Seventeen teams currently participate in the All-Ireland Championship, with the most successful coming from the provinces of Leinster and Munster.

The All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship final was listed in second place by CNN in its "10 sporting events you have to see live", after the Olympic Games.

The championships were open to all affiliated clubs who would first compete in county-based competitions, to be run by local county committees.

[2] The inaugural All-Ireland Championship used, for the only time in its history, an open draw format without the provincial series of games.

In all five teams participated: Clare (Garraunboy Smith O'Briens), Galway (Meelick), Kilkenny (Tullaroan) Tipperary (Thurles) and Wexford (Castlebridge).

Postponements, disqualifications, objections, withdrawals and walkovers were regular occurrences during the initial years of the championship.

The inaugural All-Ireland final took place on 1 April 1888 in Birr, County Offaly, with Tipperary defeating Galway to take the title.

Over time the Leinster and Munster teams grew to become the superpowers of the game, as Gaelic football was the more dominant sport in Ulster and Connacht.

After some time Galway became the only credible team in Connacht and was essentially given an automatic pass to the All-Ireland semi-final every year.

Unlike in other European countries, such as neighbouring England, where annual sports events were cancelled during the twentieth century due to the First and Second World Wars, the All-Ireland Championship has been running continuously since 1887, with the final running since 1889 (the 1888 competition was played but no final was held due to the Invasion).

This new structure allowed the defeated Munster and Leinster finalists another chance to regain a place in the All-Ireland semi-finals.

The updated qualifier structure provided more games and gave renewed hope to the "weaker" teams, as a defeat in the first round no longer meant the end of a county's All-Ireland ambitions.

Preliminary quarter-finals (2 matches): The 3rd placed teams from the Leinster and Munster championships play the Joe McDonagh Cup champions and runners-up.

The 2017 figure represented the highest combined total for an All-Ireland Championship since 2012, when 294,079 fans attended six games, including a final replay between Kilkenny and Galway.

Construction of the Cusack Stand in 1937 meant that that year's final was played at the newly opened FitzGerald Stadium in Killarney.

The cup, which was constructed to look like a medieval Irish drinking vessel called a mather, was made by jeweller Edmund Johnson at his premises on Dublin's Grafton Street.

It replaced the Great Southern Cup as the All-Ireland trophy and was first presented to Bob McConkey of Limerick in 1923.

[18] Declan Carr of Tipperary was the last recipient of the original Liam MacCarthy Cup in 1991 before it was retired.

JMK Gold & Silversmith's produced an exact replica which was first awarded to Liam Fennelly of Kilkenny in 1992.

[19] In accordance with GAA rules, the Central Council awards up to twenty-six gold medals to the winners of the All-Ireland final.

From the early 1920s, British Pathé recorded newsreel footage of the All-Ireland finals which was later shown in cinemas around the country.

The National Film Institute and Gael Linn later produced their own newsreels of All-Ireland finals with Michael O'Hehir providing commentary.

Following the establishment of 2RN, Ireland's first radio broadcasting station, on 1 January 1926, sports coverage, albeit infrequent, was a feature of the schedules.

Although there was no designated sports department within Irish radio for many years, a two-way relationship between the national broadcaster and the GAA was quickly established.

As well as exclusive live commentaries, Seán Ó Ceallacháin began broadcasting a weekly results programme on Radio Éireann in 1930.

[20] When Telefís Éireann was established on 31 December 1961, the new station was interested in the broadcasting of championship games.

The first live broadcast of a hurling championship match was the All-Ireland final between Tipperary and Wexford on 2 September 1962.

The first All-Ireland semi-final to be broadcast live was the meeting of Cork and Galway on 7 August 1977.

The popularity of the evening highlights programme led to the development of The Sunday Game, which was first broadcast on 8 July 1979.

[21] For the early years financial and logistical reasons restricted the programme to featuring just one full championship game and discussion about it.