“It’s a vitally important school for hurling in Derry” - Kevin Hinphey

St Patrick’s College, Maghera, will take on Tralee CBS in the All-Ireland Colleges’ B Final on Saturday afternoon, marking the first appearance of a Derry school in the decider since St Patrick’s last victory at this level in 2011.

The Derry school blew away their opposition to reclaim their first Mageean Cup since 2018 and their fifteenth Ulster title overall. In the semi-final, Maghera eased past 2024 All-Ireland B champions St Killian’s, Garron Tower, by six points before comprehensively disposing of reigning Ulster and All-Ireland champions Cross and Passion College, Ballycastle, 4-12 to 1-13 in the Mageean Cup final in January.

Last weekend, Maghera edged past Kilkenny school Coláiste Abhann Rí, Callan, to secure their place in the final two and will now face a talented Tralee CBS side in the Paddy Buggy Cup decider on March 22.

To have a team of Derry hurlers capable of producing such dominant displays and competing for national honours should come as little surprise.

Enormous work has been carried out in recent years to grow and develop hurling on Foyleside in a county long dominated by Gaelic football.

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In the opening round of this year’s Mageean Cup group stage, St Pat’s secured a narrow 2-21 to 2-17 victory over Gaelcholáiste Dhoire. Two years ago, the schools also met in the Forrester’s Cup final, the first time two Derry schools contested the decider of an Ulster A schools' competition.

At senior level, Slaughtneil regularly compete for Ulster honours and were the width of a post away from reaching the 2024 All-Ireland club final. Four out of the past five years, Derry have come up just short of lifting the Christy Ring Cup, while in 2023 the county’s under-20s, under the stewardship of Ryan O’Neill, secured Derry’s first ever All-Ireland B U20 title.

For Kevin Hinphey, regional hurling development officer with Ulster GAA and a former Derry inter-county star, St Pat’s arrival on the national stage is no surprise and reflects the work being done at grassroots level to develop the game in the county.

“It’s been brilliant for hurling in Derry. It’s indicative of the fact that the game is strong and the clubs feeding into those schools are strong,” he said. “It’s a good sign that hurling is in a good place in Derry to have two schools competing at Mageean level. St Pat’s have a very good, very strong team and have always had a lot of good players from the strong hurling clubs.

“It’s a vitally important school for hurling in Derry because so many of our young hurlers go there. What’s brilliant now is that we also have Gaelcholáiste Dhoire, so there are enough players in Derry for two top-level schools, which is fantastic.

“St Pat’s are normally competitive and up there with the best teams in Ulster, but this year is a very strong group, and the results are speaking for themselves. It will take a very good team to beat them.”

Hurling has surged in popularity in Derry in recent years. In 2025, three new under-eight hurling units were established with the help of a newly formed hurling development committee spearheaded by William Maher.

Castledawson, Faughanvale and Magilligan have all joined the ranks at underage level alongside St Finbarr’s and Doire Trasna, who have also taken up hurling at Go Games level alongside the county’s traditional clubs.

While signs of that success are beginning to break through on the national stage, the work being done to promote the game at grassroots level has been tireless. In a county so dominated by football, Hinphey says the goal is not to compete with the code but to dovetail in a way that works for both.

Like most counties where hurling is still developing, one of the major aims is to expand the number of clubs playing the game.

“Ten years ago there were eight clubs playing at Go Games level. Now we’re up to 13,” he explained. There’s a bunch of new clubs now where youngsters are getting the opportunity to play hurling, which is great. If we can get those clubs to progress up through the age groups, that’s the big target moving forward.

“We still have the established clubs ticking away like Slaughtneil, Banagher and Kevin Lynch’s, and hurling there is in fairly rude health.

“Football is going to be the stronger game; there are more clubs playing it, and they were a kick of a ball away from an All-Ireland final a few years ago. I don’t think hurling is competing with football. What we have to do is make hurling an attractive proposition for young players.”

“We’re doing that a lot more now. Our development squads are much stronger over the past few years, and they are mirroring what we are doing with the football squads. The setups are very professional now, from under-15 right up to senior.

“All you can do is hope that enough players are filtering through to the senior level. If that happens, we can be competitive, hopefully win a Christy Ring Cup and establish ourselves as a Joe McDonagh county.

“That will be the next target and it’s a realistic goal. We have to try and climb the ladder instead of trying to compete with football.”