History of the Collingwood Cup

• Has been played annually since 1914 apart from 1915-1919 period (WW!) and on one occasion in the 1933/34 period when difficulties between the FAI and IFA halted the tournament.
• UCD were first winners in 1914 beating Queens at UCD – only 4 teams competed.
• Original trophy disappeared in the late 1920s.
• Original trophy most likely thrown into the Boyne by Queens travelling south for a tournament they had no chance of winning vowing that the trophy would never return south!.
• New cup donated in 1940 was immediately named the Collingwood and still in use today.
• UCD and Queens dominated the Collingwood Cup between 1943 and 1966.
• The UCD/Queen’s monopoly was broken by Trinity in 1967.
• Trinity won again in 1979. Galway won in 1968, 1970 and 1971 and Cork in 1974 and 1978.
• The Collingwood vanished in 1972 but turned up after 3 months in a Dublin Hotel (which one?).
• In 1980 Belfast Ulster Polytechnic (now UUJ) won the Collingwood for the first time as did St. Mary’s in 1998 in Belfast.
• The 1980’s were dominated by UCD with 6 wins.
• In 1990 the infamous “Collingwood in the Lee” tournament.  UCC defeated Trinity AET in the final at the Mardyke.
• In the 1990’s 5 different clubs won the Collingwood – UCD (3 in a row), Cork 2 in a row), Galway (2), UUJ (2 in a row), and St. Mary’s (1).
• In the 21^stcentury so far Cork have 5 wins, UCD 3 wins and UUJ 3 wins
• Collingwood Plate was first played for in the 1971 to cater for the teams who failed to qualify for the final stages of the tournament.
• The Plate was replaced with the Farquhar, Spillane and Duggan Cups in 2006 when the competition reverted to a straight knockout basis.
• Of the thirteen teams taking part in 2011 seven have never won the Collingwood – DCU, UUC Magee, Maynooth, RCSI, MI and UL..

Past Collingwood winners

There have been 90 previous Collingwood Cup tournaments, the first was played in 1914.  It was not played in the First World War years 1915-1919 and again in 1933/34.  The records for the early years are a bit hazy but the winners since 1943 are listed below.

Winners since 1943