By Damian Lawlor

The clash of Carndonagh Community School and St Declan’s Kilmacthomas in Abbotstown tomorrow (Wednesday) promises to be one of the games of the season in the Masita GAA All Ireland Post Primary Schools calendar.

Boosted by their fine form thus far this season the two teams meet in the Dr Eamonn O Sullivan Cup (Senior C) semi-final. Carndonagh are bang in form after a brilliant Ulster Championship but St Declan’s had a fine campaign in Munster too.

Four-time Dublin All-Ireland winner Brian Mullins will surely look on with interest at this game. Mullins brought his family up in Donegal while he worked as principal of Carndonagh Community School, then the biggest in the country, during his time up north. His son, Nathan, went to school there and is back playing senior football for the county once more.

And his old school has been scoring heavily in every game they have played in this season. In the Danske Bank Markey Cup quarter-final their free-flowing game delivered 5-19 against St Malachy's, Belfast and then 1-18 was registered against St Joseph's, Donaghmore.

In beating St Columba's, Stranorlar, in the provincial final, a school that had two players, Oisin Gallen and Paddy Dolan, in the current Ulster Schools' All-star forward line, Carndonagh really proved their credentials.

Carndonagh had about a dozen players involved with the Scoileanna Inis Eoghain team that recently lost a fine MacLarnon Cup semi-final derby to St Eunan's and they are hungry for the top prize this time.

Conor O'Donnell, Seamus and Daniel Houghton, Lorcán Bradley and Oisin Hession are just some of the players that can cause St Declan’s problems.

St Declan’s draw from all of the usual power bases of Waterford football and they had an exciting win over Ennistymon in their Munster final.

In the other O’Sullivan Cup semi-final played yesterday, Ardee CS were powerful 4-11 – 2-8 winners over Colaiste Chiarain Athlone.

It was a tight first half with Colaiste Chiarain actually leading at the break, 1-5-1-4. The Athlone side got off to a fine start and literally had the wind at their backs but fortuned were completely reversed in the second half by a commanding Ardee unit.

Meanwhile, the weekend’s hurling action saw Presentation College Athenry are through to the Masita GAA All-Ireland Post Primary Schools Senior A Hurling Final after coming from behind to beat Kilkenny CBS in Ferbane.

Athenry won by 4-10 to 2-12 and become the first Galway school to reach the final since St Raphael’s College Loughrea reached the decider in 2004.

It looked like CBS were on their way to a fine win. They carved out a solid lead after being aided by the elements in the first half.

Goals from Luke Hogan and Jamie Ryan, together with points from the hard-working Sean Boyd and Conor Heary added to the five contributed by Conor Drennan as they trooped off with a double-digit lead at the interval (2-9 to 1-2).

But once Athenry got to grips with things in the second half it was a different story. They put the squeeze on, cut down on space in front of the Kilkenny side and in the space of five minutes Athenry rattled off 2-2, the goals coming from Eoin Caulfield and Mark Kennedy to close to within a point (2-10 to 3-6) by the 49th minute.

They didn’t stop there, shooting another 1-4 to fashion a lead they would not lose. Athenry are now through to the All-Ireland final, which will be played in Semple Stadium on Saturday, March 31. They will face the winners of the second semi-final between St Kieran’s College and Limerick’s Ardscoil Ris, which will be played in Clonmel on Wednesday.

Indeed, the Connacht champions are bidding to become only the second Galway school to win the competition outright since St Raphael’s won the title in 1995 when they beat Midleton CBS by 3-10 to 3-5.

Galway have reached the final only eight times since 1944 with St Josephs the Bish reaching the final in 1958 when beaten by St Flannans Ennis, St Mary’s reached the final in 1966 only to be beaten by Limerick CBS, Our Lady’s Gort reached the final in 1973 when beaten by St Peter’s College Wexford, Presentation College Athenry reached the final in 1976 but lost to St Flannans.

In 1993, Our Lady’s Gort reached the final in 1993 and St Mary’s were there in 1994 but lost to St Kieran’s Kilkenny and North Mon Cork before St Raphael’s beat Midleton in 1995. The last Galway team to reach the final was St Raphael’s in 2004 but they were beaten by St Kieran’s Kilkenny.