Ashbourne Cup


The Ashbourne Cup is an Irish camogie tournament played each year to determine the national champion university or third level college. The Ashbourne Cup is the highest division in inter-collegiate camogie. The competition features many of the current stars of the game and is sometimes known as the 'Olympics of Camogie' because of the disproportionate number of All Star and All-Ireland elite level players who participate each year Since 1972 it has been administered by the committee of the Camogie Association. University of Limerick are the current champions, having won the Ashbourne cup in 2024.

Format

Each of the 4 @3rdLevelCamogie competitions follow a group stage and knockout format. Teams are generally divided into 2 groups with the top 2 in each group advancing to the semi-finals and 3rd place in both groups contesting the shield final. Each competition operates on a promotion and relegation basis.

History

The competition is the brainchild of Agnes O'Farrelly, founder member and president of the UCD camogie club who later served as president of the Camogie Association of Ireland in 1941–2. In 1915 she persuaded her friend, Irish language activist William Gibson, aka Liam Mac Giolla Bhríde, second Lord Ashbourne, to donate a trophy for the camogie intervarsity competition. The first game of intercollegiate camogie took place between University College Dublin and University College Cork on 18 April 1915. NUI Galway joined the competition in 1916, Queen's University Belfast in 1934, and NUI Maynooth, New University of Ulster, Coleraine, and Trinity College, Dublin in 1972. Apart from 1934 to 1937, until 1960 the competition was played on a league basis, and since then the concluding stages have been played together on a single weekend in mid-February. There was no competition in 1943, due to war-time restrictions, and the competition remained unfinished in 1963, when University College Dublin fielded an ineligible player for the final, which was drawn and never replayed. University College Cork claimed the title. The Ashbourne Cup semi finals and finals are now played alongside the Purcell, Fr. Meachair and Uí Mhaolagáin Cups on the second weekend of February.

Purcell Cup

The CCAO also oversees the Purcell Cup, which has been contested since 1977. The Purcell Cup, was donated by Úna Uí Phuirséil, President of the Camogie Association 1976–78, and her husband Pádraig Puirséil, Gaelic games correspondent for The Irish Press 1954–78. Mary Immaculate College, Limerick defeated Ulster Polytechnic by 3–0 to 0–1 in the first final in St Patrick's. Drumcondra on 6 March 1977.

Fr Meachair Cup

Colleges who do not compete in the Ashbourne and Purcell Cups play for a cup named after Fr Gearóid Ó Meachair, from Cappawhite, Co Tipperary, founder and popular trainer of the NUI Maynooth camogie team. Inaugurated in 1986, the Fr. Meachair Cup is now competed by both college senior and intermediate teams.

O'Mhaolagáin Cup

The remaining teams not in the first three championships participate in the 4th division or Uí Mhaolagáin cup, with the format following the group and knockout stages implemented in the other competitions. The trophy is named for Camogie Association President of 1991–4, Brídín Uí Mhaolagáin.

Ashbourne Cup Winners

TeamCountyWinsLast win
University College Dublin Dublin352008
University College Cork Cork322003
National University of Ireland, Galway Galway151994
University of Limerick Limerick112024
Waterford Institute of Technology Waterford82016
University of Ulster, Jordanstown Antrim31997
TU Dublin Dublin12023
Queen's University Belfast Antrim11991
Dublin City University Dublin12022

Highlights & Incidents

Highlights and incidents of the championship history include:
  • The 1918 competition played before record crowds of up to 4,000 for each of three matches in Terenure over the weekend of Feb 16–18, Dublin beating Cork on Friday, Galway and Cork drawing one goal each on Saturday and Dublin beating Galway 2–0 to 1–1 on Sunday to secure the trophy when Nora Cleary's goal from a 60-yard shot proving the highlight of the weekend, Margaret McGrane scoring Dublin's second goal
  • Harry Diamond, member of Northern Ireland Parliament, refereed the 1935 final, the first to be hosted by Queen's University
  • Some members of the UCG winning 1917 team refused to have their names engraved on the cup in the Irish language, something that brought their future selection into doubt.
  • The Galway, Antrim and Dublin county boards suspended UCG, Queen's and UCD for six months for taking part in the 1949 Ashbourne Cup as they had refused instructions not to play against UCC, affiliated to the Cork board which was disaffiliated from camogie's central body for the term of a complex eight-year split in the Association.
  • The inconclusive 1961 final when the Ashbourne Cup committee decided one of the UCD players was ineligible. The match was drawn 2-1 each and never replayed, with UCC claiming victory.
  • The 1962 competition when snow was cleared from the field, the semi-finals played on the following day and the final completed a fortnight later when Anne Duane's late goal gave Dublin a late victory in one of the best Ashbourne cup ties of the 12-a-side era.
  • Galway's breakthrough in 1965 powered by goalkeeper Eileen Naughton who held Queen's scoreless in the semi-final and Dublin could manage just one point in the final,
  • The 1966 semi-final in which Dublin beat Queen's by an astonishing 17–6 to nil, as Ann Carroll inspired Dublin to victory in her first appearance in a competition where she was to become the outstanding personality over a five-year period.
  • The 1969 semi-finals played in four inches of snow on the Malone Road sports fields in Belfast. The final was eventually played in Athlone when Dublin won with the help of three goals from Joan Traynor.
  • In 1972 Trinity College, NUI Maynooth and the University of Ulster, Coleraine brought the number of teams competing in the Ashbourne Cup to seven
  • Margery Doohan's performance in the 1970 final, her five goals won her Irish Press sports personality of the week in a year when UCD won without their injured captain Ann Carroll
  • Cork's six in a row 1972–77 with players like Val O'Dwyer and Aideen McCarthy and three goal hero of 1977 Noreen McCarthy, their toughest contest in the period may have been the 1976 quarter-final 2–6 to 3–2 victory over Maynooth, one of the best matches in the 12-a-side era of Ashbourne history, in which Angela Downey scored 2-2. Maynooth came closest to winning the Fitzgibbon when it could draw on the services of the iconic Angela Downey between 1975 and 1979, appearing in two finals.
  • The 1974 first round match between UCG and Queen's played in perhaps the worst conditions ever for a camogie match - the ball became lodged in a mud pool for a considerable period
  • Dublin's nine victories in eleven years in the 1980s, launched by Edel Murphy's scores in a closely fought final against UCC in 1980 and spearheaded by players such as Germaine Noonan, Marie Connell and Breda Kenny in subsequent years.
  • Cork's eight goals in arctic conditions at Santry in 1985, decisively defeating UCD with great displays by Claire Cronin, Patsy Kenelry and three goal hero Norma Delaney.
  • The emergence of Queen's in 1991 led by Deirdre O'Doherty, Joan Tobin and Mary Black followed closely by Jordanstown in 1992 marking the high point of Colleges camogie in Ulster, followed by Limerick's victory over Waterford in an all-newcomers final in 1995 when Sinéad Millea's prolific scoring gave Limerick victory.
  • Limerick's breakthrough in 1995 which led to six titles in 11 years including a treble in 2004-6
  • The first 15-a-side final of a major camogie competition in 1999 when Waterford celebrated their first success and the first non-University success thanks to Mary Walshe's 39th minute winning goal.
  • Waterford's 2009-13 five in a row, powered by All Ireland stars from Cork and Wexford and Kilkenny, who supplied five of their forwards on the 2012 team
  • The 2023 competition saw the University of Limerick knocked out of the competition, despite beating Maynooth University by 34 points on score difference. They received an email from the THDC stating their elimination 72 hours before the semi finals were due to take place.

    Ashbourne Cup Champion Colleges

  • 1915 UCD
  • 1916 UCD
  • 1917 NUIG
  • 1918 UCD
  • 1919 UCC
  • 1920 NUIG
  • 1921 UCD
  • 1922 UCC
  • 1923 UCC
  • 1924 UCC
  • 1925 UCC
  • 1926 UCC
  • 1927 UCC
  • 1928 NUIG
  • 1929 UCC
  • 1930 NUIG
  • 1931 UCC
  • 1932 UCC
  • 1933 UCD
  • 1934 UCC
  • 1935 UCD
  • 1936 UCC
  • 1937 UCC
  • 1938 UCD
  • 1939 UCD
  • 1940 UCD
  • 1941 UCD
  • 1942 UCD
  • 1943 Not Played
  • 1944 UCC
  • 1945 UCC
  • 1946 UCD
  • 1947 UCC
  • 1948 NUIG
  • 1949 NUIG
  • 1950 UCD
  • 1951 UCC
  • 1952 UCD
  • 1953 UCD
  • 1954 UCD
  • 1955 UCD
  • 1956 NUIG
  • 1957 NUIG
  • 1958 UCD
  • 1959 UCD
  • 1960 UCD
  • 1961 UCD
  • 1962 UCD
  • 1963 UCC
  • 1964 NUIG
  • 1965 UCC
  • 1966 UCD
  • 1967 UCC
  • 1968 NUIG
  • 1969 UCD
  • 1970 UCD
  • 1971 UCD
  • 1972 UCC
  • 1973 UCC
  • 1974 UCC
  • 1975 UCC
  • 1976 UCC
  • 1977 UCC
  • 1978 NUIG
  • 1979 NUIG
  • 1980 UCD
  • 1981 UCD
  • 1982 UCD
  • 1983 UCD
  • 1984 UCD
  • 1985 UCC
  • 1986 UCD
  • 1987 UCD
  • 1988 UCD
  • 1989 NUIG
  • 1990 NUIG
  • 1991 QUB
  • 1992 UUJ
  • 1993 UUJ
  • 1994 NUIG
  • 1995 UL
  • 1996 UCC
  • 1997 UUJ
  • 1998 UCC
  • 1999 WIT
  • 2000 UCC
  • 2001 WIT
  • 2002 UCC
  • 2003 UCC
  • 2004 UL
  • 2005 UL
  • 2006 UL
  • 2007 UCD
  • 2008 UCD
  • 2009 WIT
  • 2010 WIT
  • 2011 WIT.
  • 2012 WIT
  • 2013 WIT
  • 2014 UL
  • 2015 WIT
  • 2016 UL
  • 2017 UL
  • 2018 UL
  • 2019 UL
  • 2020 UL
  • 2021 Not Played
  • 2022 DCU
  • 2023 TUD
  • 2024 UL
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