By Shaun Casey

IT’S ten years since Irvinestown last claimed championship gold in the Erne County and entered the provincial series, and they still have some of that crop to call upon, explains team leader Josh Largo Elis.

Their exploits in Ulster were short-lived as they suffered an opening-day defeat to Antrim champions Glenavy, losing out by just a point. A decade on, Irvinestown are aiming to go at least one step further.

Not only do they have the experience, but they have a good crop of youngsters who are used to winning big games.

“We haven’t been here since 2015 so it’s massive to get into the Ulster Championship. We want to go and see how good we are against other teams from around the province,” said Largo Elis.

“If you consider lads like Paul Leonard, Gary Maguire, John Doonan and Tiarnan Daly, there’s a lot of experience there that will help us hopefully get over the line.

“Then there’s a bit of youth coming through as well. We had a minor team that won four championships in a row, and they have helped us massively over the last two years to get us to where we are.

“There is a nice blend – we have played lads who are 18 or 19 and then others that are between 31 and 35, so there’s a nice mix there which really helps.”

Those younger players have added a real boost to the team, particularly at training. “The standards in training have been improved massively over the last couple of years,” Largo Elis, a Sigerson Cup winner with UU in 2024, continued.

“Three or four years ago we mightn’t have had the standards that we have now, and it helps the boys to push on. We have 40 men at training, and everyone is driving each other on.

“Even if you have a starting jersey, you know there is someone behind you and they’re looking to take your place, so training has been unbelievable the last two years.”

Cavan representatives Cuchulainn’s are their opponents this weekend, at Kingspan Breffni, and while it’s an away day trip for the Irvinestown men, Fermanagh player Largo Elis believes his side have what it takes to advance to the last four of the competition.

“They’re champions for a reason so we’ll respect them, and they’ll respect us and hopefully we can give a good account of ourselves. We’ll just have to play our own game, and we can’t really dwell on them too much,

“Hopefully if we play our own game, we’ll be alright, and we should be confident in ourselves. We’re going down there and there’s not too many boys that have played there but it all happens on the day. We can’t control the venue, we can only control how we play.”