{"id":65607,"date":"2026-04-21T18:41:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T18:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/65607\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T18:41:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T18:41:12","slug":"abbey-cbs-and-abbey-vocational-claim-three-awards-each-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/65607\/","title":{"rendered":"Abbey CBS and Abbey Vocational claim three awards each \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

THERE are three players each from Danske Bank MacRory Cup champions Abbey CBS Newry and Abbey Vocational school in Donegal town in the Danske Bank All-star football team for 2026 announced on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The MacRory Cup champions fill out the half-back line with Fergus Toale, Diarmaid O\u2019Rourke and Keelan McEntee, the latter pair following their fathers in picking up the coveted awards now in their 38th year.<\/p>\n

Future All-Ireland football winners with Armagh Aidan O\u2019Rourke and Tony McEntee were also students in Abbey CBS when they collected their accolades in 1995 with Tony also capturing awards in 1994 and 1996. <\/p>\n

Although Tony\u2019s twin John didn\u2019t manage to pick up an award, Aidan\u2019s brothers Cathal and Martin did.<\/p>\n

\"GAA<\/a>\"What<\/a><\/p>\n

All three new All-stars were outstanding as Abbey took the MacRory Cup back to the school for the first time in two decades following a replay with St Patrick\u2019s Academy Dungannon. <\/p>\n

Fergus and Diarmaid were also coming off a busy season that yielded county and provincial minor titles for their club Dromintee.<\/p>\n

\"TheMacRory Cup champions Abbey CBS have won three Ulster Schools’ Football All-Stars (OLIVER MC VEIGH) <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a member of the Carr family has been included in the team for the third year running. <\/p>\n

Up until 2024, Peadar Mogan was the only player from Abbey Vocational Donegal town to receive a football award. <\/p>\n

In the last three teams announced we have had Senan, Turlough and Tom\u00e1s Carr, Kevin Muldoon and Conor McCahill with goalie Lewis McCaughan and defender Eoghan O\u2019Neill along with Tom\u00e1s Carr in the 2026 selection.<\/p>\n

Losing MacRory Cup finalists St Patrick\u2019s Academy have Liam McGeary named in the forward line. <\/p>\n

The Moy T\u00edr nan \u00d3g clubman was in scintillating form in the first half of the drawn final, scoring five points from play inside nine minutes.<\/p>\n

\"LiamLiam McGeary of St Patrick’s Academy, Dungannon, celebrates in front of the fans after scoring a point in the MacRory Cup Final at Athletic grounds Armagh. PICTURE: Oliver McVeigh <\/p>\n

There are nine schools picking up one All-star each \u2013 including St Patrick\u2019s Lisburn who have an award winner for the very first time. <\/p>\n

Dara Campbell, who has recently transferred club allegiance from Aldergrove to Portglenone has won their first All-star after helping them to a Mulholland Cup and two Corn C\u00fachulainn titles.<\/p>\n

Another Antrim club player to make his mark this season is JJ Higgins whose goal just before half-time in the Danske Bank MacLarnon Cup final at the Dub propelled Aquinas Grammar to a first title and into the MacRory Cup for the first time.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s only the school\u2019s second All-star; the first was D\u00f3nal McKeever 13 years ago. Higgins\u2019 father and grandfather both played inter-county football, for Antrim and Armagh respectively.<\/p>\n

Lumen Christi is another school picking up its second ever All-star through midfielder Ruair\u00ed McCullagh who was also in great form for the Cathair Dhoire amalgamation that played in the MacRory Cup. <\/p>\n

Ben McCarron was the first All-star for the Derry seat of learning back in 2019.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also been a while since St Louis Kilkeel was included in the selections. However current Down minor captain Ross Austin is included in the forward line less than a week after picking up a Queens Future Star accolade as a defender.<\/p>\n

Eoin Duffy, a student in St Colman\u2019s College, Newry, is following in his brother Ryan\u2019s footsteps. <\/p>\n

The elder of the Culloville brothers was centre-half back in the 2023 team and has progressed to the Armagh senior panel.<\/p>\n

Just out the road Shea Loughran in St Paul\u2019s Bessbrook also comes from a family who have represented the Orchard county at senior level. His father and grandfather, both named Peter, are both Ulster medallists.<\/p>\n

Armagh have five players in the team and Donegal three, while there are two each for Tyrone and Antrim with Down, Monaghan and Derry picking up the others.<\/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

Jimmy Smyth, chairman of Ulster schools\u2019 GAA, said:<\/p>\n

\u201cCongratulations to all of our young footballers and hurlers who have been selected this year as Ulster Schools\u2019 All Stars, joining a long list of talented players, many of whom have made and are still making waves in the world of GAA.<\/p>\n

\u201cI note also that there are second generation and older brothers who are previous winners in both codes, demonstrating that those parents or older siblings have undoubtedly been role models for the boys here today. <\/p>\n

\u201cHowever one of the most pleasing aspects of the selection process is seeing new schools, such as St Patrick\u2019s Lisburn, pick up a first All-star.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe express once again our gratitude to our sponsors Danske Bank for their continued support of our games at all levels and indeed their involvement in our All-Star scheme.\u201d<\/p>\n

Danske Bank All-star football team:<\/p>\n

Lewis McCaughan (Abbey Vocational, Donegal)Cian Rafferty (Patrician High, Carrickmacross)Eoghan O\u2019Neill (Abbey Vocational, Donegal)Eoghan Conway (Dean Maguirc, Carrickmore)Fergus Toale (Abbey CBS, Newry)Diarmaid O\u2019Rourke (Abbey CBS, Newry)Keelan McEntee (Abbey CBS, Newry)Chris McCullagh (Lumen Christi, Derry)Tom\u00e1s Carr (Abbey Vocational, Donegal)Ross Austin (St Louis, Kilkeel)Liam McGeary (St Patrick\u2019s, Dungannon)Dara Campbell (St Patrick\u2019s, Lisburn)JJ Higgins (Aquinas Grammar)Eoin Duffy (St Colman\u2019s, Newry)Shea Loughran (St Paul\u2019s, Bessbrook)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THERE are three players each from Danske Bank MacRory Cup champions Abbey CBS Newry and Abbey Vocational school…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[288],"tags":[9780,289,14273,1977,1831,14274,1832,1829],"class_list":["post-65607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-danske-bank","tag-armagh-gaa","tag-danske-bank","tag-derry-gaa","tag-donegal-gaa","tag-down-gaa","tag-monaghan-gaa","tag-tyrone-gaa","tag-ulster-gaa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116444167308199292","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65607","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=65607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}