AIB has launched its 2026/27 All-Ireland Club Championships campaign with a renewed emphasis on the coaches, mentors, volunteers and families who help make Gaelic games such an important part of community life across Ireland.
The campaign brings together leading players from Gaelic football, hurling, ladies’ football and camogie, reflecting the bank’s unique position as a national sponsor of the club championships across all four codes.
Now in its 36th year supporting the GAA Club Championships, AIB is also marking 14 years of involvement with the Camogie Club Championships and its third season sponsoring the Ladies Club Football Championships.
That longevity makes the partnership one of the most established commercial relationships in Irish sport, while its expansion across the four codes gives the bank a distinctive connection with the wider Gaelic games community.
The latest campaign features four ambassadors whose inter-county achievements are matched by strong club connections.
Kerry footballer Paudie Clifford represents Fossa, Kilkenny hurler Adrian Mullen plays with Ballyhale Shamrocks, Armagh’s Aimee Mackin represents Shane O’Neill’s, and Galway camogie player Olwen Rabbitte plays with Athenry.
Each has benefited from volunteers and mentors who commit to player development, often over many years and without recognition beyond their own clubs.
The new creative approach brings those relationships into focus, celebrating the people whose encouragement, time, and dedication help players develop from childhood through to senior competition.
The theme also reflects the distinctive place club sport holds in Ireland.
While inter-county competitions attract the largest national audiences, club championships retain a powerful emotional connection through local identity, family involvement and relationships built across generations. If you have ever been involved in a County, Provincial or All-Ireland Championship club, you will know the powerful impact it can have across generations.
AIB Chief Customer Officer Orlaith Ryan highlighted that connection at the launch.
“Club Championships stir emotions like nothing else,” she said, pointing to the extraordinary commitment involved both on the field and behind the scenes.
The campaign recognises that a club team’s success depends on much more than the players who take the field.
Coaches who work with children, mentors who organise training, volunteers who maintain facilities and families who support young athletes all contribute to the sporting structures that allow clubs to thrive.
GAA President Jarlath Burns welcomed the continuation of AIB’s partnership, emphasising the club championships’ unique emotional appeal.
“Another action-packed AIB GAA Club Championship season awaits, and there is no competition quite like it for emotional connection,” he said.
The sponsorship also provides a common commercial platform across four competitions that have historically operated with different structures, identities and commercial arrangements.
Camogie Association President Brian Molloy acknowledged the importance of the bank’s continued commitment to the camogie club championships, while LGFA President Trina Murray highlighted the visibility and recognition that AIB’s support brings to ladies’ club football.
For clubs emerging from their county championships, competing at provincial and potentially All-Ireland level is a major sporting ambition.
It also creates opportunities to engage supporters, generate local sponsorship and build community involvement around a shared objective.
AIB’s national campaign adds another layer of recognition to those competitions, bringing a consistent identity and marketing presence to the club championship calendar.
The bank has built its association with Gaelic games over more than three decades, evolving from traditional sponsorship visibility to campaigns built around storytelling, emotion, and community connection.
Sport for Business Perspective
The most successful sponsorship campaigns often reflect something supporters already recognise as true.
In Gaelic games, every club understands the importance of the people behind the players.
AIB’s latest campaign puts that contribution at the centre of the All-Ireland Club Championships, reinforcing a partnership built on one of Irish sport’s strongest community connections.
The GAA, LGFA, Camogie Association and AIB are full members of Sport for Business.
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Image Credit: GAA, AIB and Dan Sheridan, Inpho
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