THE PRIESTS - The Abbey Christian Brothers' Grammar School

Indeed the entire St Paul’s management team
have strong links to the Abbey. Manager, John
Rafferty, is a former Head of PE, and was in charge
of several Abbey MacRory cup campaigns. He is
assisted by three past pupils who each wore the
famous red, black and amber, with distinction, in
the Mac Rory Cup: Martin O Rourke, Barry Shannon
and Martin Rafferty. As if that weren’t enough,
former pupil, Connaire Makin, played for the Abbey
against St Paul’s in the Rannafast Cup semi final
two years ago, now lines out at wing half forward
for Bessbrook.
All of these friendships and ties will be put
aside in February, when the two sides compete for
a place in the semi final.
Abbey manager, Jody Gormley, gave his
reaction to the draw:
“Their MacLarnon and All-Ireland wins really
boosted them and they have been the form team
of the league. We couldn’t have got a harder draw.
But you don’t get easy draws in the MacRory. I
think that it will create huge interest in the Newry
and south Armagh area.”
“St Paul’s win over Maghera in the MacCormack
Cup means that they are the only team to have
beaten this Maghera group through their school
careers and that makes them a real test for
anyone.”
St Paul’s Bessbrook coach, John Rafferty, who
no doubt is relishing this tie, said at the press
launch:
“This time last year we were waiting on the
MacLarnon draw and very few were taking any
notice of us at all. A year has made a huge
difference to how others perceive us, and I suppose
how we perceive ourselves.”
“However, the way I was looking at it was that
whoever we drew would be a huge game for us. As
far as I am concerned, the competition starts here.
No-one wins the MacRory on what they do before
Christmas.”
But he had to acknowledge that St Paul’s
performance in the pre-Christmas league
competition had made an impact.
“We have been playing very well and we will
need to keep turning out big performances. We
want to win this competition naturally and a draw
like this will create a huge interest in our area with
boys from the same club teams now in opposition
in such a big competition as this.”
“We played them in a Rannafast Cup semi-final
a couple of years ago, the equivalent year groups
and they beat us by a couple of points. So we know
they are useful.”
All members of the Abbey Community, pupils
past and present, parents, staff and friends are
encouraged to come out and support the team and
contribute to, what is sure to be, an electric
atmosphere at this quarter final.
Follow @abbey_cbs on Twitter or ‘Abbey CBS’
on Facebook, for regular updates of the game as it
happens and match reports and photographs log
on to www.abbeycbs.co.uk.
Mac Rory Cup
ABBEY PAIRED WITH ST. PAUL’S, BESSBROOK,
IN THE MAC RORY CUP QUARTER FINAL
Competition new boys, St. Paul’s, Bessbrook, will provide the opposition for
the Abbey as they endeavour to get back to the summit of Ulster Colleges
football. The game will be played in Newry next month and has already caught
the imagination of the entire Gaelic Football community in this area. It will be a
quarter final that places players from the same clubs in direct oposition, and may
split the allegiance of a few families in the area.
Page 11 Abbey Way January 2013
Abbey CBS and St. Paul's MacRory Cup representatives, Chairman of Ulster Colleges, Seamus Meehan, and representative from Danske Bank,
Danny Stinton, after the draw was made for the Danske Bank Ulster Colleges Mac Rory Cup Quarter Final.