Louth GAA club | Fechins complete clean sweep of hurling titles in 2026

St Fechins completed a clean sweep of all four Louth adult hurling titles in 2026 with this Louth GAA Senior Hurling League final victory over holders Naomh Moninne in a keenly contested senior league final played in Darver last Thursday night.

Moninne fired over an early brace of points from play from Kyle Rafferty and Darren Geoghegan before David Stephenson responded with the Fechins' opening point from long range.

Ronan Hackett fired past keeper Conor Whyte for the south Louth side's opening goal on five minutes. Direct from the puck out, Ciaran McKelvey set up Mark Gahan to leave one between the teams.

A free from Paddy Lynch and another from play from Stephenson put the Fechins three to the good before the Dundalk outfit drew level when Conor Murphy fired home from the right of the post on 12 minutes.

Thirty seconds later the Fechins restored their advantage when Ronan Hackett grabbed his second goal of the half.

The experienced Tom O'Dwyer responded with a good point before his side were awarded a penalty when the ever-dangerous Conor Murphy was pulled down. Goalkeeper Dan O’Neill deflected Ciaran McKelvey's effort over the bar to keep his side in front.

On the run in to half time the Fechins struck over four unanswered points from Sean Kerrisk, Paddy Lynch (2) and Ronan Hackett, but there was still time for Darren Geoghegan to fire over a brace of frees to leave his side trailing by 2-7 to 1-7 at the break.

Paddy Lynch extended the Fechins lead with a pointed free from the halfway line and his side looked on course for victory when Sean Kerrisk netted their third goal from close range on 35 minutes.

To their credit, Moninne kept in touch with three good unanswered points from play from McKelvey, Mark Gahan and Tom O Dwyer as they now trailed by 1-10 to 3-8 with ten minutes remaining.

The sides shared the next two points before good pressure from the Dundalk outfit saw Conor Murphy's goal-bound effort blocked out at the expense of a 65 metre free. Darren Geoghegan fired over the resultant 65 to leave a goal between the teams.

Ugly scenes marred the end of this match, with players, substitutes and mentors from both teams involved and after order was restored, Moninne wasted a couple of efforts to force extra time.

However, the final whistle confirmed St Fechins as league champions, to add to their earlier title successes. Afterwards, the Paddy Rice Cup was presented to joint captains Dan O Neill and Paddy Lynch by County Board Chairman Sean McClean.

St. Fechins: Dan O Neill; Conor Higgins, Conor Mathews, Oisin Byrne; Sean Hodgins, Peter Fortune, Jamie McDonnell; Donal Ryan, Cathal Moynagh; Paddy Lynch (0-4, frees), David Stephenson (0-3, 1f), Sean Kerrisk (1-1), Darragh O Gorman, Ryan Walsh, Ronan Hackett (2-1).

Naomh Moninne: Conor Whyte; Kyle Rafferty (0-1), Darren O Hanrahan, John Casey; Sean Magill, Aaron McGuinness Smith, James Murphy; Finn Carter, Darren Geoghegan (0-4, 3f); Ciaran McKelvey (0-2), Tom O Dwyer (0-2), Fionn Cumiskey; Conor Murphy (1-0), Eoin Murphy (0-1 f), Mark Gahan (0-2).

Sub: Coran Trainor for T O Dwyer.

Referee: Martin Dawson.