Fermanagh GAA

The Fermanagh County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) (Irish: Cumann Lúthchleas Gael, Coiste Chontae Fear Manach) or Fermanagh GAA is one of the 32 county boards of the GAA in Ireland. The county board is also responsible for the Fermanagh inter-county teams.

Football

History

Fermanagh has the smallest number of clubs of any county in Ireland, and is the only county in Ulster to have never won the Ulster Senior Football Championship. Despite this there is a strong GAA tradition in the county, which went largely unrewarded until the remarkable achievement of the 2004 team in reaching the All Ireland semi-final and forcing the match to a replay.

Fragments of a poem from 1806 describe a football match between Louth and Fermanagh at Inniskeen, Co Monaghan.

Fermanagh beat Cavan in the 1914 Ulster semi-final and were nominated by the Ulster Council to play against Wexford in the All-Ireland semi-final. Because the train schedules did not allow them to get back for Sunday night, and the Great Northern Railway Company refused to run a special train because they were opposed to sport on Sunday, Fermanagh had to abdicate the responsibility to Monaghan, who later beat them in the Ulster final anyway.