There was lots of excitement about Pairc McQuillan on Thursday morning as teams from all over Antrim and Derry gathered to battle it out for the annual Lucia Quinney Mee Cup and Live Loudly, Donate Proudly shield. This was the third Camogie blitz graciously hosted by Lucia’s home school, Cross, and Passion College, named to honour a young lady who will always hold a special place in the hearts of everyone at CPC.
The school organised an annual event for year 8 girls to remember Lucia’s passion for promoting organ donation discussions and was successfully ran by the CTEC Sport pupils in upper 6th at CPC, alongside teacher, Mrs Catherine Black.
Schools participating were CPC, St Killian’s, St Louis Ballymena, St Patricks Maghera, Loreto Coleraine, St Conor’s Kilrea, St Pius and St Marys Magherafelt. It was a celebration of friendship, friendly competition, memorable moments, and pure happiness watching the girls take to the pitches with their teammates, and gave each other, their teachers and coaches, and various spectators a great day’s excitement and entertainment.
Tournament hosts CPC were narrowly beat in an exciting semi-final against St Pats, Maghera, whilst the other semi-finalists St Marys Magherafelt had a close encounter with neighbouring school, St Pius but came out on top to go head-to-head with St Pats in the Cup final. In the shield competition, St Killian’s Garron Tower faced Loreto Coleraine & the other semi-final featured St Conors playing St Louis. After tough fought semi-finals, St Killian’s faced St Louis, with St Killian’s coming out victorious to win the shield competition. All eyes were then onto the cup final when St Marys & St Pats battled it out. St Marys walked away as the Lucia Quinney-Mee Cup champions for the 1st time.
After the presentation of awards to the finalists, and a deserving round of applause for all the teams, winners, and runners-up, it was fitting to end the day with the important message about organ donation, with thanks to Lucia’s Mother, Father and sister Alice speaking on behalf of Live Loudly, Donate Proudly, to encourage us all to have informed conversations about organ donation. Special thanks also to Caitlin McBride and …………. for speaking on behalf of ………. to encourage young girls to have the important conversations about organ donation. All in all, a wonderful day honouring a wonderful girl.
