Record number of entries for Datapac Championships
The blue ribands of the college’s championships are the Datapac Fitzgibbon Cup in hurling and the Sigerson Cup in football, but a host of other college’s will also vie for honours in the 2nd tier (Ryan Cup in Hurling, Trench Cup in football) and 3rd tier competitions (Feargal Maher Cup in Hurling and Corn na Mac Léinn in football). Fifty three colleges will be involved in the various football competitions and 36 in hurling.
The Datapac Fitzgibbon Cup semi-finals and final will be hosted by UCC on the weekend of March 3 and 4 and 11 teams will participate in the competition. They are: WIT, UCD, UCC, Cork IT, University of Limerick, DIT, NUI Galway, Garda College, Limerick IT, Galway IT and St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra. Limerick IT won the competition last year.
The Datapac Sigerson Cup semi-finals and final and will be hosted by DCU on the weekend of February 24 and 25 and nineteen teams are involved in the competition. They are: Waterford IT, IT Tralee, Cork IT, University of Limerick, UCC, NUI Galway, NUI Maynooth, Sligo IT, Athlone IT, Galway IT, Garda College, UCD, DIT, DCU, UUJ, Dundalk IT, QUB, St Mary’s Belfast and Tallaght IT. The current holders of the competition are Sligo IT.
The Ryan Cup is the competition for teams in hurling’s second tier and thirteen teams are involved in this year’s competition. They include IT Sligo, Tipperary Institute, Carlow IT, IT Tralee, Cadets, Cork College of FE, NUI Maynooth, Athlone IT, DCU, MICL, UUJ, QUB and TCD.
The Feargal Maher Cup in hurling will be played for by GMIT Castlebar, UUC/Magee, Dundalk IT, Letterkenny IT, GMIT Letterfrack, IT Blanchardstown, St Marys Belfast, Marino College, NCI, IT Tallaght, Dundee and King’s Inns.
The teams involved in the Trench Cup football competition are Limerick IT, Cadets, GMIT Castlebar, M.I.C.L, St Pats CE, Inchicore College, NCI, IT Carlow, Magee College, Letterkenny IT, IT Blanchardstown, B.I.F.H.E, the winners of the British Championship, Law School, TCD and UUC.
A total of eighteen teams will compete in the Corn na Mac Léinn football competition. They are: GMIT Letterfrack, DLIADT, Mater Dei, RCS, Carlow College, IT Carlow/Wexford, Froebel College, Tipperary Institute, Limavady College, Marino College, Newry Institute, NWIFHE, Garnerville Gaels, Griffith College, Coláiste Íde, Cork Colleges of FE, Carlow IE and Cavan Institute.
