Abbey Past Pupils Sports Association Annual Presentation, Dinner Dance and Cabaret In Carrickdale Hotel On Friday 18th October 2002. Compere : Eugene Fitzpatrick.

On behalf of the Abbey Past Pupils Sports Association I would like to welcome you to the Carrickdale Hotel for to-nights third annual dinner dance. Tonight we are proud to honour the members of the 1952 Rannafast, 1972 Rannafast, Corn-na-nÓg, McMahon football teams. We are also proud to honour the successful Aer Lingus golf team of 1972.

This year has been a very exciting year for gaelic football and all of us can recall many highlights but to win the Sam Maguire by defeating Dublin in the semi-final and Kerry in the final was exceptional. We, in the Abbey past pupils sports association are indeed very proud of the fact that nine of the Armagh squad and the team manager Joe Kernan are past pupils and we congratulate all on a magnificent achievement. We wish them all the best in the future years. I hope everyone here has an enjoyable night and I know you too will be able to recall many highlights during your playing careers.

Aidan O’Rourke
Chairman of Abbey Past Pupils Sports Association

1952 Rannafast Cup

In 1952 the Abbey defeated St Pa1rick' s Dungannon in the final. The highlight of the final was the clash between two great footballers, the Abbey's Finbar Conlon and Tyrone's Jody O'Neill. Luckily for the Abbey Finbar came out on top on the day. This 1952 team became the nucleus of the MacRory winning team of 1954. This team was the first Abbey team to win the MacRory Cup and also the first day school to win the MacRory Cup.

Seamus Mallon played on the 1952 team at left back, but only on the wet days. On the dry days Kevin O'Neill took his place. Both players went on to play for their counties, Seamus for Armagh on the wet mucky grounds of the National League and first rounds Ulster Championships, Kevin for County Down on the dry' sod of Croke Park in 1960/61.

THE MC PARLAND BROTHERS

1972 was a notable year for this great Abbey footbal1ing family. Pat the youngest was a star on the winning Corn na N’og team. Brother Brian was a free scoring forward on the winning Rannafast team. Brian also played on the Mac Rory team with his older brother John.

1972 Rannafast Cup

ABBEY 1-10 St Colmans 1-7

This was a hard fought encounter. St Colmans lead at one stage 1-7 to 0- 7. but two quick breakaways sealed the victory for the Abbey. Eamon Trainor scored a point and a Benny Curtis goal changed the game in the Abbey's favour. There were many great performances but Captain Martin Slevi11 was made man of the match. At the final whistle Br. Doherty', secretary of the Ulster Colleges Football Council, presented the cup to Martin. Br. Doherty was formerly a teacher at the Abbey School.

1972 The MacRory Cup

The Abbey met St Colmans in the semi-final, they were favourites but were held to a draw. Brian Mc Parland was the Abbey's top scorer with 1-3. The replay was played in Carrickcruppen. Again it was a draw at full time but the Abbey pulled away in extra time to win 3-12 to 2-10. The highlight of the game was the two goals scored by Joe Kernan while St. Colman's man of the match was Peter Mc Grath.

The final was played in Dundalk but unfortunately St. Pat's Cavan 1-9 to 2-4 defeated the Abbey.

1972 The McMahon Cup

The final was played in Dungannon and the Abbey defeated Derry C.B.S. 3-14- 3-0 there were many great players on this Abbey team notably Liam Austin in the middle of the field who later went on to win two An Ireland's with Down in 1991 and 1994. Aidan Mulvanney who scored 1-1 in the final was another star. Aidan's son was the captain of the Bosco team, which won the Down Minor Championship this year.

1972 The Corn na nÓg Cup

In the semi final the Abbey met St Colmans and defeated them 3-4 to 1-5. The stars of this win were Martin Collins and Jackie Hughes at mid field, and Paul Mc Keown and Pat Mc Parland up front.

This final was played in Dundalk as a curtain raiser for the MacRory Cup final. This was a completely one sided final. The Abbey won by 7-3 to St Columbs Derry 1-8. The Abbey side bristled with stars, Paul Mc Keown at right half forward and Vincent O'Hare at right halfback were the men of the match. The Abbey saved their best for the second half and they scored five goals against the wind. It is interesting to note that the Abbey met St Columbs in an earlier game in the same competition and was beaten by ten points. 1972 was the year when the Abbey had total dominance over their neighbours and rivals St Colman's College, they met and defeated St Colmans in the Corn na nÓg, Rannafast, and MacRory Cup Competitions.

THE GOLFERS OF 1972

In 1972 the golfing team won the Ulster Schoolboys Championship sponsored by Aer Lingus. The final was played at Masserene Golf Club in Co Antrim with the Abbey defeating six other schools. St. Malachys Belfast were runners up, defeated by four strokes. Rory Mc Cormack had the best individual score with a 74, Tom Gilsenan 79, Peter O'Hagan 80, and Michael Gilsenan 86. Other members of the team panel were Declan Bell (RIP) MichaelMc Loughlin and Tommy Sullivan. Pat Mooney was the manager and Don Patterson the coach.

HALL OF FAME - Gerry O’ Rourke

This year the honour goes to Gerry O Rourke who was a pupil at the school from 1955 to 1962. Gerry first came to the fore as a footballer. He was outstanding at left fullback on the 1958 team that did the double, winning both Mc Mahon and Corn na nÓg cups. He moved on to play for the Rannafast team in 1959 and then starred on the Mac Rory cup teams in 1960,61 and 62. He was a natural footballer with blistering speed. In 1.962 Gerry starred at l11idfie1.d for the MacRory team. One of his greatest exploits was scoring 1.-5 from the middle of the field against St. Pat's Cavan in the Abbey. On that day he was marking Ray Caro1 and who was one of the greatest colleges midfielder ever, and who was already playing for Cavan senior’s. In April Gerry had the task of marking Ray again in the MacRory final in Ballybay. Gerry did another remarkable job that day, had a tremendous game with the Abbey losing narrowly. In July of the same year Ray Carolan was one of the stars of a Cavan Ulster Championship win over the dual All Ireland Champions Down. Gerry does not get into the Hall of Fame just for his exploits on the football fields, he was an outstanding athlete.

In athletics it would be fair to say that Gerry was most probably the most gifted of athletes. He won everything that he entered for, he was an outstanding hundred yards, and two hundred yards runner, but it was in the triple jump and long jump that he really excelled.

In 1959 at the Ulster Intermediate Championships he came first, with a long jump of over 20 feet. At the same competition he did a triple jump of 40ft 10inches which even broke the senior record of that year. In 1960 he had an outstanding triple jump in the Ulster colleges sports at senior level of 43ft 10inches. His records at schools level at long jump and triple jumps still stand to the present day. His achievements throughout Ireland in the long jump and triple jump were outstanding and it was widely recognised that he was of Olympic quality.