Sport on the island of Ireland is popular and widespread. Levels of participation and spectating are high, but as in other western regions participation has been dropping due to the increasing popularity of other activities such as watching television and playing computer games. Throughout the country a wide variety of sports are played, the most popular being Gaelic football, hurling, rugby union, soccer and hockey.

By attendance figures Gaelic football is the most popular sport in Ireland. In Ireland many sports, such as rugby union, Gaelic football and hurling, are organised in an all-island basis, with a single team representing Ireland in international competitions.
Other sports, such as soccer, have separate organising bodies in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. At the Olympics, a person from Northern Ireland can choose to represent either the Ireland or Great Britain team.

Gaelic football 

Though it has existed for centuries in Ireland, Gaelic football was formally arranged into an organised playing code by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) in the late nineteenth century. Gaelic football is the most popular sport in Ireland, attendance at matches in the senior championship in the summer can reach 82,500.

The game is played at underage, minor and senior levels. All players are amateur (they are not paid to participate) but they often train just as hard and as frequently as professionals in other sports.
There is great pride associated with playing for a county team in Ireland. The main national competitions are the Senior All-Ireland Football Championships and the National Football League. There are many rivalries within the game in Ireland - an example is that between Meath and Westmeath.

Hurling

Hurling is a sport native to Ireland, organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association. The game is similar to hockey, however the ball (or sliotar) is rarely played along the ground.
Hurling is also played on a large pitch and is considerably faster. Hurling is especially popular among the young, and most primary and secondary schools have hurling teams. On a senior level, teams are organised by club, and players of different clubs form the county team.

All counties aim to win the All-Ireland Hurling Final, held in September of each year. The most recent winner of the final was County Kilkenny.

Rugby union

Rugby union is common throughout Ireland, but is especially popular in Munster (County Limerick is known as the home of Irish rugby union), Ulster and Dublin.
Rugby union is played at club, province and national levels. The Ireland national team is composed of players from both Northern Ireland and the Republic, and the Irish Rugby Football Union governs the sport throughout the island. School rugby union is generally only played at secondary level.

Notable rugby union schools include Belvedere College, Blackrock College, Terenure College and CBC Cork in the south and the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and Methodist College Belfast in the north. Recent success at international level and the establishment of four professional teams has increased interest in rugby union as a spectator sport in Ireland.

Soccer

Known as football or soccer, sometimes to avoid confusion with Gaelic football, is one of the most popular sports in Ireland. Despite low match attendance at domestic league games, many people have an interest in the English Premier League or the Scottish Premier League. Soccer is played at all levels, with kids playing it on the street, teenagers playing in local clubs, and even-middle aged men playing it with co-workers on a regular basis. Association Football is the largest participation team sport in Ireland.

The national body in the Republic is the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) while the national body in Northern Ireland is the Irish Football Association (IFA).
The domestic leagues are the FAI League of Ireland (in the Republic) and the Irish Football League (Northern Ireland). Some of the major teams in Ireland include Cork City F.C., Shelbourne F.C. and Bohemians in the Republic and Derry City FC, Linfield FC and Glentoran FC in the North (although Derry City play in the Republic's league).

Due to the small size of the domestic game, most of Ireland's top footballers, such as Damien Duff, Steven Davis and Robbie Keane, play in the leagues of larger European countries, particularly in England and Scotland. This is one of the reasons why Irish people tend to support foreign clubs such as Manchester United, Celtic, and Liverpool.

Rarely does a player from the Republic's domestic league make the national team, the most recent of these being Jason Byrne in 2006, although occasional appearances of Irish League players for Northern Ireland have been known.
On the international stage, the Republic of Ireland — despite never winning a major tournament — have had many successful games in recent years, notably drawing with Brazil and Portugal. Northern Ireland's international team, despite a poor run of form in the late 1990s and first few years of the 21st century, and a corresponding slump in the FIFA World Rankings, enjoyed great success in the early and mid 80's and recently have had a revival in their fortunes under manager Lawrie Sanchez, with home wins over Spain and England lifting their FIFA ranking to 33 in April and May 2007 (only one position below the Republic in the latter month).

The Milk Cup is a successful international youth tournament held annually in Northern Ireland, in which clubs and national teams from anywhere in the world may compete. Northern Ireland also played host to the 2005 UEFA Under-19 European Championships. The Setanta Sports Cup was set up by its sponsors, television channel Setanta Ireland.

It is an all-island mini-World Cup style tournament (two groups of four, then semis and final) featuring eight teams, four being from the League of Ireland and four from the Irish League. Despite fairly low turnouts for each jurisdictions leagues, the Setanta Cup drew relatively successful gate receipts and in its three-year existence has had one winner from the North (Linfield in 2005) and one repeat winner from the South (Drogheda United in 2006 and 2007). 

Gaelic handball 

Handball, once very popular in Ireland, has lost much of its popularity over the years to other sports such as Gaelic football and soccer, and many handball alleys throughout Ireland are in a state of neglect. Ireland still produces top class handballers, but, lacking any international competitive level (except against the United States), the sport has not gained much media coverage in recent years. The sport is governed by the GAA.

Equestrianism

The various equestrian sports have a sizeable following in Ireland. Thanks to generous tax treatment, many of the world's best race horses retire to Ireland to stud.
The local industry (including the world's largest thoroughbred breeding operation; Coolmore Stud) produces many top race horses every year.

Ireland's top tracks are the Curragh and Fairyhouse. Show jumping also has quite a good following in Ireland, however the disqualification of Cian O'Connor at the 2004 Summer Olympics has deeply damaged the sport.

Greyhound racing.

Greyhound racing began in Ireland in 1927; there were greyhound races in Celtic Park in Belfast on 18 April of that year and the Shelbourne Park greyhound stadium opened in Dublin four weeks later.
Hare coursing was already a well established sport in the country and greyhounds were bred for racing in Ireland from the very start.
The great Mick the Miller, winner of the English Derby in 1929 and 1930, was an Irish greyhound and Ireland continues to export greyhounds. There are now twenty licensed greyhound stadiums in Ireland. There are seventeen in the Republic where the licensing authority is Bord na gCon, the Irish Greyhound Board.

This is a semi-state body and was established by the Irish government in 1958. The three stadiums in Northern Ireland are licensed by the Irish Coursing Club, which also organises hare coursing throughout the Island.

Once seen as a sport in decline, the popularity of greyhound racing has surged since 1995 and several million euro are now bet "at the dogs" annually. Bord na gCon has invested substantial amounts of money in developing and marketing the sport, prize money has increased and greyhound stadiums have been refurbished, helping the sport sell itself as a social event.

It is now common for families and groups of friends or colleagues to go for "a night at the dogs" instead of to the cinema, the pub or a nightclub. Dogs are generally owned by syndicates. Prize money ranges from a few hundred euro to several thousand for top dogs.
The annual Paddy Power Irish Greyhound Derby run each year in August at Shelbourne Park is one of the richest greyhound races in the world. 

Road bowling 

Irish Road Bowling is an ancient sport. It is centred in Ireland but is also played in the United States and the United Kingdom. Similar sports are played in Holland, Germany and Italy and since the 1960s the sport has enjoyed a genuine international dimension with an international championship being played on a regular basis by athletes from all these countries.