‘Mr. Ulster University GAA’ John ‘Tommy Joe’ Farrell was over-joyed after the college’s first Electric Ireland Sigerson Cup win since 2008.
Darragh Canavan was the star of the show for his side, the Tyrone star racking up five brilliant points from play as they defeated favourites UCD by 3-12 to 0-15.
Having lost by eight points to UCD earlier in the competition, Barry Dillon’s team were underdogs coming into the game but they blew UCD out of the water with three first half goals.
Derry star Niall Loughlin scored the first one after 11 minutes and it was a real sucker-punch for the Dublin college when Tyrone man Oisin McCann scored another from the resulting kick-out.
McCann, a brother of former Tyrone players Tiernan and Conall was again instrumental fifteen minutes later in setting up Derry’s Ben McCarron for Ulster University’s third just before the break.
It left UCD with a mountain to climb in the second half and while they did battle on, inspired by the brilliance of Roscommon’s Daire Cregg, who ended his evening with 0-9 (0-4f, 0-1m), they had left themselves with too much to do.
It’s the Ulster University’s first Sigerson Cup win in 16 years and their eight in total. That it came in their 50 year anniversary was a special aspect for president John ‘TJ’ Farrell, who gave an emotional interview to Higher Education GAA after the game.
“If I die tonight, I’ll die a happy man, I can tell you that.”
“It’s a good job I took the blood pressure tablets this morning.
“A lot of sad days, and a lot of hard days but I knew it would come with these lads. These are a good bunch of lads. They want to be there, and you can see the way they fought there. They’re unbelievable.
“This is our 50th anniversary. You dream of things like this. I said boys ‘I’m dreaming to win a Sigerson Cup in our 50th anniversary’ and they’ve done it.”
“All the doubters talking about players that weren’t there, those players are here, and they won it.”
Tears of joy for Tommy Joe!
See 'Mr Ulster University GAA' celebrate at the final whistle of tonight's @ElectricIreland Sigerson Cup Final in Tralee.
Emotions ran high after @UlsterUniGAA won the Cup for the first time in 17 years after beating UCD. pic.twitter.com/APhQ411vJw
— GAA Higher Education (@HigherEdGAA) February 14, 2024
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