Fermanagh Checkered County Flag 3' x 5'

The Maguire County / The Lakeland County.

Fermanagh has the smallest GAA playing population in Ireland, and is the only county in Ulster to have never won the Ulster Senior Football Championship. Despite this there is a strong GAA tradition in the county, which went largely unrewarded until the remarkable achievement of the 2004 team in reaching the All Ireland semi-final and forcing the match to a replay.

Fragments of a poem from 1806 describe a football match between Louth and Fermanagh at Inniskeen, Co Monaghan.

Fermanagh beat Cavan in the 1914 Ulster semi-final and were nominated by the Ulster Council to play against Wexford in the All-Ireland semi-final. Because the train schedules did not allow them to get back for Sunday night, and the Great Northern Railway Company refused to run a special train because they were opposed to sport on Sunday, Fermanagh had to abdicate the responsibility to Monaghan, who later beat them in the Ulster final anyway.

One of Ulster's great footballers, Armagh-born Jim McCullough, played for Fermanagh in the mid-1930s and helped them reach the 1935 Ulster final and 1936 National League final.

Peter McGinnity was the outstanding player of the under-21 team which reached two All Ireland finals and defeated Derry and Tyrone,to reach the 1982 Ulster final, Despite a Peter McGinnity goal that put them in the lead with 20 minutes remaining, they lost 0-10 to 1-4 to Armagh. Fermanagh beat the reigning national league champions Down the following year but have failed in four semi-finals since then and as yet remain the only county in the province to never win the Anglo-Celt cup.

Under manager Pat King, they managed a hat-trick of success in 1997 in the B Championship, McKenna Cup and Division 4 of the National League.

Fermanagh are a beneficiary of the change to the GAA championship in the 2000s. In 2003 they beat Donegal in the Ulster championship, then Meath and Mayo in the All Ireland qualifiers to reach the quarter-final. They went to a replayed semi-final in 2004, beating Meath, Cork and Donegal and most memorably of all Armagh, thanks to a late point by Tom Brewster, before losing to Mayo. In 2006 despite running All-Ireland favourites Armagh close twice in the Ulster Championship, Fermanagh yet again ended the season without a trophy after losing out to neighbours Donegal in the fourth round of the Qualifiers. The 2007 season saw Fermanagh lose their National League Division one status having failed to register a single point from the seven match campaign. They performed quite well in the championship however, only losing by an injury-time point to Tyrone in Ulster. They defeated Wexford (for the second consecutive season) in the first round of the all-Ireland qualifiers. However, they were unable to record a third win in four seasons over Meath in Navan in July, losing narrowly by two points despite dominating the latter stages. Charlie Mulgrew, manager for four seasons, stood down after this match. He was succeeded by Malachy O'Rourke.

On the 21st of June 2008, Fermanagh defeated Derry in the provincial semi-final to become Ulster finalists for the first time since 1982