Maghera win 17th MacRory at expense of Abbey Vocational
February 09, 2025
St Pat’s Maghera’s greatest strength is knowing they have no divine right
St Patrick’s win their 17th MacRory Cup at the expense of first-time finalists Abbey Vocational School, who couldn’t sustain a brilliant start that saw them net two goals in the opening eight minutes.
Danske Bank MacRory Cup final: Abbey Vocational School 2-5 St Patrick’s Maghera 0-12
YOU might think after winning 16 MacRory Cups that some kind of divine right takes St Pat’s Maghera by the hand and walks them over to the trophy.
That could not be further from the story of their latest winning team.
Since winning the Year 8 competition in 2019, they hadn’t touched any silverware. At Corn na nÓg two years ago, they didn’t even make a semi-final.
Of the 16 days the students got off over Christmas, they trained nine of them.
On mid-term break, they trained five times.
On a Wednesday morning, they were in Ollie Cummings’ gym at the foot of the Glenshane Pass at 7.45am.
Thirty years after he captained a winning team in the competition, leading on to a glorious career, the decorated and now almost voiceless Sean Marty Lockhart has seen most things.
The standard has risen inexorably.
“I’m around MacRory football a long time and see this sense of entitlement, it can catch up on you very quickly. There’s no such thing as a favourite in the MacRory Cup.
“This year we knew we had a decent team but our lads put in a phenomenal amount of work.
“They deserve all the credit they get because they’ve earned it.”
The winning joint-manager has, along with Donegal native but Castledawson resident Willie McAteer and influential former Derry defender Chrissy McKaigue, overseen the growth of a team that was not fancied for this success at the start of the year.
There is nothing fancy about what they do or where they do it.
“Our lads go down the back pitch, we change in a portacabin and after every training session, the players sweep up after themselves. It’s a very humbling thing to do and they know their place.”
Maghera were not the story coming into this game.
It was not just a first decider for Abbey Vocational School themselves but the first time in 64 years that any school from Donegal had made the decider.
With 13 starters and another nine subs all produced by Four Masters, it was the single biggest representation from one club in any final in the competition’s history.
This was the sixth time a team had reached a MacRory Cup final the year after winning a MacLarnon. None of the previous fine completed the double.
Their fairytale could not have started any better. Like flies to the light Maghera got drawn to Kevin Muldoon. He slipped in Conor McCahill, whose shot was hit so hard it went through Jack McCloy and spun up into the roof of the net.
That was after two minutes.
Six minutes later, the ball broke down in attack for Maghera and Muldoon carried 70 metres, brushing off Finbarr McShane’s tackle and feeding McCahill to rifle home a second.
He added a point and after ten minutes, Abbey VS were leading by 2-1 to 0-1.
But from there until the Donegal Town school launched a late recovery in stoppage time to almost salvage a draw, the game was entirely dominated by St Pat’s.
McShane went on to put Muldoon on the back foot, with Padraig O’Kane tightening up on McCahill and denying him any more influence.
Turlough and Tomás Carr had fleeting moments of influence in the second half but the mastery of Maghera was underlined by how many options there were for man of the match.
Padraig Haran was ahead of any of them. Had his shooting matched the rest of his performance, the Dungiven youngster’s display would have gone down as one of the greats.
Cormac Óg McCloskey from neighbouring Drum kicked four points, including two superb efforts at the start of the second half that roused them.
Skipper Cahal McKaigue, cousin of Chrissy, controlled midfield beyond the opening quarter. With Finbarr McShane growing into his, his Bellaghy clubmate Darragh Doherty – son of another former Derry defender Gareth – excelled.
The official award went to the lively Gabhan McIvor and the longer it went on, the more Darach McGonigle grew into it. Niall McNicholl, Darragh O’Neill – there were a huge number of excellent Maghera performances.
And yet it wasn’t until McCloskey tapped over the game’s first pointed free on 44 minutes that the scoreboard reflected it.
Those first ten minutes from the Abbey were blistering. Maghera were uncharacteristically bare at the bare and the red shirts cut through them.
But over the last 50 minutes of proceedings, St Patrick’s had 32 attacks to Abbey’s 16.
The winners forced every kickout from Lewis McCaughan long and won the majority of them.
They were still four points back at half-time, 2-2 to 0-4, with a superb long-range Turlough Carr effort in the final minute of the half giving Stuart McFadden’s side that bit more breathing space.
Maghera had missed a host of chances.
They kicked five wides, dropped two short, hit the post twice.
Both Niall McNicholl and Odhran Doherty had goal chances stopped, the first by Eoghan O’Neill clearing off the line and the second by a fine McCaughan save.
It felt like Maghera had played a lot of football to still be four down but wind-assisted, they moved into pole position within three minutes of the restart.
Cormac Óg McCloskey kicked two superb efforts either side of a tight-angled effort from Darragh Doherty. Two of them were manufactured at the hand of Padraig Haran.
At 2-2 to 0-7, the momentum of the game was such that it was difficult to see how Abbey would get out of the onslaught.
By the time the Donegal side next scored, they were three behind with seven minutes to go.
Maghera sub Kevin Barry Mullan had come on and added another bit to their attack.
But a black card gave them hope. Padraig O’Kane did his best to disguise the foul on McCahill but referee Mark Loughran saw enough to judge it worthy of a ten-minute sideline sit.
With that, Maghera lost their grip on the game. The Abbey had their best spell of the whole game around midfield.
Having looked completely out of it, they ended up five minutes into stoppage time looking to find the gap out of which they could craft an equaliser.
Time ticked on and on but they couldn’t break the white wall down.
The turnover came and the final whistle followed.
Five years after sharing the trophy during Covid, it’s their first outright success in nine years.
Their rivalry with St Mary’s Magherafelt has grown into a huge occasion. Maghera no longer dominates the Derry landscape for every young footballer. That in itself makes this success even more notable.
“I don’t like that term chip on the shoulder. One thing that wasn’t allowed in our changing room this year was ego. See chips on the shoulder, whatever you get you earn,” says Lockhart.
“I know in years gone by Maghera have been in finals year after year after year but MacRory finals are hard won.”
Another Hogan Cup campaign comes next, a meeting with Tralee outfit Mercy Mounthawk in the semi-final on the agenda.
When Lockhart was playing, the rules were such that he won that ‘95 MacRory as captain but was one of six players ineligible for the Hogan Cup because they were overage.
Twelve years after their fourth All-Ireland success, they have no right to a fifth.
Their greatest strength is that they know it.
MATCH STATS
Abbey VS: L McCaughan; E O’Neill, A Quinn, A McHugh; C Gavigan, P McGonagle, O Brogan; T McBride, T Colhoun; Tomás Carr (0-1), Turlough Carr (0-2), O Doherty; C McCahill (2-2, 0-1f), E Gallagher, K Muldoon
Subs: E McCrea for Quinn (41), T Lenehan for Gallagher (44), D Griffin for Colhoun (48)
St Pat’s Maghera: J McCloy; R Collins, P O’Kane, N McNicholl; D Doherty (0-2), P Haran, D O’Neill; C McKaigue, O Doherty; F McShane (0-1), T McHugh, M McGurk (0-1); G McIvor (0-2), D McGonigle (0-1), C Óg McCloskey (0-4, 0-1f)
Subs: KB Mullan (0-1) for O Doherty (35), D O’Kane for M McGurk (57), D McCloskey for McHugh (59), S O’Kane for McNicholl (61)
Referee: M Loughran (Tyrone)
By Cahair O’Kane Published in The Irish News February 09, 2025
