The Scoil Uí Chonaill footballers celebrate after winning the Go Ahead Dublin Intermediate Football Championship.
By John Harrington
Dublin club Scoil Uí Chonaill’s jersey is a striped one of many colours, which seems fitting.
The club’s grounds are on Clontarf’s chic sea-front but they retain strong links with their ancestral home in the north east inner-city and have always provided open arms too for country players looking for a team in the big smoke.
Through diversity they have developed a vibrant spirit on and off the pitch, which was very much in evidence in Parnell Park on Monday evening when they won the Go Ahead Dublin Intermediate Football Final after extra-time in dramatic circumstances.
“As a club we're not all about winning, but it's nice to have a little bit of success,” says Scoil Ui Chonaill chairperson, TJ Farrelly.
“The amount of messages we've received over the last few days on Facebook and Instragram has been huge.
“We're delighted because it's 27 years since we played senior championship football. We've been beaten in three semi-finals, I think it is, and a couple of quarter-finals over the years. We've had good teams, we just haven't had the bit of luck.
“This year for some reason all our matches have been tight. We've scraped over the line in lots of them and with about three matches to go one of the lads said, 'our name is on the Cup', and he was right. It was just our time.
“Our President was 90 during the year and our youngest member is four weeks' old and they were both at the match on Monday night. That's the kind of spread we have. It was great for the kids in the club to see our adults achieve something. Now they'll be thinking that might be them some day.”
Scoil Ui Chonaill GAA club was founded in 1950 by Brother Jim Scully, then Principal of O’Connell School on North Richmond Street, to provide Gaelic games for pupils and past pupils of the O’Connell primary and secondary schools.
Scoil Uí Chonaill do great work bringing Gaelic games to the children of Dublin's north-east inner city.
Because the club’s grounds are now in Clontarf they also draw players from that part of Dublin and have a strong link with the Scoil Neasáin Gaelscoil in particular, but they continue to make a big effort to encourage the youth of the north-east inner-city to don their colours.
“We have two GPOs linking in with around 12 schools in the north east inner-city and we encourage them to come along to our nursery on a Saturday first of all,” says Farrelly.
“We get great support from the schools too, in fact some of the teachers from the schools come out and help us on a Saturday morning with these kids.
"There's a lot of problems in the north-east inner city and we think it’s important to encourage as many kids as possible to play our sports. We give them a set of gear when they join the nursery so when you're driving around town you'll see Scoil Uí Chonaill jersies all over the place.
“They get great attention from their schools where the priority is their education, and we would feel that we're doing a form of education as well with these kids.
“We're showing them how to deal with other kids and with adults or someone in authority they mightn't like. My young lad used to come home and say, 'I don't like that coach', and I'd just tell him, 'you have to suck it up, buddy'. It's all part and parcel of learning the skills of life.
“Ideally it would be great if these kids grew up to play for Dublin, but we're just happy to see them get involved, play a sport, and make friendships.”
Scoil Uí Chonaill's men's football team captain, Andy Bunyan, pictured with ladies football team captain, Ciara McComish.
Saturday is going to be a very big day for the club. Their Ladies Football team play Walterstown from Meath in the Leinster Junior semi-final and the men play Roche Emmets from Louth in the Leinster SFC quarter-final.
“We’re 25 years going with the ladies football and so many of the current team are in the club since they were four or five coming down to the nursery,” says Farrelly. “They’re really home-grown talent.
“For the men’s team, it's a fantastic opportunity. Our aspiration at the start of the year was to maintain our senior league status and get up to senior championship and we've achieved both of those now.
"The lads have put in so much work over the year, I think we're on an unbeaten run of 10 games, and nobody likes that to end so we're hoping we get another couple of days out in the Leinster championship.
“We're really looking forward to the challenge. It's great for the club to be involved in the Leinster championship and we'll be treating it with the utmost respect, as we will our opposition on Saturday.”
