The 1887
All-Ireland Senior Football Championship
The All-Ireland Senior Football Championship (SFC) ( ga, Craobh Shinsir Peile na hÉireann) is the premier competition in Gaelic football. An annual tournament organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), it is contested by the county ...
is the first edition of
GAA's premier inter-county
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 ...
tournament, played between 12 counties of Ireland. The tournament featured club teams who represented their respective counties after their county championship. The 21 a-side final was between Commercials of
Limerick
Limerick ( ; ga, Luimneach ) is a western city in Ireland situated within County Limerick. It is in the province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region. With a population of 94,192 at the 2016 ...
and Young Irelands of
Louth Louth may refer to:
Australia
*Hundred of Louth, a cadastral unit in South Australia
* Louth, New South Wales, a town
* Louth Bay, a bay in South Australia
**Louth Bay, South Australia, a town and locality
Canada
* Louth, Ontario
Ireland
* Cou ...
. The final was played in Beech Hill, Donnybrook on April 29, 1888, with Commercials winning by 1-4 to 0-3. Unlike later All-Irelands, there were no
provincial championships
A province is a geographic region within Gaelic games, consisting of several counties of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) and originally based on the historic four provinces of Ireland as they were set in 1610.
Provincial councils
A provinc ...
and it was an open draw.
Format
The 1887 championship was the only to be held as an open-draw knockout tournament, without provincial championships.
Representative clubs
From 1887 until 1891 the club champions represented the whole county. In the very first All-Ireland championship the participating counties were represented by the following clubs:
Results
First Round
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Second Round
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Semi-Final
Final
Winning Team
*R. Breen
*E. Casey
*W. Cleary
*D. Corbett
*T. Fitzgibbon
*P. Kelly
*J. Hyland
*P.J. Corbett
*T. Keating
*T. Kennedy
*J. Kennedy
*W. Gunning
*P. Keating
*W. Spain
*R. Normoyle
*M. O'Brien
*E. Nicholas
*T. McNamara
*M. Slattery
*J. Mulqueen
*P. Reeves
Championship statistics
Miscellaneous
* No Provincial championships in the first year of the championship.
{{All-Ireland Senior Football Championship