Teams from the southern province of
Munster shared the early titles, with Limerick, Tipperary and Cork winning the first three finals. The
first Championship featured club teams who represented their respective counties after their county championship. The 21 a-side final, played in Beech Hill,
Donnybrook on 29 April 1888, was contested between Commercials of Limerick and Young Irelands of Louth, with Commercials winning by 1–4 to 0–3. The
second Championship was unfinished owing to the American Invasion Tour. The 1888 provincial championships had been completed (won by Tipperary, Kilkenny and Monaghan, with no Connacht teams entering) but after the Invasion Tour ended, the All-Ireland semi-final and final were not played.
London reached the final four times in the early years of the competition (1900–03). The
1903 Championship brought
Kerry's first All-Ireland title. They went on to become the most successful football team in the history of the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship. As of 2025, the Kingdom have won the competition on 39 occasions, including two four-in-a-rows (1929–32 and 1978–81) and two three-in-a-rows (1939–41 and 1984–86). Galway were the first team from the western province of
Connacht to win an All-Ireland title, in 1925, while Cavan were the first from the northern province of
Ulster, in
1933. kitted out in the green and red of
Mayo fans at the
2004 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final The first half of the twentieth century brought the rise of several teams who won two or more All-Ireland titles during this period, such as Kildare, Mayo, Cavan, Wexford and Roscommon. Wexford won four consecutive titles between 1915 and 1918, while Kildare were the first winners of the Sam Maguire Cup in
1928. Cavan won five titles between 1933 and 1952, including in 1947 when the final was played in New York. None of these teams have won an All-Ireland title since, with only Kildare, Mayo and Roscommon reaching the final. Most notably, Mayo have appeared in eleven finals since winning their last title in 1951, losing them all (1989, 1996 after a replay, 1997, 2004, 2006, 2012, 2013, 2016 after a replay, 2017, 2020 and 2021); this is the longest unbroken sequence of losing finals in the history of the competition. A record 90,556 attended the
1961 final between Down and Offaly. For 13 consecutive finals between
1974 and
1986, either
Dublin or
Kerry always contested the decider, with both playing against each other in six of them, and
Offaly (in
1982) the only other team to win a title in that period. In the 1990s, a significant sea change took place, as the All-Ireland was claimed by an Ulster team in four consecutive years (1991–94). For the next 25 years Ulster produced more All-Ireland winning teams than any other province. The introduction of the qualifier system (commonly known as the "back door") in 2001 enabled Galway to reach and win
that year's final despite losing to Roscommon in the Connacht semi-finals; a further six teams have since claimed the All-Ireland after coming through the qualifiers. Between 2011 and 2023 All Ireland champions won their Province. But in 2023 became a round robin system. ({Tyrone in 2005 and 2008, Kerry in 2006 and 2009, Cork in 2010} and Armagh in 2024 under a Round Robin system). The
2003 final between Tyrone and Armagh was the first to be contested by two teams from the same province. The duration of certain championship matches increased from 60 to 80 minutes during the 1970s. They were settled at 70 minutes after five seasons of this in 1975. This applied only to the provincial finals, All-Ireland semi-finals and finals. ==Finals==