Coláiste Iognaid Rís heroes of 1975 celebrate 50th anniversary of Dr Harty Cup and Corn Uí Mhuirí double

Fifty years ago this year, Coláiste Iognaid Rís (now Coláiste Éamann Rís) won the Dr Harty Cup and Corn Uí Mhuirí Munster Colleges double.

Recently, over two days in Lee Valley Golf and Country Club in Ovens and Heineken in Cork City, the players, families representing the players who have since passed away and the managers – including Cork’s greatest football icon Billy Morgan – gathered to celebrate the magnificent achievement of winning the double.

Captains Theo Cullinane and Terry Howard were among the large attendance. Under the current GAA season, it’s unlikely that Coláiste Iognaid Rís’ feat will ever be surpassed.

St Francis College Rochestown have come close on a couple of occasions most recently a decade ago when they lost both finals in 2015.

One of the key players on both Coláiste Iognaid Rís teams 50 years ago was St Finbarr’s Jim Murphy. He can remember the year like it was yesterday.

“Winning the Harty and Corn Uí Mhuirí is a very difficult thing to do,” he says.

“With so much pressure on young people in secondary school both from an educational perspective and a GAA point of view, it can be challenging to get that balance right.

“We had a bit of luck along the way all those years ago. One of my best memories was the Corn Uí Mhuirí semi-final against Coláiste Chríost Rí played down in Kinsale. There was a great rivalry between the schools and a lot of my friends would have been playing for the opposition.

“We won by a few points and it gave us great confidence going into the final against Tralee CBS. What happened in that game is a bit of a blur, but the memories of the celebrations and who played well comes flooding back. Billy Collins had one of those days where if he kicked the ball over his shoulder it would go over the bar, he was outstanding. Tom Beckett, God rest him, had a great game up front.

“The Harty final was played above in Thurles against Limerick CBS. They would have been favourites, but we had our purple patch and got five goals to win the match."

Murphy has praised one individual in particular for Coláiste Iognaid Rís completing the double 50 years ago.

“George Allen and Séamus Keating were brilliant looking after the hurling, two teachers who were absolutely committed. Frank Nolan and Billy Morgan managed the football team. I would give an awful lot of credit to Billy in terms of what we achieved.

“I am a great admirer of his, a hero in Cork and a great servant to the GAA. We were very lucky as a group of young lads to have Billy coaching us. He had a huge influence on us and gave us a belief that nothing could stop us if we trained hard and backed each other up.

“At that age, to have someone of Billy’s fame to give us that kind of belief, was simply fantastic.” 

Winning the Dr Harty Cup and the Corn Uí Mhuirí in the same season is something that the team will never forget and as time ticks on, they plan on getting together on a more frequent basis.

“Seán Walsh, a great Kerry footballer back in the day, said to Theo Cullinane recently that he had won every medal you could wish for, but the one medal he doesn't have is the Corn Uí Mhuirí medal. He was frustrated over that. It shows how much school competitions means to people.

“It was great to get together for the 50th anniversary, but we are going to meet up more regularly now. We have made that promise to ourselves.” Murphy concluded.