Why dont we get a forum going on the sporting institution that is St. Marys? Established in 1912, they always carried more sporting codes than Jarlaths, having fielded teams at the highest level in basketball, soccer (winning numerous all Irelands), hurling (as recently as 1995 defeated St. Kierans Kilkenny in the colleges hurling, before losing narrowly to North Mon in the final) handball, athletics and many more. Unlike Jarlaths, Mary's never got involved in the act of poaching players from other schools. Do we have any reporters on the ground, within those historic walls, adjacent to the once famed Granny Irwins sweet shop, who could give all of us Gaels an up to date account on how this year is shaping up on all fronts?

Brendan Bowens (Galway) - Posts: 164 - 07/11/2009 11:58:33    477991

well now one big yarn in this post about poaching players they tryed poaching players from st pauls oughterard for years now first it was matthew clancy then they tryed poaching Brian Faherty and just last year they tryed poaching the sweeney twins so get your facts right before posting rubbish again

handpass (Galway) - Posts: 46 - 07/11/2009 12:29:08    478016

Not poaching players? St.Marys' offer scholarships for players in and outside the city based on football. I do agree that they are a better sporting school but thats because Jarlaths' only play gaelic and now rugby.

Galway11 (Galway) - Posts: 570 - 07/11/2009 14:33:26    478090

and I think we all know St.Marys' is in Galway, this is the Galway forum.

Galway11 (Galway) - Posts: 570 - 07/11/2009 14:35:12    478092

handpass i go to the school and i think its a superb school in all aspects- education and sports...gaelic,soccer and hurling mainly. I'm a big GAA footballer in the school and i find it great when the school offers scholarships to good footballers that are not in the city. It gives us a great chance of Hogan Cup Glory. We dont poach. Now get ur facts right again before you post your tripe. St Marys for Hogan 2010!!!

marysboy09 (Galway) - Posts: 34 - 07/11/2009 16:24:12    478182

Brilliant school St.Mary's.Went there when there were fantastic teachers like Liam Sammon and Bosco McDermott coaching football,Tom Nolan with the hurling,Ciaran Murphy for basketball,Wally Burke and Fr.Lyons for soccer and we had a great set up for Athletics aswell.Won countless Connaught medals in the A grade with school and got to plenty All Ireland Finals. Great tradition of sport in the school and Fr.O'Flaherty was a wonderful principal who promoted GAA in a huge way.Havent got the Hogan Cups of Jarlaths,but Mary's was a dream school to attend if you were a sports mad young lad. Havent done much lately Im afraid,cos the likes of Sammo and Bosco and Fla left a huge void when they retired.Unfortunately a new breed were brought in from the likes of Westmeath and Mayo who had no notion of our great tradition and hence GAA wasnt as strong.Thankfully a past pupil like Enda Mulrooney is teaching there and promoting GAA again, and Gerard Lennon another past pupil there too now. It gave me great pleasure a few years ago to travel to Thurles to see us playing in the Hogan Cup Final against Knockbeg,and while we lost,it was nice to see us back on the map.Incidently that day only 3 clubs were represented on starting 15, five each from James' ,Michael's and Moycullen.Soccer strong with the great effort put in by Martin Horgan,Hurlers went back to B which was a sad thing to see.Hopefully Mary's will return to the top of the GAA tree and become a force in colleges GAA again. Marysboy09 best of luck in Championship this year and hopefully myself and many more past pupils will be going to this years Hogan Cup final with our black and red scarves to support ye! In my day there were no scholarships,cos nearly anyone from the city or west board went to Mary's if they were any good at football or hurling,it was a way of getting top class coaching,experience and was a stepping stone to making county teams cos of the exposure and standard which we were playing.Only other option was to go boarding in Jarlaths,as some Carraroe and Clifden lads did.Would love if the school adopted a more aggressive policy on hiring past pupils as teachers.

carrigrua (Galway) - Posts: 363 - 08/11/2009 01:08:16    478504

Galway 11, SJC won the connacht schools athletics (Dr Walsh Cup) more than any other school,At one point i believe they won it 26 years in a row.So your argumnet about football only is not that accurate.much like the Marys fowards over the years,once they get out of Connacht!!!!!!!!!!!!

TCTC (Galway) - Posts: 4 - 08/11/2009 18:54:57    478809

i reckon as the football base moves into the city from the north theres going to be a similar improvement in marys fortunes. and its fair to say that St.Marys are generally well respected in all codes and sports, always producing teams that are respected

puff_daddy (Galway) - Posts: 56 - 08/11/2009 19:31:13    478857

Does anyone have the Mary's team?

footballman22 (Galway) - Posts: 134 - 08/11/2009 23:25:42    479042

Mary's is my old school. Fair to say alright that they nearly always produce competitive teams in football, soccer and hurling which is some achievement. Not sure how the hurling is these days but back when I was there they had a very decent hurling team.

Marooned (Galway) - Posts: 2396 - 09/11/2009 13:08:23    479321

Having been someone who moved to Jarlath's after Junior Cert from another Senior A footballing school, I can say that the comment about Jarlath's poaching players is quite out of order. I chose to attend Jarlath's to improve as a footballer, have a better chance of winning big competitions and putting myself in the shop window for Galway minor selection. Jarlath's never approached me, or the others 'blow ins' to switch schools. I do know that someone in my year was asked to repeat for footballing reasons, but the Jarlaths 'poaching' rumours are definitely over blown!

buzzmerchant (Galway) - Posts: 24 - 09/11/2009 18:42:34    479614

st marys arent the force they used to be in hurling and gaelic

shill4life (Galway) - Posts: 17 - 09/11/2009 19:08:16    479638

st marys recently: connacht junior hurling champions 09 winning four in a row and senior finalists the same year, several county cups in football and leagues from juvenille on... last year for football was poor senior-wise but jarleths was the same they didnt make it past round one and of course the contless soccer titles both at connacht and all ireland level and if you want more GAA they have a world champion handballer in doubles and singles. Now for ya and plus more history!

birdhurler (Galway) - Posts: 34 - 10/11/2009 23:03:26    480696

St marys may have a great history but they are still yet to win the hogan.they won most connaught championships with average college players.They were lucky that the standard was poor a few years ago when they came to the fore.Never possessed any meehan,donnellan,joyce type players.

m.k (Galway) - Posts: 13 - 10/11/2009 23:18:54    480710

I believe that Sean Armstrong was made most welcome by one of his clubmates when he returned to play for Jarlath's against Mary's the year after he had left.

Charlie (Kerry) - Posts: 513 - 11/11/2009 10:18:02    480893

Im a past pupill of St.Marys college and during my time there the College won 3 Connacht Senoir A football titles in a row (beating Jarlaths twice out of those three years, fairly convicingly aswell), we won the Senior A soccer all ireland, we reached the senior B hurling connacht final 5 years in a row, winning two connacht finals and and loosing three. St. Marys is was entered into the A hurling grade every year but we lost the first round either to Gort or Portumna( with Joe Canning) and were enterd into the B grade. Now that was just our senior teams, we cleaned up in the junoir and juvenille grades aswell. All these titiles and I have yet to mention basketball or Athletics. Now Marys is firstly an Acedemic school, and a good one at that, and maybe things have changed now, but unlike Jarlaths, we were not allowed train during class time. Training was conducted during lunchtime, which meant we could only train for 45mins a day, and it was hurling one day, football another and soccer, baketball etc. Training was not conducted after school hours either. St. Marys is a perfect example of how to find the right balance between sports and education. St. Jarlaths is a footballing college that happens to do the Leaving Cert. Oh! and to that comment about how jarlaths produced some of galways greats and current players, well here are some of Marys, Liam Sammon, Paul Clancy, Tony Og Regan, Connolly Brothers, Conor and Trevor Mortimor of Mayo,Bosco McDermot,Cathal Moore and Fergal Moore, Mark and Alan Kerins,Aonghus Callanan,Gareth Bradshaw,Paul Bonroy,Vinny Faherty(football), Vinny Faherty (Galway United),Barry Moran Galway United......just to name a few

ff (Galway) - Posts: 8 - 16/11/2009 14:57:42    485055

Sorry, I meant Paul Conroy instead of Paul Bonroy, and Mark Lydon instead of Vinny Faherty(football)

ff (Galway) - Posts: 8 - 16/11/2009 16:19:51    485203

Yeah, Charlie... I remember that incident well, Poor aul Army had a sore jaw for a few weeks after that game I'd say.

StoolPigeon (Galway) - Posts: 13 - 16/11/2009 17:13:57    485274

ff jarlaths only train after school in the students own free time. they hav even started training before school starts in the morning.

wellscan (Galway) - Posts: 37 - 16/11/2009 22:46:45    485700

Could I suggest that a little maturity is called for in this discussion. Mary's, Jarlath's, etc, like the vast majority of schools, do the best for their pupils. Time for some posters on this site to Move on! They are only second level schools after all.

mog11 (Galway) - Posts: 22 - 16/11/2009 23:16:24    485735