Clann Eireann aim to do Lurgan proud but face a stiff challenge

DONAL McCarthy has a special reason for hoping that his Clann Eireann side can make an impact in the Ulster Club U21 Football Tournament which gets under way today at the Kickhams Creggan club near Randalstown.

The Lurgan outfit is keen to build on the success which gaelic football has enjoyed in the town recently with St Ronan’s College winning the McRory and Hogan Cups and Stefan Campbell making a huge impression with the Armagh senior team.

But in order to reach the semi-finals, Clann Eireann will have to overcome highly-rated St Eunan’s, Letterkenny in the preliminary round (12.30pm).

Kickhams Creggan secretary and tournament organiser Colm McLarnon, in whose late father Paddy’s memory it is staged, believes that the match will prove an ideal appetiser for what promises to be a feast of football.

“We are indeed fortunate that some of the top under-age sides from the province will be in action,” says McLarnon.

Immediately after the preliminary round tie, Carrickmacross and Carryduff will meet in the first of the quarter-finals (2.15pm) while tomorrow there will be an attractive double bill when Cavan side Crosserlough and Belfast outfit St Brigid’s meet (12.30pm), then Enniskillen Gaels and O’Donovan Rossa will go head-to-head afterwards (2.15pm) in what should be a thriller. IT makes sense with the ongoing debate about the experimental rules in Gaelic football, with almost every player and manager opposed to the restriction in hand-passing that has been shown to limit goal-scoring, that you could find an outlier.

If there is one, it might have been Armagh, who hit the net eight times in their opening three games against St Mary’s, Antrim and Monaghan.

Closer inspection shows that doesn’t stand up to scrutiny, with a facile 6-17 tally registered in a pre-Christmas game against a vastly underprepared St Mary’s side.

So Armagh are having the same difficulty in front of goal as everyone else, with Ryan McShane grabbing their only