Sigerson Cup

History

There was no intervarsity Gaelic sports competition until Dr. George Sigerson, born at Holy Hill near Strabane, County Tyrone (11 January 1836 – 17 February 1925), a professor of zoology at University College Dublin, eminent physician, minor poet and literary figure and leading light in the Celtic Renaissance in Ireland offered up a trophy in 1911. The cup was in the shape of a mether, an ancient Irish drinking vessel, and had four handles representing each of the four Irish provinces. Sigerson presented the trophy at the first tournament dinner, at the old Gresham Hotel, Dublin, in May 1911. W. J. O'Riordan received the cup on behalf of UCC, the first winning team. In 2009 Sigerson was named in the Sunday Tribune's list of the 125 Most Influential People In GAA History. The trophy itself was the longest-serving trophy in national circulation in Gaelic games, until it was replaced by an identical model in 2001.

From its inception Sigerson's alma mater, UCD have dominated the competition winning 33 titles, their greatest era being in the 1970s when they won the title six times in seven years. These Sigerson Cup wins proved to be the launch pad for success further afield, as UCD went on to add two All-Ireland Club Championship wins to their haul.

In the early days of the tournament, only UCD, UCC and UCG took part. The competition has been run off every year since, with the exceptions of 1920, 1942 and 1967. UCG are second in the pecking order in terms of championships won, currently having 21 victories to their credit. UCG actually outdid UCD in that they hold the record for the longest winning sequence. After their victory in 1936, the Galway University club went on to claim the next five titles and their six in a row is still an unequalled record.

As the years passed, the domination of the original big three was challenged by a number of new participants. Queen's University Belfast entered the competition for the first time in 1923, but did not enter thereafter until 1933. They have participated in the competition every year since and won their first title in 1958. Queen's have eight titles to their name, winning their eighth in 2007 by defeating UUJ 0-15 to 0-14 in the final.

As society in general changed with time, and more and more people began to enter third-level education, the number of colleges and universities grew rapidly. The impact of these changes on the Sigerson Cup has been immeasurable. Trinity College Dublin first entered in 1963, followed by NUIM in 1972, the New University of Ulster (later University of Ulster, Coleraine) in 1976, and University of Ulster, Jordanstown in 1985. The next colleges to enter were Thomond, NIHE Limerick and St Mary's, Belfast, all in 1988. Further expansion and the admission of Regional Technical Colleges to the competition saw Dublin City University enter in 1990 and the RTCs from Athlone in 1991, Sligo in 1992, Cork in 1995, Tralee in 1996 and Dublin IT in 1998. All of these third-level institutions have claimed Sigerson Cup titles since the mid-nineties, most recently Dublin IT in 2013.

Tralee's entry to the competition proved especially fruitful when they won successive titles in 1997, 1998 and '99. The stranglehold of the larger Universities, UCD, UCG and UCC, has now been broken. The colleges in the north have gained a new confidence in the competition, and with a whole raft of new participants joining in recent years, the trophy is now harder won than ever. Since the 2000/01 season IT Sligo and DCU have both won the Sigerson Cup three times. The Silver Jubilee Tournament was played in 1935/36, won by University College Dublin; the Golden Jubilee Tournament in 1961/62, won by University College Dublin; the Diamond Jubilee tournament in 1971/72, won by University College Cork; the 75th tournament in 1986/87, won by University of Ulster Jordanstown; and the Centennial tournament in 2011/12, won by Dublin City University.

The GAA Higher Education Cups are currently sponsored by the Independent.ie, who follow on from The Irish Daily Mail, Ulster Bank, Datapac and Bus Éireann as investors in Ireland's premier Higher Education GAA sports competitions.

Mick Raftery (UCG & Mayo/Galway) holds the record as an eight-time Sigerson Cup winner, 1933–41.

2016-17 Finals Tournament

Preliminary Round matches:

Wins Listed By College

Finalists who have not won the Sigerson Cup:

Sigerson Shield [Plate] Winners

The Sigerson Shield [Plate] competition was introduced in 1976/77 for the teams beaten in the quarter-finals of the Sigerson Cup, in essence to provide competition for the losing teams over the three-day Sigerson weekend. Trinity College Dublin (Dublin University) were the inaugural winners at Fahy Field, Galway. As a consequence of the Sigerson Cup function at the Dublin University Boat Club, Islandbridge, in February 1990 which descended into an 'orgy of destruction', the CAO decided to scrap the three-day finals weekend format to avoid any recurrence of such chaotic behaviour. In 1990/91 the multi-game weekend format was replaced with all the games being played at separate venues. In 1991/92, the quarter-finals were run off separately from the semi-finals and final, the latter being played over a two-day Sigerson weekend; the same format was used in 1992/93. From 1993/94 the final stages of both the Sigerson and Trench Cups were staged over the same weekend. In 1992/93 the Sigerson Shield was contested between the losing semi-finalists, University College Galway and the University of Ulster at Jordanstown.

† New University of Ulster

Captains of Sigerson Cup Winning Teams

Unpublished list of playing captains kindly provided by Dónal McAnallen. NB: Some differences exist between this list of playing team captains and publicly visible, wall-mounted lists of college club captains (often non-playing)

Man of The Match/Player of the Tournament Awardees and Winning Team Top Scorers

The accolade of Man of the Match or Player of the Tournament dates at least from the 1980s. The "Player of the Tournament" was not always from the winning team, e.g., 1983/84. Top scorer refers to the player with the highest points tally on the winning side.

Finals Listed By Year

Bold text indicates first win.

Other Higher Education GAA Competitions