Dundalk Insititue of Technology GAA on the rise

The 24/25 Higher Education Gaelic football season has been a very successful one for the men’s teams in Dundalk Institute of Technology.

Starting off at the end of September and finishing in the middle of February, the Seniors annexed the Trench Cup to ensure Sigerson Cup football for DKIT in 25/26 for the first time since 2017.

The freshers were not to be outdone and captured the Freshers championship title to finish a successful season for the Men’s Gaelic football club.

These trophies came on the back of a lot of hard work over the past three years and the many great years of work from Shane Lennon who left at the end of the 2024 campaign.

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This was their third Trench Cup final in a row and it was a case of third time lucky and a testament of the extra effort of all involved.

This was the college’s third Trench Cup win in its history and coupled to the Freshers championship win, this augurs well for prospects in the coming years.

Seniors

The Seniors started the season with a good win away to Trinity College at the Iveagh Grounds in Crumlin on a scoreline of 2-16 to 2.12.

There were good performances all over the pitch with a good spread of scores coming from Jamie Murphy 1-4, Stephen Mooney 0-6, Liam Stafford 1-1, Hughie Corcoran 0-2, Danny Ehichoya 0-1, Fionn Tipping 0-1 and Bobby Butterly 0-1.

Others to start the season well were Daire O Shea in goals, Jake Neilon, Ciaran Shields, Andrew Mc Caughey, Fintan Brady, Cillian Mc Gahon, Harry Butterly, Ryan Duffy, Jamie Fealy, Brian Brady and Fionn Cumiskey.

The 2nd game of the season saw SETU Carlow come to Dundalk and the visitors came out top on a scoreline of 3-15 to 1-19.

A couple of basic errors let Carlow in for the goals that won the game. We still managed to top the group on score difference as Trinity beat Carlow.

This set us up for a semi-final against Carlow on the 14th of November, who beat SETU Waterford in the quarterfinal. This was another tight affair, finishing all square at DKIT 1-18 v Carlow 2-15 after extra time.

The game was then decided on a penalty shootout, and a brilliant save from keeper Daire O Shea decided the tie after a titanic battle.

The final against Trinity was another memorable battle with Trinity coming out on top by the narrowest of margins on a scoreline of 0-13 to 1-9. DKIT were to rue missing 11 shots at goal and ultimately that was the reason they lost the game.

The defeat in the final only strengthened their resolve to win the Trench Cup and get the added bonus of playing Sigerson football in the 25/26 season.

The Trench Cup journey began with an away trip to Mary I in Limerick. This was a power packed display and resulted in a 4-18 to 0-12 victory for the DKIT stalwarts.

It was a team effort with great displays all over the field and particularly by their team Captain Tomas Og Duffy at centre half, Conor Clarke at right full back, Ben Goss full back, Fintan Brady at wing half, Cormac Mc Keown and Pearse Blessing at midfield and Aaron O Neill and Stephen Mooney up front.

The scores came from great support play and were provided by Stephen Mooney 1-7, DD Reilly 1-1, Aaron O Neill 1-0, Conor Clarke 1-0, Hughie Corcoran 0-3, Liam Stafford 0-2, Harry Butterly 0-2, Adam Mc Keown 0-1, Oisin Mc Gorman 0-1 and Pearse Blessing 0-1.

DKIT’s second game was away in Templemore v Garda College and resulted in a win for DKIT on a scoreline of 1-17 to 1-9 after a physically gruelling game.

DKIT actually trailed in this game by a point with 12 minutes to go but the introduction of John Joe Hughes and DD Reilly brought new life to the attack.

John Joe converted 4 beautiful points and DD chipped in with 1-1 to put the game beyond the Garda’s reach. There were also good performances from Adam Mc Keown, Tadhg Mc Donnell, Oisin Mc Gorman, Tomas Og Duffy, Jamie Murphy, Stephen Mooney, Ryan Duffy and some great tackling from Conor Clarke, Liam Stafford and Cormac Mc Keown.

The third group game was a home match against Trinity. With both teams already qualified for the semi finals DKIT ran away with the game on a scoreline of 0-23 to 0-8. This ensured top spot and a meeting with TUS MIDWEST from Limerick who were runners up in the other group.

Despite the one sided nature of the game against Trinity, DKIT played some magnificent football and showed that the work done over the Winter was starting to pay off.

All the players gave a good account of themselves and saw players like Harry Butterly, Craig Callanan and Hughie Corcoran showing their skills.

The semi-final v TUS Midwest was played in Athlone on 8th February. The panel produced a power packed skilful performance to reach the final on a scoreline of 0-18 to 0-9.

This was the second game in a row to keep a clean sheet and showed the tenacity of defending that would be needed in the final.

Team and scorers were: Daire O Shea, Tadhg Mc Donnell, Ben Goss Kieran, Bobby Butterly, Fintan Brady 0-1, Tomas Og Duffy 0-1, Liam Stafford 0-1, Pearse Blessing 0-1, Cormac Mc Keown, Ryan Duffy 0-1, Oisin Mc Gorman 0-3, Adam Mc Keown 0-1, Hughie Corcoran 0-2, Stephen Mooney 0-6, Jamie Murphy, Daragh Murray, DD Reilly, Craig Callanan, John Joe Hughes 0-1 and Aaron Kennedy.

The Trench Cup final v their league conquerors Trinity was played on 12th February at the Connacht Centre of Excellence. DKIT exacted revenge for their league final defeat by defeating Trinity by 0-16 to 0-13.

This was a just reward for the team’s hard work over the season and gave them Sigerson Cup football for the 2025/26 season.

DKIT managed to keep a clean sheet for the third game in a row and scored some fine points in the 16 point scoreline that they amassed in total.

The panel who captured the cup and who all played an important part in this achievement were: Conor Clarke, Aaron Kennedy, Aaron O Neill, Adam Mc Keown, Ben Goss Kieran, Thomas Og Duffy, Cormac Mc Keown, Craig Callanan, Daire O Shea, Danny Ehichoya, Darragh Murry, DD Reilly, Fintan Brady, Fionn Tipping, Fionn Cumiskey, Fionn Mc Quillan, Harry Butterly, Hughie Corcoran, Jake Neilon, Jamie Murphy, John Joe Hughes, Kian Mulligan, Liam Stafford, Oisin Mc Gorman, Pearse Blessing, Ryan Duffy, Stephen Mooney, Brian Brady, Liam O Connor, Tiernan Corrigan and Bobby Butterly.

This could not have happened without the great work of the backroom team of Eamon Mc Eneaney, Wayne Kierans, Aoife Gregory, Darren Clarke, Dalton Mac Namee and the staff members of DKIT Bronagh Mc Grane and Derek Crilly who worked with both the Trench Cup team and the Freshers team. Many thanks also to Peter Mc Ginnity and Controlsoft for their sponsorship of the teams.

Freshers

The Freshers enjoyed a very successful season reaching the League final and losing by just a point but came back strongly to win the championship by defeating MTU Kerry in the final. The league started with a great win at home v St Marys Belfast on a scoreline of 2-14 to 0-7.

This was followed by a fine performance v UUJ on a final score of 1-12 to 1-4. The final fixture in the group saw us fall to a defeat at the hands of Queens 3-12 to 1-11, but still qualify for the playoffs. The quarter-final against Trinity turned out to be a thriller with DKIT prevailing by a single point 3-11 to 4-7.

The semi-final pitted DKIT v Carlow in Carlow and as per a lot of games against this opposition, the game went to extra time with DKIT coming out on top by 0-18 to 1-13. It was a wonderful result for this group of dedicated players and took them into a final against DCU.

Lady luck deserted DKIT in the final and disallowed goals and missed opportunities were prevalent as DCU took the cup on a scoreline of 0-14 to 1-10.

The panel on duty in the final was Kian Mulligan, Jamie Casey, Micheal Mc Creesh, Conor Mc Kenna, Darren Mc Mullen, Charlie Murphy, Jake Corrigan, Cormac Mc Keown, Eoin O Hanlon, James Meegan, Robert Gallagher, Oisin Hagan, Thomas Mc Namara, Liam Mc Cauley, DD Reilly, Oisin Mc Gorman, Callum Shevlin, Kyle Doherty, John Joe Hughes, Liam O Hanlon, Harry Kierans, Fionn Connolly, Fergus Bellew, Matthew Mc Ardle and Kian Duffy.

The championship began in January and saw us in a group with St Marys Belfast and Trinity College. We made a great start by beating St Marys and emerged from this group as winners and drew Carlow again in the semi-final. The Freshers travelled to Carlow knowing it would be difficult but gave a tremendous performance to win by 3-12 to 1-10.

Team and scorers: Kian Mulligan 0-1, Micheal Mc Creesh, Conor Mc Kenna, Darren Mc Mullan, Jake Corrigan, Cormac Mc Keown, Eoin O Hanlon, Robert Gallagher, Thomas Mc Namara, Liam Mc Cauley, Oisin Mc Gorman 0-2, DD Reilly 1-2, John Joe Hughes 1-4, Kian Duffy 0-2, , Liam O Hanlon 0-1, Oisin Hagan 1-0, Fionn Connolly, Matthew Mc Ardle, Kyle Doherty, Charlie Murphy, James Corcoran, James Meegan, Ryan Martin.

The final was fixed for Carlow for Wednesday 4th March v MTU Kerry and it was a fitting culmination to a wonderful year for DKIT Men’s footballers. Played in good conditions DKIT took a firm grip on proceedings from the start.

With Kian Mulligan commanding in the goals and Micheal Mc Creesh, Conor Mc Kenna and Darren Mc Mullen having a stranglehold on the MTU full forward line, DKIT were in control.

Captain Cormac Mc Keown was imperious at centre back and was complimented by outstanding hard work from Jake Corrigan and Eoin O Hanlon on either side of him.

The towering figures of Robert Gallagher and Thomas Mc Namara worked tirelessly in midfield. DD Reilly(2-2) gave a man of the match performance at 12 with Oisin Mc Gorman(0-2) and Liam Mc Cauley completing a half forward line who caused MTU no end of bother.

The full forward line of JJ Hughes (0-3), Kian Duffy (1-3) and Liam O Hanlon(1-2) all got on the scoresheet and were a constant threat. Others who contributed to the win on the day and throughout the Championship were Oisin Hagan, Fionn Connolly, Matthew Mc Ardle, Kyle Doherty, Charlie Murphy, James Corcoran, James Meegan, Ryan Martin.