Shortly after 9am a bus left the Town Hall bound for Craughwell, Co. Galway, 22 U14s eager to get their Féile off to a good start. By the time the bus arrived in Craughwell, shortly after 3pm, the lads were in time to see the opening fixture, which saw their hosts lose out to Carlow Town Hurling club, a very skilled side. The first game for the young blues would be against the eventual group winners Oranmore Maree. Having travelled so far and playing in unfamiliar positions the blues failed to score in the first period as Oranmore grabbed a goal in the opening seconds and added two further points before the half ended. A hard-working Matthew Duffy goaled midway through the second half and Oran Murney added two, a free & one from play, but it proved it wasn’t to be the winning start the blues had hoped for, as Oranmore had already ensured victory with three second half points and get their campaign off to a winning start, as Cumann Pheadaír Naofa lost out on a score line of 1-5 to 1-2.
The last game of the evening saw Warrenpoint take on Carlow Town Hurling club. The opening five minutes were a cagey affair and the game only opened up when the blues managed to scramble the ball over the Carlow goal line after the Carlow lads had failed to clear their lines effectively. Carlow closed the difference with two points to leave the bare minimum between the sides at half time. An early Tiernan Kelly goal at the start of the second and a point from Murney was enough to keep the blues in the lead. The county Down boys held on until the closing stages when Murney pointed once more as Carlow followed up with a goal of their own, but the blues had done just enough to record their first win of the weekend, 2-2 to 1-2.
After the game the Cumann Pheadaír Naofa lads gathered in the local village for some food and to meet their host families. Some great and new friends were made and the lads went off to get some well-earned rest.
At 10:30am the next morning, Warrenpoint were up against their host club Craughwell in what proved to be an entertaining fixture as the blues were the first to strike for goal on three minutes, thanks to a brilliant strike from Liam O’Connor. Craughwell kept pressing for scores and were happy to go in at half time level as they knocked over three first half points. An Oran Murney free three minutes into the second half saw the visitor once more take the lead, but within two minutes Craughwell goaled twice and added a further point to take a commanding 3-1 to 1-1 lead. Worse was to come, with five minutes left Craughwell scored a fourth goal. But the blues never gave up with Ruairí McIntyre dropping over a sweet point from just outside the 21, a second O’Connor goal wasn’t enough as the host club held on for a 3-4 to 2-2 win.
With Oranmore ensuring top spot in the group, it resulted in an unusual situation with three teams all sitting on 2pts, after some frantic researching to see who would go through in second spot it came down to scores conceded, meaning that Cumann Pheadaír Naofa would play in the shield competition and travel to Connacht GAA to meet the third placed team from group D.
As Craughwell were also bound for the same venue the Warrenpoint team bus was a hub of excitement and noise over the next hour with the Warrenpoint lads and their Galway hosts enjoying plenty of craic on the bus journey to Mayo.
Cumann Pheadaír Naofa’s opponents would be Twomilehouse of Kildare. This was a game where the blues played exceptional Hurling having hit the post twice as well as the crossbar. The blues totally dominated their opponents Oran Murney opened the scoring on 6 mins and within a minute Liam O’Connor had struck twice, a point form play and a bullet of a shot to the net for a five-point lead, before Twomilehouse finally broke out of defence for a point half way through the first half. Murney pointed again and an O’Connor shot came back off the posts with less than a minute to go. Oisin Gambold from a similar position was equally unlucky as he too saw his shot ricochet off the near post as the ref blew for half time.
The second half saw the Warrenpoint side maintain the pressure as Ruairí McIntyre scored twice before the Leinster side replied with two of their own. As the game edged into overtime Twomilehouse scrambled the sliotar over the line for their first goal, but the blues had the last say with a Murney 30m free deep into injury time to seal a 1-6 to 1-3 victory.
History had been made, as this squad of players had achieved what no other Warrenpoint Féile na nGael team had ever managed before, a semi—final place on the Sunday morning. As you can imagine the euphoria and excitement with the family and supporters that had travelled to witness this game was fantastic! A defining moment of the friendship and camaraderie that had been built up between Cumann Pheadaír Naofa and their host club Craughwell was when Craughwell gave the blues a guard of honour with hurls arched high overhead applauded their guests victory as the boys walked back to the bus.
In the semi-final, the blues met a physically stronger East Cavan Gaels at Tooreen GAA in Co. Mayo. Darragh Austin was the first to register a score within seconds of the game starting, before the Cavan side replied from a free two minutes later. Disaster struck a minute later when the Gaels struck for goal. Seconds later at the other end of the field after some great interplay between O’Connor and Austin, the Cavan Gaels keeper pulled off a superb save as Darragh Austin saw his pile driver from just outside the fourteen-metre line. With five minutes to go before the break McIntyre knocked over a forty-metre free and a minute later O’Connor proved how unstoppable he can be as he rounded three defenders and lashed the sliotar past a helpless East Cavan Gaels keeper to see the blues lead by a point. East Cavan Gaels replied with a thirty-metre free and a point from play to edge the encounter going in at half time, 1-2 to 1-3 in their favour. Two minutes into the second half the blues most outstanding player over the course of the weekend, Tiernan Kelly had restored parity with a gem of a score fifty metre out on the right. The exchanges were hard and fast and often left the smaller Warrenpoint side needing side-line assistance as there were several breaks in play to attend to injuries. Both sides battled hard for the winning score and it came East Cavan Gaels way with just four minutes remaining.
The blues threw everything into the game and were desperately unlucky not to have been awarded a close in free a minute from time. It wasn’t to be as the ref blew for full time and it was the East Cavan Gaels who were to go on to the final, a final they were to win by a comfortable fifteen-point margin. The Warrenpoint players and management were devastated as they knew they had done everything possible to ensure their team would succeed.
The weekend proved to be a great success story for Warrenpoint hurling and although pipped by a point at the penultimate stage by the eventual winners the management, the families and the many supporters who travelled to Galway over the weekend were immensely proud of their wee heroes’ achievements and of how they conducted themselves as ambassadors of their families, their club and their county.
