The 1991

All-Ireland Senior Football Championship The All-Ireland Senior Football Championship (SFC) () is the premier inter-county competition in Gaelic football. County (Gaelic games), County teams compete against each other and the winner is declared All-Ireland Champions. Organised by the ...

was the 105th staging of the

, the

Gaelic Athletic Association The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA; ; CLG) is an Irish international amateur sports, amateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoting indigenous Gaelic games and pastimes, which include the traditional Irish sports o ...

's premier inter-county

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

tournament. The championship began on 19 May 1991 and ended on 15 September 1991. In the Munster semi-final Kerry ended Cork's 2 years as All Ireland champions. Down defeated

Meath County Meath ( ; or simply , ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. It is bordered by County Dublin to the southeast, County ...

in the final by a scoreline of 1–16 to 1–14. The

Ulster Ulster (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); t ...

county's victory was to be the start of four consecutive

All-Ireland All-Ireland (sometimes All-Island) is a term used to describe organisations and events whose interests extend over the entire island of Ireland, as opposed to the separate jurisdictions of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. "All-Irelan ...

titles for the province. For Meath, it was their second consecutive defeat in a final, having lost to

Cork "Cork" or "CORK" may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Stopper (plug), or "cork", a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container *** Wine cork an item to seal or reseal wine Places Ireland * ...

in the 1990 final. The Championship was noted for the tie between Dublin and Meath that took three replays to decide.

Results

Connacht Senior Football Championship The Connacht Senior Football Championship, known simply as the Connacht Championship and shortened to Connacht SFC, is an annual Gaelic football competition for the senior county teams of Connacht GAA. All of the county teams of Connacht particip ...

Quarter-finals Semi-finals Finals

Leinster Senior Football Championship The Leinster Senior Football Championship, known simply as the Leinster Championship and shortened to Leinster SFC, is an annual inter-county Gaelic football competition organised by the Leinster GAA, Leinster Council of the Gaelic Athletic Asso ...

Note for the first time since 1975 there's a full, straightforward or proper open draw: top county teams such as

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

Offaly County Offaly (; ) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the province of Leinster. It is named after the ancient Kingdom of Uí Failghe. It was formerly known as King's County, in honour of Philip II of Spain ...

no longer get byes to the teams to the Quarter-finals. Preliminary round Quarter-finals Semi-finals Final

Munster Senior Football Championship The Munster Senior Football Championship, known simply as the Munster Championship and shortened to Munster SFC, is an annual inter-county Gaelic football competition organised by the Munster GAA, Munster Council of the Gaelic Athletic Associatio ...

In 1991, for the first time in years, the Munster Championship got rid of its seeded draw system and moved to an open draw. With the exception of Tipperary in 1935, Kerry or

had won every

Munster Munster ( or ) is the largest of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the south west of the island. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" (). Following the Nor ...

title since 1923. The open draw was expected to weaken Kerry and Cork, and improve

Clare Clare may refer to: Places Antarctica * Clare Range, a mountain range in Victoria Land Australia * Clare, South Australia, a town in the Clare Valley * Clare Valley, South Australia Canada * Clare (electoral district), an electoral district * Cl ...

Limerick Limerick ( ; ) is a city in western Ireland, in County Limerick. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is in the Mid-West Region, Ireland, Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. W ...

, Tipperary and

Waterford Waterford ( ) is a City status in Ireland, city in County Waterford in the South-East Region, Ireland, south-east of Ireland. It is located within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster. The city is situated at the head of Waterford H ...

. Since 1947, Cork vs Kerry was the most common Munster final until 1990, but less common from then on. Quarter-finals Semi-finals Final

Ulster Senior Football Championship The Ulster Senior Football Championship is an inter-county competition for Gaelic football teams in the Irish province of Ulster. It is organised by the Ulster Council of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) and begins in April. The final is ...

Preliminary round Quarter-finals Semi-finals Final

All-Ireland Senior Football Championship The All-Ireland Senior Football Championship (SFC) () is the premier inter-county competition in Gaelic football. County (Gaelic games), County teams compete against each other and the winner is declared All-Ireland Champions. Organised by the ...

Semi-finals Final

Championship statistics

Scoring

;Overall ;Single game

Miscellaneous

Seeding The term seeding and related terms such as seeded are used in several different contexts: *Sowing, planting seeds in a place or on an object *Cloud seeding, manipulating cloud formations *Seeding (computing), a concept in computing and peer-to-pee ...

is abolished in the

Leinster Leinster ( ; or ) is one of the four provinces of Ireland, in the southeast of Ireland. The modern province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige, which existed during Gaelic Ireland. Following the 12th-century ...

and

championships meaning an open draw in Leinster for the first time since 1974 or Munster for the first time in 40 years. * Fermanagh's 3–12 to 1–8 defeat of Antrim in the Ulster quarter-final is their first victory in the championship since 1983. * The 1991 championship became famous for the four-game saga between Meath and Dublin in the preliminary round of the Leinster Championship. The four games comprised three draws, with two still ending level even after extra time. Meath eventually triumphed by a single point. A combined total of just under 237,000 people attended the four games in what was a major windfall for the Leinster Council. * The Meath-Dublin saga was the first SFC tie since Carlow-Wexford (1941) to be played four times in one season. * While in the Quarter-final stage of the Leinster championship Meath played Wicklow twice and in the semi-final game between Laois and Louth also ended in a draw and went to replay making it the largest Leinster championship ever (15) and was not equalled until 2000. *

reached their first Munster final since 1965 but lost it to Kerry, since 1947 all Munster finals expect for Cork vs Clare 1949, Cork vs Waterford 1957, Kerry vs Waterford 1960 and Kerry vs Limerick in 1965 the rest were all Kerry vs Cork deciders. *

and

Laois County Laois ( ; ) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and in the province of Leinster. It was known as Queen's County from 1556 to 1922. The modern county takes its name from Loígis, a medieval kingdom. Hist ...

meet in the Leinster final for the first time since 1951. * Meath became the first side since Kildare (1903) to play 10 senior football championship matches in one season. * Down win the All Ireland final for the first time in 23 years and were first

county since 1968 to win and also first not from

of course.

References

{{All-Ireland Senior Football Championship