Ashbourne Cup


The Ashbourne Cup is an Irish camogie tournament played each year to determine the national champion university or third level college. The Ashbourne Cup is the highest division in inter-collegiate camogie. The competition features many of the current stars of the game and is sometimes known as the ‘Olympics of Camogie’ because of the disproportionate number of All Star and All-Ireland elite level players who participate each year Since 1972 it has been administered by the committee of the Camogie Association.
The next Ashbourne Cup will take place over the weekend of 10-11 February 2020.

Format

In the final stages of the competition, six teams are divided into two groups of three in which each team plays two matches. The top two in each group go through to the cup semi finals while the bottom team in each group plays in the final of the Ashbourne Shield. The current holders of the cup are Waterford Institute of Technology having defeated UCC 2-10 to 2-2 in the 2011 final.

History

The competition is the brainchild of Agnes O'Farrelly, founder member and president of the UCD camogie club who later served as president of the Camogie Association of Ireland in 1941–2. In 1915 she persuaded her friend, Irish language activist William Gibson, aka Liam Mac Giolla Bhríde, second Lord Ashbourne, to donate a trophy for the camogie intervarsity competition. The first game of intercollegiate camogie took place between University College Dublin and University College Cork on 18 April 1915. NUI Galway joined the competition in 1916, Queen's University, Belfast in 1934, and NUI Maynooth, New University of Ulster, Coleraine, and Trinity College, Dublin in 1972. Apart from 1934-7, until 1960 the competition was played on a league basis, and since then the concluding stages have been played together on a single weekend in mid-February. There was no competition in 1943, due to war-time restrictions, and the competition remained unfinished in 1963, when University College Dublin fielded an ineligible player for the final, which was drawn and never replayed. University College Cork claimed the title. Since 2010 the finals weekend has been staged alongside the Purcell Cup.

Purcell Cup

The CCAO also oversees the Purcell Cup, which has been contested since 1977. The Purcell Cup, the third level colleges division 2 championship, was donated by Úna Uí Phuirséil, President of the Camogie Association 1976-78, and her husband Pádraig Puirséil, Gaelic games correspondent for the Irish Press 1954-78. Mary Immaculate College, Limerick defeated Ulster Polytechnic by 3-0 to 0-1 in the first final in St Patrick's. Drumcondra on 6 March 1977. The format is similar to the Ashbourne Cup, in the final stages of the competition, six teams are divided into two groups of three in which each team plays two matches. The top two in each group goes through to the cup semi finals while the bottom team in each group plays in the final of the Purcell Shield. The Purcell Cup winners play the Ashbourne Shield runners-up the following year to determine promotion and relegation. Having initially been established for non-university colleges in 1977, from 1994 the standard of the team rather than the type of university determined whether colleges should participate in the Ashbourne Cup or the Purcell Cup.

Fr Meachair Cup

Colleges who do not compete in the Ashbourne and Purcell Cups play for a cup named after Fr Gearóid Ó Meachair, from Cappawhite, Co Tipperary, founder and popular trainer of the NUI Maynooth camogie team. It was inaugurated in 1986. Until 2011 it was a one-day seven-a-side competition. The format is similar to the Ashbourne and Purcell Cups, six teams divided into two groups of three in which each team plays two matches. The top two in each group goes through to the cup semi finals while the bottom team in each group plays in the final of the Fr Meachair Shield. The Fr Meachair Cup winners play the Purcell Shield runners-up the following year to determine promotion and relegation.

O'Mhaolagáin Cup

The remaining teams not in the first three championships participate in a one-day seven-a-side competition, a format previously used for the Fr Meachair Cup. The trophy is named for Camogie Association President of 1991-4, Brídín Uí Mhaolagáin. The revived O'Mhaolagáin Cup was staged in Dundalk IT on 22 February 2012.

Ó Mhaolagáin cup

won the reinvented Ó Mhaolagáin cup in 2012
Coláiste Froebel, Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, Limerick IT, Marino, and University of Ulster Coleraine who won the inaugural O’Mhaolagáin Shield, all competed in the 2012 competition. St. Patrick's College, Thurles won the 2015 Shield.

Ashbourne Cup Winners

TeamCountyWinsLast win
University College Dublin Dublin352008
University College Cork Cork322003
National University of Ireland, Galway Galway151994
University of Limerick Limerick92019
Waterford Institute of Technology Waterford82016
University of Ulster, Jordanstown Antrim31997
Queens University Belfast Antrim11991

Highlights & Incidents

Highlights and incidents of the championship history include:
Until 1960 the series was played as a round robin over different weekends in the winter. The first figure in this table is the number of goals scored and the second total is the number of points scored, the figures are combined to determine the winner of a match in Gaelic Games. The results, dates and venues of finals since 1960 have been:
The closing stages of the Purcell Cup have always been played as a knock out competition:
Originally a sevens competition, the Fr Meachair Cup was upgraded to 15-a-side in 2012.
For many years a Combined Universities team was selected after the Ashbourne Cup event to play Cork county team for the Cronin Cup. Later the Combined Universities played the Combined Colleges. In 2004 the . Higher Education] committee of Cumann Camógaíochta na nGael instituted Ashbourne All-Stars for the best players in each position at the end of the tournament.

2006

Rosanna Kenneally, Catherine O'Loughlin, Angela Walsh, Rena Buckley, Jenny Duffy, Anna Geary, Michelle Shortt, Louise Mahony, Colette Desmond, Laura Linnane, Rachel Moloney, Cora Hennessy, Marie O''Connor, Amanda O'Regan, Sharon Daly

2007

, Clodagh Flanagan, Jennifer Browne, Mairead Luttrell, Mary Leacy, Fionnuala Carr, Cathriona Foley, Rena Buckley, Julianne Woodcock, Claire McMahon, Brenda Hanney, Aine Lyng, Susie O'Carroll, Ursula Jacob, Marie O'Connor

2008

Rosanna Kenneally, Therese Shortt, Mary Leacy, Michelle Casey, Sheila Sullivan, Fionnuala Carr, Cathriona Foley, Rena Buckley, Ann Dalton, Susie O'Carroll, Aine Lyng, Fiona Lafferty, Ursula Jacob, Aoife McLoughney, Una Leacy .

2009

, Keeva Fennelly, Mairéad Luttrell, Lorraine Ryan, Mary Leacy, Kelly-Anne Cottrell, Stacey Redmond, Rena Buckley, Ann Dalton, Collette Dormer, Aoife McLoughney, Susie O'Carroll, Ursula Jacob, Michelle Quilty

2010

Eleanor Mallon, Mairéad Luttrell, Sabrina Larkin, Gráinne Stapleton, Collette Dormer, Fionnuala Carr, Jill Horan, Katrina Parrock, Alison Maguire, Gráinne Kenneally, Áine Lyng, Patricia Jackman, Fiona Lafferty, Ursula Jacob, Deirdre Twomey

2011

Collette Dormer, Leann Fennelly, Julie Brien Ann Dalton, Michaela Morkan, Patricia Jackman Katrina Parrock, Chloe Morey Michaela Convery, Katie Power, Lisa Bolger Katriona Mackey, Denise Gaule, Michelle Quilty

2012

Emma Staunton, Ruth Jones, Sarah Anne Fitzgerald, Shonagh Curran, Patricia Jackman, Susan Vaughan, Niamh O'Dea, Lisa Bolger, Maria Walsh, Joanne Casey Sara Louise Carr, Denise Gaule, Marie Dargan, Katie Power, Katrina Parrock,

Purcell All-Stars

Purcell All-Stars were first selected from the Purcell Cup participant teams in 2006, rewarding the best players in each position at the end of the tournament.

2010

Martina O'Brien ; Karen Mullins, Therese Lynn, Sarah Ryan ; Rachel Ruddy, Edwina Keane, Aileen O'Loughlin ; Jane Dolan, Paula Kenny ; Christine Kenny, Keelin Bradley, Niamh Mulcahy ; Shauna Jordan, Colette McSorley, Louise Walsh

2011

Laura Quinn ; Gráinne Quinn, Kate Lynch, Laura Twomey ; Mairead Short, Cathriona Foley, Emma Brennan ; Jane Dolan, Keelan Bradley ; Cathy Bowes, Colette McSorley, Aoife Burke ; Sinead Cassidy, Orlaith Murphy, Joeleen Hoary ;

2012

Gráinne Smyth, Rebecca Cleere, Lisa Carey, Danielle McCrystal, Mairéad Power, Emma Brennan, Kristina Troy, Katie Campbell, Laura Twomey, Orlaith Walsh, Sinéad Cassidy, Ciara Donnelly, Orla Durkan, Naomi Carroll, Denise Luby