The final was shown on a giant screen at the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick where an all ticket crowd of 20,000 watched the match.
The Camogie, Ladies' Football, Handball and Rounders Associations were each allocated about 200 tickets, as were the jubilee teams and mini-7s which play at half-time.
Tipperary's Fergal Horgan was the standby referee with Kilkenny's Sean Cleere the linesman and Carlow's Patrick Murphy the sideline official.
Galway made one change to the starting team with Gearóid McInerney recovering from a calf injury he picked up in the drawn game against Clare and coming in to replace Niall Burke.
In the 16th minute Graeme Mulcahy scrambled the ball over the line on the ground from close range after dropping it for the opening goal to put Limerick into a 2-point lead.
[26] In the 68th minute, substitute Shane Dowling got another goal for Limerick when he picked the ball up and finished with a low shot to the right of the net from the left to increase the lead to 8 points.
[27] In the first of the 8 minutes of added time Galway scored a goal when Conor Whelan shot powerfully to the right of the net, four minutes later Joe Canning got another goal with a powerful shot to the top left corner of the net from a free to put 2 points between the sides.
[30][31] Limerick captain Declan Hannon accepted the Liam MacCarthy Cup from GAA president John Horan in the Hogan Stand.
"[34][35][36] Galway manager Micheál Donoghue accepted that his side were 'a tad off' in the final but vowed that they will be back again next year saying "We're bitterly disappointed.
"[37][38] Highlights of the final were shown on The Sunday Game programme which aired at 9:30pm that night on RTÉ2 and was presented by Des Cahill with match analysis from Brendan Cummins, Eddie Brennan, and Anthony Daly.
On the man of the match award shortlist were Kyle Hayes, Declan Hannon and Joe Canning with Kyle Hayes winning the award which was presented by GAA president John Horan at the City West hotel in Dublin where the post match Limerick function was being held.