GAA Facts

Did You Know?

When Dublin won the All-Ireland football title in 1906 and 1907, they had players from ten different counties but none from Dublin itself.

The original silly sub was Barney Royce. He won six Leinster medals and four All-Ireland medals between 1913-1918 without playing a single game.

When Kerry played Dublin on the opening of Cusack Park in Mullingar in 1934, the ball was dropped from an aeroplane for the throw in.

The only other county to have had home advantage for an All-Ireland Final other than Dublin was Cork when they played London in the All-Ireland Final in 1902 at the athletic grounds in Cork. They won the match with a mad scoreline of 3-13 to 0-00

Players first wore jersey numbers in the 1923 All-Ireland hurling semi-final.

The old Liam McCarthy Cup was replaced by a new trophy also called the Liam McCarthy Cup, for the 1922 All-Ireland Senior hurling final in which Kilkenny beat Cork.

 The Hogan Stand was named after Michael Hogan, a Tipperary footballer, who was shot dead on Bloody Sunday 1920 when British troops opened fire in Croke Park during a Tipperary v Dublin game. Twelve spectators were also killed.

Facts compiled by Kieran O’Neill (6th Class)  

Sporting Interests of the CBS Boys

Here in the CBS, there is certainly a very broad range of sporting interests among the pupils.  We have boys attending the school who represent various local hurling teams such as Faythe Harriers, Clonard and the Volunteers.  There are quite a few Gaelic football teams represented by our pupils too.  St. Mary’s, Sarsfields and the Volunteers are just some of them.  Soccer is a very popular sport among the boys.  Many of them play for the local clubs such as Wexford Celtic, Wexford Albion and North End.  There are also boys in the school who play rugby for the Wexford Wanderers Club. 

The aforementioned sports are probably the most popular among the boys in the school, but there are many more which our boys compete in.  We have handballers, boxers, swimmers, tennis players, trampoliners, kick-boxers, table-tennis players, gymnasts, horse-riders, archers, cricket players, snooker players, pool players, golfers, rounders players, bowlers and hockey players.   We have boys who attend tae-kwan-do and karate classes, and we even have some pigeon racers in the school! 

Rackard League News

Click here for more photos Well done to our gallant Rackard League team who did us proud in the recently played Roinn A, County Football Final at Wexford Park. In a fast-moving skillful game, our lads built up a slender lead before half time. St. Aidan's took full advantage of the stiff breeze in the second half and cancelled the deficit before scoring a couple of crucial goals and going on to win a thrilling game. Congratulations to all involved - coaches, Bobby and Sean and our dedicated squad of players.

Schools Hurling Coaching Scheme

Every year the school participates in the hurling coaching scheme, which is organised by the Wexford GAA County Board.  This involves two qualified GAA coaches coming into the school on one day each week to coach the boys in the skills of hurling.  This year the coaches are Kevin Kennedy (from the famed Oulart-The Ballagh GAA club) and Brendan Brown.  The CBS is just one of the ten schools in the Wexford town area that the guys are coaching in.  During the first term, in our school, they worked with Ms. Hickey’s 3^rd class, Ms. Casey’s 6^th and Ms. Crosbie’s 2^nd/3^rd class.  They are continuing their work with Ms. Crosbie’s class for the second term and they are also working with Ms. Banville’s 2^nd class, Ms. Coady’s 5^th class and Mr. Cummings’ 6^th class.  

The coaches take each class for 45 minute sessions.  Each session begins with some warm-up activities and some stretching exercises.  They then begin to work on the hurling skills.  The boys are taken through various sets of drills which are designed to help them to improve their hurling skills but which also allow them to have some fun and enjoy themselves.  At the end of each session, the boys get a chance to put their newly learned skills to use when the class being coached is divided into two teams and these teams play against each other in what usually turns out to be a highly competitive match!

The boys are really benefiting from, and enjoying the coaching sessions.  Both coaches say that their skills are improving each week, and comment regularly on the high level of hurling ability throughout the school.  Keep up the good work boys!  

The Rackard Leagues

The CBS participates in the Primary Schools GAA (Cumann na mBunscoil) competitions run by the Wexford County Board every year.  These are called the Rackard Leagues.  Our teams participate in Roinn A of the football league and Roinn B of the hurling league. 

The Rackard league football takes place before Christmas.  This year the school team, under the expert guidance of 6^th class teacher, Bobby Cummings, reached the semi-final stages of the competition.

The hurling league generally takes place after Easter.  This year, trials for the school team were held before Christmas in the form of an in-school hurling league.  All boys interested in playing for the school were invited to take part.  Based on the ability and commitment they showed throughout this league, a panel of 35 boys was chosen to form the school hurling panel and these boys have been training every Tuesday and Friday after school since Christmas.  The team is being coached by Mary Coady, who teaches 5^th class in the school. The boys have been working very hard in training and have shown great enthusiasm and dedication.  They are very much looking forward to the start of the league and really feel they can bring some silverware back to the school.

Best of luck, boys!

Colouring Competition

Winner

Ryan Daly 
(5th Class)

Picture by: Peter Furlong (6th Class)

How do you think the Wexford hurling and football teams will do this year in the Leinster and All-Ireland championships?

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