The Dr McKenna Cup is an annual
Gaelic football
Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach; short name '), commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA or Football is an Irish team sport. It is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score by kic ...
competition played between
counties and
universities
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...
in the province of
Ulster
Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United King ...
. It is the secondary Gaelic football competition based in Ulster behind the
Ulster Senior Football Championship
The Ulster Senior Football Championship is an inter-county competition for Gaelic football teams in the province of Ulster. It is organised by the Ulster Council of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) and begins in early May. The final is usu ...
, and the fourth most important inter-county competition in which Ulster counties take part, behind the
All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, the Ulster Championship and the
National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...
.
Once held in high regard, in recent years the focus of the competition has changed, and some county teams have made use of it as a pre-season "warm up" competition ahead of the National League and Championship.
Since
2016
File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...
the competition has been known—for sponsorship reasons—as the ''
Bank of Ireland
Bank of Ireland Group plc ( ga, Banc na hÉireann) is a commercial bank operation in Ireland and one of the traditional Big Four Irish banks. Historically the premier banking organisation in Ireland, the Bank occupies a unique position in Iris ...
McKenna Cup''.
History
The cup was donated to the Ulster Council in 1924 by the Most Rev. Dr McKenna, with the first tournament being played in 1927.
When
Patrick McKenna, the Roman Catholic
Bishop of Clogher, presented the McKenna Cup to the Ulster Council in 1925, he was one of only a small group willing at that time to be publicly associated with the GAA in Ulster. Ireland in the 1920s was slowly emerging from war, unrest and change.
When the Ulster Council sought donors for trophies there wasn’t a queue to their door with offers. From 1923 the council were actively looking for a donor for their senior championship and in 1925 the treasurer of the council proposed the establishment of a second competition to prepare teams for the championship.
Two loyal GAA stalwarts came to the council's rescue in 1925. JF O Hanlon, owner of ''
The Anglo-Celt
''The Anglo-Celt'' () is a weekly local newspaper published every Thursday in Swellan, Cavan, Ireland, founded in 1846. It exclusively contains local news about Cavan and surroundings. The news coverage of the paper is mainly based on the pape ...
'' newspaper presented a trophy to BC Fay, secretary of the Council. It was decided to use the trophy for the Ulster senior championship and it was first presented to Cavan who won the 1925 Ulster championship. Treasurer O'Duffy was successful in securing a trophy from the bishop of Clogher and the new cup was presented to Council in 1925 although it was not until 1927 that the competition got underway.
The inaugural competition was won by
Antrim, defeating
Cavan
Cavan ( ; ) is the county town of County Cavan in Ireland. The town lies in Ulster, near the border with County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland. The town is bypassed by the main N3 road that links Dublin (to the south) with Enniskillen, Bally ...
in the final.
Tyrone are the most successful team in the tournament with 16 wins.
Fermanagh
Historically, Fermanagh ( ga, Fir Manach), as opposed to the modern County Fermanagh, was a kingdom of Gaelic Ireland, associated geographically with present-day County Fermanagh. ''Fir Manach'' originally referred to a distinct kin group of al ...
, with four wins, are the least successful of the county teams. The McKenna Cup is, to date, Fermanagh's only senior inter-county title.
Addition of Universities
Until the early 2000s, the competition was purely an inter-county competition, but the Ulster counties allowed the two main Universities in Ulster,
Queen's University Queen's or Queens University may refer to:
*Queen's University at Kingston, Ontario, Canada
*Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
**Queen's University of Belfast (UK Parliament constituency) (1918–1950)
**Queen's University of Belfast ...
, and the
University of Ulster
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and
St Mary's University College (a college of Queen's University). The stipulation of this was that University teams would have first choice for any player who is eligible to play for both the University team and the county team.
The University teams have, naturally, emerged as among the weaker teams, but are by no means the 'whipping boys' of the competition, having beaten teams such as
Antrim in 2007, and the added experience against playing teams of such a high standard is expected to be beneficial to the University teams in the principle Gaelic football competition for Irish universities, the
Sigerson Cup. This initiative seems to be bearing fruit, given that the 2007 Sigerson Cup final was contested by
Queen's University Belfast
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(QUB) and the
University of Ulster
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.
2009
File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...
saw QUB become the first university side to reach the McKenna Cup final.
2007 Tyrone ineligibility dispute
Tyrone caused controversy in
2007
File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...
when they fielded four players who had already been selected by University teams. The official rule is that Universities have first choice on players, so in effect, they were fielding ineligible players. Tyrone manager,
Mickey Harte
Mickey Harte (born 1952) is an Irish Gaelic football Manager (Gaelic games), manager and former player. He has been manager of the Louth county football team, Louth county team since 2020.
Harte managed the Tyrone county football team, Tyrone ...
, claimed it was the players' own decision to choose to play for the county team over their University. Tyrone were docked two points as a punishment, but this did not affect their progression into the semi-final stage.
Although Tyrone won the final, beating
Donegal Donegal may refer to:
County Donegal, Ireland
* County Donegal, a county in the Republic of Ireland, part of the province of Ulster
* Donegal (town), a town in County Donegal in Ulster, Ireland
* Donegal Bay, an inlet in the northwest of Ireland b ...
by 2-09 to 0-05, Tyrone were stripped of their title for fielding the ineligible University players in the match. The players had not been listed on the official team sheet, which was another breach of the rules. However, Tyrone's victory was reinstated upon appeal.
2013 withdrawal of Queen's
Ahead of the
2013
File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...
competition,
Queen's University Belfast
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withdrew in a controversy over their players being poached by other teams, though Ulster Council President Aogan Farrell had appealed for this practice to stop.
County teams only
In the
2020 competition, only county teams took part because of a fixture clash with the
Sigerson Cup. The competition was cancelled in 2021. It was cancelled in 2022 as part of fixture revamps but then reinstated, again with only county teams.
Wins listed by team
Broadcasting
From 2007, the games were broadcast live on
Irish language
Irish ( Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and was ...
channel,
TG4
TG4 ( ga, TG Ceathair, ) is an Irish free-to-air public service television network. The channel launched on 31 October 1996 and is available online and through its on demand service TG4 Player in Ireland and beyond.
TG4 was formerly known ...
. The 2015 final between
Tyrone and
Cavan
Cavan ( ; ) is the county town of County Cavan in Ireland. The town lies in Ulster, near the border with County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland. The town is bypassed by the main N3 road that links Dublin (to the south) with Enniskillen, Bally ...
was shown live on BBC Sport NI's red button service and on its website. This, along with the fact that attendances are in the region of 20,000 for the later matches,
suggests that the tournament is held in higher esteem than its counterparts in other provinces, such as the
O'Byrne Cup.
See also
*
Dr Lagan Cup
The Dr Lagan Cup was an inter-county Gaelic football competition in the province of Ulster. The competition was discontinued in 1967 when Donegal won the competition. The Lagan Cup was the trophy for a Senior Football League, which at the time wa ...
, former inter-county Gaelic football competition in Ulster
*
Ulster Senior Football Championship
The Ulster Senior Football Championship is an inter-county competition for Gaelic football teams in the province of Ulster. It is organised by the Ulster Council of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) and begins in early May. The final is usu ...
*
McGrath Cup (Munster)
*
O'Byrne Cup (Leinster)
*
FBD Insurance League (Connacht)
References
External links
Official sponsor website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dr McKenna Cup
Gaelic football competitions in Ulster
Gaelic football cup competitions
Ulster GAA inter-county football competitions