The Laois county hurling team represents

Laois County Laois ( ; ) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and in the province of Leinster. It was known as Queen's County from 1556 to 1922. The modern county takes its name from Loígis, a medieval kingdom. Hist ...

hurling Hurling (, ') is an outdoor Team sport, team game of ancient Gaelic culture, Gaelic Irish origin, played by men and women. One of Ireland's native Gaelic games, it shares a number of features with Gaelic football, such as the field and goa ...

and is governed by

Laois GAA The Laois County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) () or Laois GAA is one of the 32 county boards of the GAA in Ireland, and is responsible for Gaelic games in County Laois. The county board is also responsible for the Laois county ...

, the

county board A county board is a common form of county legislature, particular of counties in the United States. Related forms of county government include: * Board of Supervisors — a form of county legislature in some U.S. states * County commission, ...

of the

Gaelic Athletic Association The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA; ; CLG) is an Irish international amateur sports, amateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoting indigenous Gaelic games and pastimes, which include the traditional Irish sports o ...

. The team competes in the

Joe McDonagh Cup The Joe McDonagh Cup () is an annual inter-county hurling competition organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association. The cup forms the second-tier of Hurling for senior county teams (the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship is the first-tier t ...

and the

National Hurling League The National Hurling League is an annual Inter county, inter-county hurling competition featuring teams from Ireland and England. Founded in 1925 by the Gaelic Athletic Association, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation within the l ...

. Laois's home ground is

O'Moore Park O'Moore Park () is a GAA stadium in Portlaoise, County Laois, Ireland. It is the home of the Laois Gaelic football and hurling teams. Under a new sponsorship deal it is known as "Laois Hire O'Moore Park". Although it may have been in use as a G ...

Portlaoise Portlaoise ( ), or Port Laoise (), is the county town of County Laois, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Midland Region, Ireland, South Midlands in the province of Leinster. Portlaoise was the fastest growing of the top 20 largest town ...

. The team's manager is Willie Maher. The team last won the Leinster Senior Championship in 1949, the All-Ireland Senior Championship in

1915 Events Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix. January *January – British physicist Sir Joseph Larmor publishes his observations on "The Influence of Local Atmospheric Cooling on Astronomical Refraction". *January 1 * ...

and has never won the National League.

History

Laois won one

All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship The GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Championship, known simply as the All-Ireland Championship, is an annual Inter county, inter-county hurling competition organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). It is the highest-tier competition for ...

(SHC) title, in 1915, when the day was so wet the team reportedly played the second half in their overcoats. Laois has also won three All-Ireland Senior B Hurling Championship titles. The hurlers reached

(NHL) semi-finals in 1981 and 1983. The team then lost the Centenary Cup hurling final to

Cork "Cork" or "CORK" may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Stopper (plug), or "cork", a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container *** Wine cork an item to seal or reseal wine Places Ireland * ...

in 1984. Laois most recently contested the

Leinster Senior Hurling Championship The Leinster GAA Hurling Senior Championship, known simply as the Leinster Championship, is an annual inter-county hurling competition organised by the Leinster Council of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). It is the highest inter-county hur ...

final in 1985, with the result a defeat to

Offaly County Offaly (; ) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the province of Leinster. It is named after the ancient Kingdom of Uí Failghe. It was formerly known as King's County, in honour of Philip II of Spain ...

. The hurlers were back in the NHL semi-final in 1996. Laois won the

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

, and went on to shock

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

in the preliminary quarter-final the next week and advance to the All-Ireland SHC quarter-final. This was considered one of the greatest shocks in the history of the championship. The manager departed amid controversy in November 2020 after his criticisms of county board officials appeared on a podcast.

Panel

^INJ Player has had an injury which has affected recent involvement with the county team.
^RET Player has since retired from the county team.
^WD Player has since withdrawn from the county team due to a non-injury issue.

Management team

:''Appointed August 2024:'' *

Manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

: Darren Gleeson *Backroom: TBC

Managerial history

Laois have a history of appointing "foreign" managers, with Georgie Leahy the most successful. Georgie Leahy 1979–1985 Jimmy Doyle 1985–1987 Paddy Kelly 1987–1989 Georgie Leahy (2) 1989–1991 Paddy Doyle 1991–1993 Pat Critchley 1993–1995 Babs Keating 1995–1997

Pádraig Horan Pádraig Horan (born 21 April 1950) is an Irish former hurler who played as a full-forward for the Offaly senior team. Horan made his first appearance for the team during the 1968–69 National League and subsequently became a regular member ...

1997–2000

Seán Cuddy Sean, also spelled Seán or Séan in Hiberno-English, is a male given name of Irish origin. It comes from the Irish versions of the Biblical Hebrew name ''Yohanan'' (), Seán (anglicized as ''Shaun/Shawn/ Shon'') and Séan (Ulster variant; angli ...

2000–2001 Pat Delaney 2001–2002

Paudie Butler Paudie Butler (born 1950) is a retired former GAA hurling coach and team manager, and former hurling, hurler and Gaelic footballer who was a dual player for the Tipperary GAA, Tipperary senior teams in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Butler join ...

2002–2005 Dinny Cahill 2005–2006 Damien Fox 2006–2008 Niall Rigney 2008–2010 Brendan Fennelly 2010–2011 Teddy McCarthy 2011–2012 Séamus Plunkett 2012–2015 Ger Cunningham 2015** Séamus Plunkett (2) 2015–2016

Éamonn Kelly Éamonn Kelly (born 1968) is an Irish hurler who played as a full-forward for the Tipperary junior hurling team. Born in Puckane, County Tipperary, Kelly first arrived on the inter-county scene at the age of seventeen when he first linked up ...

2016–2018

Eddie Brennan Edward Joseph Brennan (born 2 October 1978) is an Irish hurling manager and former player. His league and championship career with the Kilkenny senior team lasted twelve seasons from 2000 until 2011. Brennan was the manager of the Laois senio ...

2018–2020 Séamus Plunkett (3) 2020–2022 Willie Maher 2022–2024 Darren Gleeson 2024-present **=In a caretaker role

Players

Notable players

All Stars

Laois has 1 All Star. 1985: Pat Critchley

Competitive record

Laois's only

title win is from

. Laois won three All-Ireland Senior B Hurling Championship titles, in 1977, 1979 and 2002. Séamus Plunkett managed the team to its third title in 2002. * John Lyons * Pat Mahon * Paul Cuddy * Michael McEvoy * Joe Phelan * Cyril Cuddy * Owen Bergin * Ollie Dowling * James Young * Fionán O'Sullivan * Darren Rooney * Michael Dunphy * Tommy Fitzgerald * David Cuddy * P. J. Peacock Subs used: Declan Conroy for M. Dunphy; Jack O'Shea for P. J. Peacock; Lar Mahon for O. Bergin; Brian Ferns for F. O'Sullivan; Eamon Jackman for T. Fitzgerald

Honours

National

** Winners (1):

** Runners-up (2):

1914 This year saw the beginning of what became known as the First World War, after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austrian throne was Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, assassinated by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip ...

1949 Events January * January 1 – A United Nations-sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which still continues as of 2025 * January 2 – Luis ...

* All-Ireland Senior B Hurling Championship ** Winners (3): 1977, 1979, 2002 *

** Winners (1):

Laois turn on the style to capture Joe McDonagh Cup at Croke
''

The Irish News ''The Irish News'' is a Compact (newspaper), compact daily newspaper based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is Northern Ireland's largest-selling morning newspaper and is available throughout Ireland. It is broadly Irish nationalist in its viewp ...

'', 1 July 2019. ** Runners-up (1):

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

** Semi-finalists (3): 1981, 1983, 1996 * National Hurling League Division 2 ** Winners (2): 1960, 1965 * All-Ireland Under-21 B Hurling Championship ** Winners (2): 2004, 2006

Provincial

** Winners (3): 1914, 1915, 1949 ** Runners-up (12): 1889, 1890, 1891, 1909, 1912, 1930, 1931, 1935, 1936, 1948, 1951, 1985 * Leinster Junior Hurling Championship ** Winners (3): 1910, 1914, 1933 * Walsh Cup ** Winners (2): 1980, 1991 * Walsh Shield ** Winners (2): 2008, 2010 *

Kehoe Cup The Kehoe Cup ( ; ) is an annual hurling competition organised by the Leinster GAA, Leinster Council of the Gaelic Athletic Association (Gaelic Athletic Association, GAA) since 1977 for second- and third-tier inter county, inter-county teams in ...

** Winners (1): 1982 *

Leinster Under-21 Hurling Championship The Leinster GAA Under-20 Hurling Championship (known for sponsorship reasons as the oneills.com Leinster GAA Under-20 Hurling Championship), is an annual inter-county hurling competition organised by the Leinster Council of the Gaelic Athletic ...

** Winners (1): 1983 *

Leinster Minor Hurling Championship The Leinster GAA Hurling Minor Championship (known for sponsorship reasons as the Electric Ireland Leinster GAA Hurling Minor Championship, is an annual inter-county hurling competition organised by the Leinster Council of the Gaelic Athletic ...

** Winners (4): 1934, 1940, 1941, 1964

References

{{GAA National Leagues County hurling teams