An assertion in Saturday’s Irish News that St Ronan’s, Lurgan would join just one other Armagh school as winners of the Hogan Cup irked a few people around the Orchard county.
The very first winners of the Hogan Cup were St Patrick’s, Armagh back in 1946 when Dungannon’s Iggy Jones bagged 3-5 – and missed a penalty – in a 3-11 to 4-7 win over St Jarlath’s, Tuam in Croke Park.
Several callers however assured me that St Colman’s College, Newry is indeed geographically in Armagh and that down through the years when this seat of learning was collecting a record 19 MacRory Cups and following through for eight Hogan titles, that they were indeed backboned by Armagh players.
One of the callers, Sean Moore from Lurgan, recalled the first team from St Colman’s to win the Hogan Cup back in 1967.
They beat St Patrick’s, Armagh in the MacRory Cup final (2-10 to 1-4) and then took out St Jarlath’s, Tuam in the All-Ireland final in Cusack Park Mullingar on a 1-8 to 1-7 score-line.
That team contained John Purdy and Peter Rooney, who both scored in both finals and who would go on less than 18 months later to help Down win the Sam Maguire Cup.
However that Hogan Cup winning side had started with seven players from each of Down and Armagh, along with Con Davey, who at the time was playing with Omeath in the Louth leagues.
Sean’s cousin, Sean J Moore from Clann na nGael in Lurgan, was full-back.
“There were a lot of Lurgan lads on that team. At the time St Michael’s was a girls’ school and, incidentally, winning Ulster Junior and Senior camogie titles at the time,'' said Sean.
“There had been a tradition of lads from the town enrolling in St Colman’s and that transferred into the football teams. St Colman’s won three MacRory titles in a row from 1967-9 and there was a big Lurgan presence in each team,” he added.
“Noel Moore, no relation, was the MacRory and Hogan winning captain in 67.
“He was a Wolfe Tone’s man from out the road here in Derrymacash. So too was Sean McCann, who does the announcements on match days in the Athletic Grounds.”
“My cousin, Sean J as I said, was a Clann na nGael player and so too was Jimmy Smyth, who captained Armagh in the 1977 All-Ireland final and is chairman of the Ulster Schools’ Council at the minute.
“And Frank Toman was Clann Éireann. He is the only player to win Hogan medals with two different schools – St Colman’s in 1967 and then St Mary’s CBS, Belfast in 1971,” he added.
Toman scored 1-4 in both the MacRory and Hogan Cup finals for St Mary’s in their one and only national success, having come in as a 14-year-old sub in the 1967 Hogan final.
“That was a great team and so were the next two years as well,'' said Sean.
“Many of those boys were still there. It is a bit of a mystery why they didn’t add another Hogan, because they had the players and they had a great coach in Fr John Treanor.”
St Colman’s added a further seven national titles, including the most recent, back to back titles in 2010-11.
Colin Stevenson from Derrymacash was in the first of those teams, but there is no longer the same Lurgan presence in the Newry school.
Sean Moore, while proud of the successes of his alma mater, is looking forward to a huge boost for football in Lurgan with St Ronan’s success at the weekend.
“It is a huge thing for the school, for any new school,'' he declared.
“They played a lot of good football on the way through and on Saturday and they look to be well-coached. Hopefully it will pay dividends for the clubs around here and for the county.”
And when I reminded him of the contribution of the Aghagallon (Antrim) players to St Ronan’s success …
“When we were at St Colman’s, we played for the Violet Hill jersey,'' he replied.
“We were neither Down nor Armagh players when we pulled on the school jersey – and I am sure that was the case for the St Ronan’s boys as well.”
