1887 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship

1887 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship

All-Ireland Champions
Winning team	Limerick (1st win)
Provincial Champions
Championship statistics
1888 →

The 1887 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship is the first edition of GAA's premier inter-county Gaelic football tournament, played between 12 counties of Ireland. The tournament featured club teams who represented their respective counties after their county championship. The 21 a-side final was between Commercials of Limerick and Young Irelands of Louth. The final was played in Beech Hill, Clonskeagh (not Bird Avenue) on April 29, 1888 with Commercials winning by 1-4 to 0-3. Unlike later All-Irelands, there were no provincial championships and it was an open draw.

Format

The 1887 championship was the only to be held as an open-draw knockout tournament, without provincial championships.

Representative clubs

From 1887 until 1891 the club champions represented the whole county. In the very first All-Ireland championship the participating counties were represented by the following clubs:

County	Club
Clare
Cork
Kilkenny	Kilmacow
Limerick	Commercials
Louth	Dundalk Young Irelands
Meath	Dowdstown
Tipperary
Waterford	Ballyduff Lower
Wexford	Castlebridge

Results

First Round

Louth v Waterford

24 July 1887 First Round

Louth	1-8-2 – 0-4-1	Waterford
Charles McAlester (goal)	[1]

Elm Park, Merrion, Dublin Attendance: 10,000 Referee: Willie Halpin (Clare)

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Limerick v Meath

24 July 1887 First Round

Limerick	3-2 – 0-2	Meath
	[2]

Elm Park, Merrion, Dublin Attendance: 10,000

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Kilkenny v Cork

24 July 1887 First Round

Kilkenny	0-4 – 0-0	Cork
	[3]

Dungarvan

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Tipperary v Dublin

N/A First Round

Tipperary	w/o – scr.	Dublin
	[4]

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Wexford v Galway

N/A First Round

Wexford	w/o – scr.	Galway

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Clare v Wicklow

N/A First Round

Clare	w/o – scr.	Wicklow
	[5]

Second Round

Louth v Wexford

28 August 1887 Second Round

Louth	0-7-3 – 0-5-3	Wexford
	[6]

St. Patrick’s club grounds, Kilmainham Attendance: 5,000 Referee: J.K. Bracken (Tipperary

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Tipperary v Clare

1887 Second Round

Tipperary	W – L	Clare

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Limerick v Kilkenny

28 August 1887 Second Round

Limerick	1-10 – 1-10	Kilkenny
	[7]

St. Patrick’s club grounds, Kilmainham Attendance: 5,000

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Limerick v Kilkenny

1887 Second Round Replay

Limerick	W – L	Kilkenny
	[8]

Bansha

Semi-Final

Limerick v Tipperary

11 March 1888 Semi-Final

Limerick	W – L	Tipperary
	[9]

Bohermore

Final

Main article: 1887 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final

Limerick v Louth

29 April 1888 Final

Limerick	1-4-0 – 0-3-0	Louth
	[10]

Beech Hill, Clonskeagh, Dublin Referee: John Cullinane

Winning Team

• R. Breen
• E. Casey
• W. Cleary
• D. Corbett
• T. Fitzgibbon
• P. Kelly
• J. Hyland
• P.J. Corbett
• T. Keating
• T. Kennedy
• J. Kennedy
• W. Gunning
• P. Keating
• W. Spain
• R. Normoyle
• M. O'Brien
• E. Nicholas
• T. McNamara
• M. Slattery
• J. Mulqueen
• P. Reeves