Excitement at St Eunan's as memories of past MacLarnon triumphs come to the fore

St Eunan’s College returns to the MacLarnon Cup final tonight - hoping to end a 12-year wait for the Ulster Schools Competition.

As the final approaches and the dream of a sixth title, we look at the memories of past triumphs lining the walls of the college.

In 1968, the Letterkenny outfit became the first Donegal School to win the competition, running out comfortable winners over St Malachy’s of Belfast with goals from Downings’ Hugh McClafferty and two from Enda Bonner from Dungloe, sending them to a historic victory.

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Their next win came 11 years later in 1979, which saw the first all-Donegal final of the MacLarnon Cup. In a low-scoring encounter, St Eunan's ran out 0-11 to 0-7 winners over the De La Salle College, Ballyshannon.

After near misses in 1985 and 1996, Neil Gordan and Paddy Tunney’s men ended a 21-year drought for the cup in 2000, beating St Columb's of Derry 1-11 to 1-9.

Current team coach David O’Herlihy lined out at wing forward that day, along with vice-principal Colm McFadden. The St Michael's forward scored 1-8 in a man of the match performance, as Damien McClafferty of the St Eunan's club captained the school to their third McLarnon win.

“It was a bit of a grudge match coming into the final,” McClafferty tells DonegalLive. “The boys were up for it, they wanted to give them payback, but the game wasn't going well for us and we were down a few points coming into the final stretches”.

The Letterkenny men had “thought they had lost” their skipper recalls.

“They were heading for a second McLarnon final heartbreak in four years and then, John McClafferty kicked the ball into Colm McFadden and Colm turned his man and put the ball in the top corner”.

St Eunan's tagged on two more points after that and their comeback was complete.

“We all ran over to Colm and jumped on top of him,” McClafferty adds.

This year's St. Eunan's College Management team knows plenty about the highs and lows of the McLarnon cup as well.

Current manager Peter Devine lined out at corner back in the 2007 decider. A man of the match performance from Donegal great Michael Murphy brought The College to a 1-9 to 2-3 victory over Rathmore in the now derelict home of Ulster GAA - Casement Park.

Team coach Brian Diver was an Ulster Colleges All-Star in 2018 where his team narrowly lost out to a last gasp point, 2-8 to 0-13, in a replay with Holy Trinity Cookstown. Donegal star Shane O’Donnell was the man of the match that day and kicked a spectacular nine points for the losing side.

St. Eunan's picked up another McLarnon between those two finals, in 2014, where Conor O’Donnell captained the side in a St Patrick’s Day victory over the amalgamated Cólaistí Inis Eoghain team. A Daire McDaid penalty on 68 minutes was ultimately what separated the sides.

Now St Eunan's are in the final once more, bidding for their sixth McLarnon title and it's these weeks before the final that McClafferty remembers most about their win.

“It hadn't happened in 21 years, so there was a bit of a buzz,” he says. “In halls, then you kind of got away with a wee bit more than you'd normally do. There was a bit of bandwidth given to the boys who were playing on it because all the teachers were sort of excited about it”.

Aquinas Grammar is the challenge later as this year's crop looks to add their names to the rich history of St Eunan's College. The final throws in at 6pm at the Dub, in Belfast.