Monastery school bestin county final for thirdtime

On Wednesday 24th of October, Monastery National School, Ardee secured a ‘ three in a row’ of Cumann na mBunscol Allianz U13 Corn Mhic Ardail County Louth titles with a victory over St. Mary’s Parish Primary School, Drogheda. Principal Mr Jim McGee thanked team managers Mr Philip McAdam and Mr Roddy McCoy for leading the Monastery NS team to this unique treble record that hasn’t been equalled since the great Monastery teams of 1978 – 1980.

The match was Played under lights in Dromiskin, the game ebbed and flowed in the first half with scores for Monastery coming from Adam Gillespie, Tadhg Caffrey and the lively Cian Lane. At the other end of the pitch, the Ardee boys’ defence was put under pressure by St. Mary’s throughout the half but some good teamwork and gutsy defending managed to keep St. Mary’s at bay. Keelin Martin and Josh Taaffe controlled the central positions and the constant running of Daniel Commins and Shane Mc Mahon caused great trouble for their opposition.

The second half followed a similar pattern with St. Mary’s again playing some skilful football but finding it difficult to penetrate the Monastery rear guard. Monastery’s midfield pairing of Michael Reid and Fionn Coyle worked tirelessly around the middle third allowing Gillespie, Caffrey and Lane to tag on 5 more points. St. Mary’s to their credit kept on battling and were extremely unfortunate not to pull a goal back, when a quick free rattled off the crossbar. As injury time approached, goalkeeper Brooklyn Gorman make a wonderful save low to his left to thwart the St. Mary’s attack once again. The final attack of the evening saw substitute, Luke Woods, win a long ball into the square, round the goalkeeper and crash the ball to the St. Mary’s net.

As the final whistle blew, there were jubilant scenes among the Monastery players and supporters. Captain Adam Gillespie accepted the Corn Mhic Ardail from Cumann na mBunscol Cathaoirleach, Fiachra Bell.

Team: Brooklyn Gorman, Shane McMahon, Keelin Martin, Flynn Markey, Evan Keenan, Josh Taaffe, Daniel Commins, Michéal Reid, Fionn Coyle, Cian Lane, Adam Gillespie, Calum Caffrey, Tadhg Caffrey, Destiny Unachukwu, Tom McCormack, Cormac Bradley, Tómas Devlin, Bobby Carroll, Oran Carrie, Thomas McDonnell, Laidhán Geraghty, Luke Hoey, Luke Woods.

Right: The winning Monastery NS team and captain Adam Gillespie receiving the cup from Fiachra Bell.

Shane Lynch, a fifth year student, has received the opportunity to go to Strasbourg for four days next year. He will visit the European Parliament and will take part in Euroscola, a youth parliament, and participate in discussions on a number of topics about the European Union. This prize was sponsored by the European Parliament. Shane took part in a quiz on Graduate.ie. Graduate.ie holds free online competitions for secondary school students to take part in and learn about topical issues. Shane is studying Politics and Society, taught by Ms. Hackett. This is the first class of this subject in St. Joseph’s.