Clubs Clubs contest the
Louth Senior Football Championship. That competition's most successful club is
Newtown Blues, with 23 titles.
Dundalk Young Irelands is the county's oldest
GAA club. The club represented Louth in the
first All-Ireland Football final which was played at Beech Hill on 29 April 1888 against
Limerick Commercials.
County team The earliest recorded inter-county football match took place in 1712 when Louth faced Meath at
Slane. A fragment of a poem from 1806 records a football match between Louth and Fermanagh at
Inniskeen, Co Monaghan. When Louth GAA sent the team into training in
Dundalk for the 1913 Croke Memorial
replay under a
soccer trainer from
Belfast, the move caused more than a ripple through the Association. For thirty years full-time training in bursts of a week or so before a big match were common. After that the two or three times a week gatherings became more popular. Between 1945 and 1953 Louth and
Meath met 13 times. The crowds got bigger and bigger each time as they played draw after draw in the Championship. The attendance of 42,858 at a thrilling 1951 replay remained a record for a provincial match other than a final for forty years until the four match series between Meath and
Dublin in 1991. The
rivalry with Meath has never fizzled out, as witnessed by a stirring Leinster SFC semi-final in 1998. Nor has controversy, as witnessed by
Graham Geraghty's "wide" 45th minute point. In 1957 showband star
Dermot O'Brien was late for the All-Ireland SFC final and joined the team when the parade was completed. Prior to the game O'Brien had captained the side in the semi-final success, when the regular captain Patsy Coleman had been injured very early in the season, leaving O'Brien to resume his previous role as captain. Coleman today still has the match ball. O'Brien played a key role as Louth beat
Cork with the help of a goal from Sean Cunningham with five minutes to go. As both Cork and Louth wear Red and White, on that day Louth wore the green of Leinster, while Cork wore the blue of Munster. Dermot O'Brien died on 22 May 2007. On 27 June 2010, Louth reached their first Leinster SFC final in 50 years. During
the decider, which was played on 11 July that year, anger and controversy erupted when, during the 74th minute of the match against Meath, a goal was awarded by the
referee after brief consultation with only one of the match umpires (although close circuit camera evidence shown on
RTÉ Two's coverage of the game proved that the ball was carried over the line by a Meath player). However, Meath received the
2010 Leinster Title and the cup. More on that in the main article linked above.In 2025 Louth beat Meath to win the Leinster championship for the first time in 68 years with a score line of 3-14 to 1-18. ==Hurling==