MacLarnon Cup

Up until 1960, the only Colleges football competition at Senior level was the MacRory Cup, and a number of schools had emerged which were anxious to participate but which did not have the numbers or resources to compete against the large diocesan boarding schools.

In 1959, Dean MacLarnon presented a trophy to the Ulster Colleges Council for a Provincial ‘B’ championship which would address the needs of these emerging schools. Coincidentally or otherwise, the first winners in 1960 were St Patrick’s Academy Dungannon, the school in which Dean MacLarnon was Headteacher!

A notable feature over the intervening decades since 1960 has been the egalitarian nature of this particular competition, as evidenced by the fact that in March 2012 St Paul’s Bessbrook became the 24th different school to lift this title. There is an additionally important historical dimension to the list of past winners in that it includes a number of schools which have now disappeared from the educational landscape due to demographic changes and/or amalgamations e.g. Armagh CBS, St Michael’s Omeath, De La Salle, Ballyshannon, St Tiernach’s Clones.

This 2nd tier championship is currently contested by 18 schools annually, and its ongoing unpredictability confirms the breadth of standards across such a large number of schools. The 2012 champions, St Paul’s Bessbrook, went on to lift the All Ireland ‘B’ title (the Noonan Cup).

The original MacLarnon Cup was retired in February 2012, and presented to the O’Fiaich Library in Armagh. A number of Past Pupils of St Patrick’s Academy Dungannon, convened by Peter Herron who is a well known coach in the school, presented Ulster Colleges with a magnificent new trophy, thereby maintaining the link between the Academy and this illustrious competition.

MacLarnon Cup Roll of Honour