A Chairde,
You are invited to join the Ulster Colleges Council of the GAA and the Ulster Gaelic Games Archive for an evening celebrating the history of the Ulster Colleges competitions.
The Ulster Colleges organisation is ‘retiring’ the current MacRory, MacLarnon, Rannafast, and Forresters Cups, and the Corn na nOg, and has decided to donate these major trophies to the Gaelic games archive at the Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich Memorial Library & Archive in Armagh.
The library will host a unique event on Thursday evening, 23rd February when these long-established trophies will be formally handed over to the library, and, in turn, their replacements will be handed over to the Colleges by benefactors.
The MacRory Cup has been contested since 1924, and the original trophy was donated by Cardinal MacRory himself. The current trophy was donated by Cardinal Dalton in 1962, and Cardinal Brady has now generously provided a magnificent replacement trophy which will perpetuate the close connection between this illustrious competition and the Archdiocese of Armagh.
The Rannafast Cup is now in its 74th year, having first been contested in 1938, and the Christian Brothers, who have been synonymous with Gaelic Games in schools throughout this island, have provided an iconic replacement.
Meanwhile, the MacLarnon Cup, originally donated by Dean MacLarnon in 1959, is being replaced by Past Pupils of St Patrick’s Academy Dungannon.
Thursday evening’s event, which commences at 7.00pm, will feature reminiscences from iconic figures such as Sean O’Neill (Abbey CBS and Down), and a talk on aspects of the history of the MacRory Cup by Dr Donal McAnallen. The proceedings will also include the presentation of a MacRory Cup medal for 1942 to Macartan MacCormack (Castleblaney) who was on the winning St Macartan’s team in that year, but who did not receive a medal at the time. That oversight will now be rectified after a gap of 70 years.
To facilitate further research on the history of Gaelic Games at schools’ level in Ulster, the Colleges organisation is also donating all its extensive archive material to the Ó Fiaich library where it will be accessible to future scholars.
the event is free but prior booking is strongly advised.
Further information:
Seamus Woods (Ulster Colleges) (079666 28051) seamusjwoods@gmail.com
Roddy Hegarty (Director, Cardinal Ó Fiaich Library & A) (028 37 522981) roddy.hegarty@ofiaich.ie
