gaelic games outside Ireland cover large geographic non-traditional areas which are not considered as counties in any other context. For example, Scotland is a county for GAA purposes, as is London, while the remaining counties of Great Britain cover wider areas than their names suggest. The Hertfordshire County Board, for example, oversees clubs in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Oxfordshire; Gloucestershire GAA reaches into South Wales, Warwickshire GAA includes Staffordshire and Birmingham, and so on.[3] There are also "county boards" for Australasia, Canada, New York, the rest of United States, Europe and Asia, while other overseas GAA regions such as the Cayman Islands operate with their own structures not including county boards.[4]
London county teams
London county football team competes in the National Football league, Connacht Senior Football Championship, All-Ireland Senior Football Championship and Tailteann Cup. London county hurling team competes in the National Hurling League, All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship and Christy Ring Cup.
New York enters a county team in the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship and won its first game in the 2023 Connacht football championship vs Leitrim after more than 20 years of trying. They also enter the Tailteann Cup. New York last entered the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship in 2006.
Warwickshire county hurling team competes in the National Hurling League, All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship and Lory Meagher Cup. Their football team competes in the All-Britain Junior Football Championship.
Greatest Football achievement: Winning two All-Britain Junior Football Championships in a row in 1968 and 1969.
Lancashire county hurling team competes in the National Hurling League, All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship and Lory Meagher Cup. Their football team competes in the All-Britain Junior Football Championship.
Greatest Football achievement: Winning four All-Britain Junior Football Championships in a row between 2010 and 2013.
As of 2023, no team from continental Europe, Canada, the rest of the United States, Middle East, Asia or Australasia competes against the counties of Ireland in any of the Gaelic games.
Gasaitéar na hÉireann / Gazetteer of Ireland. Dublin: Brainse Logainmneacha na Suirbhéireachta Ordanáis / Placenames Branch of the Ordnance Survey. 1989. ISBN978-0-7076-0076-5.
