{"id":64787,"date":"2026-04-20T17:42:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T17:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/64787\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T17:42:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T17:42:11","slug":"antrim-turn-it-up-to-11-as-collins-family-maintain-tradition-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/64787\/","title":{"rendered":"Antrim turn it up to 11 as Collins family maintain tradition \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

NO fewer than 11 Antrim players are included in the 38th Danske Bank Ulster schools\u2019 All-Star hurling team announced yesterday afternoon at the Dub in conjunction with sponsors Danske Bank.<\/p>\n

Only one player however is collecting his second successive award. <\/p>\n

Fiont\u00e1n Bradley from St Louis, Ballymena plays his club hurling with Ruair\u00ed \u00d3g, Cushendall with whom he won an Ulster minor club title last year. <\/p>\n

Fiont\u00e1n went on to win his second Ulster U20 title with Antrim earlier in the spring.<\/p>\n

\"“How<\/a>\"Donegal<\/a><\/p>\n

He is joined in attack by his St Louis, Ballymena school colleague Jay McAlonan, two Cushendall team-mates, Conor McCann and Nicholas McLaughlin, and several Antrim U20 players.<\/p>\n

For the fourth year in succession a member of the McLaughlin family will collect an award. <\/p>\n

Nicholas will follow his older siblings Joseph (2023 and 2024) and Thomas (2024 and 2025) into the list of winners, all of them students in St Killian\u2019s, Garron Tower. <\/p>\n

Two years ago, Joseph and Thomas made history as the first siblings to be included in the same All-Star team<\/p>\n

Rian Collins also adds to a remarkable family achievement.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year he equalled the exploits of his father Michael by captaining St Patrick\u2019s, Maghera to the Mageean Cup and winning Player of the Match in the final. <\/p>\n

Michael was a three-time All-Star winner (1990-92) and Rian now adds a fourth All-Star to the family trophy cabinet.<\/p>\n

Maghera of course went on to win the All-Ireland Paddy Buggy Cup, the third year in succession it has come to Ulster.<\/p>\n

Therefore in the past two years Rian Collins and fellow All-Star Odhr\u00e1n Doherty along with six other Maghera dual players have won MacRory, Hogan, Mageean and Paddy Buggy Cup medals while Rian was also a member of the Derry minor team that won the All-Ireland football title in 2024.<\/p>\n

Doherty plays his club hurling with Sleacht N\u00e9ill but won an Antrim minor football championship with Portglenone in 2025 and therefore is numbered among the 11 Saffron All-Stars.<\/p>\n

As well as Collins, Conor McCann and Ois\u00edn McCallin are second generation All-stars. <\/p>\n

Conor\u2019s father, Kevin, picked up an All-star in the second year of the scheme 1989 after helping St Louis, Ballymena win their first ever Mageean Cup. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Oisin\u2019s father Paul Close was an All-star recipient in 1997 while a student in La Salle before going on to collect Antrim and Ulster championship titles with Rossa.<\/p>\n

McCallin is one of three All-Stars from Cross and Passion Ballycastle all of whom won Mageean and Paddy Buggy Cup medals last season. The others are Logan McConville and Cadhan Crawford.<\/p>\n

Winning a first ever hurling award for his school is Dan Donnelly who led Sean MacCumhaill\u2019s when they became the first Donegal club to feature in an Ulster minor club final last December. <\/p>\n

He was also a leading player for the St Columba\u2019s, Stranorlar team that reached the Danske Bank Casement Shield final in the same month.<\/p>\n

St Columba\u2019s only other All-stars came in 2018 when Patrick Dolan and current Donegal star Ois\u00edn Gallan won football awards.<\/p>\n

Gaelchol\u00e1iste Dhoire collect their fifth successive All-star with Emmett \u00f3g Mac \u00cdomaire following double awards for the \u00d3 Mian\u00e1in brothers (Ruair\u00ed and Cathal). <\/p>\n

Emmett \u00d3g\u2019s father (Emmett McKeever) was on the Derry team that won back to back Ulster senior hurling titles at the turn of the Millennium as well as captaining Dungiven to an Ulster club football title a few years earlier.<\/p>\n

The players selected will collect their All-star awards at a Gala Dinner in the Crowne Plaza Hotel Belfast this Friday evening.<\/p>\n

Oonagh Murtagh, Head of South Business Centre at Danske Bank, announced the teams commenting:<\/p>\n

\u201cAt Danske Bank, we\u2019ve been passionate about helping our society thrive since our beginnings 200 years ago. <\/p>\n

\u201cOne way we do that is through our youth sports sponsorships with Ulster Schools GAA, Ulster Schools\u2019 Cup Rugby and the Northern Ireland Football Association.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Ulster Schools All Stars is a fantastic, long-standing initiative that recognises outstanding sportsmanship across Gaelic football and hurling each year \u2013 and something we\u2019re really proud to be a part of. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis year\u2019s GAA competitions have show-cased the very best of our young players. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a real testament to how our young footballers and hurlers have been nurtured and developed throughout their school sporting career.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe commitment and dedication to even be nominated for an All Star is immense, and we\u2019d like to congratulate all of the players selected to participate in the trials as well as the remarkable 30 individuals who made the two All-Star teams this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Danske Bank football team will be announced later today.<\/p>\n

Danske Bank Ulster Schools\u2019 GAA All-star hurling team<\/p>\n

Se\u00e1n \u00d3g McLaren (St Mary\u2019s, Belfast)Conor McCann (St Killian\u2019s, Garron TowerConor Lappin (St Patrick\u2019s, Keady)Emmett \u00f3g Mac \u00cdomaire (Gaelchol\u00e1iste Dhoire)Dan Donnelly (St Columba\u2019s, Stranorlar)Odhr\u00e1n Doherty (St Patrick\u2019s, Maghera)Nicholas McLaughlin (St Killian\u2019s, Garron Tower)Logan McConville (Cross & Passion, Ballycastle)Caol\u00e1n Wilson (St Mary\u2019s, Belfast)Rian Collins (St Patrick\u2019s, Maghera)Ois\u00edn McCallin (Cross & Passion, Ballycastle)Jay McAlonan (St Louis, Ballymena)Cadhan Crawford (Cross & Passion, Ballycastle)Fiont\u00e1n Bradley (St Louis, Ballymena)0is\u00edn Gillan (St Killian\u2019s, Garron Tower)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NO fewer than 11 Antrim players are included in the 38th Danske Bank Ulster schools\u2019 All-Star hurling team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[288],"tags":[1976,9780,289,14273,1977],"class_list":["post-64787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-danske-bank","tag-antrim-gaa","tag-armagh-gaa","tag-danske-bank","tag-derry-gaa","tag-donegal-gaa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116438272938895701","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}