We at the Saffron Gael were saddened to hear of the death this week of Tir na nOg stalwart, Vincent Kerr. A post on facebook from his nephew, Michael Kerr highlighted the life and career of Vincent whose career with the Randalstown club spanned 35 years.
Last night we said farewell to Uncle Vincent. Just short of his 89th birthday, he was in his last days as he was in life, strong, determined, dignified and fun.
A lifelong sports fan, an early boxer, Vincent became one of our club’s best players and most highly decorated hurlers. His Tir Na nOg playing career spanned 35 years in hurling and football winning the Antrim Junior Championship in 1960.
His skills were utilised first for Antrim at minor level in the early 50s, and then winning two Ulster finals and competing in two All Ireland finals for Antrim in 1958, and 1959, and representing Ulster in the railway cup in the early 60s.
In his mid-40’s he retired his GAA playing days and followed a new passion combining his love of birds with his competitive nature and became a member of the pigeon racing fraternity, winning regular trophies and titles.
Vincent was a master tradesman, no skill was beyond his capability and our extended family circle, the club and local friends and community all benefitted from his precision with his tools.
Earlier this year he said goodbye to his wife Mary of over 60 years, but accepted his loss and his illness with dignity and grace.
There will never be another like Vincent and we have all lost a champion, a great neighbour, a loving family man.
The first of the fonaCAB-St. Paul’s Ulster Minor football semi-finals is down for decision this Sunday at Shaw’s Road and it throws together two strong opponents, both who will have their eyes set on a place in the final.
A strong second half showing by Armagh champions Clann Éireann saw the Lurgan side book their place in the semi-final of the fonaCAB at the expense of St Molaise of Irvinstown in their quarter final at Sportlann, Colaiste Feirste.
There was little between the two teams in the opening half, Clann Éireann turning around with a two point lead, but the really got going early in the second and added three more goals to their half time total of 2-2 to open a massive gap. However the Irvinstown boys kept battling away and three goals in the last ten minutes brought them back to within seven at the end.
With the stiff breeze at the backs in the second half Clann Éireann were soon ahead with early scores from Cohen Henderson and Euan McAreavey. Barry Goodwin levelled matters again with a point for Irvinstown but the next ten minutes was all one way traffic as the Armagh boys began to hit their stride. Five in a row from goalkeeper Liam Carroll, Cohen Henderson, Euan McAreavey (2) and James McCooe saw them pull well clear and it was clear at this stage they would advance.
In their quarter final Magherafelt were forced to withstand a late rally from Antrim champions, St. Brigid’s before progressing to Sunday’s semi-final.
Magherafelt held on to earn a spot against the Armagh champions on Shaw’s Road on Sunday and this first semi-final is likely to attract a bumper crowd to West Belfast.
Finbar Mallon and captain, Dire Young are the mainstays of a strong Clann Eireann defence with Sean Geoghegan and Conan McCafferty forming a strong mid-field partnership for the Lurgan side.
Euan McAreavey spearheads a potent Clann Eireann attack where Cohen Henderson and James McCooey have been amongst the scorers.
Derry sides have figured prominently in this competition over the years and while Magherafelt did just enough to get past St. Brigid’s there is a feeling that there could be more to come.
Rossa held the upper hand from the start and with their pace causing St Brigid’s problems at the back and Cathir Spiers opened their account with a point inside four minutes. Things got worse for St Brigid’s when the Derry champions grabbed the opening goal of the game through Kian Maynes, but St Brigid’s hit back right away and top scorer JJ Higgins swung a ball across the Rossa goalmouth for Joseph Mellon to palm to the net.
The Derry boys led by five at the break and increased that lead to eight at a stage in the second half. It began to look like this would be a real runaway for the Derry side, but to their credit St Brigid’s kept on battling and closed to within three by the time Down referee Gavin Finnegan sounded the final whistle.
Both sides will have concerns about the manner in which they let substantial leads slip in their semi-finals and this one could go either way but on the evidence of their respective semi-final performances Clann Eireann are given a tentative nod but it could well come down to which sides hits their best form on the day.
St. Louis Ballymena 3-8 St. Malachy’s Castlewellan 3-11
A late rally from St. Louis Ballymena fell short as the Kintullagh side bowed out to St. Malachy’s castlewellan in the knock-out stages of the McLarnon Cup at Colaisre Feirste on Wednesday afternoon.
The Down side were well on top during the opening half with the superb Ruairi Madine pulling the strings and looked well on their way to the next round when they led by 3-9 to 1-2 at the halfway stage.
Madine was the Ballymena side’s tormentor in chief during this periods but St. Louis will surely reflect on his two late first half goals which were both preventable as the reason why they were left with too much to do in a much improved second half.
It took the Kintullagh side 17 minutes to register their first point from an Odhran Duffin free but by this stage the Down side had registered 1-3 through Martin Og Brannigan, Ruairi Madine and Manus Middleton with their goal coming from Rian Walsh.
Castlewellan kept building up a healthy lead with points from Middleton (0-3), Shea Barker, Caolan Flannagan and Luke Rooney before Caleb Smith gave St. Louis a lift when he finished a well worked move to the net in the 20th minute.
Patrick O’Neill added a point but those two late goals from man of the match, Madine left the South West Antrim club with a mountain to climb in the second half.
Whatever was said at the break, St. Louis returned to the field a much more determined and focused side in the second half and Ryan McKeever, Odhran Duffin (f) and Caleb Smith 0-2 split the posts in the opening 13 minutes.
Manus Middleton and Ryan McCourt replied with points for the Castlewellan College but St. Louis were now enjoying much more of the play and Damian Kinsella gave them a major boost when he finished to the net with 7 minutes remaining.
Fullback Sean McDermott followed with a great long range point before Odhran Duffin finished a fine move to the net with time almost up.
St. Louis pushed hard during the final minutes but a Cillian Scullion point was as close as they would get with St. Malachy’s relieved to hear the final whistle.
St. Louis: 1 Charlie Cunning, 2 Shea griffin, 3 Sean McDermott, 4 Oisin Hamill, 5 Patrick O’Neill, 6 Jack Martin, 7 Ryan McKeever, 8 Sean Og Blaney, 9 Luke McFerran, 10 Odhran Duffin, 11 Sean O’Brien, 12 Fiontan Bradley, 13 Cillian Scullion, 14 Caolan McFerran, 15 Caleb
St. Malachy’s: 1 Callum Travers, 2 Harry Keenan, 3 Luke Brannigan, 5 Shea Barker, 6 Ross Green, 7 Martin Og Brannigan, 8 Daelach McGreevey, 9 Odhran McCann, 10 Ryan McCourt, 11 Luke Rooney, 12 Manus Middleton, 13 Rian Walsh, 14 Ruairi Madine, 15 Caolan Flanagan, 16 Matthew Murran
Referee: Fergal Laverty
TO VIEW BERTS PIS FROM GAME CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW
St Killian’s Garron Tower 0-13-1-16 Cross and Passion
Kevin Herron reports from the Dub
Cross & Passion celebrate their win over St Killian’s inTuesday night’s Danske Bank Mageean Cup final at the Dub Arena QUB. Pic by Dylan McIlwaine
Padraig Martin’s 51st minute strike took the wind out of St Killian’s second half fightback as Cross and Passion extracted revenge for defeat in the 2023 decider back in January and lifted the Danske Bank Mageean Cup for the 11th time in their history with a 1-16-0-13 win over holders St Killian’s in Tuesday evenings re-arranged decider at the Dub.
Playing with a strong breeze in the opening half Cross and Passion dominated the early scoring with Roan McGarry opening the evenings scoring from a 65’ and Conor Donnelly doubling the lead. McGarry doubled his account from a long range free and pointed from play before Oran McCambridge opened the scoring for the holders.
Cross and Passion restored their four-point advantage through a nice Oisin McCallin point- the first of four he would claim in the opening half hour, adding another angled point midway through the half.
18-minutes in and the lead extended to six after McGarry chalked up his third placed ball of the evening.
Points were traded between Callagh Mooney and McGarry (free) and by the 22nd minute Cross and Passion had opened up an eight-point advantage (0-10-0-02) following Oisin McCallin and Caedan Crawford adding further scores but Garron Tower ended the half stronger and clipped over three of the final four points.
Thomas McLaughlin slipped in Canice McIntosh to drop a shot over and McLaughlin then intercepted and opened up his account for the evening.
McCallin and Nicholas McLaughlin traded injury time points to close out the half as Cross and Passion held a 0-11-0-05 advantage at the interval.
An early side-line cut from Ronan Fitzgerald ensured that Cross and Passion struck first after the restart and things may have got better when Caedan Crawford bore down on goal and saw his goal-bound shot blocked by Ben Duncan and then scrambled clear in the nick of time.
Thomas McLaughlin replied from a free on the 37th minute and a long-range point followed from Oran McCambridge as the holders cut the deficit and clawed their way back into proceedings.
A superb Calum McIlwaine point from play lifted Garron Tower’s confidence and despite Padraig Martin pointing midway through the half for the leaders, momentum was with the Tower as Thomas McLaughlin reeled off three points on the bounce, the first from play and the other two from frees.
The defining score arrived on the 51st minute with the gap down to just two. Padraig Martin received a cut back from the by-line and rocketed a shot into the roof of the net past Ben Duncan to make it 1-13-0-11.
An instant response followed in the form of a Thomas McLaughlin point from play, but St Killian’s needed a goal in order to breathe new life into their challenge.
Their best chance came when substitute Michael Fury decided to make a break for the target and his attempt was diverted behind by Cross and Passion keeper Anthony Mullan.
Instead, the Ballycastle men finished strongly courtesy of points from goal scorer Martin, the lively Oisin McCallin and a converted Ronan McGarry free – with Oran McCambridge claiming a late consolation score.
Peter Owens final whistle was greeted by the obligatory pitch invasion from the Cross and Passion fans as they celebrated becoming Mageean Cup winners for the 11th time and they will hope to match the success of the dethroned holders when they compete in the Paddy Buggy Cup in 2025.
St Killian’s Garron Tower: B Duncan, C McNaughton, C Ward, C McCann, A McCambridge, C McAuley, J Scullion, A Campbell, C Mooney (0-1), C McIntosh (0-1), C McIlwaine (0-1), O McCambridge (0-3), N McLaughlin (0-1), T McLaughlin (0-6, 0-4f), C Leech. Subs: D McNaughton for N McLaughlin (45), M Fury (57), O Gillan for C Leech (60+1).
Cross and Passion: A Mullan, D Kinney, C Baudant, N McLean, R Cunning, L Glackin, A Kelly, D Donnelly, R Fitzgerald (0-1s), E Johnson, C Donnelly (0-1), P Martin(1-2), O McCallin (0-5), R McGarry (0-6, 0-5f), C Crawford (0-1). Subs: C Johnson for C Donnelly (46), A Richmond for C Crawford (57).
Referee: Peter Owens (Down)
Man of the Match Oisin McCallin lifts the James O’Kane Memorial Trophy for his star performance
Pic by Sean Trowlen
Cross & Passion captain Liam Glackin lifts the Mageean Cup after his team’s win over St Killian’s inTuesday night’s Danske Bank Mageean Cup final at the Dub Arena QUB. Pic by Dylan McIlwaine
TO SEE ALL THE PICS FROM THE MAGEEAN FINAL CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW
Just a reminder that the Mageean Cup final, which postponed two weeks ago because of storm Darragh in played tonight at the same venue – Throw-in time is 7-30
2019-20 Cross & Passion College
2020 – 21 No competition2021 – 22 – Red High Downaptrick 2022 – 23 St Louis Ballymena
