All-Ireland Junior Football Championship


The All-Ireland Junior Football Championship is a GAA competition It has historically consisted of two entirely different formats before and after 2021, but has retained the same name.
Since 2022, the competition has involved four Junior Gaelic football inter-county teams, It featured one team from Ireland who do not compete in the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, Kilkenny, New York, and the winners and runners up from the All-Britain Junior Football Championship, one team from which, London, does play in the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship via the Connacht Senior Football Championship alongside New York. A second American team organized by the United States GAA, representing all other parts of the country outside New York, has entered the competition since 2024.
The current holders are New York, defeating London by 0-20 to 2-13 in the 2025 final. With three wins, New York are the most successful team in the post 2021 format.
Until 2021 the competition was previously held for all Junior Gaelic football inter-county teams in Ireland. In this previous format, the definition of what constituted a junior player differed from county to county. In some, the junior team was the second team after the senior team. This meant that any players who had not played with the senior team could play with the junior team. In others, such as Cork and Kerry, players could only be chosen from clubs within the county that played in junior or intermediate grades. These counties could not choose players from senior clubs, even if they were not on the senior county team. When a team won this championship, it had to pick a new team for the following year. No player could thus be on a winning team for two successive years.
Kerry are the most successful county in the competition's history from this period, having lifted the title on twenty occasions.. The 2008 championship was won by Dublin for the first time since 1960. Sligo defeated Kerry in 2010 to win their first title since 1935. Ulster did not participate in the Junior Championship for a period, Cavan the 2014 champions represented Leinster in the absence of an Ulster competition.

History

History

For the bulk of this competition's history up to 2021, the winners of the provincial Junior Football Championships met to decide who was the "Home" winner. This team then met the champion county in Great Britain to determine the All-Ireland Junior Football champion.

Format

Historic format (1912-2019)

The five provincial winners would contest the All-Ireland Junior Football Championship.
Teams
ProvinceProvincial ChampionshipQualifying teams
Connacht GAAConnacht Junior Football ChampionshipChampions
Leinster GAALeinster Junior Football ChampionshipChampions
Munster GAAMunster Junior Football ChampionshipChampions
Ulster GAAUlster Junior Club Football ChampionshipChampions
Britain GAAAll-Britain Junior Football ChampionshipChampions

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Current format (2022-)

At GAA Congress in 2021, a motion was passed to change the entire structure of the All Ireland Junior Football Championship competition to that of a mostly 'overseas competition' along with just one Irish county, Kilkenny. The Junior Football Championship competition therefore now involves just four teams: New York, Kilkenny, and the winner and runner-up of the British Junior Championship, all meeting in the All Ireland Junior Championship semi-finals.
But in 2025 Quarter-finals were brought in.
Teams
ProvinceProvincial ChampionshipQualifying teams
Britain GAAAll-Britain Junior Football ChampionshipChampions and runners-up
Leinster GAALeinster Junior Football Championship Kilkenny
North America GAAN / A New York

Teams

2025 Championship

Ten counties will compete in the 2025 All-Ireland Junior Football Championship:
CountyLocationStadiumProvincePosition in 2023 ChampionshipProvincial ChampionshipIn championship sinceProvincial TitlesLast Provincial TitleChampionship TitlesLast Championship Title
GloucestershireGloucesterSt Peter's Rugby Football ClubBritainGroup Stage All-Britain Junior Football Championship—120080—
HertfordshireWatfordGlen Rovers Football ClubBritainSemi-finals All-Britain Junior Football Championship—0—0—
KilkennyKilkennyNowlan ParkLeinsterRunners-upLeinster Junior Football Championship—3201812022
LancashireEast DidsburyOld BediansBritainSemi-finals All-Britain Junior Football Championship—520160—
LondonSouth RuislipMcGovern ParkBritainSemi-finalsAll-Britain Junior Football Championship—3202261995
New YorkBronxGaelic ParkNorth AmericaChampionsN / A—0—12023
ScotlandGlasgowTir Conaill HarpsBritainGroup Stage All-Britain Junior Football Championship—220190—
United StatesChicagoGaelic ParkNorth AmericaN / AN / A20240—0—
WarwickshireSolihullPáirc na hÉireannBritainSemi-finalsAll-Britain Junior Football Championship—620230—
YorkshireLeedsJohn Charles Centre for SportBritainGroup Stage All-Britain Junior Football Championship—0—0—

Roll of Honour

Wins by Province

ProvinceTitleRunners-upTotal
Munster42951
Leinster222345
Connacht131629
Ulster718
Britain64248
North America213

Team records and statistics

Team results (since the 2022 restructure)

Legend

  • – Champions
  • – Runners-up
  • – Semi-Finals
  • – All-Britain Championship
For each year, the number of teams in each championship are shown.
Team2022 2023 2024 Years
GloucestershireBBB3
HertfordshireBBB3
Kilkenny1st2ndQF3
LancashireBBB3
LondonSFSF2nd3
New York2nd1st1st3
ScotlandBBB3
United States——SF1
WarwickshireSFSFSF3
YorkshireBBB3

By decade

The most successful team of each decade, judged by number of All-Ireland JFC titles, is as follows:

Other records

Finishing positions

  • Most championships
  • * 20, Kerry
  • Most second-place finishes
  • * 25, London
  • Most semi-final finishes
  • * 3, Warwickshire
  • Most quarter-final finishes
  • * 1, Kilkenny

Unbeaten sides

  • Every team that has won the championship has done so unbeaten.

Beaten sides

On one occasion a team was defeated twice but have remained in the knockout championship:

Final success rate

Eight counties have appeared in the final, being victorious on all occasions:
On the opposite end of the scale, nine counties has appeared in the final, losing on each occasion:

Consecutive participations

  • 0, 000
000 have the record number of consecutive participations in the championship, taking part in 000 seasons.

Biggest wins

  • The most one sided finals:
  • * 00 points – 0000: 000 vs 000
  • The most one sided matches:
  • * 18 points – 2023: Warwickshire 2-17 - 1-02 Scotland

Scoring Events (2023">2023 All-Ireland Junior Football Championship">2023–)

Successful defending

A number of defending champions have retained their title. These are:
  • 000 00 attempts out of 00

Gaps

  • Longest gaps between successive championship titles:
  • * 87 years: Cavan
  • * 75 years: Tipperary
  • * 75 years: Sligo
  • * 66 years: Wicklow
  • * 60 years: Roscommon
  • * 48 years: Dublin
  • * 38 years: Mayo
  • * 28 years: London
  • * 27 years: Galway
  • * 27 years: Louth
  • Longest gaps between successive championship final appearances:
  • * 0 years: N/A
  • Longest gap between successive championship appearances
  • * 0 years: N/A

Provinces

Longest undefeated run

The record for the longest unbeaten run stands at 000 games held by 000.

Miscellaneous