Formerly several third-level college teams also competed, but from 2018 onward it became an all-county-team tournament.

In 2019 and 2020 it was a knockout tournament with no league element, and so it was called the "Connacht GAA Senior Football Competition"; in 2023 and 2024 it was simply referred to as "the FBD.

"[2] It was cancelled in 2021 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Gaelic games, but returned in January 2022.

The trophy is named for Paddy Francis Dwyer (1937–1994), a longtime referee and official with Oran and the Roscommon County Board; he was also an activist in the National Farmers' Association in their 1966–67 farmers' rights campaign.

He was the manager of FBD Insurance in the Connacht region.