The Leinster Leagues are team competitions run by the Leinster Chess Union. They include the following divisions which may be divided into sections e.g. North, South, Central in some years, depending on the number of teams participating. The number of divisions varies for the same reason. At the end of each season there is promotion and relegation of two or more teams between divisions, depending on the number of sections in the divisions concerned. The Leinster Leagues are governed by the ''LCU League Rules'', linked from the main page. The LCU is affiliated to the Irish Chess Union. Players have to be registered with the ICU, all matches are rated by the ICU and the higher divisions are also FIDE rated.

The leagues normally start in late September and continue until early May. After this clubs may put forward teams for three knockout competitions. In some years there have been group stages followed by a knockout phase with semi-finals and a final in each competition. In other years a weekend team swiss event was held.

Most of the material in the linked pages was copied from wikipedia articles [1] [2], IRLchess [3] and irishchesshistory [4]. The authors of the wikipedia articles are unknown, apart from those sections written by John Loughran, on the BEA, Bodley and O'Sullivan Cups. When known, authors will be given credit. Please send corrections or updates to John Loughran on skerrieschess.com/contact.