Shane Dowling says Ardscoil Rís set the bar high

A win for Ardscoil Rís against Our Lady’s Secondary School, Templemore in today’s Dr Harty Cup final in Nenagh (throw-in 2pm) would represent a fourth title in seven years.

No other school has managed more than one in the time since the Limerick side’s maiden victory in 2010, when they beat Thurles CBS after two replays. As a member of that side and the team which beat Charleville CBS in 2011, Limerick star Shane Dowling recalls how Ardscoil gradually came to be a force.

“I went into the school in 2005,” he says when I was in transition year, they got to a Harty semi-final against St Caimin’s out in Dolla.