It is the highest inter-county club hurling competition in Ireland, and has been contested every year since the 1970–71 championship (except for 2020-21, due to the COVID-19 pandemic).

The final, currently held on the third Sunday in January, is the culmination of a series of games played between October and February with the winners receiving the Tommy Moore Cup.

Since the foundation of the Gaelic Athletic Association in 1884, challenge, exhibition and tournament matches between clubs on an inter-county level were commonplace.

The second decade saw a greater spread of counties represented, with the club champions of Antrim, Cork, Galway, Kilkenny, Tipperary and Wexford all claiming the All-Ireland title.

Galway clubs came to the fore during this decade, with Sarsfields becoming the first team to retain the All-Ireland title with back-to-back wins in 1993 and 1994.

Between 1995 and 2003 the club became the first to win four All-Ireland titles, however, this record was bettered by Ballyhale Shamrocks who won a record-breaking fifth championship in 2010.

Participation is open to the four champion clubs of the four provinces of Ireland and has largely remained the same since the inaugural championship in 1971, however, there have been some minor changes throughout.

They entered the All-Ireland series at the newly created quarter-final stage and played one of the four provincial champions in rotation.

This has meant that the Galway champions represent the province unopposed and gain automatic entry to the All-Ireland semi-final stage.

The GAA All-Ireland Senior Club Hurling Championship features four teams in the final tournament.