St Dominic’s make history

By Niall Gartland

SATURDAY was a momentous occasion for St Dominic’s Grammar School as they became the first Belfast school to land an All-Ireland camogie title, winning the Corn Úna Junior D final with a one-point victory over Gaelcholáiste Chill Dara.

Their achievement is all the more remarkable as they only reformed camogie in the school three years ago, and from that point onwards they’ve gone from strength-from-strength and have now got their hands on a national title.

They’re expertly managed by Burren native Meabh Cassidy, who was keen to highlight the influence of the players’ clubs on their success on the school-front.

“Camogie has really strengthened in the city through the likes of Gaelfast and the Belfast clubs, and we started it up again in the school on the back of that.

“There’s been a lot of work going on in various schools, but the clubs really deserve a lot of credit – from our respective Lámh Dhearg, Rossa, St Paul’s and Gort are the main ones feeding into us.”

Cassidy acknowledges that they were hanging on against their Kildare-based opposition in the closing stages but they did enough over the course of the hour to edge a titanic tussle by a single point.

It’s not every day you win an All-Ireland title so the players are justifiably delighted with their historic accomplishment.

“Realistically, winning with their school might be the only realistic opportunity to win an All-Ireland. It’s very difficult to get out on top of a club series especially in a county like Antrim where it’s so competitive. They’ve been in great form and it’s really nice for the girls that they’ve won a title like this alongside their classmates that they’ve come up through the school with.”