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Sam Maguire Replica Trophy

The Sam Maguire Cup, often called The Sam (Irish: Chorn Somhairle Mag Uidhir), is the name of the cup that is awarded to winners of the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship - the premier "knockout" competition in the game of Gaelic football.


The series of games are organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association and are played during the summer months with the All-Ireland Football Final traditionally played on the third or fourth Sunday in September in Croke Park, Dublin. From 2018 the final will take place on the last Sunday in August after radical changes to the championship were voted on in 2017.

Fact: Kerry top the honours list with 37 wins.

Fact: The fastest goal in all-Ireland finals history was 35 seconds, scored by Garry McMahon (Kerry) in the 1962 final. 

In 1928, shortly after Sam Maguire's death a group of his friends formed a committee in Dublin to raise funds for a permanent commemoration of his name. They decided on a cup to be presented to the G.A.A., who were proud to accept it as Maguire was very important in the War of Independence and he was the only Protestant to captain a team in the Senior Football Final. The cup cost £300 in those days (equivalent to £20,000 today), was modelled on the Ardagh Chalice and made by Hopkins and Hopkins of O'Connell Bridge. However, the original cup has so many errors in its inscription that in the words of a G.A.A. source it is "almost unbelievable".

 

Kildare was the first county to win the cup in 1928 after defeating Cavan 2-6 to 2-5 and Meath are the last county to have their name inscribed on the original cup after beating Cork in 1987. Meath repeated the feat the following year to become the first winners of the new Sam Maguire in 1988.

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The original Sam Maguire Cup remains on display in the GAA museum in Croke Park, Dublin. In 2010 a third replica was commissioned and produced for use in corporate and sponsors media events.
Sources: Wikipedia, Rebel GAA

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