Corn na Boinne semi final: Moynalvey lose out in Castletown
March 10, 2026
Adam Murphy keeps possession against Castletown
Castletown progressed to the 2026 Gaelic Games Equipment Corn Na Boinne Final with this ten point win over Moynalvey under lights at Castletown on Monday evening 9th March.
Castletown 3-15
Moynalvey 0-14
A repeat pairing of last year’s IFC semi-final saw reigning Corn Na Boinne champions Castletown progress to a repeat final pairing against St. Patricks in this year’s competition with a comfortable ten point semi-final win over Moynalvey.
Early on it looked like Moynalvey were in for a blitzing as the Sean Kelly/Sean Barry managed Castletown outfit were slicing Moynalvey open for fun, with two goals scored within the opening ten minutes.
Castletown’s Rian McConnell opened the scoring with a free in the 4th minute and the home side raised their first green flag three minutes later when wing back Sean McKeown foraged forward to find the Moynalvey net, 1-1 to 0-0 after eight minutes.
Moynalvey wing forward Barry Walsh opened his side’s account in the 9th minute, with Castletown’s Darragh Weldon who was proving to be a thorn in Moynalvey’s side early on replying thirty seconds later.
A brace of Castletown scores, the first their second goal from Daniel Moran followed up by a point from Daragh Kelly left the host side in a healthy lead, 2-3 to 0-1, with fourteen minutes played.
Two long serving players Mark O’Sullivan and Kevin Ross then traded scores, before Moynalvey eventually awoke from their first quarter slump with a substitution and some positional switches to make a game of it, outscoring the home side six points to one in the second quarter to leave the half time score 2-5 to 0-8.
Moynalvey’s second quarter scores coming from two pointers from both Adam Murphy and Mark O’Sullivan, points from Murphy and Vinny Walsh, with Castletown’s Kevin Ross tagging on a free for the final score of the half as referee Peter O’Halloran blew his half time whistle.
Castletown doubled their three point time half time advantage with three unanswered points within nine minutes of the restart.
Moynalvey substitute Paul Corcoran broke the Castletown scoring briefly, but the home side responded with a point within sixty seconds to make it a six point game once again twelve minutes into the second half, 2-9 to 0-9.
A Vinny Walsh free brought the deficit back to five, but soon after momentum turned completely in Castletown’s favour when a Rian McConnell point attempt dropped short and an unfortunate goalkeeping mishap resulted in the ball crossing the line for Castletown’s third goal. Castletown’s added another point to make it a double scores game 3-11 to 0-10 with ten minutes remaining.
The game finished out with four frees from Moynalvey’s Vinny Walsh including a two pointer, with Castletown finishing with a further three points of their own including a Rian McConnell two point free to leave the full time score board read 3-15 to 0-14.
Next up for Moynalvey is an opening round Div. 1 league game away to Trim this Thursday 12th March.
Moynalvey team and scorers: Conor Egan, Charlie Benson, Conor Harnan, Sean McDonagh, Charlie McCormack, Darren Brennan, David Reilly, Michael Brady, Adam Murphy (0-3: incl 1x2ptf), Barry Walsh (0-1), Brian O’Reilly, Cathal McCabe, Vinny Walsh (0-6f: incl 1x2ptf), Mark O’Sullivan (0-3: incl 1x2pt), Shane Lenehan.
Subs used: Paul Corcoran (0-1) for Benson, William Harnan for Lenehan, Darragh Branigan for McDonagh, Cian Williams for Egan, David Regan for McCabe, Evan Drum for O’Sullivan, Patrick Roddy for B. Walsh, James Kelly for Murphy.
