Connacht Senior Club Football Championship
| Connacht Senior Club Football Championship | |
|---|---|
| Irish | Craobh Sinsir Peile Connachta na gClub |
| Founded | 1966 |
| Title holders | Corofin (7th title) |
| Most titles | Clan na nGael & Corofin (7 titles) |
| Sponsors | AIB |
The Connacht Senior Club Football Championship is an annual gaelic football tournament played between senior clubs in Connacht, with one qualifying from each of the five individual county championships. The winners of the Connacht football championship qualify for the All-Ireland Senior Club Football Championship.
Before the modern series started in 1970, the Craobh Rua club in Sligo organised an "unofficial" annual Connacht Club Championship tournament amongst the champions of Sligo, Mayo, Leitrim, Roscommon and Galway for the prize of the New Ireland Assurance Cup in the 1950s. Tuam Stars, who won 7 Galway titles in a row between 1954 and 1960, were the inaugural winners of the unofficial Connacht Club Championship in 1955 and also won it in 1956, 1957 and 1958. At the 1961 Annual General Meeting of the Castlebar Mitchels club in Mayo, a motion was put forward "that an official Connacht club championship be inaugurated". This met with the response that the Connacht Council would sanction such a competition "but would not take responsibility for it". The motion was subsequently passed at the Mayo County Convention in February 1962 and the competition commenced in April 1962 when Claremorris, who were first-time champions of Mayo, met Galway champions Dunmore McHales. The 1962 Connacht Club championship was not finished in that year due to "poor organisation" but when the final was eventually played on April 28, 1963, Dunmore McHales became the first "official" Connacht Club Champions by defeating Melvin Gaels of Leitrim. This competition was short-lived because it did not have the full support of the Connacht Council and county boards. The Connacht GAA council first organised a Connacht club championship in 1966 with Dunmore McHales emerging as the first winners.
No club from Leitrim has ever won the Connacht Club Football Championship.
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