Louth will host the All-Ireland Poc Fada Competition in August
The All-Ireland Poc Fada Competition will take place in Louth on the August Bank Holiday
The annual All-Ireland Poc Fada Competition takes place Monday, 5th August next, on Annaverna in the Cooley Mountains.
This year promises to be even better with the best of the four provinces’ greatest hurlers and camogie players competing for the title of All-Ireland Champion. Who will follow in the footsteps of Cú Chulainn and poc all before them?
The modern Poc Fada recreates the legendary journey of Cú Chulainn, who, as the 7-year-old boy Setanta, decided he had waited long enough to become a member of the famous Red Branch Knights of Ulster.
So he set off from his home in Dundalk for the Macra, the Red Branch Knights school in Ard Mhacha (Armagh), some 60km away.
While crossing the Cooley Mountains, Setanta hit his sliotar far ahead and ran forward to catch it on his hurley stick before it hit the ground.
While today's competitors cannot fully recreate Setanta's mythical feats, they do compete over the same Cooley mountains that Setanta once passed.
The 5 km Senior Hurling and 2.5 km Senior Camogie and Under 16 courses do provide ample opportunity to practice poc's, as on average the Senior Hurling takes 50 pocs to win.
The modern All-Ireland Poc Fada dates back to 1960 when six boys from Dundalk (Mal Begley, Peter Crilly, Sean Mc Aeney, Jerome Mc Donagh, Peter Myles and the first ever winner Damien Callan) under the watchful eye of An tAthair Pól Mac Shean, took part in the very first Poc Fada. The first All-Ireland Poc Fada took place the following year, in 1961.
First sponsored by Martin Donnelly over 25 years ago, the MD Sports myclubshop.ie All-Ireland Poc Fada Finals, represents one of the longest-running sponsorships within the GAA & Camogie Association.
Everyone is very welcome to Annaverna on Bank Holiday Monday, so why not make your way to the mountain for 10am and make sure to bring the kids, who can meet our hurling heroes.
The 2026 M. Donnelly Myclubshop.ie Poc Fada All-Ireland Competition was officially launched in Croke Park on Wednesday 08th July last.
GAA Uachtarán Jarlath Burns was joined by Hilda Breslin, former president of the Camogie Association, in launching the annual event, which will take place this year on Monday, August 3rd.
This year’s event will once again be hosted in County Louth, with Annaverna Mountain on the Cooley Peninsula providing 27 competitors with the sternest of tests over a five-kilometre course across the mountain.
Defending senior champions Colin Ryan of Limerick and Molly Lynch from Cork are both set to return to defend the titles they won in 2025, with specialist Lynch going for a remarkable sixth title in a row.
Ryan will be aiming to win his third title, having tasted success in 2021 as well as last year.
Louth will be represented by Darren Geoghegan (Naomh Moninne) in the men’s Snr competition while Maedbh Thornton (St Brides) represents the County in the Ladies Snr competition.
Interestingly, Westmeath youngster Conor Raleigh will also be back to defend his U16 boys title this year, having triumphed in the youth grade last year.
The competitors qualified for the All-Ireland finals after coming through their own respective county and provincial competitions.
Meanwhile, Cork legend Ger Cunningham was inducted into the Poc Fada Hall of Fame having won the competition on seven successive occasions between 1984 and 1990.
Carlow’s Lyndsey Keohane (nee Condell) was the camogie recipient of the Hall of Fame award, having won the event back-to-back in 2007 and 2008.
In total, 26 of the 27 competitors across the four grades (senior men, senior women, U16 Boys and U16 Girls) are confirmed, with a special guest competitor to be confirmed for the hurling competition closer to the event.
Senior Hurling
Sean Og McLaren (Antrim); Connor Delaney (Cavan); Bobby Douglas (Mayo); Noel Fallon (Roscommon); Diarmuid Quirke (Kerry); Aidan McCarthy (Clare); Pat Burke (Westmeath); Eoin Reilly (Laois); Mark Sheery (Clare); Darren Geoghegan (Louth GAA); Colin Ryan (Limerick).
Senior Camogie
Eimear Colton (Tyrone);Caoimhe Higgins (Galway); Laura Shinners (Tipperary); Orla Duggan (Kilkenny); Maedbh Thornton (Louth); Chloe Morey (Clare); Molly Lynch (Cork)
U16 Hurling
Damien Laverty (Antrim); Nathan Fawle (Galway); Ben Rooney (Waterford); Conor Raleigh (Westmeath)
U16 Camogie
Grainne McAleenan (Down); Isíbeal Stanford-Kilkenny (Galway); Sadhbh Whelan (Clare); Eloise McCann (Kildare)