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Sligo

Sport:	Hurling
Irish:	Sligeach
Manager:	Stephen Sheil
Home venue(s):	Markievicz Park, Sligo
Recent competitive record
Current All-Ireland status:	Christy Ring Cup
Last championship title:	2019 Nicky Rackard Cup
Current NHL Division:	3A
First colours Second colours

The Sligo county hurling team represents Sligo in hurling and is governed by Sligo GAA, the county board of the Gaelic Athletic Association.^[1] The team competes in the Christy Ring Cup and the National Hurling League. It formerly competed in the abolished Connacht Senior Hurling Championship, finishing as runner-up in 1900 and 1906.

Sligo's home ground is Markievicz Park, Sligo. The team's manager is Stephen Sheil.

The team has never won the Connacht Senior Championship, the All-Ireland Senior Championship or the National League.

History

Sligo is traditionally a weak team at senior level. Despite this, the hurlers have attained noticeably more success than their football counterparts, with the county's most notable early achievement being an appearance in the 1968 All-Ireland Junior Hurling Championship final.^[clarify]

Sligo won the All-Ireland Minor 'C' Hurling Championship in August 1986, defeating Tyrone by four points at Croke Park.

Sligo won the 2005 National Hurling League Division 3 title.

Sligo, under the management of Mickey Galvin, won its first All-Ireland hurling title at senior level by defeating Louth in the 2008 Nicky Rackard Cup Final.^[2] The team did not achieve promotion however, losing a play-off to Roscommon.

The under-16 team won the 2012 All-Ireland "C" hurling title by defeating Tyrone at the Monaghan Centre of Excellence.

2018 had both senior and minor teams bring national silverware back to the Land of the Shells. Sligo won a senior All-Ireland title for the first time since 2008. The men, jointly managed by Daithí Hand and Darragh Cox in their first senior hurling management role, defeated Lancashire in the 2018 Lory Meagher Cup final, with a last-minute Kevin Gilmartin goal (his third of the game) sealing the victory.^[3][4] Benny Kenny's under-17 squad, a few weeks later, defeated Donegal to become All-Ireland Celtic Challenge Cup Champions in the Michael Feery Cup, also defeating Mayo, Roscommon and others along the way.

The county team won a second consecutive senior title in 2019 under Hand, Peter Galvin and coach Colum O'Meara. Having been promoted to the Nicky Rackard Cup, the team topped Group 2, eliminating favourite Mayo, in a drawn game after beating Tyrone and Louth in previous games.^{[citation needed]}

Following on from a 2–21 to 2–17 victory over Warwickshire at Celtic Park, Sligo advanced to the 2019 Nicky Rackard Cup final at Croke Park.^{[citation needed]}

Facing a heavily tipped^{[citation needed]} Armagh side, Sligo became champions with a Conor Griffin point, a Gerard O'Kelly-Lynch goal and a 73rd-minute point by young substitute Kieran Prior. The scoreline at the game's conclusion was 2–14 to 2–13; though the team was four points behind Armagh as the game entered injury-time, the two lates points and the goal meant Sligo secured a one-point victory.^[5] James Weir, at 19 years of age and the youngest ever All-Ireland winning captain,^{[citation needed]} lifted aloft the Nicky Rackard Cup thus giving Sligo official recognition as a dual county.^[clarify]

Hand and fellow management team member Peter Galvin tendered their resignations on the evening of 14 September 2020, less than one month before the team was scheduled to contest a National League final and make its debut in the Christy Ring Cup. Confusion over efforts to register two players from Galway with Sligo heritage and the involvement of one of their coaches with a club, unbeknownst to Hand and Galvin, were cited as partly contributing to this unexpected decision.^[6] The county board did not report their departures until 20 September.^[7] The coach, later named as Colum O'Meara, then applied (unsuccessfully) to become Hand's successor; O'Meara, a native of Killimor, County Galway, had joined the Sligo set-up as coach ahead of the 2019 season after parting ways with Longford.^[8]

Padraig Mannion ultimately succeeded Hand as Sligo manager in late 2020.^[9]

List of Seasons

Season-by-season record

Current panel

Team as per Sligo vs Wicklow in the Christy Ring Cup, 23 April 2022