ST MacNissi’s, Garron Tower were the dominant force during the early years of senior schools’ hurling and had collected the Ulster Senior Shield on seven occasions before the Mageean Cup replaced the Shield for the 1963 season.
They promptly made it four titles in a row, but didn’t get their hands on the Mageean Cup until it was delivered to the school after Christmas that year.
Instead the Ulster Senior Shield sits at the front of the team photograph after their last game in the competition. Both trophies though appear in the formal photograph taken later in the school year.
The next time the Mageean Cup arrived on the Garron Tower site was in early January this year, raised aloft by captain Joseph McLaughlin after a 0-17 to 0-13 derby victory over Cross & Passion, Ballycastle at the Dub.
St Killian’s are not involved in the opening round of games this week and manager Pádraig McIlwaine is happy enough to get some extra work done on the training pitch before they face CPC in a repeat of last year’s final in round two.
St Patrick’s, Maghera are the third team in Group B.
“The club championship has been running right up until Sunday, so it’s good to get an extra week of preparation,” said McIlwaine who lost a number of Mageean Cup finals, both as a player and a coach, before tasting success last January.
“It’s a very competitive group. I would say all three of us will have our eye on the big prize. All the group games will be extremely competitive and the beauty I suppose of being drawn in a group of three is that all of us get going through to a knock-out game.”
It’s a decade since any school successfully defended the Mageean Cup, CPC following up their 2013 title with a narrow 2-12 to 0-17 victory over An Dún, the Down schools’ combination team, at Halloween in 2014.
“The Mageean Cup has become so open in recent years and that has been great for the competition – there have been seven different winners in the last seven seasons. Just take the last three winners – Downpatrick won their first ever title in 2021; St Louis, Ballymena won only their third by beating us two years ago; and then we won for the first time in 60 years. That shows how open it is.
“We’ve really enjoyed being Mageean champions. It was a huge relief to win it after six decades. And then to go on and take the All-Ireland, that really was a bonus. We will give it our best shot to defend it. We know it won’t be easy.”
Cross and Passion have won every trophy through the school with this group of players and they will start this autumn’s title-race as favourites.
“Yeah, I think all the teams would agree with that. They will want to finish their school days with a complete set of medals. But there are a few teams who have progressed really well along the way – Knock pushed them very close in the Foresters final 18 months ago.
“I know Cross & Passion have picked up a couple of decent players since and they gave the Mageean a good rattle last year. That final was the toughest game we got all season – and that includes our two All-Ireland games.”
McIlwaine has been involved with Antrim under-age teams for a number of years and is well aware of the quality of the players coming through at the minute.
“There have been really good players coming through for a few years now, particularly in Antrim but also in other counties as well; they are spread across the schools.
“I think the Mageean final at the Dub, under lights, with TV cameras and a big crowd really showcases the quality. Antrim players haven’t got that opportunity of playing on a big occasion since Casement (Park) closed. We (St Killian’s) have been lucky to play in the last two finals and they have been brilliant events and a great experience for everyone.”
McIlwaine is also excited about the arrival of Davy Fitzgerald as manager of the Antrim senior team.
“There’s really a great buzz in the county at the minute. A couple of our past pupils, Neil McManus and Arron Graffin, are involved with Davy in the management, as well as Paudie Shivers, who knows a lot of these boys from under-age county squads.
“If you look at last year’s Mageean final, both Joseph McLaughlin and Cormac McKeown from our team went on to play senior for Antrim later in the year. So young players will look at the Mageean final as a real opportunity to catch Davy’s eye and move on to something even bigger.”
McIlwaine is vice-principal in St Killian’s as well as being involved in managing several of the school hurling teams. Not surprisingly he is an advocate for his students getting involved in sport.
“All young people have a range of distractions impacting on their academic career. But you generally find that boys or girls committed to this level of competition in hurling or camogie – we have played in the last two senior camogie finals as well – they are very well organised and determined to succeed on a number of levels.
“They develop great time-management skills and ultimately end up as good well-rounded individuals who can go into our community and make a valuable contribution as adults. Just take the two men I mentioned earlier, Neil (McManus) and Arron (Graffin), as examples.”
Round one fixtures
Thursday
Group B Cross & Passion, Ballycastle v St Patrick’s, Maghera (Loughgiel, 2.15pm)
Friday
Group A
Our Lady & St Patrick’s, Knock v St Louis, Ballymena (Ballymena, 1.30pm)
Gaelcholáiste Dhoire v St Mary’s, CBGS Belfast (POSTPONED)
