St Paul's High School in Bessbrook had a special visitor this morning: The Sam Maguire Cup.
Of the 42 members of the All-Ireland winning Armagh football team, 14 of them played football for the school during their teenage years. So too did coaches Stephen Sheridan, Denis Hollywood and Ciaran McKeever and physio Anthony Fearon.
They were joined by team manager Kieran McGeeney, current school teacher Joe McElroy and President of Ulster Schools GAA and Armagh legend Jimmy Smyth at a special assembly welcoming St Paul’s newest batch of Year 8 students.
At the event, we spoke with Head of the PE Department and Senior Gaelic Football Head Coach John Rafferty, who reflected on a momentous day for the school.
Of the 42 members of the All-Ireland winning Armagh football team, 14 of them played football for the school during their teenage years. So too did coaches Stephen Sheridan, Denis Hollywood and Ciaran McKeever and physio Anthony Fearon.
They were joined by team manager Kieran McGeeney, current school teacher Joe McElroy and President of Ulster Schools GAA and Armagh legend Jimmy Smyth at a special assembly welcoming St Paul’s newest batch of Year 8 students.
At the event, we spoke with Head of the PE Department and Senior Gaelic Football Head Coach John Rafferty, who reflected on a momentous day for the school.
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00:00St Paul's High School in Besswick had a special visitor this morning, the Sam Maguire Cup.
00:0514 members of the All-Ireland winning Armagh football team played football for the school during their teenage years,
00:11as did coaches Stephen Sheridan, Dennis Hollywood and Ciarán McIver, and physio Anthony Fern.
00:16They were joined by team manager Ciarán McGeeney, current schoolteacher Joe McElroy
00:20and President of Ulster Schools GAA and Armagh legend Jamie Smith,
00:23who spoke at a special assembly for the first series this morning.
00:26At the event we spoke to head of PE department and senior Gaelic football head coach John Rafferty
00:31and he reflected on the momentum of the school.
00:35I think it's wonderful that in a 21st century where the world is in flux
00:40that a lot of kids are looking up for a role model
00:45and we are very very lucky that today we had 20 role models standing on the stage
00:51and 18 of them are past pupils of St Paul's with our 14 players and 4 fellas who helped out with the backroom team and the management
00:58and as regards role models for kids they don't get any better than Ciarán McGeeney and Jamie Smith
01:05but it's wonderful for the kids in first year to realise that with a lot of hard work
01:10and belief in themselves and belief in the child that God wants them to be
01:15rather than what the 21st century wants them to be
01:18that life can be good for them.
01:20Through the struggles life can be good for them if they stick it out and have belief in themselves and work hard.
01:26Obviously those boys played under you here in St Paul's, there was a good bit of catching up done today wasn't there?
01:32Yeah, it's fantastic.
01:34It's wonderful to see fellas who played in McLaren in finals, who won all Ireland titles with the school
01:42even who were beaten in the Macquarie finals, sometimes were beaten in the Hurl Cup finals
01:49but to see them push on and stay at it and to see them walking around the field that day in Croke Park
01:56knowing that they are going to get a Celtic cross, it was a wonderful day.
02:01And you have great memories of coaching those teams, those teams in particular wasn't it?
02:06I believe in the McLaren team in 2012 there were 7 players from that squad who are key parts of our current team.
02:12It was lovely, that was our breakthrough and that McLaren win in 2012 was built on the back of a defeat in 2011
02:22and it was wonderful to see Blaine Malone, Blaine who is home from work in America
02:27call down to see his classmates and teammates today
02:30and had life been different for Blaine he could have been part of it as well
02:34he was a magnificent player in the middle of the field first in 2012
02:38but it is wonderful to see your past pupils happy and successful
02:43and one of the elements of their happiness is Gaelic Games
02:48and for all kids now in the 21st century, GAA is not the be all and end all
02:54but it will not do them any harm being part of a progressive club.