Hurling & Camogie

Paddy Cunningham aiming to steer St Mary's to Paddy Buggy Cup honours

Former Antrim forward and current St Mary’s CBGS senior hurling coach Paddy Cunningham
Former Antrim forward and current St Mary’s CBGS senior hurling coach Paddy Cunningham Former Antrim forward and current St Mary’s CBGS senior hurling coach Paddy Cunningham

Masita Paddy Buggy Cup All-Ireland Hurling final: Saturday March 25: 2pm in Semple Stadium, Thurles (Live on TG4)

St Mary’s CBGS Belfast v John the Baptist CS Hospital

Back in the day when the current St Mary’s CBGS senior hurling coach Paddy Cunningham himself was togging out in the yellow, green and black, the Mageean Cup was probably the height of any player’s expectations in schools’ hurling.

His alma mater had collected All-Ireland titles in 1971 and 1974 but, despite several schools coming close over the next three decades, there was to be no repeat and the O’Keefe Cup never returned to the province.

“I think that Ulster teams got to the stage that they were travelling south for the All-Ireland campaign more in hope than expectation,” Cunningham suggested this week.

“We won in 2003, but deep down I don’t really think that we believed that we could go all the way. I can’t remember who beat us in the semi-final. But we were no different than the other Mageean Cup teams here at the time.

“Sometimes a school got a boost by winning a semi-final, but then things went back to square-one in the final.

“I know that Maghera won a couple of Mageeans around the early nineties and courageously entered the Croke Cup (Senior A) and made a reasonable fist of it against St Kieran’s Kilkenny and Middleton CBS. Those teams probably could have lifted the B title – but we’ll never know.”

However it was St Patrick’s Maghera who eventually broke the mould in 2006 and that opened the floodgates. In a remarkable run from 2009-2012, four All-Ireland titles in succession came north – Cross & Passion Ballycastle with a double, followed by a second for Maghera and then St Mary’s.

“Maghera’s win gave everyone belief – it was just like Down in football in 1991. If Maghera could do it, then it was open to any Mageean Cup winning team to do the same.”

The former Saffron football forward takes St Mary’s down to Semple Stadium this Saturday, hoping to lift the Paddy Buggy Cup, the trophy now on offer following the re-alignment of schools’ GAA a few years ago.

It’s the fourth year in succession that the Mageean Cup winners will contest the final, now annually transmitted live in conjunction with the Croke Cup final on TG4.

Ballycastle returned after a narrow final defeat by Roscrea in 2014 to lift the title the following season and last year St Louis Ballymena fell short in extra time to Abbey CBS Tipperary.

“The stats certainly show that it’s all to play for on Saturday. There is no reason that we can’t win the title.”

Nor does it annoy him that the game will be played only 30-40 miles from the home of St Mary’s opponents, St John the Baptist CS in Hospital on the Limerick / Tipperary county border, while the Ulster champions will require an overnight stay on Friday evening.

“Cross and Passion beat Mountrath of Laois in their final, a similar scenario to ours. Look, this is the big day for schools’ hurling, playing in Semple Stadium and we are live on TV. The boys are really looking forward to it. It’s a fantastic opportunity for any young hurler.”

Paddy has been with this group since they entered St Mary’s in late 2010 and over the past seven years they have won every single competitive match they played.

Two weeks ago they got their first chance to bring that record outside Ulster and it has been extended. Saturday is the final frontier, the team’s last competitive game for the school and they are determined to achieve the perfect finish.