The Gaelic Games Council of Britain (GGCB) is the national governing body for Gaelic games in England, Scotland and Wales, and is the only provincial Gaelic games council outside the island of Ireland. The council is made up of the British Provincial Council of the Gaelic Athletic Association, also known as Britain GAA, the British Provincial Council of the Ladies Gaelic Football Association, also known as Britain LGFA, and the British Board of the Camogie Association. The GGCB was recognised by the United Kingdom government as the official national governing body for Gaelic games in 2026.
The British Council is responsible for the seven county boards of Great Britain: Gloucestershire, Hertfordshire, Lancashire, London, Scotland, Warwickshire and Yorkshire. The counties cover wider areas than their names suggest, with the county boards covering the entirety of Great Britain when combined. The most popular sport is Gaelic football and some clubs are dedicated only to that sport.
While the GGCB runs its own competitions, the 'All-Britains', a number of British counties play in the Irish competitions.
History The Gaelic Athletic Association was founded in Thurles in 1884, with the main goal of the preservation and cultivation of Irish national sport. The late 19th century was a period in which the Home Rule movement was gaining traction in Ireland, and Gaelic games were seen as an outward expression of Irish cultural and national pride, and a rejection of ‘English’ games, such as association football and rugby.
Irish migration in the late 19th and early 20th century brought the Gaelic games over to Britain for the first time. Britain's first formal club was founded in Wallsend in 1885, and by 1901, clubs had been established in London, Glasgow, Manchester, and Liverpool. County boards were founded in London and Glasgow in 1896 and 1903 respectively, aligning themselves directly with the GAA in Ireland, and in 1901, London won the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, the only team outside of Ireland to do so. Many significant figures in both GAA and Irish history played in London during this early period, including Sam Maguire, Michael Collins, and Liam MacCarthy.
By the 1910s, football and hurling were being played all over Britain, with the boards for London, Liverpool, and Glasgow all playing against Irish counties at various levels and clubs emerging in Wales, Lanarkshire, and Warwickshire. In 1926, the GAA Central Council in Dublin took steps to formalise the administration of Gaelic games in Britain through the establishment of the Provincial Council. London and Liverpool were the 2 initial areas taking their places on the Council in 1927, with the Liverpool County Board changing its name to Lancashire and District in 1934. By 1957, the county boards of Derby, Gloucester, Lancashire, London, Warwickshire, and Yorkshire were active in England, with Wales and Scotland also continuing to develop. Hertfordshire became affiliated in 1960, and the Derby teams moved under the auspices of Warwickshire in 1970. Today, the seven county boards continue to compete along the boundaries established in 1957, with some teams having to compete in alternative county leagues due to lack of opponents locally (as can be seen with the Lancashire hurling league).
The Ladies' Gaelic Football Association was founded in 1974, and the first British ladies' teams were formed in London in 1976. By the late 1980s, county boards had been established in both London and the Pennine region (combining Lancashire and Yorkshire), and in 1989, Britain LGFA was officially formed as a province. The county boards of Warwickshire, Scotland, and Gloucestershire-Hertfordshire (Glo-Herts) were formed and officially affiliated in 1994, 2013, and 2015 respectively, with Gloucestershire and Hertfordshire splitting into separate ladies' counties in 2024.
While camogie has been played casually in Britain since the 1950s, it was the mid-1980s before official clubs were formed, including Erin go Bragh in Birmingham, and Tara, Croydon, and Newham Gaels in London. Camogie remains one of the least played of the Gaelic games in Great Britain; however, there is currently a senior and intermediate league and championship, with clubs operating in Birmingham, Glasgow, Liverpool, London, and Manchester. There is currently no inter-county camogie fixtures, but there is plans for a London team to be formed in the near future.
Gaelic handball has a long history in Britain, with handball historians tracing the game in Scotland to as early as the fifteenth century, while Irish communities in Britain helped maintain and develop the sport during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Britain has played a notable role in the development of the sport outside Ireland, with London hosted the All-Ireland Senior Handball Finals in 1990, becoming one of the few locations outside Ireland to stage an All-Ireland final. Britain GAA are the national governing body for all codes of handball (including one-wall handball), with Britain entering a team in the World Handball Championships for the first time in 1984. In 2024, more than 500 competitive handball matches were reported across Britain, with players competing in domestic, Irish and World Championship events, and efforts have been made to expand and develop the sport, including targeted development initiatives in Scotland and plans for tournaments, coaching events and the creation of a wider British handball championship structure.
Despite being traditionally considered a Gaelic game, shinty in Scotland is organised by the Camanachd Association and is not affiliated by the GGCB. Composite rules shinty-hurling games have occurred, both in Britain and between Scotland and Ireland, but these tend to be organised by the GAA and the Camanachd Association directly.
Counties
County boardGaeilgeNicknameYear establishedCounty ground GloucestershireContae Gloucester'Glos'Pontcanna Fields, Cardiff HertfordshireContae Hertford'Herts'Radlett Road, Watford LancashireLancasír'The Red Rose County'Old Bedians, Didsbury LondonLondain'The Exiles'McGovern Park, Ruislip ScotlandAlbain'Alba'Clydebank Sports Hub, Clydebank WarwickshireContae Warwick'Warks'Páirc na hÉireann, Solihull YorkshireSír Eabhrac'God's Own Country'Páirc Beeston, Leeds
Men's Gaelic football Overview of competitions
County boardCountyClub (provincial)Club (county)SeniorJuniorSeniorIntermediateSeniorIntermediateJuniorGloucestershireAll-Britain Football Championship / All-Ireland Junior Football ChampionshipAll-Britain Club Football ChampionshipGloucestershire Senior Football ChampionshipHertfordshireHertfordshire Senior Football ChampionshipLancashireLancashire Senior Football ChampionshipLancashire Junior Football ChampionshipLondonNational Football League / Connacht Senior Football Championship / All-Ireland Senior Football Championship (or Tailteann Cup)Connacht Senior Club Football ChampionshipAll-Britain Club Football ChampionshipLondon Senior Football Championship London Intermediate Football Championship London Junior Football Championship ScotlandAll-Britain Club Football ChampionshipScottish Senior Football ChampionshipScottish Intermediate Football ChampionshipWarwickshireWarwickshire Senior Football ChampionshipWarwickshire Intermediate Football ChampionshipYorkshireYorkshire Senior Football Championship
Inter-county level London compete in Division 4 of the National Football League, as well as the Connacht Senior Football Championship. Despite having never won the Connacht SFC, they did reach the final in 2013 but were beaten by Mayo. In addition, while London were runners-up in the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship 5 times between 1900 and 1910, they have never won the competition, with no other British county team having ever entered the competition. Since 2022, London have qualified for the Tailteann Cup.
All seven counties compete in the All-Britain Football Championship; a junior-level competition; with London sending a 'home-grown' team of only players from the county originally. The winner of the All-Britain qualifies for the All-Ireland Junior Football Championship, however, a competition restructure by the GAA in 2022, a restructure in 2022 saw the All-Ireland JFC cease to be a tournament played between the junior teams of the 32 counties. Since the 2022 season, the All-Ireland JFC is contested between the winner and runner-up of the All-Britain, Kilkenny (who only have a junior-level county team), and a home-grown New York team (with USGAA added in 2024). This means that while British counties can win an All-Ireland, they can no longer compete against the 31 counties with senior county teams in any competitive matches (except London).
All seven counties have won at least one All-Britain, with Scotland becoming the last team to do so in 2014. Since 2022, London and Warwickshire have dominated the competition, competing in every final.
All-Britain Football Championship roll of honour Source:
1928 London 1929 London 1930 London 1931 London 1932 London 1933 London 1934 London 1935 London 1936 unknown 1937 London 1938 London 1939 not played 1940 not played 1941 not played 1942 not played 1943 not played 1944 not played 1945 not played 1946 Warwickshire 1947 London 1948 London 1949 Lancashire 1950 London 1951 Warwickshire 1952 London 1953 Lancashire 1954 London 1955 Warwickshire 1956 London 1957 Warwickshire 1958 Lancashire 1959 London 1960 London 1961 Yorkshire 1962 London 1963 Lancashire 1964 London 1965 Hertfordshire 1966 London 1967 London 1968 London 1969 London 1970 London 1971 London 1972 Hertfordshire 1973 London 1974 London 1975 London 1976 Warwickshire 1977 unknown 1978 Warwickshire 1979 Warwickshire 1980 Warwickshire 1981 unknown 1982 London 1983 Yorkshire 1984 Warwickshire 1985 Warwickshire 1986 London 1987 Warwickshire 1988 London 1989 Warwickshire 1990 Warwickshire 1991 London 1992 London 1993 Lancashire 1994 Lancashire 1995 London 1996 Yorkshire 1997 Warwickshire 1998 Warwickshire 1999 Warwickshire 2000 Hertfordshire 2001 Yorkshire 2002 Lancashire 2003 Warwickshire 2004 Lancashire 2005 London 2006 Warwickshire 2007 London 2008 Gloucestershire 2009 London 2010 Lancashire 2011 Lancashire 2012 Lancashire 2013 Lancashire 2014 Scotland 2015 Kilkenny 2016 Lancashire 2017 Kilkenny 2018 Kilkenny 2019 Scotland 2020 not played 2021 Warwickshire 2022 London 2023 Warwickshire 2024 London 2025 London 2026 London
All-Britain Football Championship wins by county +CountyWins London42 Warwickshire20 Lancashire13 Yorkshire4 Hertfordshire3 Kilkenny3 Scotland2 Gloucestershire1
Club level
The All-Britain Club Football Championship is a junior-level competition contested by the Gloucestershire, Hertfordshire, Warwickshire, and Yorkshire county champions, the Lancashire and Scotland senior champions, and the London intermediate champions. From the inception of the All-Ireland Senior Club Football Championship in 1974 up until 2004, the winner of the All-Britain entered the quarter-finals of the senior competition. However, with the creation of the intermediate and junior All-Ireland competitions in the 2004-05 season, the British champions began competing in the All-Ireland Junior Club Football Championship from the 2005-06 season onwards. The 2004-05 reshuffle also saw the London Senior Football Championship winners go straight into the quarter-finals of the senior All-Ireland competition, before moving into the Connacht Senior Club Football Championship in 2018.