St Joseph’s Tulla claim Harty Cup title

St Joseph’s Tulla 0-17 Ardscoil Rís 0-14

St Joseph’s Tulla’s sheer momentum proved unstoppable as they soared to a first ever Harty Cup title at the expense of Ardscoil Rís in the TUS Gaelic Grounds this afternoon.

With 22 of the 45 Clare natives seeing action over a compelling hour, this historic occasion was duly accentuated by a fairytale winner to boot, a fully merited victory as it turned out.

Going toe-to-toe with the five time winners against the strong conditions in the first half to only trail by the minimum by half-time, St Joseph’s Tulla duly hammered home their advantage on the turnover, with a six point unanswered blitz proving the catalyst for a memorable win.

What a battle it was though, commencing with a seesaw opening period that was level on six occasions before wind-assisted Ardscoil edged 0-9 to 0-8 in front by the break.

East Clare duo Sean Withycombe and Niall O’Farrell both led from the front on the scoreboard for their respective sides with six points apiece while crucially the Limerick side were denied two goal chances. Dylan Lynch cleared the crossbar with the first while in injury-time, Ardscoil might have snuck what would have been a freak goal when O’Farrell’s mishit free looked destined for the right corner. Up stepped goalkeeper Aaron Shanahan though, pulling off a brilliant reflex stop to tip the ball onto the post and somehow back across the line before drifting away for a ’65.

A goal at any stage would have been major but a relieved Tulla made the most of their reprieve and the welcome conditions to put themselves into the ascendency in the new half.

Six points in eight minutes through Withycombe (2), Darragh Keogh (2), Oisin Clune and the lively Colm Cleary turned a two point deficit into a four point cushion by the 40th minute. Their luck appeared to be in when Shanahan again came to the rescue to deny Shane O’Brien only a minute later. Undeterred, Ardscoil Rís did finally spark a backlash with four of the next five points through O’Farrell, Rian O’Byrne, O’Brien and Dylan Lynch to set up a grandstand finish at 0-15 to 0-14 by the 51st minute.

However, a resolute Tulla were not to be denied as despite the hammerblow of seeing what would have been a clinching goal twice denied by Clonlara’s Seimi Gully, the determined East Clare collective, led supremely by captain Ronan O’Connor, fired the last two points.

They inevitably arrived through scorers-in-chief Withycombe and Cleary to add St Joseph’s Tulla’s name to the Munster Senior A Post-Primary Schools Championship roll of honour.