Pictured, from left, are Darragh Lohan of Clare, with Kildare Celtic Challenge players Fergal Cronin and Michael Reilly during the 2025 Electric Ireland Celtic Challenge launch at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Shauna Clinton/Sportsfile.
By John Harrington
The Electric Ireland Celtic Challenge is the most democratic and innovative competition in the GAA calendar.
This year it will feature 38 hurling teams from all 32 counties, and all who take part will benefit hugely from their participation.
For the stronger hurling counties it gives players who haven’t made the grade for their county minor hurling team the opportunity to continue to develop in a high-performance environment.
By doing so you can keep tabs on late developers who could ultimately go on to be much better senior players than those who were the best in their class as 16 or 17-year-olds.
Clare’s Darragh Lohan is a good example of this. He didn’t make the grade as a Clare minor but the experience of being able to represent South-East Clare in the Celtic Challenge was the launchpad for a career that has taken him to the top of the game.
“It was a brilliant experience,” says Lohan of the Electric Ireland Celtic Challenge. “I was a little bit off the pace in terms of making the county minor team and the next thing for me to do was to play in the Celtic Challenge and it was brilliant to still be able to represent my county when I mightn't have been good enough for a minor panel.
“It kept me in a high-performance environment that improved me as a hurler. I had other things going on at the time, I was playing a lot of golf and soccer, stuff like that, but the hurling was the one thing I really wanted to do.
“It was brilliant to keep me down that path and even though I didn't play minor for Clare I ended up playing three years with the U20s.
“If you're motivated and you put the work in you'll hopefully get the rewards.”
The benefit of competing in the Electric Ireland Celtic Challenge is even more obvious for hurlers from developing counties.
At a crucial age it gives them a meaningful programme of games against teams from counties they wouldn’t otherwise get to play against.
Down players celebrate after winning the 2017 Celtic Challenge Corn William Robinson Final.
Down are a good example of a county that has really benefited from their participation in the Electric Ireland Celtic Challenge.
They beat Dublin Plunkett in the Corn William Robinson Final back in 2017 and many of those same players are now part of the Down senior panel that won the Allianz Hurling League Division 2 Final.
"Yeah, a lot of those lads have pushed on to either represent the senior county team or else they're big hitters in their club teams at the minute,” says Down senior hurling and Ulster GAA Regional Hurler Development Officer, Danny Toner.
“Definitely lads being exposed to that level of games and playing maybe a Clare second or third team or whatever you want to call it could be nothing but good for our lads
“From our point of view it provides a far better games programme than what we would otherwise. I think back to 10 or 12 years ago when you'd just have one or two games and you were out of your competition.
“A competition like the Electric Ireland Celtic Challenge elevates a lot of lads. Once they're in the system and playing at a good level and see they're competing then they'll feel like they can push on and play senior for their club or continue playing with county squads.
“We've a good wee crop this year and I'd be hopeful that they'll get a great games programme with it and a wee bit of success.”
Donegal are another county that has reaped a significant harvest of hurlers from the Celtic Challenge.
The generation of young players that inspired their Nickey Rackard Cup Final success last year are all graduates of the competition.
“Yes, all of those players would have come through it,” says Donegal Hurling Development Co-ordinator, Martin McGrath.
“The big asset of the Celtic Challenge is that after the group stages you get the opportunity to play teams from different parts of the country.
“In the last few years Donegal have played teams like Meath, Kildare, and Westmeath teams. It exposes us to that wee bit of a higher level of hurling.
“That's the big advantage to it, you're getting out there and playing teams that aren't just within your own region. It also leads nicely into your U20 team.
“We play in the Ulster Shield and the All-Ireland 'B' and the Celtic Challenge is a good launchpad for players hoping to make it at that level.”
The full list of fixtures for this year’s Electric Ireland Celtic Challenge can be found here - www.gaa.ie/celticchallenge
