Longford GAA

Longford GAA

Irish:	An Longfort
Province:	Leinster
Nickname(s):	The Larries
County colours:	Royal blue and gold
Ground(s):	Pearse Park, Longford
Dominant sport:	Gaelic football
Competitions
NFL:	Division 3
NHL:	Division 4
Football Championship:	Sam Maguire Cup
Hurling Championship:	Lory Meagher Cup
Ladies' Gaelic football:	Brendan Martin Cup
Camogie:	Do not compete at adult level
Standard kit

The Longford County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) (Irish: Cummann Luthchleas Gael Coiste Contae An Longfort) or Longford GAA is one of the 32 county boards of the GAA in Ireland, and is responsible for Gaelic games in County Longford. The county board is also responsible for the Longford inter-county teams.

History

General

Despite the small population of the county, Longford emerged to win National Football League and Leinster Senior Football Championship titles in both 1966 and 1968, and have since contributed some outstanding personalities to GAA history.

Colours

Green and white hooped jerseys were used by Longford up to 1918 when a royal blue jersey with a gold sash was adopted. Around 1930 the sash disappeared but the gold trim was retained.

Gaelic football

Jackie Devine set up two goals for Longford in the last six minutes of the 1968 Leinster Senior Football Championship final to beat Laois by 3-9 to 1-4, where Sean Donnelly and Jim Hannify were the scorers. It was their only Leinster title, and it came two years after a great victory over Galway by nine points to eight in the National League final. They also won the O'Byrne Cup in 1965.

When they lost a replayed Leinster semi-final in 1970 it was their fourth semi-final in six years. Victories over Westmeath and Wicklow in 1988 left the county on the verge of a Leinster final after twenty years. The team played well against Dublin and led by three points at half-time. Team manager and sports psychologist Brendan Hackett has cited what happened next in his book as an example of lack of self-belief in extremis: Dublin drew level with twenty minutes remaining and won by 18 points.

Since first getting the taste in 1928, Longford like to beat Meath in the Championship, and shocked them in 1982. They forced Offaly to a replay in 1984, but all of the promise of the Under-21 teams who reached successive Leinster finals in 1981 and 1982 failed to materialise. In 2002 the county's minor team won the Leinster Minor Football Championship, the following year the county Vocational Schools team won the All-Ireland Vocational Schools Championship at A and B level the only county to do so.

In 2010, Damien Sheridan won the All-Ireland Kick Fada Championship.

Honours

• All-Ireland Vocational Schools Championships: 1
  • 2003
• All-Ireland Junior Football Championships: 1
  • 1937
• National Football League: 1
  • 1966
• Leinster Senior Football Championships: 1
  • 1968
• Leinster Minor Football Championships: 4
  • 1929, 1938, 2002, 2010
• O'Byrne Cups: 2
  • 1965, 2000

Hurling

• National league Division 4: 1
  • 1984
• All Ireland Minior Division 3:1:
  • 1997
• National League Division 3: 1
  • 2002
• Leinster Hurling Shield: 2
  • 2005, 2006
• Lory Meagher Cup: 1
  • 2010

Ladies' Gaelic football

Honours

• All-Ireland Junior Ladies' Football Championships: 1
  • 1997

All Star Awards

Niall Noonan - 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011

Camogie

Under Camogie’s National Development Plan 2010-2015, “Our Game, Our Passion,” new camogie clubs are to be established in Longford and a county board formed by 2015.

See also

• Longford Senior Club Football Championship
• Longford Senior Club Hurling Championship

External links

• Longford GAA site
• Longford on Hoganstand.com
• National and provincial titles won by Longford teams
• Club championship winners