ST DOMINIC’S Belfast shook off a determined challenge from Castleknock Community College in the St Brigid’s Castleknock GAA grounds yesterday to set up an Allianz Dónal Burke Cup semi-final with Scoil Mhuire agus Íde Newcastlewest in a fortnight.
The teams were level at the break, but the visitors from Belfast were improved for the second half and two goals from Lámh Dhearg and Antrim minor forward Aoife Fitzsimons gave them a lead they weren’t going to surrender.
Castleknock opened with a point from the excellent Mary Bourke, who went on to claim all but a point of their total. The home side had most of the early pressure and led by 0-3 to 0-1 after ten minutes. They stretched that to 1-4 to 0-2 after 15 minutes with a goal from Bourke.
Maeve Devlin points had been keeping St Dominic’s going during that period of Castleknock pressure. Her goal from a long range free then pulled her side back into contention. Right on the half-time whistle Méabh Rooney goaled to leave the scores level at 1-8 to 2-5.
St Dominic’s went two up in the early stages of the second half with points from Maeve Devlin and Aoife Fitzsimons. Although Bourke hit back with a point, Fitzsimons went through for a superb solo goal. This was followed by a point from Cliona McGinley and then a second goal from Fitzsimmons in the 48th minute.
While Bourke clipped over a couple of points in response, the gap was too wide and St Dominic’s had secured the win.
St Dominic’s: A Fitzsimons 2-1, M Devlin 1-4, M Rooney 1-0, C McGinley 0-2, R MacElhatton 0-1.
Antrim get their National Football League campaign underway this Sunday when they face Carlow in Portglenone at 2-00pm and it looks like a stiff opening day’s challenge for Mark Doran’s side.
The Saul native has only been in charge of the Saffrons since the start of the season following the resignation of Andy McEntee following a poor division 3 campaign that saw Antrim relegated to division 4.
In a season where the highlight for Andy McEntee’s Antrim was a great first half in their Ulster Championship game against Armagh when the Saffrons led at half time at Corrigan Park before going down 1-34 to 1-23 in a truly enthralling contest.
The build up to that game and Antrim’s ‘Casement or Nowhere’ campaign, on reflection may well have proved a distraction to McEntee’s side and they took a heavy hammering away to Wexford in the preliminary round of the Tailteann Cup.
Their opponents on Sunday, Carlow changed manager mid-season when Shane Curran was replaced by Joe Murphy and the Leinster side showed marked improvement late in the season which included a shock Tailteann Cup win away to Fermanagh.
Mickey Bramwick scored 1-12 against division 3 side Fermanagh in that game and with Sean Murphy and Ross Dunphy have players who can cause Antrim problems.
They have started the season well with victory in the O’Byrne Shield with wins over Laois, Wexford and Wicklow in the final so they will be travelling North in confident mood.
John McNabb
When I spoke to Mark Doran during the week he told me “I’ve been to watch them twice over the last few weeks. A big strong team and have a lot of pace up front with a lot of very good players. Sean Murphy, Mickey Bramwick, Ross Dunphy. If you look at their results they are scoring very heavily”.
Meantime Antrim have been competing in the McKenna Cup and have had two difficult outings against Derry and eventual winners, Donegal.
In both games the Saffrons showed plenty of promise in the opening half but faded against stronger opposition but will surely have benefited from these two difficult contests.
At the time of writing there had been no Antrim team announced but John McNabb is likely to start in goals after finally throwing his hat into the Antrim ring and the big Cargin stopper has carried his excellent club form into his county outings.
Antrim are likely to be without Peter Healey, Ryan Murray, Jimmy Gribbin, Adam Loughran, Colm McGirr and Conor Hand through injury but it is hoped that Paddy McAleer will be available to add experience to the Antrim cause.
Kevin McCann from St. Ergnat’s has had two solid performances in the McKenna Cup and with Ronan Quinn, Ruairi Hagan, Sean O’Neill, Tiernan McCormick, Tom McFerran and Tom Shivers will be amongst the new faces hoping to get the nod.
Pat Shivers
The return of Pat Shivers has added height and physicality to the Antrim attack while Paddy McBride, the Finnegan’s, Joe and Patrick, Marc Jordan, Kavan Keenan, Eoghan McCabe, John Carron, Kevin Small, Conor Small, Ryan McQuillan and host clubs Ruairi Hagan and Oisin Doherty will all be challenging for a starting place.
The weather forecast over the next few days isn’t great so playing conditions could be less than ideal and it could be a matter of digging deep but Antrim have the players to get their National League campaign of to a winning start.
Antrim’s national league campaign begins this weekend with a journey down to the sunny south east and a clash with Wexford. After maintaining their status in the division comfortably in 2025, the 2026 campaign sees a tough schedule for Davy Fitzgerald’s men with the Banner men coming ‘up the road’ next weekend and a date with Dublin soon after.
But, that’s the joys of playing at the top table in hurling and contests against the best in the country certainly whet the appetite.
After the disappointment of relegation from the Leinster Championship, Fitzgerald has rejigged his back room team where Arron Graffin stays but it joined with St Paul’s native, Paul Donnelly and one Seoirse Bulfin.
Bulfin is a Limerick native with Bruff his home club and as we found out, has a long and successful past with Fitzgerald. Despite being part of the Meath management team (coach and manager) after taking the reins at Westmeath, Seoirse told us that he felt he would always end up working with Davy again: “We’ve been working together since 2003. Started off in LIT and I stepped up to Waterford with him in 2011. Five years in Waterford, five years in Clare and then Wexford before we took a break from each other.
Former Meath and Westmeath manager Seoirse Bulfin who has rejoined his long time associate Davy Fitzgerald as Antrm Hurling Coach
“I was delighted to get back working with him.
“When we finished up in Wexford we had a good old chat, I always had an idea I’d work with him again but I’d already committed to working with Meath.”
An eight and a half hour round trip is far from easy, throw in the fact that Seoirse has a young family with three daughters, there was more than himself involved in the decision making: “I didn’t need much encouragement. He (Davy) had always spoke so well of the players and I’ve came up against Antrim a bit over the last couple of years so I’ve seen the talent and quality as well as the passion they have for hurling.
“It didn’t take much encouragement and when I looked at the logistics and spoke to my wife at home, I decided to give it a go for a year and see how it goes.”
The ‘Davy Project’ is now a little more than 12 months in and while everyone is keen and hopeful of progress on the pitch, Seoirse was impressed with what he has walked into: “When you go into a new place like how I have with Davy just being here a year, it takes a bit of time to get the way of playing and mindset in synch with what you’re maybe after. You could see from the first session or two that there’s been an awful lot of work done. The players don’t have to think as much about what they have to do, they’re just doing it.
“For me, the one thing that kind of stood out was the even level of hurling throughout the panel. Everyone of them are well able to hurl and that’s great when you come into a set up like that. It makes our job as a coach easier, that’s for sure.”
With a couple of noticeable absentees from the panel, Nigel Elliott and Eoghan Campbell (retirement) with Niall McKenna and Ryan Elliott choosing to step away from the panel this year, the Bruff native has no concerns over the quality at their disposal this season and highlighted the fresh blood coming through the ranks.
When we discussed the make-up of the panel, Seoirse added: “We’re down a couple of lads who were part of the panel last year but there’s plenty of young lads who are putting their hand up here. They’ll get plenty of opportunities over the next couple of weeks.
Jack McCloskey who makes the step up from the Under 21s to the senior team this year.
“Joseph McLaughlin is an exciting talent along with Jack McCloskey who’s just back from a bad injury in the summer but there’s loads others. The likes of Ruairi McCormick, Cormac McKeown and Eoin McFerran. It’s an opportunity for these lads in a starting jersey. As the saying goes, possession is nine tenths of the law. Hang on to it and don’t give it back easy to some of the lads who are coming back.”
With our participation in the Walsh Cup restricted to just the one game due to adverse weather conditions, ‘frustration’ was the word of the day: “Walsh Cup wasn’t ideal” said Bulfin, “some managers are giving out about the likes of these games but look, if you’re not involved in this, you’d be playing challenge matches. And no matter what you hear, playing in the likes of the Walsh Cup is a step up from a challenge match.
“It was fairly frustrating but you could see it coming and thankfully they made the call fairly early.
“The conditions were horrendous. The rain was pelting it down but the wind, it made it difficult to hear ourselves out there for the likes of puck outs and even communicating in the back line you know but we did an awful lot of good things in the game and hit a lot of bad wides in the second half, maybe taking the wrong option.”
Since that game against Kildare, Antrim have been focusing on in-house games and while they have been hampered with players participation in the Ryan Cup with Jordanstown and Queen’s, Bulfin added that it’s been all positive: “We have a couple of in-house games but there’s lads playing in the Ryan Cup with five or six lads in with Jordanstown and two in with Queen’s – Wango and Cormac McKeown. You have to be fair to them and the competition. It’s not ideal but every county are in the same position.
“We’re preparing as best we can, the lads are training well and there’s a great vibe with huge amounts of positivity. A great bunch to work with and very driven.”
With the Saffrons home matches being moved from Corrigan Park while the Whiterock Road venue undergoes maintenance, Pearse Park Dunloy has been nominated the home of choice for the 2026 season. “From what I’ve seen and my own experience of Dunloy” added Bulfin, “it’s a great set up but it doesn’t really matter at the end of the day if it’s Croke Park or Dunloy or any of these places. We’ll prepare the lads to go out and play a certain way and certain ideals, go out with a set of principles and how we approach things and work hard but the one thing I can guarantee is these lads will go out and they’ll fight and they’ll battle, whatever happens after that, happens but that’s my big aim.”
The importance of staying in the division is paramount for the progression of Antrim hurling. Bulfin shared the same opinion when he added: “It’s important to maintain our status in Division 1b. It’s a very competitive league and while it’s a tough start (away to Wexford and home to Clare and Dublin), we want to maintain our status, hold our own and go into the Joe McDonagh where we’ll be there or thereabouts.
“We have our own personal goals that we won’t be disclosing but that’s where we’re at, that the kind of feel that we have right now.”
To call it the ‘sunny south east’ in the month of January may be a step too far but if there is a time to play a team with the caliber of Wexford, the first match in the league schedule would be close to being the first option.
Sean McKay who is one of the new names in the starting line-up for this season
The bookies will have Antrim as second favourites against a side who we performed well against for 40 minutes in the Leinster Championship before the rub of the green went against us. Will there be signs of progress? That will be difficult to measure given the time of year and timing of the match. No one will be casting judgement at the final whistle on Saturday evening. The word coming out of the camp is this group have developed their fighting ability and increased their desire for the Saffron shirt. As an Antrim fan that’s what we want, a team we can throw our lot behind.
Aquinas Grammar 3-12 Dean Maguirc Carrickmore 2-14
It was a night of frayed nerves, heart-stopping rallies, and ultimately, sheer unbridled joy on the Ravenhill Road. Aquinas Grammar has officially booked their place in a first-ever Danske Bank MacLarnon Cup final, surviving a ferocious comeback from Dean Maguirc in a wet and windy Cherryvale to win by a single point.
For the Aquinas faithful, the final whistle—which sounded just as the ball was being kicked out—was the sweetest sound of the year. While the scoreboard shows a narrow 3-12 to 2-14 victory, the journey to that result was a rollercoaster where Aquinas repeatedly built commanding leads, only to see the tenacious Tyrone side claw their way back every time.
Shaky Start
The game didn’t begin according to the script. Dean Maguirc settled fastest in the difficult conditions, hitting an early point and a goal to leave Aquinas chasing the game immediately. It took ten minutes for the South Belfast side to find their rhythm, but when they did, they were lethal.
JJ Higgins and Fintan McArdle settled the nerves with points, but the true turning point of the half came via a goal from Valo Marttila. That strike put Aquinas into a lead they would technically hold for the rest of the game, though never comfortably.
When Pádhraig O’Hare rifled home a second goal in the 23rd minute, Aquinas looked to be cruising, leading by double scores at 2-4 to 1-2. With a five-point cushion approaching injury time, it felt like one foot was already in the final. However, a lapse in concentration allowed Carrickmore to reel off three quick points, slashing the half-time advantage to a precarious two points (2-5 to 1-6).
Second Half Rollercoaster
The pattern of dominance followed by anxiety continued after the break. Although Dean Maguirc narrowed the gap to a single point immediately, Aquinas responded like champions.
Fintan McArdle, who finished with a personal tally of 1-5, struck for Aquinas’ third goal in the 37th minute. Following a two-pointer from James McEvoy, the lead had ballooned to seven. Again, it looked like game over. Again, Carrickmore refused to read the script, hitting back with a goal of their own moments later.
Entering the final ten minutes, Aquinas seemed to have finally quelled the rebellion. Conor Frazer landed a crucial two-pointer to provide breathing room, and further scores from Conn Huston and Jacko Watson pushed the gap out to six points with just six minutes left on the clock.
Holding On for History
Those final six minutes tested the resolve of every Aquinas player and supporter. Dean Maguirc threw everything forward in a desperate bid to salvage the game. A point from Shane Morris followed by a late two-pointer cut the gap to the absolute minimum deep in added time.
It was frantic, bodies-on-the-line defending in the dying seconds. As Dean Maguirc hunted for an equalizer, the Aquinas defense stood tall. The final whistle blew on the kick-out, confirming the result: Aquinas Grammar, for the first time in history, are MacLarnon Cup Finalists.
It wasn’t easy, and they certainly made the fans sweat, but the South Belfast school is heading to its first final.
Match Stats & Scorers
Aquinas Grammar Scorers:
Fintan McArdle: 1-5 (0-3f)
Valo Marttila: 1-1
Pádhraig O’Hare: 1-0
James McEvoy: 0-2 (2pt)
Conor Frazer: 0-2 (2pt)
Jacko Watson: 0-2
JJ Higgins: 0-1
Conn Huston: 0-1
Dean Maguirc Scorers:
C Tracey 2-1, C Grimes 0-4, P McCrory 0-2, L Meenagh 0-2 (2pt), P Donaghy 0-1, V Gormley 0-1, E Conway 0-1, S Morris 0-1.
Aquinas Grammar
Cormac McGarry
Oliver Quinn
Frank Heaney
Oscar O’Connor
Conall Vaugh
Conor Frazer
Darragh McQuaid
Padhraig O’Hare
James McEvoy
Valo Marttila
JJ Higgins
Rhys Bray
Fintan McArdle
Conn Huston
Jacko Watson
Subs used – Rory McConnell, Johnny Higgins, Shane Bell, Conor Bell
Dean Maguirc College Carrickmore
Tarlach Treacy
Eoin Kelly
Michael Gallagher
Adrain Berlowski
Ciaran McCrystal
Eoghain Conway
Padraig Donaghy
Phelim McCrory
Michael McCallan
Caolan Tracey
Vincent Gormley
Rory Woods
Marcus Conway
Caolan Grimes
Odhrán Curran
TO SEE MORE PHOTOS FROM THIS GAME CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW
Queen’s University Belfast 1-14 | Ulster University 0-12
The Antrim duo of Cathal Hyndes and Ryan McQuillan were involved in Wednesday evening’s Belfast Siggerson Cup derby between Ulster University and Queens University which was played under terrible conditions at Jordanstown. In a hard fought and really entertaining game Queens produced a brilliant late rally to snatch victory in injury time with a brillintly struck 2pointer from Derry’s Anton Tohill and a late goal from corner back Joey Clarke to seal their team a quarter-final spot.
The Turning Point
The game hung in the balance entering injury time. Ulster University, who had trailed for most of the contest, had clawed their way into the lead (0-12 to 0-11) by the 50th minute. However, Queen’s refused to fold.
After Ronan Cassidy leveled the scoring with a free, Anton Tohill stepped up. Defying the elements, he landed a massive 2pointer to catapult Queen’s into the lead. Moments later, defender Joey Clarke raided forward to bury a goal, putting a gloss on the scoreline that barely reflected the tightness of the struggle.
Queen’s were outplayed for a good part of the opening half, but with the strong wind behind them they got the better of their Belfast rivals, Ryan McQuillan hitting five points to help steer them towards an 0–8 to 0-05 half time lead.
Second Half: The UU Fightback
Ulster University emerged with renewed intent after the break. The half featured a unique family battle as Bellaghy’s Luke Diamond (QUB) faced his brother Charlie Diamond (UU).
Charlie Diamond dragged UU back into contention with a two-pointer of his own.
A two-point score from Ben Cullen leveled the game at 0-11 apiece.
When McCullagh pointed a 50th-minute free, UU led for the first time, but they could not hold off the late Queen’s blitz.
Quarter-Final Outlook: Queen’s University now advance to the last eight. They will join the seeded draw alongside TU Dublin, UCD, UCC, and UL.
Teams and Scorers
Queen’s University Belfast (QUB)
Scorers: R McQuillan 0-5 (2tpf), A Tohill 0-2 (1tpf), C Higgins 0-2, R Cassidy 0-2 (1f), J Clarke 1-0, C O’Neill 0-1, L Diamond 0-1, N Grimes 0-1.
Team: A Lee; J Clarke, M Ennis, O Campbell; J McGurk, C O’Neill, D Scullion; C Hynds, A Tohill; C Higgins, R Cassidy, L Diamond; N Grimes, M Burnett, R McQuillan.
Subs: L McManus for McQuillan (49), N Duffy for L Diamond (63).
Ulster University (UU)
Scorers: R McCullagh 0-6 (5f), B Cullen 0-2 (1tp), C Diamond 0-1 (1tp), D McDermott 0-1, C O’Brien 0-1.
Team: R Burns; F O’Brien, L Kelly, R Boyle; B Cullen, R Nugent, J Donaghy; S Carr, G Mohan; J McDermott, R Magill, D McDermott; C Diamond, C O’Brien, R McCullagh.
Subs: H Magill for Kelly (HT), L Hughes for J McDermott (36), C Daly for Donaghy (42), J Doran for C O’Brien (50).
