Ballyboden hurlers featured strongly in landing National Colleges titles.
IT Tallaght won the Fergal Maher Cup on 1st March as part of the Queens University Belfast Hurling weekend. Having had a close win in the quarter-final against Marino FE, the South Dublin team had a three point winning margin against GMIT Letterfrack in the semi-final on 28th February. The team showed great fighting spirit in this match, coming from ten points down at half time. In the final, they faced Cork Colleges of Further Education in what turned out to be an epic battle. In contrast to the semi-final, they led by nine points at half-time. A great Cork Colleges FE second-half sent the decider into extra time. Tallaght IT held their nerve, helped in no small way by the Boden contingent of Conor Dooley, Alan O’Connor, Finn McDonagh (scorer of 4 points) and Jonathon O’Driscoll who bagged a brace of points. Final score was IT Tallaght 0-28 to Cork Colleges FE 2-20. Well done to the lads and to Martin McKenna, manager of the team, a brother of Ray, coach of the Boden Senior B hurlers in 2014.
IT Tallaght – photo from Sancta Maria : Back Row : Finn McDonagh (4th from left); Alan O’Connor (8th from left); Jonathon O’Driscoll (2nd from right). Front Row : Conor Dooley (5th from right).
University College Dublin entered a team in the very competitive Freshers Hurling Championship. A four point quarter-final win over a strong DIT team in a windy Chanel College on 13th February sent the team into a semi-final against Mary Immaculate College Limerick. This match was played on neutral ground in Ballykelly on 27th February and UCD had the edge in a very close match by a single point 2-13 to 1-15. It was the first of two Leinster/Limerick semi-finals, Carlow IT prevailing against UL in the other semi-final. UCD knew the challenge that faced them as the strong Carlow IT team had not been beaten in League or Championship throughout the college year. The final was set for Hawkfield, Newbridge on 5th March. On another windy afternoon, UCD played against the elements in the first half and went into the break a couple of points down. A strong second half, including a point from Boden player, James Roche, saw the Dublin team prevail on a scoreline of 0-15 to 0-12. This was a strong UCD team that featured current Dublin senior players, Colm Cronin & Cian O’Callaghan. It was the first time since 2002 that UCD had won the Freshers title, a team that featured Boden and Dublin star, Stephen Hiney. Well done to James, Colm Crowley (manager) and all the team on a fine win.
UCD : James Roche (middle row on the left).