Irish: | CLG Dhoire | ||
---|---|---|---|
Province: | Ulster | ||
Nickname(s): | The Oak Leaf County | ||
County colours: |
White, Red |
||
Ground(s): | Owenbeg, Dungiven | ||
Dominant sport: | Gaelic football | ||
Competitions | |||
NFL: | Division 2 | ||
NHL: | Division 2A | ||
Football Championship: | Sam Maguire Cup | ||
Hurling Championship: | Christy Ring Cup | ||
Ladies' Gaelic football: | Brendan Martin Cup | ||
Camogie: | Jack McGrath Cup | ||
Standard kit | |||
|
White, Red
The Derry County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) (Irish: Cumann Lúthchleas Gael Coiste Chontae Dhoire) or Derry GAA is one of the 32 county boards of the GAA in Ireland. It is responsible for gaelic games in County Londonderry in Northern Ireland (the GAA refers to the county as Derry). The county board is also responsible for the Derry inter-county teams.
Gaelic football is the most popular of the county board's gaelic games. The senior football team won an All-Ireland Senior Football Championship in 1993, and has also won six National League titles and seven Ulster Championships.
Within a year of the GAA's foundation in 1884, GAA clubs were established around the county in Derry, Desertmartin and Magherafelt. However, the administration of Gaelic sports in the county took some time to get properly organised. A Derry county board was established in 1888 and paid affiliation fees to the GAA Central Council. By the following year, although 14 clubs were active, the then GAA President Maurice Davin told the national Congress that the county lacked enough clubs to have its own board. South Derry and North Derry regional boards were established in the 1890s. In the early decades (up to the 1930s), the Derry GAA competitions took in a number of clubs from County Donegal and Tyrone. At various times clubs in South Derry played in the Antrim GAA or Tyrone leagues. The local Catholic Church's opposition to playing games on Sundays hampered growth in the 1890s, but there was something of a revival in the 1900s, especially in hurling. The county also competed sporadically in the Ulster Football Championship from 1904. After the disruption caused by political conflict in the 1910s and early '20s, the county board was re-established briefly in 1926, and definitively in 1929, since when it has remained in existence.