Sligo county hurling team

Sligo

Sport:	Hurling
Irish:	Sligeach
Manager:	Stephen Sheil
Home venue(s):	Markievicz Park, Sligo
Recent competitive record
Current All-Ireland status:	Christy Ring Cup
Last championship title:	2019 Nicky Rackard Cup
Current NHL Division:	3A
First colours Second colours

The Sligo county hurling team represents Sligo in hurling and is governed by Sligo GAA, the county board of the Gaelic Athletic Association.^[1] The team competes in the Christy Ring Cup and the National Hurling League. It formerly competed in the abolished Connacht Senior Hurling Championship, finishing as runner-up in 1900 and 1906.

Sligo's home ground is Markievicz Park, Sligo. The team's manager is Stephen Sheil.

The team has never won the Connacht Senior Championship, the All-Ireland Senior Championship or the National League.

History

Sligo is traditionally a weak team at senior level. Despite this, the hurlers have attained noticeably more success than their football counterparts, with the county's most notable early achievement being an appearance in the 1968 All-Ireland Junior Hurling Championship final.^[clarify]

Sligo won the All-Ireland Minor 'C' Hurling Championship in August 1986, defeating Tyrone by four points at Croke Park.

Sligo won the 2005 National Hurling League Division 3 title.

Sligo, under the management of Mickey Galvin, won its first All-Ireland hurling title at senior level by defeating Louth in the 2008 Nicky Rackard Cup Final.^[2] The team did not achieve promotion however, losing a play-off to Roscommon.

The under-16 team won the 2012 All-Ireland "C" hurling title by defeating Tyrone at the Monaghan Centre of Excellence.

2018 had both senior and minor teams bring national silverware back to the Land of the Shells. Sligo won a senior All-Ireland title for the first time since 2008. The men, jointly managed by Daithí Hand and Darragh Cox in their first senior hurling management role, defeated Lancashire in the 2018 Lory Meagher Cup final, with a last-minute Kevin Gilmartin goal (his third of the game) sealing the victory.^[3][4] Benny Kenny's under-17 squad, a few weeks later, defeated Donegal to become All-Ireland Celtic Challenge Cup Champions in the Michael Feery Cup, also defeating Mayo, Roscommon and others along the way.

The county team won a second consecutive senior title in 2019 under Hand, Peter Galvin and coach Colum O'Meara. Having been promoted to the Nicky Rackard Cup, the team topped Group 2, eliminating favourite Mayo, in a drawn game after beating Tyrone and Louth in previous games.^{[citation needed]}

Following on from a 2–21 to 2–17 victory over Warwickshire at Celtic Park, Sligo advanced to the 2019 Nicky Rackard Cup final at Croke Park.^{[citation needed]}

Facing a heavily tipped^{[citation needed]} Armagh side, Sligo became champions with a Conor Griffin point, a Gerard O'Kelly-Lynch goal and a 73rd-minute point by young substitute Kieran Prior. The scoreline at the game's conclusion was 2–14 to 2–13; though the team was four points behind Armagh as the game entered injury-time, the two lates points and the goal meant Sligo secured a one-point victory.^[5] James Weir, at 19 years of age and the youngest ever All-Ireland winning captain,^{[citation needed]} lifted aloft the Nicky Rackard Cup thus giving Sligo official recognition as a dual county.^[clarify]

Hand and fellow management team member Peter Galvin tendered their resignations on the evening of 14 September 2020, less than one month before the team was scheduled to contest a National League final and make its debut in the Christy Ring Cup. Confusion over efforts to register two players from Galway with Sligo heritage and the involvement of one of their coaches with a club, unbeknownst to Hand and Galvin, were cited as partly contributing to this unexpected decision.^[6] The county board did not report their departures until 20 September.^[7] The coach, later named as Colum O'Meara, then applied (unsuccessfully) to become Hand's successor; O'Meara, a native of Killimor, County Galway, had joined the Sligo set-up as coach ahead of the 2019 season after parting ways with Longford.^[8]

Padraig Mannion ultimately succeeded Hand as Sligo manager in late 2020.^[9]

List of Seasons

Season-by-season record

Year	Championship								National Hurling League		Other
	Competition	Lvl	Pld	W	D	L	Pts	Position	Division	Position	Competition	Position
2005	Nicky Rackard Cup	3	3	1	0	2	2	Group Srage	Division 2	11th (R)
2006			4	2	1	1	5	Quarter-Finals	Division 3	7th
2007			2	0	0	2	0	Group Stage		2nd
2008			6	5	0	1	10	1st (lost promotion playoff)		5th (R)	-	-
2009			3	1	0	2	2	Won Relegation Playoff	Division 4	1st
2010			4	2	0	2	4	Semi-Finals	Division 3B	5th
2011			2	0	0	2	0	Quarter-Finals		6th
2012			2	0	0	2	0	Quarter-Finals	Division 3A	6th (R)
2013			2	0	0	2	0	Quarter-Finals	Division 3B	2nd
2014			4	0	0	4	0	Qualifier Round 1 (Relegated)		4th
2015	Lory Meagher Cup	4	5	3	0	2	6	Runners-Up		4th
2016			5	3	0	2	6	Runners-Up		4th
2017			5	3	0	2	6	3rd		3rd
2018		5	4	3	0	1	6	1st (Promoted)		3rd
2019	Nicky Rackard Cup	4	5	4	1	0	9	1st (Promoted)		2nd
2020	Christy Ring Cup	3	2	0	0	2	0	Round 2		1st (P)
2021			3	1	0	2	2	Semi-Finals	Division 3A	1st (P)
2022			5	1	0	4	2	5th	Division 2B	2nd	Connacht Hurling League	2nd
2023			5	3	0	2	6	3rd		6th(R)		QF
2024			5	0	0	5	0	6th (Relegated)	Division 3A	2nd		QF

Current panel

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Team as per Sligo vs Wicklow in the Christy Ring Cup, 23 April 2022

No. Player Position Club 1 Jimmy Gordon Goalkeeper Easkey 2 Niall Kilcillen Right corner back Easkey 3 Mark Hannify Full back Oranmore-Maree (Galway) 4 Kevin O'Kennedy Left corner back Coolaney-Mullinabreena 5 Gavin Connolly Right half back St Farnan's 6 Rory McHugh Centre back Easkey 7 Niall Feehily Left half back Naomh Eoin 8 Finnian Cawley Midfield St Farnan's 9 Patrick Foley Midfield Clarinbridge (Galway) 10 Michael Munnelly Right half forward Naomh Eoin 11 Gerard O'Kelly-Lynch Center Half forward Naomh Eoin 12 Conor Hannify Left half forward Oranmore-Maree (Galway) 13 Joe McHugh Right corner forward Easkey 14 Andrew Kilcullen Full forward Easkey 15 Thomas Cawley Left corner forward St Farnan's

No. Player Position Club 16 Matt Davey Substitute Naomh Eoin 17 Ronan Redmond Substitute Coolera/Strandhill 18 Darragh Cawley Substitute Naomh Eoin 19 Eoghan-Rua McGowan Substitute Easkey 20 Fionn Moylan Substitute Easkey 21 Fionn Connolly Substitute St Farnan's 22 Ronan Forkin Substitute Tubbercurry 23 Tony O'Kelly-Lynch Substitute Naomh Eoin 24 Ruairi Brennan Substitute Tourlestrane 25 Eoin Commerford Substitute Coolera/Strandhill 26 Kevin Gilmartin Substitute Calry/St Joseph's 27 Liam O'Kelly-Lynch Substitute Naomh Eoin 28 Ronan Molloy Substitute St Farnan's

^INJ Player has had an injury which has affected recent involvement with the county team.
^RET Player has since retired from the county team.
^WD Player has since withdrawn from the county team due to a non-injury issue.

Current management team

Appointed 6 October 2023:^[10]

• Manager: Stephen Sheil
• Management team: Donal O'Brien, Seamus Qualter

Managerial history

• Mickey Galvin: c. 2008, e.g. Lory Meagher Cup (see The Irish Times source)
• Daithí Hand and Darragh Small: c. 2018
• Daithí Hand: c. 2019–20
• Padraig Mannion: 2020–2023
• Stephen Sheil: 2023-

Players

Notable players

For individual player details, see Category:Sligo inter-county hurlers.

Records

• Paul Seevers would be a prominent hurler for his county for more the 20 years. Seevers won the 2008 Nicky Rackard Cup with his county, three Railway Cups with Connacht and represented Ireland against Scotland in the 2003 Shinty-Hurling International Series.
• Keith Raymond
• Andrew Kilcullen
• Gerard O'Kelly-Lynch also represented Ireland, in his case in 2018.

Champions 15

• 2015 Lory Meagher Cup champions
  • Keith Raymond
  • Gerard O'Kelly-Lynch
• 2016 Lory Meagher Cup champions
  • Keith Raymond
• 2019 GAA/GPA Champion 15
  • James Weir
  • Keith Raymond
  • Gerard O'Kelly-Lynch
• 2021 GAA/GPA Champion 15
  • Gerard O'Kelly-Lynch
• 2022 GAA/GPA Champion 15
  • Andrew Kilcullen

Honours

National

• All-Ireland Intermediate Hurling Championship/Christy Ring Cup
  • Semi-finalists (1): 2021
• All-Ireland Junior Hurling Championship/Nicky Rackard Cup
  • Winners (2): 2008, 2019
• All-Ireland Junior B Hurling Championship/Lory Meagher Cup
  • Winners (1): 2018
  • Runners-up (2): 2015, 2016
• National Hurling League Division 3
  • Winners (2) 2004,^{[citation needed]} 2021^[11]
• National Hurling League Division 3B
  • Winners (1): 2020
• National Hurling League Division 4
  • Winners (1): 2009

Provincial

• Connacht Senior Hurling Championship
  • Runners-up (2): 1900, 1906
• Connacht Junior Hurling Championship
  • Winners (3): 1968, 1973, 2019
  • Runners-up (7): 1929, 1930, 1954, 1963 1967, 1976, 2004

Head-to-head record

Head-to-head Championship record

Every championship result since the restructuring of the hurling championships in 2005.

  Positive Record   Neutral Record   Negative Record

As of 17 August 2022.

County Team	Pld	W	D	L	Win %	First Meeting	Last Meeting	Province
Armagh	5	1	0	4	20%	2007	2019	Ulster
Cavan	3	2	0	1	67%	2008	2018	Ulster
Derry	3	0	0	3	0%	2020	2022	Ulster
Donegal	2	0	1	1	0%	2005	2006	Ulster
Fermanagh	6	5	0	1	83%	2005	2018	Ulster
Fingal	2	1	0	1	50%	2008	2011	Leinster
Kildare	1	0	0	1	0%	2022	2022	Leinster
Lancashire	5	5	0	0	100%	2015	2018	Britain
Leitrim	3	2	0	1	67%	2015	2017	Connacht
London	2	0	0	2	0%	2010	2022	Britain
Longford	1	0	0	1	0%	2014	2014	Leinster
Louth	9	3	0	6	33%	2006	2019	Leinster
Mayo	2	0	1	1	0%	2019	2022	Connacht
Meath	1	0	0	1	0%	2009	2009	Leinster
Monaghan	4	2	0	2	50%	2009	2014	Ulster
Offaly	1	0	0	1	0%	2021	2021	Leinster
Roscommon	4	1	0	3	25%	2008	2021	Connacht
Tyrone	6	3	0	3	50%	2005	2019	Ulster
Warwickshire	5	3	0	2	60%	2008	2019	Britain
Wicklow	1	1	0	0	100%	2022	2022	Leinster

Counties Sligo has never played in the championship since 2005

Province	No.	Counties
Connacht	1	Galway
Leinster	6	Carlow, Dublin, Kilkenny, Laois, Westmeath, Wexford
Munster	6	Clare, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary, Waterford
Ulster	2	Antrim, Down

References

1. "Sligo GAA - Sligo GAA". www.sligogaa.ie. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
2. "Sligo deny Louth in Rackard final". The Irish Times. 3 August 2008. Keith Raymond (1–08) and Paul Severs (1–04) were integral to Sligo's points tally as Mickey Galvin's [sic] led 2–12 to 2–05 at the break
3. "Gilmartin's hat-trick wins Lory Meagher for Sligo". RTÉ. 23 June 2018.
4. "Sligo play full Hand to secure Meagher success". Irish Independent. 25 June 2018.
5. "Sligo hurlers continue meteoric rise with late show". RTÉ. 22 June 2019.
6. "How Sligo's most successful management team were forced to walk away". Off the Ball. 26 September 2020.
7. "County Hurling Management team resign". Sligo GAA. 20 September 2020.
8. "Ex-coach speaks out on events that made Sligo Hurling a 's***show'". Off the Ball. 17 October 2020.
9. "On this All Ireland final hurling day Sligo GAA are delighted to announce the appointment of our 2021 hurling manager Padraig Mannion with his team of Donal Tully, Declan Molloy and Darragh Cox". Sligo GAA. 13 December 2020.
10. "Sligo GAA appoint Carlow native Stephen Sheil as new Senior hurling manager". 6 October 2023.
11. "NHL 2B/3A round-up: Kildare and Sligo promoted". RTÉ. 12 June 2021. Roscommon are the side dropping out of Division 2B after they suffered a 1–26 to 0–14 loss to Derry at Owenbeg… Swapping places with Roscommon will be Connacht neighbours Sligo after their impressive win over Tyrone in Omagh. There is still a round of fixtures to go, but only Armagh can match their points tally and the Yeats men have the head-to-head advantage should they do that.