The fiercest schools rivalry in the country and how students make their decision

Niall McIntyre

Paddy Deegan wasn’t even big enough to hold a pen but he was already heading to Kilkenny CBS.

And that was the lay of the land. His father had hurled in the CBS fields and he’d learned in the classrooms on James’ Street and his mother had it all planned out for him too.

He may have been only two years of age, he was definitely too young to have a say in it or to even care about it but down to his mother’s forward planning and because of his family’s roots, Paddy Deegan was on the list for secondary school in the CBS to go there in ten years time.

Not to St Kieran’s.

It was still far away down the line but there’s never any harm in having all bases covered and in a place like Kilkenny, it’s more of a tradition than it is a decision between the two and old traditions matter just as much as they die hard.

And this is a special kind of a tradition.

Listen, the ideal and the PC thing to say is that students land in secondary school based on educational factors such as the subjects they want to study and the teachers in the school but tell you what, when it comes to Kilkenny and when it comes to a lad like Paddy Deegan who goes around most of the time with a hurl in one hand and a sliotar in the other, something like a hurling club does more of the talking than those things and rather than shying away from that, lads like him are proud of that.

The tradition in Kilkenny is for the hurlers from the town clubs, like O’Loughlins Gaels, Dicksboro and James Stephens to go to Kilkenny CBS while youngsters from the country clubs, like Ballyhale Shamrocks, Bennettsbridge and Tullaroan go to Kieran’s.

“It’s more so based on where your father went or whatever. My mother had my name down before I was two or three. My father would have attended the CBS, I suppose, it’s more the country lads that go to Kieran’s,” Deegan told us recently.

That’s how much the hurling matters down there.

St Kieran’s College and Kilkenny CBS are only three minutes away from one another and they’ve lots in common as two of the biggest and most successful hurling schools in the country, but likes repel and for the six or so years the students spend in their chosen institution, the others are friends but they’re rivals too, hurling rivals.

The O’Loughlin Gaels club man is a Kilkenny senior now, one of the county’s best defenders and even though he’s four years out of the CBS, the influence held by the wins, the losses, the coaches, the rivals and the teammates he had during his time hurling with his school isn’t lost on him.

“There was a lot of lads I would have known personally on the Kieran’s team too…Some of my own clubmates and friends…It would have been a massive rivalry because Kieran’s, being so successful over the years, we always wanted to get one over on them,” he said at the Allianz Hurling League launch.

There’s no denying that Kieran’s are the more successful player in the rivalry, having won record amount of All-Irelands and Leinsters but Kilkenny CBS are always up for the challenge.

“Lads were heading to a football game and they were carrying hurls in their hands” – the magic of St. Kieran’s

Deegan is taken back to 2014 when the pair contested the Croke Cup (All-Ireland senior A schools final) in Nowlan Park.

“We hadn’t won an All-Ireland in so long – we lost the first year, we were disappointed, played Waterford colleges the next year, a great Waterford college’s team – lost that then. We eventually got to the All-Ireland final with Kieran’s facing us in Nowlan Park and the worst happened then…”

The worst was a 2-16 to 0-13 loss to the school across the town and though Deegan and co. have moved on, many of them to great things with hurleys in their hands, the youngsters in the CBS are still banging on Kierans’ door, the two schools having contested six of the last nine Leinster schools finals.

Kieran’s won the Leinster and the All-Ireland last year but the CBS got one over on them in the League this year. They’re both still standing into Round Three of this year’s Corn Uí Dhuill and few would bet against them meeting in its decider.

Rivalries breed success and in Kilkenny success breeds success and with Deegan potentially lining up alongside his classmate Huw Lawlor and St Kieran’s alumni Padraig Walsh in Brian Cody’s back line this year, there’s no denying the role these two great schools, and their rivalries have in it.