All-Ireland Poc Fada Championship

The All-Ireland Poc Fada Championship is an annual tournament testing the skills of Ireland's best hurlers. Poc Fada is Irish for "long puck".

Twelve competitors are invited to play each year. The competition is held every year on the Cooley mountains, Co. Louth, beginning in Annaverna. Competitors must puck a sliotar with a hurley (they may lift and strike or hit the ball from the hand). They play to the top of Carn an Mhadaidh and after a short break continue back down to finish in Aghameen. The whole course measures three miles 320 yards (5,121 metres).

There are two awards: an individual trophy and the comórtas beirte (pairs competition), in which the competitors are randomly assigned partners. The player with lowest number of pucks wins. Ties are broken by the distance the player's last puck crosses the finish line by.

History

The tournament was founded in 1961 by Fr. Paul McShane and the Naomh Moninne club based in Fatima, Dundalk, Louth, with Kilkenny goalkeeper Ollie Walsh the first winner, out of 16 hurlers invited. The competition went off the calendar after 1969 before returning in 1981 with 12 competitors. In 2001 the Poc Fada was held at Dowdalshill racecourse due to foot-and-mouth disease, doing two laps of the circuit (2 miles 880 yards / 4,023 metres). The 2005 tournmant was won by Albert Shanahan of Cork, with Niall Quinn also competing.

Roll of Honour 1961-69 (sixteen competitors)

Year	Winner	County	Number of pucks
1961	Vincent Godfrey	Limerick	52
1962	Ollie Walsh	Kilkenny
1963	Ollie Walsh	Kilkenny
1964	Ollie Walsh Tom Geary Dinny Donnelly	Kilkenny Waterford Meath
1965
1966	Finbar O'Neill	Cork
1967	Finbar O'Neill	Cork
1968	Finbar O'Neill	Cork
1969