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50 free Gaelic Football trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Gaelic football is the most-watched sport in Ireland, yet it began in a hotel billiard room in 1884 and is still played by amateurs in front of crowds of 80,000. Its rules puzzle outsiders: a ball you may carry but not for long, a bounce you cannot repeat, a scoreline written with a dash, and a trophy copied from a museum treasure. The fifty questions cover the founding of the GAA, the rules and the 2025 changes, the All-Ireland and its provincial roads, county colours and famous wins, the players and managers who defined eras, the ladies' game, the International Rules series with Australia and the stadium on Jones' Road. Each stem carries a clue for anyone who does not know the answer cold. It suits a pub quiz, a club fundraiser or a long drive to a match, and every answer comes with a short explanation so the arguments can be settled on the spot. Play it on your phone with instant scoring, or print the sheet for the table.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which county ended a 75-year wait for the Sam Maguire Cup by beating Kerry in the 2026 All-Ireland final?
Mayo
Mayo's 1–20 to 1–17 win at Croke Park on 26 July 2026 was the county's first All-Ireland since 1951, and it came only after every member of that 1951 team had died.
Q 02Which city's Polo Grounds hosted the 1947 All-Ireland football final, the only one ever played outside Ireland?
New York
New York was chosen to mark the centenary of the Great Famine that had sent so many Irish emigrants there; the winners flew in via the Azores while the losers came by ocean liner.
Q 03Which boxer fought Al 'Blue' Lewis at Croke Park in July 1972, an event remembered in the name of a tunnel there?
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali's fight with Al Lewis gave the Ali tunnel its name; the same ground had staged Ireland's first professional rodeo, promoted by Tex Austin, back in 1924.
Q 04Which two sports did the GAA admit to Croke Park by relaxing Rule 42 in April 2005, while Lansdowne Road was rebuilt?
Rugby and soccer
Rugby and soccer had been barred from GAA grounds as 'garrison games'; Croke Park then hosted Ireland's home internationals in both codes from 2007 to 2010 while the Aviva Stadium was built.
Q 05Which anthem drew concern when Ireland hosted England at Croke Park on 24 February 2007, because of Bloody Sunday 1920?
God Save the Queen
God Save the Queen was sung at a ground where, on 21 November 1920, British forces had fired on the crowd at a football match and killed 14 people.
Q 06Which Clare-born teacher called the meeting in Hayes' Hotel, Thurles, on 1 November 1884 that founded the GAA?
Michael Cusack
Michael Cusack became the new body's first secretary and is thought to be part of the model for the bigoted 'Citizen' in James Joyce's Ulysses; Croke Park's Cusack Stand carries his name.
Q 07The Sam Maguire Cup, first presented in 1928, is a faithful model of which ninth-century treasure?
Ardagh Chalice
The Ardagh Chalice was the template for a silver cup that dents easily; the 1928 original is retired to the GAA Museum at Croke Park and a silversmith's replica is the trophy handed over today.
Q 08How many All-Ireland senior football titles had Kerry won after their 2025 triumph, more than any other county?
39
39 titles is the record, the first coming in 1903 and at least two in every decade from the 1900s to the 1980s; the Kingdom also holds the most National League (24) and Munster (86) titles.
Q 09Which former Dublin captain, appointed in December 2019, led the county to a sixth straight All-Ireland in 2020?
Dessie Farrell
Dessie Farrell took over a team that had just completed the first five-in-a-row, and the 2020 title made Dublin's six straight the longest run in either football or hurling.
Q 10Which ensemble, formed in 1872 at a Dublin industrial school, leads the teams' pre-match parade at All-Ireland finals?
Artane Band
The Artane Band dropped 'Boys' from its name in 2004, once girls had been admitted; it first performed in public in 1874 for the visiting Prince of Wales.
Q 11The Croke Park terrace now called Hill 16 was first named Hill 60, after a battle in which First World War campaign?
Gallipoli
Gallipoli's Hill 60 was fought over by Irish regiments in August 1915, and the terrace was later renamed for the 1916 Rising; the tale that it was built from the rubble of the GPO is a myth.
Q 12Michael Hogan, shot dead at Croke Park on 21 November 1920 and honoured by a stand there, played for which county?
Tipperary
Tipperary were playing Dublin in a challenge match when police fired on the crowd; Hogan was the only player among the 14 killed, and the stand built in 1924 was named for him.
Q 13Who became the GAA's first president in 1884, when Parnell, Davitt and Archbishop Croke were asked to be patrons?
Maurice Davin
Q 21What must a hand pass in Gaelic football show, to distinguish it from an illegal throw?
A definite striking action
A definite striking action with the open hand or fist is what separates a hand pass from a throw, which is a foul; the fist pass uses the side of the closed fist and the knuckle of the thumb.
Q 22The 'mark', introduced across Gaelic football in 2017 from Australian rules, rewards a clean catch from which restart?
A kick-out
A kick-out caught cleanly on or past the 45-metre line earns a free kick or the option to play on; the Australian version needs only a 15-metre kick, and further versions of the mark followed in 2020.
Q 23Which insurer gives its name to the National Football League, the inter-county competition first held in 1925–26?
Maurice Davin was elected president at the same meeting that appointed three secretaries; the hotel where it happened hosted the founding of the ladies' association ninety years later.
Q 14Which county was the first to receive the Sam Maguire Cup, in 1928, and has not won an All-Ireland since?
Kildare
Kildare won the 1928 final by a single point; the Lilywhites had also been the first county to abandon the original 21-man teams, fielding 16 for a period.
Q 15In what year did the GAA abolish Rule 27, 'The Ban' on members playing or even watching non-Gaelic games?
1971
1971 ended a ban dating from 1901; a separate Rule 21, barring members of the British forces from joining, survived until a special congress in November 2001.
Q 16Since 2025, a score kicked from beyond the 40-metre arc is worth two points and signalled by a flag of which colour?
Orange
Orange joined the umpires' white and green flags when the Football Review Committee's changes came in; a Special Congress made them permanent in October 2025.
Q 17Which former Dublin manager chaired the Football Review Committee whose proposals became the 2025 rule changes?
Jim Gavin
Jim Gavin had won six All-Irelands with Dublin between 2013 and 2019 before leading the FRC, whose package a special congress approved in November 2024.
Q 18Since January 2020, a black card in Gaelic football sends the offender to the sin bin for how many minutes?
Ten
Ten minutes off the field is the penalty, and a second black card in the same match, or a black card on top of a yellow, means a red card.
Q 19In a Gaelic football scoreline written 1–20 to 1–17, what does the figure before each dash count?
Goals
Goals come first and are worth three points each, so 0–21 beats 4–8 by a single point; the total is read aloud as 'one twenty', never as 23.
Q 20Which Gaelic football skill, kicking the ball back up into the hands, may be repeated, unlike a bounce?
Solo
Solo, or soloing, is what lets a player run on, since going five steps without releasing, bouncing or soloing the ball is a technical foul; bouncing twice in a row is a foul too.
Allianz
Allianz's league ranks second only to the championship in prestige, and its winners receive the New Ireland Cup, first presented to Kerry in 1928–29.
Q 24Which county has won the Ulster football championship a record 40 times yet last lifted the Sam Maguire Cup in 1952?
Cavan
Cavan's five All-Irelands include the 1947 final played abroad; the Ulster champions receive the Anglo-Celt Cup, presented in 1925 by the editor of the Cavan newspaper of that name.
Q 25Which county in 2001 became the first to win the All-Ireland football title through the qualifiers, the 'back door'?
Galway
Galway's 2001 win was the first by a county that had lost in its own province that year; that title and the 1998 one both came under manager John O'Mahony.
Q 26Which technology, new to Croke Park in 2013, first ruled that an Offaly substitute's point attempt had gone wide?
Hawk-Eye
Hawk-Eye's first ruling came in a qualifier, and 2013 also brought the championship's first Friday-night game, Carlow against Laois.
Q 27Which second-tier All-Ireland competition, first won by Westmeath in 2022, takes its name from ancient Irish games?
Tailteann Cup
The Tailteann Cup was meant to start in 2020 but the pandemic delayed it; it is for Division 3 and 4 counties that do not reach a provincial final, and its first five editions, to 2026, went to five different counties.
Q 28Which trophy, offered in 1911 by a UCD zoology professor, is the top prize in Irish university Gaelic football?
Sigerson Cup
The Sigerson Cup was presented at the first tournament dinner in Dublin's Gresham Hotel, and UCC were the first winners; the Fitzgibbon Cup is its hurling equivalent.
Q 29The International Rules cup contested by Ireland and Australia since 2004 is named after which Tyrone captain?
Cormac McAnallen
Cormac McAnallen, who had played in the previous three series, died of a heart condition in 2004 aged 24; Australia won the 2017 series, the last played before a long hiatus.
Q 30Which Dublin minor All-Ireland winner of 1984 went on to win the AFL's Brownlow Medal with Melbourne in 1991?
Jim Stynes
Jim Stynes received the Medal of the Order of Australia and a place in Melbourne's Team of the Century, and the medal for the best Australian in each International Rules series, awarded since 1998, bears his name.