All Ireland Hurling Féile
27 Jun 2014
Feile na nGael – Ulster

Well done to our Under 14 Hurlers on getting to the Semi Final of the Feile na nGael in Derry last weekend. It was a fantastic weekend for the Boys, Parents and Mentors. Our hosts Na Magha of Derry City were fantastic, we received a very warm GAA welcome from them and they could not do enough to make the weekend memorable for all concerned. The lads were treated to a visit to the Guild Hall in Derry where they met the Lady Mayor and had food and soft drinks laid on for both teams. They were then brought on a very interesting tour of the walled city of Derry. The boys then went to Owenbeg in Dungiven – Derry GAA’s centre of excellence where the Feile parade was held. They carried the Castleknock Feile banner with pride amongst 78 teams of boys & girls that were playing hurling & camogie over the weekend. The boys even got our GAA President – Liam O’Neill in for a photo with them!

Off then to their host families from Na Magha. The lads had been narrowly beaten by Na Magha in the 1st match but that didn’t stop both teams from interacting well with each all weekend, I fact both teams went on to support each other in their respective matches.

Saturday was going to be tough as we needed to hit the ground running and hope to win our matches to have a chance at a quarter final, the lads did not disappoint – first up was Banagher from Feeny. After another GAA welcome the lads took to the field knowing that a win was a must, they hurled hard and won the encounter well. Credit to Banagher who fought well and showed that they had great skills. Next up was St. Ernans from Westmeath, these boys were skilful hurlers with good first touch. Our lads were impressive from the start scoring well to set up a nice lead for half time. In the second half Castleknock showed lovely skills to win the match well.

We were in a Quarter Final and were on the road again for Letterkenny. When we arrived we found out that we were playing a team from Galway – Tommy Larkins, the lads again showed that as the day went on they were getting better. They started the match on fire, winning most of the ball and scoring impressively, this was a fantastic performance from our boys who put on a masterclass of hurling. They won the match well and were applauded by the opposition mentors who was very impressed by the 00’s skills. Credit to Tommy Larkins who fought hard to the end and showed great first touch skills. The lads were in a Semi Final and had played great hurling to get there.

Later the lads went back to their host families and were treated to bowling and the cinema. Na Magha presented Brian McCann with a beautiful Crystal Plaque commemorating our clubs visit.

The next morning we travelled to Banagher for the Semi Final against a Derry Club called Slaughneil, they had won all their matches impressively and were up for it. After Amran na bhFiann the lads commenced the battle and battle it was, we were slower starting but gradually got into the game. At half time we were down but the lads dug deep and prevented Slaughneil from scoring in the second half but the first half deficit came back to haunt us. We ended our Feile journey in Banagher but the lads can be extremely proud of their efforts, getting to the Feile na nGael was a great achievement. Getting to a Semi Final showed that we were competing at the highest level. We are very proud of the boys and great credit to the Mentors, our host Club – Na Magha, host parents and Ulster GAA for a unique tournament that will be remembered fondly by all involved.

Panel: Shane Carolan, Luke McCann, Eoghan Lyons, Oisin McKay, Darragh Hewson, Ciaran Murphy, Aidan Kearney, Max Byrne, Stephen Quinn, David McInerney, Patrick Flynn, Shaun Mealia, Luke Toland, Ruairi Cullen, Luke Gubbins, Sean McCormack, Conor Dorman, Cian Corcoran, Hugh Hogan, Lennon Bracken, Aaron Cunningham, Cian Boyle, David Bohan, Ben O’Neill