Cathal Murray: The final bell

FEATURE

MOST of Cathal Murray’s life has been controlled by the school bell. His day has started and ended with that same sound for a very long time. But this Tuesday, he’ll hear it for the final time.

Murray has grown up and been moulded by the walls at St Colman’s College. A student. A teacher. A coach. He has dedicated most of his life to the college at Violet Hill.

Good days and bad days, Murray will say goodbye to the school one last time on Tuesday as he steps into retirement. He’ll miss the place he has called home for so long but he’ll leave with a lifetime of memories.

There is a rich footballing history at St Colman’s that most schools can only dream about.

A quick glance at the MacRory roll of honour tells you all you need to know.

They are top of the pile with 20 titles and Murray managed the school to three of them.

They are also second on the list of Hogan Cup winners and Murray guided the college to back-to-back All-Ireland glory in 2010 and 2011, retaining the title for the first time in the school’s glorious history.

“In a way, my life this last 35 years has been controlled by the bells. Maybe I’m institutionalized at this stage, so not hearing bells and not waiting for the alarms to go off in the morning will be a major plus,” said Murray, who is retiring as the school’s Head of PE.

“Half my life has been spent here. I came here as a student in 1980 to ‘87 and I came back in 2005 (as a teacher) so more than half my life has involved in St Colman’s College. It’s hard to let some of that go.

“It’ll be tough leaving, but I’ll have a bit of time for myself, and my family which I’m looking forward to. I’ll just take every day as it comes and take it from there.”

The MacRory Cup competition is in Murray’s blood. In 2005, he guided St Louis to the decider, which they lost to Omagh CBS after a replay.

In all, he took St Colman’s to the final four times, winning three of them.

There was the hugely successful team in 2010 and 2011. The 2017 squad just came up short in the final.

In 2020, Covid denied both finalists a chance of claiming the silverware for themselves, so St Colman’s shared the trophy with St Pat’s Maghera.

Murray stepped away from that level of football in the last few seasons.

Balancing the school team with club coaching was becoming too difficult.

“I found that when I stepped away from the MacRory team, my perspective on school’s football probably changed,” he explained. “This is now my third year not involved.

“It’s been relentless. When I was with Ardee St Mary’s, the difficulty was that we were getting to Leinster semis and Leinster finals so it was so difficult to try and train the MacRory team. You were going home for a quick bite to eat and then I back on the road again to Ardee.

“I found that tough. I decided that something had to give, and I said I’d step back from the MacRory and take the Rannafast team, so it was full-on for that whole length of time.

Reflecting on those years, Murray continued, “In the earlier days, everything was on a Saturday. Training was Saturday, games were Saturday, but Ulster Schools football has changed quite a bit and there’s not an awful lot of games played on a Saturday now.

“I used to love the old way. You were going to play the game and there’s no pressure. There’s no teacher giving out about homework or misbehaving or whatever. You’re coming in on a Saturday morning just focused totally on the match.

“I have always been supported by my wife Perpetua and daughter Katy, who attended every game, so I didn’t think it was a particularly good change (moving away from Saturday’s).”

He continued: “Maybe you have coaches and managers who aren’t prepared to give up as much time as us, I don’t want to say older heads, but more experienced coaches. I still enjoyed what I was doing but I just found myself a wee bit tired and that’s why I came to the decision to retire.”

Some of the best footballing talents Ulster have produced in the last two decades have passed through Murray’s hands. He had Marty Clarke, and his older brother John, during his time at St Louis, Kilkeel.

Rian O’Neill’s team lost a MacRory final in 2017. Caolan Mooney was sensational in their double Hogan Cup wins. Caolan Finnegan, who tragically passed away in 2024, was the best player at creating a goal from nothing that Murray has ever witnessed.

“You’re always looking out for those lads. Some of those boys would blow you away with the things they could do. It was also their desire to win and passion to perform for the jersey that they’re pulling on.”

Coaching has been a major part of his story. Having played on the Down team that won two All-Irelands in the 1990s, and helping Clonduff to a championship crown in 2000, he picked up the whistle as soon as he hung up the boots, with hamstring trouble forcing his hand.

“I was just so frustrated with football and I fell out of love with playing,” he added. “In my last game for Clonduff, I couldn’t actually play for the very simple reason that I had a blister on my heel. I couldn’t run. It wasn’t like now where you put a blister plaster on.

“We played Errigal Ciaran in the Ulster Club and that was me, I’d had enough. I stepped into club coaching after that, and I’ve been taking teams ever since that.

“Drumgath was my first club and being a PE teacher, coaching wasn’t something that wasn’t alien to me. I’d been taking school teams all along so the only difference was that I was working with adults as opposed to kids, so it wasn’t a big change.”

Murray gained plenty of coaching experience at the highest level as well. He worked with Antrim under Frank Dawson in 2013 and was on the sideline for the last championship game which was held at Casement Park.

He joined up with Eamonn Burns in Down when they reached the Ulster final in 2017. He was alongside Wayne Kierans with Louth in 2019 and 2020.

Recently, Murray guided Ardee St Mary’s to the Leinster Club final in 2024, but they came up agonisingly short to a Cuala side that went on to win the All-Ireland. He now finds himself coaching with St Brigid’s in Belfast.

Sport hasn’t just been a hobby for Murray – it’s been his life. Teaching PE during the day, coaching school teams after school, then heading onto a club ground for another session.

“Sport has been my life since I came out of St Mary’s College. That was 35 years ago now, in 1991. I was with the Down squad, and we won the All-Ireland in ’91 so from then, my whole life has just revolved around sport.

“What I particularly liked about PE is that you’re developing a relationship with boys. Obviously, we taught GCSE and A-Level PE but for your ordinary PE classes, you don’t have that same pressure, the lads are just enjoying sport.

“It’s a break from the classroom and it’s about giving them the best experience that you can and forming good habits in terms of their attitude towards health and exercise.

“I’ve found as the years go by, with more and more lads, the only exercise they’re getting would have been the PE class. The challenge for us then is to make that as meaningful as we can. That’s challenging but at the same time it’s also enjoyable.

“We would have had a lot of variety in the PE programme. As much as the football is the main focus in the school, you have lads coming in that have no interest in football, so you have other sports.

“Boys might not be interested in football, but we’ve developed some excellent runners. There’s boys that have gone on to college in America on the back of the experience they had in cross country running and athletics in St Colman’s.”

Playing football in the right way has also been important to Murray. In an era of blanket defences and double sweeper systems, he also tried to stay true to his coaching philosophy.

Of course, there’s a time and a place to shut things down and defend what you have, but more often than not, Murray has wanted his teams to play with adventure and on the front foot.

“I’ve always wanted to play front-foot football,” he continued. “I’d be very adventurous and want players to express themselves and not put a shackle on anybody no matter where they play on the field. Whether it be school teams or clubs teams, I want them to play football.

“I’ve always been my own man with things but the way we were taught to play at St Colman’s with the likes of Ray Morgan and Pete McGrath, following through to university with Jim McKeever and Peter Finn, they were integral in moulding me into a player.

“They helped form the characteristics that I have set teams up with and played by. My family was a very strong influence too. Simple things – growing up they rarely would have missed a game and that helped me to realise the importance of having good people around you.

“I’ve been very lucky to work with some excellent coaches and under some brilliant managers as well, but I’ve always been true to my idea of playing football on the front foot.”

Stepping away is one of the hardest things to do in life, but Murray won’t be a stranger around St Colman’s. While he will no longer be the one calling the shots from the sideline, he’ll still have a keen interest in how the school performs.

“I have no major plans. It’s just a bit of time to myself. I’ll just take every day at it comes. I’ve had a wonderful time, and the school has had amazing successes in my time here.

“I wouldn’t have had direct contact with a lot of these teams, but the school has won two swimming Ulster titles, two basketball, two hurling titles, 18 cross country and athletics Ulster titles and ten All-Ireland. We won two Daltons, two Corn na nÓg’s, an Oisin McGrath, two Rannafasts, three MacRorys and two Hogans.

“From my point of view, I’ll enjoy going to watch the school play and supporting them.”

It’s been an incredible career and a life well spent. Murray will look back on his days at Violet Hill will fondness and memories that will never be forgotten. Once the final bell rings on Tuesday, a new chapter of his life will begin.

90S GLORY…Cathal Murray played for Down in the 90s when they won two All-Ireland titles