ALL-IRELAND MINOR FINALS COUNTDOWN: GAVIN CUMMISKEYcalls in on the Coláiste Eoin players who will have a major say in both All-Ireland minor finals
IT BECOMES immediately apparent on driving in off the Stillorgan dual carriageway; the start of a new educational year has begun at Coláiste Eoin.
Yet some unfinished business remains.
Call it the residue of summer. September days in a Dublin GAA hotbed meant something last year and in 2012 it’s the very same all over again.
There are minor All-Irelands to be won, starting with the daunting task Shay Boland’s hurlers face against Tipperary this Sunday at Croke Park.
So many key components in that Dublin team drifted out of class yesterday afternoon for a quick photograph.
Eleven young men from Coláiste Eoin – eight on the minor hurlers, another four on Dessie Farrell’s football panel that face Meath in just over a fortnight – made it worth capturing for posterity.
Donal Ó Gormlaí is a representing both teams. Injured until recently, he has been a valuable impact sub of late. Three others – Caolán Mac Conbhuidhe, Matias Mac Donncha and Daithí Ó Cathmhaoil – are already up in UCD on GAA scholarships having come through the Leaving Certificate with flying colours last June.
The rest are back for that first, mundane week of sixth year. Except it’s the biggest week of their young lives.
This was a serious gathering of talent: Dublin minor hurling captain and full back Cian Ó Ceallacháin was joined by semi-final hero and sharp shooter Oisín Ó Ruairc, sturdy centre back Roibeard Ó Murchú, goalkeeper Cian Mac Gabhann, midfielder Colm Ó Croinín, Fionn Ó Riain Broin and footballer Máirtin Ó Cathaláin.
They posed, had a little chit-chat and then disappeared from sight. Books to devour, training to attend on the last lap of a magical few years.
All that follows after this – life in the real world – so incomparable to these days.
These young men are part of Dublin GAA’s new elite; bursting at the seams to rise up and gather some national silverware.
“The one thing you notice about these fellas is the sense of maturity,” principal Finín Máirtín states. “I don’t think you reach a high level of sport without a high level of maturity and that transcends to the academics as well.
“Their work in school remains very good. They are not getting carried away with it. Their friends are not getting carried away with it. The whole thing is very matter of fact, but underneath it all there is a huge sense of pride and excitement around the school. It is terrific.”
We search for the source. So many nods are directed at Proinsias de Poire. A vice-principal, music teacher and former pupil but hurling man to his core.
Another former pupil (class of 1997) Aodán de Paor runs the senior hurlers nowadays with a Galway man Pádraig Mac Donnchadha, and his Kerry partner Páraic Ó Cuirín, overseeing an equally ambitious football programme, but Proinsias was around when the seeds were planted.
He coaches the juveniles up in St Vincent’s nowadays but makes sure the Coláiste Eoin machine continues to motor.
“The last time Dublin colleges won the All-Ireland colleges title we had five lads on the panel but this has to be the best bunch in the history of the school,” says de Poire. “The footballers didn’t lose a game for six years until last season’s Leinster colleges final when they were beaten by a point, a late point at that, to Edenderry.
“In hurling we have to contend with the likes of St Kieran’s who have 1,000 pupils and CBS Kilkenny who have 800. We have 490 but we are close to them every year now.
“I think we have become a home of hurling in Dublin over the last few years.
“We have been blessed with players from Kilmacud Crokes, Cuala, Ballinteer St Johns, St Judes but also, being a Gaelscoil, hurlers from St Vincent’s, Clontarf and Na Fianna also attend the school.
“There is also a great relationship with UCD and Dave Billings.”
Mr Billings is very helpful indeed. There’s always a spare field for matches or training. Come out the front gate, cross the N11 and march up Foster’s Avenue, in the back gate of the Belfield campus where a sea of green awaits.
Show well there and the pay-off is a full sports scholarship.
But the clubs cannot be forgotten, as Aodán de Paor explains: “There could be 30 fellas, up to 40 maybe, with the basics, they are able to strike off either left or right. These are 12-, 13-year-olds. You can just see they have been coached. Say a corner back, he knows where to stand when he’s marking his man. Just the simple things we were never thought. The important point is, the success of the school and these lads is a reflection of the work done in the clubs.
“But I think the exposure to the college hurling in the winter has helped these hurlers come the summer.”
The proof is in the time of year we are talking hurling.
People in Dublin used to whisper about revolution. Soon they will witness their hurlers in full bloom.
Not yet. But soon.
