Gaelic Football Trivia
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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?
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali stopped Lewis in the eleventh round; the same ground had hosted the American promoter Tex Austin's week-long rodeo in 1924.
Q 04Which two sports did the GAA admit to Croke Park by relaxing Rule 42 in April 2005?
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 05Fears rooted in Bloody Sunday 1920 surrounded the playing of which anthem at Croke Park in February 2007?
God Save the Queen
God Save the Queen was played before Ireland met England on the ground where British forces had shot dead 14 people at a football match; Ireland then won 43–13.
Q 06Which Clare-born teacher called the meeting in Hayes' Hotel 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, was modelled on which early medieval chalice?
Ardagh Chalice
The Ardagh Chalice, an eighth-century church treasure dug up in a Limerick potato field in 1868, was the model, so Gaelic football's biggest prize is a copy of an altar cup.
Q 08Kerry claimed a record-extending 39th All-Ireland football title in 2025 by beating which county in the final?
Donegal
Donegal never led in a 1–26 to 0–19 defeat, as a Kerry side written off in midsummer kicked five two-point scores to their opponents' none.
Q 09Which manager, appointed in December 2019, led Dublin to a sixth straight All-Ireland title in 2020?
Dessie Farrell
Dessie Farrell's first title came six days before Christmas 2020, in a championship the pandemic had pushed back to the end of the year.
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, twelve years older than the GAA itself, dropped 'Boys' from its name in 2004 once girls were allowed to join.
Q 11Croke Park's Hill 16 terrace was first named Hill 60, after a 1915 battle in which First World War campaign?
Gallipoli
Gallipoli's Hill 60 cost Irish regiments dearly, and GAA leaders later renamed the terrace for the 1916 Rising rather than keep the name of a British Army battle.
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 British forces fired on the crowd; Hogan was the only player among the 14 killed, and the stand built in 1924 was named for him.
Q 13Which champion athlete became the GAA's first president at its founding meeting in 1884?
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 the referee looks for; a fisted ball may go over the bar for a point, but a player in possession may not hand-pass it into the net.
Q 22The 'mark', introduced across Gaelic football in 2017, rewards a clean catch from which restart?
A kick-out
A kick-out caught cleanly on or past the 45-metre line earned a free kick or the option to play on, and in 2020 an 'advanced mark' extended the reward to long kicks caught near goal.
Q 23As of 2026, which insurer gives its name to Gaelic football's National League?
Allianz
Maurice Davin, Ireland's foremost athlete, lost the presidency in the GAA's 1887 split, only to be re-elected within months to hold the association together.
Q 14Which county was the first to receive the Sam Maguire Cup, in 1928?
Kildare
Kildare won that 1928 final by a single point, and, as of 2026, the Lilywhites have never lifted the cup again.
Q 15Which President of Ireland did the GAA remove as patron for attending a 'foreign game'?
Douglas Hyde
Douglas Hyde, the Gaelic League's first president, was dropped in December 1938 for attending Ireland v Poland at Dalymount Park as head of state; the Ban stood until 1971.
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, a former Air Corps pilot who won six All-Irelands as Dublin manager, had the new rules tried out in interprovincial games at Croke Park before congress voted on them.
Q 18Under GAA rules in force since January 2020, which card sends a footballer to the sin bin for ten minutes?
Black card
Black card: the player may come back only at a break in play and with the referee's permission, and a black on top of a yellow means a red.
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 a side with 0–21 beats one with 4–8 by a single point.
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's league was where the 2025 rule changes, two-point scores among them, got their first competitive test.
Q 24Which county, with a record 40 Ulster football titles by 2026, last lifted the Sam Maguire Cup in 1952?
Cavan
Cavan won all five of their All-Irelands between 1933 and 1952, and their 40th Ulster title, in 2020, was only their second since 1969.
Q 25Which county in 2001 became the first to win the All-Ireland football title through the qualifiers, the 'back door'?
Galway
Galway, beaten in Connacht that summer, went into the final as underdogs and won 0–17 to 0–8 against a Meath side that had routed Kerry three weeks earlier.
Q 26Which technology, new to Croke Park in 2013, first ruled that an Offaly player's point attempt had gone wide?
Hawk-Eye
Hawk-Eye made that first call in a Leinster quarter-final on 1 June 2013; that August a setting left on football made it rule a good Limerick hurling point wide, and its makers apologised.
Q 27Which second-tier All-Ireland football competition was first won by Westmeath in 2022?
Tailteann Cup
The Tailteann Cup, named after the ancient Tailteann Games, was due to start in 2020, but the pandemic held it back until 2022.
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 is shaped like a mether, an old Irish drinking vessel, with a handle for each of the four provinces; 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 for Ireland in the three previous series, died in his sleep of an undetected heart condition in March 2004, aged 24.
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, recruited through a newspaper advertisement, cost Melbourne a 1987 Grand Final place by running across the mark, then played 244 games in a row.