Dr. McKenna Cup

Dr. McKenna Cup
Current season or competition: 2017 Dr. McKenna Cup
Liam Bradley with the Dr. McKenna Cup
Irish	Corn an Dochtúra Mac Cionnaith
Code	Gaelic Football
Founded	1927
Region	Ulster (GAA)
Trophy	Dr. McKenna Cup
No. of teams	12
Title holders	Tyrone (15th title)
First winner	Monaghan
Most titles	Tyrone (15 titles)
Sponsors	Bank of Ireland
TV partner(s)	TG4 BBC Northern Ireland
Motto	The one good thing about January
Official website	http://ulster.gaa.ie/mckennacup2016/

The Dr. McKenna Cup is a gaelic football competition played between counties and universities in the province of Ulster. It is the secondary Gaelic football competition based in Ulster behind the Ulster Senior Football Championship, and the fourth most important inter-county competition in which Ulster counties take part, behind the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, the Ulster Championship and the National Football League.

Once held in high regard, in recent years the focus of the competition has changed, and some county teams have made use of it as a pre-season "warm up" competition ahead of the National League and Championship. The addition of university teams has also changed the nature of the competition, but the generally high recent standard of Ulster football, combined with the variety in motivation has led to a less prestigious, but nonetheless intriguing competition.

Since 2016 the competition has been known—for sponsorship reasons—as the Bank of Ireland McKenna Cup. The current holders of the cup are Tyrone.

The cup was donated to the Ulster Council in 1924 by the Most Rev. Dr. McKenna with the first tournament being played in 1927.

When Bishop Patrick McKenna, Bishop of Clogher presented the McKenna Cup to the Ulster Council in 1925, he was one of only a small group willing at that time to be publicly associated with the GAA in Ulster. Ireland in the 1920s was slowly emerging from war, unrest and change.

When the Ulster Council sought donors for trophies there wasn’t a queue to their door with offers. From 1923 the council were actively looking for a donor for their senior championship and in 1925 the treasurer of the council proposed the establishment of a second competition to prepare teams for the championship.

Two loyal GAA stalwarts came to the council's rescue in 1925. JF O Hanlon, owner of The Anglo-Celt newspaper presented a trophy to BC Fay, secretary of the Council. It was decided to use the trophy for the Ulster senior championship and it was first presented to Cavan who won the 1925 Ulster championship. Treasurer O’ Duffy was successful in securing a trophy from the bishop of Clogher and the new cup was presented to Council in 1925 although it was not until 1927 that the competition got underway.