Connacht Senior Club Hurling Championship | |
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Irish | Craobh Sinsir Iománaíochta Connachta na gClub |
Founded | 1970 |
Title holders | Portumna (4th title) |
Most titles | Athenry (8 titles) |
The Connacht Senior Club Hurling Championship is an annual hurling tournament played between the senior hurling clubs in Connacht contested from 1970 until it became defunct after the conclusion of the 2007-08 season due to a lack of meaningful opposition for the Galway champions for quite some time. The winners of the Connacht hurling championship went on to qualify for the All-Ireland Senior Club Hurling Championship semi-final. Winners qualified for this competition by winning their respective senior county championships in Connacht. Since Galway has traditionally been much stronger than the other counties involved, its county champions automatically qualified for the final, with the other sides beginning at the quarter final stage. In 2007, the competition's final year, this competition was won by Portumna from Galway. The competition had long since become a formality for the Galway teams.
Since the annulment of the competition, the Galway champions now qualify for the All-Ireland Senior Club Hurling Championship semi-final. In the latter half of the 2000s, Portumna dominated hurling on the national stage, contesting four All-Ireland Senior Club Hurling Championship finals in five years, winning three. Clarinbridge (2011) and St. Thomas's (2013) have also won All-Irelands for Galway in recent years.
Currently the champions from Mayo and Roscommon compete in the Connacht Intermediate Club Hurling Championship against the Galway Intermediate champions. Sligo and Leitrim champions participate in the Connacht Junior Club Hurling Championship, again with the Galway side entering the competition at the final stage.