Founded 1969 | Trophy Corn Sceilge | |
Irish Craobhchomórtas na n-Íarbhun Scoileanna Title holders Seamount College, Kinvara (1st title) First winner Presentation Secondary School, Kilkenny Most titles St Raphael’s, Loughrea (8 titles) | ||
The All-Ireland Colleges Camogie Championship is an Irish camogie tournament played each year to determine the national champion secondary school or second level college.
Contents
- Graded Competitions
- Trophy
- Participation Levels
- Schools Camogie Highlights
- Interprovincial
- All Ireland Senior Colleges Camogie Finals
- References
Since 1969 it has been administered by the Secondary Education committee of the Camogie Association. The record holders are St Raphaels College, Loughrea, Co Galway with 8 senior titles in a row. The current holders of the cup are Seamount College, Kinvara. Seamount defeated near neighbours St. Flannan's College in a thrilling final played at Gort GAA. The scoreline was 1-5 to 0-6.
Graded Competitions
There are graded competitions for colleges at three different levels. In the 2011 All Ireland Senior B final Grennan College, Thomastown (4-10) defeated St Louis, Ballymena (3-3) in Trim. In the 2011 All Ireland Senior C final Castlecomer Community School (Kilkenny) (4-2) defeated St Pius X College Magherafelt (2-5) in Trim, Co Meath.
Trophy
The trophy is the Corn Sceilge in honour of Seán Ó Ceallaigh (1872-1959) (known as Sceilg, an acronym of his name in Irish: Seán S. Ó Ceallaigh), one of the members of the Keating Branch of the Gaelic League that participated in the first Camogie matches in 1904. The shape of the cup is on the lines of the Ardagh Chalice.
Participation Levels
There are 300 secondary schools participating in camogie competitions throughout Ireland and the Women in Sport projects run since 2004 have helped increase the number of secondary schools playing camogie. Competitions are run on a provincial basis with provincial winners progressing to All Ireland semi-finals and finals at both junior (1st - 3rd year) and senior (4th - 6th year) level.
Schools Camogie Highlights
Prior to the establishment of an All Ireland competition in 1969, colleges competitions had been organized in Cork in 1914 and Dublin in 1919. Dublin and Cork colleges played an annual inter-city fixture. Dublin schools teams also participated in the Dublin league against club sides.
In the inaugural competition in 1969, Presentation Secondary School, Kilkenny defeated St Michael’s, Lurgan by 5-0 to 2-2 in the first All Ireland semi-final and in the final defeated St Aloysius, Cork, who had defeated St. Mary's, Tuam in the other semi-final. All Ireland finals were held at Croke Park until 1981. The first midweek final took place in 1998 at The Ragg in Thurles, the first sportsfield to be designated exclusively for camogie fixtures. Eileen O’Brien from St Mary’s, Charleville won nine All Ireland colleges medals, one junior, four senior and four seven-a-side colleges medals. She scored 0-11 in the 1995 final when she was 14.
Interprovincial
A colleges inter-provincial series has been played annually since 1979. The inaugural competition was won by Munster, defeating Connacht by 5-5 to 3-3 in the final with the help of a winning goal by Majella Hallinan.
All-Ireland Senior Colleges Camogie Finals
The first figure is the number of goals scored (equal to 3 points each) and the second total is the number of points scored, the figures are combined to determine the winner of a match in Gaelic Games