Galway United

Every Connacht derby against Slayo Rovers carries a weight the fixture list can't explain on its own — two clubs from the same province, each claiming the west of Ireland as its own, and neither willing to give an inch when the sides meet. That rivalry, not the honours board, is the fixture the Tribesmen circle first.

The name on the badge has not always matched the one on the tin. The club started out in the Claddagh in 1937 as Galway Rovers, took the Galway United name in the early 1980s, then folded out of the League of Ireland in 2011 when the money ran out. It came back three years later as Galway FC before reclaiming Galway United in 2015 — the same city, the same ground, a different sign on the door for a while.

The ground itself, Eamonn Deacy Park, used to be Terryland Park before it was renamed for a Galway Rovers forward who scored the club's first-ever goal in the League of Ireland's top flight back in 1977. That's the sort of debt a place doesn't forget.

Silverware has been rationed rather than plentiful, which makes 1991 stand out: a 1-0 win over Shamrock Rovers brought the FAI Cup to Galway, still the club's marquee trophy. The First Division title arrived twice, three decades apart — once in 1992-93, then again in 2023, the promotion campaign that dragged the club back toward the level it had lost. The nickname, the Tribesmen, borrows from the old tribes of Galway; the maroon shirt with its sky blue and gold trim has carried that name through every version of the club since.

Eamonn Deacy Park holds 5,000, with 3,300 of those seats under cover.