Leinster Senior League (association football)

History

Foundation

Within a few seasons of the Leinster Football Association having been formed in 1892, the Leinster Senior League was established. Ciarán Priestley highlights a printed notice in the 4 September 2010 edition of The Irish Times. Under the headline "Leinster Football League" there is a report of "a general meeting of the league... held the other evening at 27 D'Olier Street". Priestley also lists Bohemians, Britannia, Dublin University, Leinster Nomads, Phoenix and Montpelier as participants in the first season. The Leinster Senior League website states it was established in 1896. However other sources suggest the league started a little later and was first played for in 1897–98 and that an unidentified British Army regimental team were the inaugural winners while Shelbourne were runners up.

Modern era

The league was re-organised for the 1988–89 season, with Division 1 and Division 1A replaced by the Senior Division and Division 1 respectively.

League pyramid

The Leinster Senior Football League (LSL) has four intermediate divisions – Senior, Senior 1, 1A and 1B – with promotion and relegation between them. Below this, the LSL also runs junior ranks – played on a Sunday for a club's first team, as well as Saturday divisions for a club's a second team.

As of November 2024, there is no promotion or relegation system in place between the League of Ireland First Division (Level 2 of the national league system) and the intermediate provincial leagues (Level 3 of the system), which includes Leinster. However, Leinster junior clubs can achieve promotion up to the intermediate ranks via promotion from the highest junior league (Major Sunday) to the lowest intermediate league (Senior 1B).

Senior divisions

The senior divisions of the Leinster Senior League are played on Sundays.

Junior leagues

Cup competitions

The Charlie Cahill Cup is contested by the top two divisions in the Leinster Senior League. The competition is named after the league’s former chairman, who stepped down in 2009 and was also president of the Leinster Football Association (LFA) and the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) during his career as a legislator. The first Cahill Cup was held in the 1992–93 season and was won by Cherry Orchard.

The Noel Ryan Cup is contested by the top four teams from each of the league's four Intermediate divisions. Named after one of the founders of Crumlin United, the inaugural cup was held in 2010 and was won by Wayside Celtic.

The Metropolitan Cup is contested by Leinster Senior League teams with the competition first held in 1906. Cherry Orchard won the competition in the 1993–94 season.

Representative team

A Leinster Senior League representative team competes in the FAI Intermediate Interprovincial Tournament against teams representing the Ulster Senior League, the Munster Senior League and Connacht.

Notes

• This was possibly Sherwood Foresters who were the 1896-97 IFA Cup runners-up, losing to Cliftonville in the final. They were based in the Curragh, County Kildare.

References

References

1. Stafford, Tom. (21 November 2024). "The Irish Football Pyramid – or lack of (part 4 - Leinster)".
2. "Competitions".
3. "Leinster Senior Football League".
4. "Comortais Competition Management".
5. [http://lsl.ie/ Leinster Senior League]
6. [http://dublincitypubliclibraries.com/story/bohemian-football-club-transcript Ciarán Priestley: ''The Bohemian Football Club: The Enduring Legacy of an Idle Youth''] {{webarchive. link. (4 October 2015)
7. (2019-10-29). "Leinster Senior Football League {{!}} Division 1 1980-1988".
8. (2019-10-22). "Leinster Senior League – Eirball.ie – Gridiron Football in Ireland Statistics Archive".
9. Stafford, Tom. (21 Nov 2024). "The Irish Football Pyramid – or lack of (part 1 - Munster)".
10. "Leinster Senior League Senior 1 Sunday".
11. "Leinster Senior League Senior 1A Sunday".
12. "Leinster Senior League: Senior 1B Sunday".
13. "Leinster Senior League: Major Sunday".
14. "Leinster Senior League: Major 1 Sunday – Soccer".
15. "Leinster Senior League: Premier Sunday – Soccer".
16. "Amateur Football League". www.amateurfootballleague.com.
17. "Combined Counties Football League". ccfl.ie.
18. "United Churches Football League". www.ucfl.ie.
19. "Affiliated Leagues – LFA". www.leinsterfa.ie.
20. "LSL Competitions".
21. (2003-10-02). "Glebe do league and cup double over Bluebell".
22. (2023-05-22). "Ukek strikes for Bluebell to land Charlie Cahill Cup".
23. (19 February 2015). "FAI mourns Charles Cahill".
24. (2009-04-27). "Cahill final to give Charlie a real rousing 'send-off'".
25. "CHERRY ORCHARD FC EST 1957 {{!}} Our Club Story - OUR HISTORY".
26. Feery, Niall. (2009-11-30). "Crumlin donate cup to honour Noel Ryan".
27. (2010-05-31). "Wayside have the Will to see off Crumlin in 'Ryan'".
28. (21 December 2019). "One of Crumlin United's founder members Noel Ryan". Crumlin United Football Club.
29. Feery, Niall. (15 November 2008). "'Orchard' ripe for the picking".
30. "League Table 2016 FAI Intermediate Interprovincial Tournament". uslfootball.com.
31. [https://www.rsssf.org/tablesn/nilcuphist.html IFA Cup], [[Rsssf]]
32. [https://www.rsssf.org/miscellaneous/crossborder.html ''Where's My Country?''], [[Rsssf]]