The 1939 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship was the 53rd staging of Ireland's premier Gaelic football knock-out competition. Galway entered the championship as defending champions; however, they were beaten by Mayo in the Connacht final. Kerry were the winners.

Format

Provincial Championships format changes

Leinster Championship format change 2 Preliminary rounds instead of usual 1. Involved were Longford, Carlow, Westmeath & Wicklow of course the winners qualified for a quarterfinal to meet the stronger teams.

Munster Championship format change

In 1939 Kerry were given a bye to the Munster final, preliminary round was just a lone match between Cork vs Waterford, the winners of the game played in the quarterfinals along with Tipperary, Limerick and Clare, the winners of the game played in a lone Semifinal. The format was previously used in 1933 and was used again in 1941.

All Ireland semifinals system

The All-Ireland Senior Football Championship was run on a provincial basis as usual in every 3rd year in rotation, with the four winners from Connacht, Leinster, Munster and Ulster advancing to the All-Ireland semi-finals. The draw for these games was as follows: Munster V. Connacht Ulster V. Leinster

Provincial championships

Connacht Senior Football Championship

Leinster Senior Football Championship

Munster Senior Football Championship

Ulster Senior Football Championship

All-Ireland Senior Football Championship

Championship statistics

Miscellaneous

Meath win their second Leinster Title first since 1895. Kerry are now one behind Dublin with All Ireland titles. The Ulster Final was originally scheduled for St. Mary's Park, Castleblaney, however it had to be abandoned when spectators encroached onto the pitch, with Cavan leading by two points. The replay was fixed for Croke Park the following week as a double-header of the All-Ireland semi-final between Kerry and Mayo.Frontier Sentinel – Saturday 12 August 1939 "Central Council have fixed the replay for Croke Park to-morrow, so that Armagh and Cavan will appear on the same bill as Kerry and Mayo. https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/BL/0003475/19390812/243/0010 There were a number of first-time championship meetings; There were 2 first time championship meetings in the All Ireland Series at first in the semifinal stage a first meeting between Meath vs Cavan while the second was All Ireland final was the first championship meeting of Kerry vs Meath.

References