It was with great pleasure that St. Conor’s P.S Omagh recently organised and hosted the Grange Dental Care Millennium Cup and Shield. This year’s tournament was of particular importance as it represented the tournament’s 25th year anniversary. Adding to the occasion, we were blessed with, glorious weather and the presence of Tyrone manager Malachy O’ Rourke and current Tyrone star Peter Harte. Peter, incidentally, was a winning member of the team that won the first Millennium Cup in its inaugural year in 2000 and again in 2002 for the old St. Colmcille’s P.S, Omagh team.
The format of the day’s action was based on two groups. Group 1 had St. Conor’s Omagh, St. Mary’s P.S, Killyclogher, Sacred Heart P.S, Tattyreagh and All Saints’ P.S, Tattysallagh. Group 2 consisted of Holy Family P.S, Omagh, St. Lawrence’s P.S, Fintona, Christ the King P.S, Strathroy and St. Ronan’s Recarson.
Following a morning of entertaining ‘round robin’ matches within each group and a series of gripping semi-finals, St Lawrence’s and Holy Family qualified for the Grange Dental Care Millennium Cup Final. All Saints’ and St. Ronan’s Recarson qualified for the Grange Dental Care Millennium Cup Shield Final. In an epic Shield final, St. Ronan’s emerged victorious against a gallant All Saints’ team. Later, in an enthralling Grange Dental Care Millennium Cup final, Holy Family edged out the St. Lawrence’s team.
We’d like to commend all the children on how well they behaved on the day. Not only was the football a joy to behold but the manners and respect towards the referee and each other was also. Well done everyone!
Our St. Conor’s team were tremendous from start to finish and although we lost out to St. Lawrence’s by the narrowest of margins, the boys represented our school and their families with pride.
A special word of thanks to Dermot Moxon for his expert refereeing throughout the competition.
We want to say a huge thank you to all the staff in our school for organising another hugely successful Millennium Cup. The Millennium Cup keeps going from strength to strength and plays a huge role in helping promote sport and Gaelic games in the West Tyrone area. Thank you to all the other schools that continue to attend and support our tournament every year.
Lastly, a special thank you to Malachy O’Rourke and Peter Harte. We are so grateful that they took time out of their busy schedules to present the medals and trophies and support our tournament. The Millennium Cup 25th Anniversary Tournament will live long in all our memories.
