The Railway Cup was a revival of the Railway Shield[1] which ran from 1905 to 1907 (football) and from 1905 to 1908 (hurling). The first Railway Cup competitions (the name is due to the donation of the trophy by Irish Rail) were held in 1927, with Munster winning the first football title and Leinster winning the first hurling title. Presently, Ulster hold the record for the most football Railway Cup wins with 30, while Munster has won the most hurling titles with 43. The longest hurling streak was Munster's six-in-a-row from 1948 to 1953, while Ulster won a football five-in-a-row from 1991 to 1995.
The Railway Cup has gone into severe decline in recent years. Some blame the GAA for this decline due to the low level of promotion given and the lack of a fixed date to be played each year.[2] The finals, held on Saint Patrick's Day, attracted huge crowds in the 1950s and 1960s, however, by the 1990s attendances at the once prestigious competition had reduced to only a few hundred. The All-Ireland Club Finals have superseded them in popularity and have taken over the Saint Patrick's Day fixture in Croke Park.
Hurling
Interprovincial Hurling Championship Railway Cup Hurling Championship
The GAA Interprovincial Hurling Championship (known for sponsorship reasons as the M Donnelly Interpro and formerly referred to as the Railway Cup) was an annual inter-provincial hurling competition organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association and traditionally contested by the four historic provinces of Ireland, deciding the competition winners through a knockout format. Starting in 1927, it was contested until its abolition in 2017.[3]
Connacht, Leinster and Munster were the first participating provinces, before being joined by Ulster in 1944 and the Combined Universities in 1972. The final, traditionally held at Croke Park on St. Patrick's Day, was the culmination of a series of knock-out games, with the winning team receiving the Railway Cup. At its peak it was one of the most prestigious competitions in Gaelic games, with players regarding it as a great honour to be included on their provincial team.[4] Crowds of up to 50,000 regularly attended the final, however, interest waned since its heyday with only 562 attending the last final in 2016.[5][6]
The title was won by three different teams, all of whom won the title more than once. The all-time record-holders are Munster, who won the championship on 47 occasions.
After a lapse of nearly 20 years, the idea of an inter-provincial tournament was resurrected. The Railway Cup, once again sponsored by the Great Southern Railways, was first held in 1927, with Ulster being the only province not to field a team. The very first match took place at Portlaoise on 21 November 1926, with Leinster beating Connacht by 7-06 to 3-05. Leinster went on to win the inaugural title after a 1-11 to 2-06 win over Munster in the final. The holding of the final at Croke Park on St. Patrick's Day (17 March) set a precedent that linked the competition to that date for many years to follow.
The 1944 Railway Cup was the first occasion when all four provinces took part, with Ulster fielding a team for the first time. They reached the 1945 final, after beating Leinster in the semi-final, but lost out to Munster. In late 1971 an application from the Universities' Council to enter a Combined Universities team was discussed by the Central Council of the Association. The proposal was readily accepted and the Combined Universities team was permitted to participate in the 1972 Railway Cup.
Sponsorship
Iarnród Éireann became the first title sponsor of the championship, serving in that capacity from 1991 until 1993. After a sponsor-less decade, businessman Martin Donnelly offered financial support in terms of sponsorship in 2002.[8] He withdrew his sponsorship of the competition in 2014.[9]
In 2003, the final was held in the Giulio Onesti Sports Complex in Rome.[10] The success of that overseas trip led GAA chiefs to look into the possibility of making the staging of the final in Europe a regular date in the calendar.[11] The final never returned to Europe, however, the 2005 final took place at the Irish Cultural Centre in Boston, while the 2009 final was held at Ghantoot Racing and Polo Club in Abu Dhabi.
The final returned to Croke Park for one final time in 2014, while Semple Stadium hosted the very last Railway Cup final in 2016.
Managers
Managers in the Railway Cup were involved in the day-to-day running of the team, including the training, team selection, and sourcing of players. The manager was usually assisted by a team of two or three selectors and a backroom team consisting of various coaches.
Managers in the Railway Cup were involved in the day-to-day running of the team, including the training, team selection, and sourcing of players. The manager was usually assisted by a team of two or three selectors and a backroom team consisting of various coaches.
Up to and including 1986, the Inter-pros were played in the Spring, with the semi-finals usually in February and the finals on Saint Patrick's Day.[12] From 1987 to 1989 then were given an Autumn slot, moving back to the Spring in 1991[12] (there was no competition in 1990).[12] 1993 saw the competition played again in the Autumn, but all others from 1991 until 2000 were played in the early part of the year,[12] with the semi-finals even being played in January in 1997, 1998 and 2000.[12] However the rescheduling of the commencement of the National Football and National Hurling Leagues to the start of the calendar year, has seen the Railway Cup moved to the latter part of the year from 2001 onwards.[12] In an effort to combat the declining popularity of the competition, some including Ulster manager Joe Kernan have suggested playing the finals as double-headers with the respective All-Ireland Club Football and All-Ireland Club Hurling Championship finals in the early part of the year in Croke Park and Semple Stadium respectively.[12] The 2009 hurling semi-finals were held in February, and the final took place in March in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.[13] Abu Dhabi joined a list of foreign cities including Boston, Paris and Rome to have hosted finals.[13] Plans to stage the 2014 Inter-Provincial finals in Texas fell through.[14]
Attendances at the matches have fallen.[15] However players seem to love playing in the competition.[15][16] Former Armagh player Martin McQuillan said it gave players not accustomed to success at county level, a chance to taste victory.[15]
On 23 February 2014, Connacht defeated Ulster by 2-19 to 1-7 at Tuam Stadium to win the Inter-provincial football championship for the first time since 1969.
Combined Universities
In 1971 the Universities Council of the GAA (Comhairle na nOllscoil) applied to the Central Council of the GAA for permission to compete in the Railway Cup football and hurling series.[17] The request had been studied by the Executive of the Central Council. The Universities Council estimated that there were about 70 inter-county players in the Sigerson and Fitzgibbon competitions studying at U.C.D, U.C.G., U.C.C., Q.U.B., T.C.D., U.U. Coleraine and St Patrick's Maynooth. At the Central Council meeting held on 23 October 1971, the proposal of Comhairle na nOllscoil was approved unanimously.[18] While the idea was looked upon positively by some elements of the Press as a way of injecting life back into this inter-provincial tournament,[17] other feared that the public would tire of this innovation as they had in the case of the Combined Universities v (Rest of) Ireland tests long before they lingered to an unlamented death[19] and doubted whether the Combined Universities would revive the Railway Cup.[20] Pat McDonnell of UCC and Cork full-back, Texaco Hurler of the Year in 1969, had the honour of captaining the first Combined Universities team to compete in the Railway Cup against Ulster at Croke Park. The University hurlers defeated Ulster in the preliminary round,[21] but were narrowly beaten by Leinster in the semi-final,[22] while the University footballers did not survive the preliminary round of the football Railway Cup.
In 1973 the Combined Universities footballers beat Connacht to win the Railway Cup in a final replay at Athlone.[23] This is the only occasion in the history of the Railway Cup that it was not won by a provincial team. The hurlers again beat Ulster but were again beaten by Leinster in the semi-final. In 1974 both the University hurlers and footballers reached the semi-finals, losing to Munster[24] and Leinster,[25] respectively.
The Railway Cup experiment was meeting criticism from within the Universities sector because it was interfering with University League fixtures.[26] In May 1974 Comhairle na nOllscoil decided to opt out of the Railway Cup competition.
Likely demise
The fixtures for the 2017 competition were indefinitely postponed after Connacht pulled out, citing fixture demands on players and lack of spectator interest. The Irish Times reported that the other three provinces had "indicated that they believe the end has come for the 90-year-old competition" and no dates were scheduled for the competition in 2018 and beyond.[27]
Covid-19 has cut down on sports but in 2022 possible return of all.
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