'For the 46-man Cashel Community School panel; their names will be forever known'

Hundreds turned up at Cashel Community School on Sunday evening to welcome back the Harty Cup heroes.

There was electricity in the air as students and staff, past and present, all came out to support the young men who hadn’t just won the coveted Harty Cup, they’d also achieved greatness and hurling immortality.

Family members and friends of the team and its management and people from all around the school’s hinterland came to celebrate what this wonderful group of young men had achieved.

Just hours previously they had beaten Thurles CBS by the narrowest of margins in Semple Stadium to win the Harty Cup for the first time in the 106-year history of the competition.

Principal of the school, John Gallagher, paid a wonderful tribute to the players and management and all staff and students over the years who contributed to the school reaching the pinnacle of a Harty Cup crown in 2023.

The team’s manager, Brendan Ryan, also spoke eloquently about the team’s victory and paid tribute to the players’ dogged determination and “never give up” attitude that they showed all through the campaign.

It was a magical evening and anyone in attendance got a sense of the strong “community” that is clearly at the heart of the Cashel school.

A sense of everyone working together to help the students and drive them on in every aspect of their lives. Brendan also paid tribute to the families of the players for the wonderful qualities they have as young men and their strength of character. This victory means so much to so many communities.

People came from rival clubs, just to congratulate the players or even get their hands on the cup and get a picture with it, a trophy that many tried hard to win over the years.

The Harty Cup is a special competition and it took a very special team to win it.

Sunday, February 5, 2023, is a date many of us will not soon forget.

At the full-time whistle in Semple Stadium on Sunday, I ran onto the field to find my nephew, Dylan Fogarty, who played the game of his life at wing-back for his school.

As soon as I got to him, we just held each other and wept in the middle of Tom Semple’s field. It was pure joy, pure relief. It was a moment that will stay with me for the rest of my life.

That’s what the Harty Cup means to families, to players.

And for the 46-man panel; their names will be forever known.