The Dublin Senior Hurling Championship () is an annual hurling competition organised by the Dublin County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) since 1887 for the top hurling clubs in County Dublin, Ireland.
Sixteen clubs compete. Initially the teams are divided into four groups of four with the group matches being played from April to May with a break to accommodate the All-Ireland Championship and resume during August or September. The group stage is followed by a knock-out phase which takes place during the months of October and November.
Sponsored by Go-Ahead, it is therefore officially known as the Go-Ahead Dublin Senior Hurling Championship.
Since the establishment of the Dublin Senior Hurling Championship in 1887, a total of 26 clubs have won the tournament. Faughs have been the most successful club having won 31 titles.
History
Origins
The game of hurling has been played in Dublin long since before the foundation of the Dublin Senior Hurling Championship and the GAA. According to Irish historian James Ware (1594–1666), it was customary in the 13th century for the inhabitants of Dublin to organise hurling matches on festive days. On Easter Monday 1209, hundreds of Dublin citizens left the safety of the city walls and descended on the woods near Cullenswood, now Ranelagh, for a hurling match. Tragically, the hurlers and spectators were ambushed by rival clans who had come down from the Wicklow Mountains. Over three hundred Dubliners (including women and children) were slaughtered in the 1209 Cullenswood massacre. This day was commemorated by the citizens of Dublin for many centuries afterwards and became known as Black Monday.
Other early written accounts of hurling matches in Dublin include several 18th century newspaper reports. According to these reports, the most popular hurling venues in Dublin at that time were the Crumlin Commons, Irishtown Green and Phoenix Park. One such account recalls a match which took place on the Crumlin Commons in May 1748, where a selection of hurlers from Leinster defeated 20 hurlers from Munster. In a re-match a month later, the Leinster hurlers proved their worth by beating the Munster selection for a second time. Another report describes a hurling match which took place on Irishtown Green in 1757. The game was held between married men and bachelors for a wager of 50 guineas a side. The tradition of a 'married versus singles' hurling match is still staged by many Dublin hurling clubs on St. Stephen's Day. In 1778, police officers dispersed a crowd on Summerhill that had assembled in the fields there every Sunday during the summer for the purpose of playing football and hurling. It is believed that this was the exact spot where Croke Park now stands. According to the Freeman's Journal, in August of 1779, there was a bet between the penny boys of Smithfield, who had arranged a bull bait for the Fifteen Acres, that they would draw a bigger crowd than "the hurlers of the Phoenix Park". An account from 1792 describes a hurling match which took place in Phoenix Park in front of what was described as a vast concourse of spectators. The report claims that the game had to be abandoned before full-time because the spectators forced their way onto the playing ground.