The All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship is the pinnacle of elite competition in hurling, with an intoxicating series of games designed to find the best inter-county team in the land, culminating with the winners raising the Liam McCarthy Cup in Croke Park.
The All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship was once contested on a straight knockout basis but the modern incarnation sees round robin formats in place via the three main feeder competitions before the All-Ireland series.
They are the Leinster Senior Hurling Championship, the Munster Senior Hurling Championship and the Joe McDonagh Cup.
A total of 17 teams currently participate in the All-Ireland Championship, with the final taking place in late July at Croke Park in Dublin, the GAA's headquarters.
Format
The All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship begins with three feeder competitions that bring together the competing counties for the All-Ireland knockout stages.
These feeder competitions are the Leinster and Munster provincial championships and the Joe McDonagh Cup.
Below them, three further competitions complete the pyramid, with promotion and relegation between the tiers, while those in the lower tiers compete for the Christy Ring Cup, Nicky Rackard Cup and the Lory Meagher Cup respectively, based on their seasonal status.
Provincial Championships
The provincial Championships take place from April until early June annually.
The Munster Senior Hurling Championship is viewed as the most competitive and exhilarating of the feeder competitions.
Currently, five teams contest the round robin group stage, facing each other once, with two points for a win and one for a draw.
The top two then contest the Munster final in June for the Mick Mackey Cup. The third-placed team qualifies to the All-Ireland preliminary quarter-finals, while the fourth-placed team are eliminated from the Championship and the fifth-placed team may be relegated to the Joe McDonagh Cup for the following campaign.
The Leinster Senior Hurling Championship features six teams once more in a round robin format where they face each other once.
Again, it is two points for a win and one for a draw, with the top two teams playing for the Bob O'Keeffe Cup in the Leinster decider.
The third-placed team advances to the All-Ireland preliminary quarter-finals, while the lowest finishing team is relegated to the Joe McDonagh Cup.
In both the Munster and Leinster Championships, the winners advance directly into the All-Ireland semi-finals and the runners-up move to the All-Ireland quarter-finals.
The Joe McDonagh Cup is the second tier for elite hurling counties. It is contested by the six counties ranked 12th to 17th in the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship.
It is also played as a round robin with five games for each team and the top two go forward to contest the final.
In addition, these counties are rewarded with progress to the same season's All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship at the preliminary quarter-final stage, where they meet third placed teams from Leinster and Munster in a one-off knockout.
The winners of those ties play against the Leinster and Munster provincial beaten finalists in the quarter-finals, with winners advancing to face the provincial champions in the last-four to set up the All-Ireland Final.
Teams
Below are the teams that will compete in the three feeder competitions for the All-Ireland Hurling Championship in 2026.
Leinster Senior Hurling Championship
- Dublin
- Galway
- Kildare
- Kilkenny
- Offaly
- Wexford
Munster Senior Hurling Championship
Clare
Cork
Limerick
Tipperary
Waterford
Joe McDonagh Cup
Antrim
Carlow
Down
Laois
London
Westmeath
Dates
The full schedule for the 2026 season is yet to be confirmed, with fixtures and dates to follow the Allianz National League Hurling.
The provincial Championships began the weekend of 18th/19th April and will run until early June.
The All-Ireland SHC preliminary quarter-finals are pencilled in for 14th/15th June and the quarter-finals the following weekend.
The semi-finals are down for the weekend of 5th/6th July with the 2026 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final at Croke Park on Sunday 19th July.
History
Kilkenny are the most successful team in the history of the All-Ireland SHC, the Cats having raised the Liam McCarthy Cup 36 times, most recently in 2015.
Following them are Cork (30 wins) and Tipperary (29 wins), making that trio the traditional dominant forces.
Limerick (12 wins) claimed four-in-a-row from 2023, with the next most successful being Wexford with six wins.
