When we were Kings – The St Mary’s Mageean Cup story

St Mary’s Belfast won five titles in succession in the late nineties. Kieran McGourty played on three of the winning teams. He spoke with Michael McMullan.

THE late nineties was a golden era for school hurling in Belfast. For five years, the Mageean Cup was tucked away in St Mary’s on Belfast’s Glen Road.

Eddie McToal and Tony Austin brought together players from across the hotbed of hurling in the west of the city. Under the duo’s watch, they hurled and committed fully to what was needed to succeed.

They lead the roll of honour with 30, including the 1954 title they shared with Garron Tower. Their last success came in 2016 when a group who hoovered up virtually every title on their way up the school completing the set with the Mageean Cup.

It has become known as ‘Odhrán’s final’ after Odhrán McKenna. Having battled back from injuries in a car accident earlier in the year, he came on late in the final. The embrace with his twin brother CJ who played a central role was a poignant moment. As reported by The Saffron Gael, there wasn’t a dry eye in The Dub.

The current crop in St Mary’s have impressed in the group stages so far and face St Patrick’s Keady in Friday’s quarter-final.

St Killian’s await the winners after knocking out reigning champions St Patrick’s Maghera on Tuesday. Cross and Passion Ballycastle take on St Louis Ballymena in the semi-finals.

For Kieran McGourty, now a teacher in La Salle, the memories come flooding back his own playing days.

“Your career’s finished and you look back every now and again,” he said. “It’s just good times, happy times and obviously it helps when you’re winning.”

Son of Sean McGourty, himself a giant of the Ulster Schools at committee level, Kieran knows first-hand the level of effort that goes in to keeping the wheels turning, largely unnoticed by those on the outside.

“Eddie and Tony were totally awesome, it was just the amount of work that they put into us,” Kieran recalls.

“They took the teams round then and were involved in the management for the five in a row teams.

“Looking back at school, there are fond memories generally and then obviously the sporting aspect goes a long way. When you are successful, then it also helps.”

It was also their level of detail, going above and beyond the competition itself. Both men saw the raw talent in the groups at their disposal and it matched their ambition.

McGourty recalls trips to Wexford, Kilkenny and Clare as part of their preparations. It gave them a chance to challenge against some of the top schools, freshening up their schedule while adding to the bond within the group. There were no shortage of memories and laughs along the way.

“We went to Wexford in 1996 when they were All-Ireland champions,” he recalls. “We got coached by a couple of Wexford players were obviously going well then under Liam Griffin.

“The year after we were in Kilkenny for a couple of nights and in my Upper Sixth year, I remember us flying down to Clare.

“They used to go from Belfast to Shannon and then America but we obviously got off and didn’t get to the America.”

UP FOR GRABS…Action from the 1998 Mageean Cup final.

McGourty’s Mageean memories began off the pitch as an impressionable Year 11 pupil at the 1995 final. After beating St Louis Ballymena in the semi-final, Garron Tower stood in the way of the first of St Mary’s five successive titles.

“You obviously knew the teams above you and St. Mary’s weren’t fancied that well that year,” he said. “It was the first year Eddie and Tony came in and Garron Tower hadn’t won it in a long time.”

In what was a nip and tuck game, Johnny Flynn hit a wonder point that lives in the school’s folklore. It was shades of Cork legend John Fenton’s goal against Limerick, when he let fly from around the halfway line.

“My abiding memory was Johnny’s point,” McGourty recalls of the 1995 final, “The ball bounced probably on the far 65 and Johnny, who was a club mate and somebody I looked up, he just volleyed it over the bar.

“Johnny had the best ground stroke that I’ve ever seen. He could cut a ball over with both hands basically and the ball just sat up and he just smashed it. It was just one of the memorable points and it has stuck with me.”

When McGourty came into the team for the 1996 campaign, they navigated their way to a semi-final against Garron Tower. Looking back, the game should never have been played. The first term of the school year was winter hurling in its rawest.

Amidst the puddles, St Mary’s did enough to book a final they won comfortably against St Louis.

It was the year of the trip to Wexford. While the hurling was always top of the agenda. It helped take them to another level.

“We had a great team and when you are travelling down to Wexford, you can see you’re starting to compete,” he said.

“It was just one of them brilliant trips. It was a fifth year and seeing the standards that needed to be met, it was brilliant.

“I think we could see Wexford winning the All-Ireland as underdogs and we wanted to look into how we could improve.

READY TO ROCK…The St Mary’s players pictured before their 1996 All-Ireland semi-final.

“There was a bit of fundraising done but Eddie and Tony just made it happen. I’m sure they had some discussions, they’d have begged and borrowed and whatever off people, but they gave us everything.”

When St Mary’s won the 1997 Mageean Cup, Mickey McCullagh scored 2-4 in the final to sink Maghera. It was a comfortable path through the competition.

By the time it came to the following season, St Mary’s were still the team to beat. They eased past St Louis in the semi-final to set up another showdown with Maghera.

A Kevin Grieve goal was the vital score in a one-point victory. St Mary’s were tested to the limit but refused to be denied.

An entry in the school magazine that year pointed to the levels of effort, the drive from the management and how they were the ‘fittest team in Ireland’.

“We had a big hill at the back of the school,” McGourty recalls. “In your free periods, you were expected to go and do the extra work.

“You were excused from going to the study and you’d done the running. We also had double sessions. Eddie and Tony always prided themselves on fitness, so there were a few proper slogging sessions.”

By his own admission, McGourty wasn’t the greatest advocate of the hard yards.

“You’re talking to the wrong man,” he said with a laugh. “Your name was ticked off in the study, that you were a hurler and you would have been given that time off.”

That was the length Tony Austin and Eddie McToal went to. Every base was covered. This was the year they took their hurling trip to a new level with their flight to Shannon and a few days in Clare.

“Maye they were wondering if we’d been getting the most out of our trips,” McGourty surmises. “If you are driving down, it’s a long trip.

STAR QUALITY…Kieran McGourty, Gavin Bell, Ciaran Herron, Stephen McGlennon, Kevin Grieve and Diarmuid McAuley were hurling All-Stars in 1998. Kieran McGourty also picked up a football award.

“If there was a plane there, it was going to cost a few more pound but it showed the absolute level of ambition.”

St Mary’s completed their five-in-a-row in the 1999-2000 season. It was a remarkable era for hurling in the school and for the clubs of West Belfast.

McGourty went on to play at the highest level, culminating in being an important cog in the St Gall’s football team that went on to dominate Antrim and win the ultimate – an All-Ireland.

There were no shortage of nuggets picked up during his time in St Mary’s where he won college All-Stars in both hurling and football.

One takeaway was that for all their efforts, they hadn’t enough to win the All-Ireland at school, despite the Ulster dominance.

“You realise that if you want to get anywhere, you know the hard work has to be done,” he said.

“We were taught that work ethic and the value of training two or three times a week, maybe with double sessions and a game.

“I’m not the greatest trainer in the world, I didn’t really like training but there was the realisation that if you want to compete at any level, you’ve got to prioritise this.

“Eddie and Tony certainly did; they set the standard. They never asked you to do anything that they weren’t prepared to do. Even when we were doing the runs, more often than not, Eddie and Tony would be there, leading them.”

That level of dedication rubbed off on McGourty, something he takes into sport.

“That was probably the big thing I learned,” he summed up, “to get into a place to win, you’re going to have to sacrifice so much.”

At the time of writing, there are five teams left in the race for the Mageean Cup. Last year’s winners St Patrick’s Maghera have been knocked off their perch.

They were comfortably beaten by St Mary’s in recent weeks in the group stages. It was a slick looking side but knock-out hurling is different gravy.

You just have to as McGourty and the men who hurled on the all-conquering teams of the nineties – the competition on really starts now. All the hard yards are for knock-out hurling, when teams are truly judged.