The Ashbourne Weekend
The Ashbourne Cup is the highest division in intercollegiate camogie. The competition features many of the current stars of the game and is sometimes known as the ‘Olympics of Camogie’because of the disproportionate number of All-Star and All-Ireland elite level players who participate each year.
Background
The competition is the brainchild of Agnes O’Farrelly (1874–1951), founder member (1914) and president (1914–51) of the UCD camogie club who later served as president of the Camogie Association of Ireland in 1941–2. In 1915 she persuaded her friend, Irish language activist Liam Mac Giolla Bhríde (1868–1942), second Lord Ashbourne, to donate a trophy for the camogie intervarsity competition. The first game of intercollegiate camogie took place between University College Dublin and University College Cork on 18 April 1915. NUI Galway (then University College, Galway) joined the competition in 1916, Queen’s University, Belfast in 1934, and NUI Maynooth (then St Patrick’s College), New University of Ulster, Coleraine, and Trinity College, Dublin in 1972. Apart from 1934-7, until 1960 the competition was played on a league basis, and since then the concluding stages have been played together on a single weekend in mid-February. There was no competition in 1943, due to war-time restrictions, and the competition remained unfinished in 1963, when University College Dublin fielded an ineligible player for the final, which was drawn and never replayed. University College Cork claimed the title.
Purcell Cup
The CCAO also oversees the Purcell Cup which has been contested since 1977. The Purcell Cup, the third level colleges division 2 championship, was donated by Úna Uí Phuirséil, President of the Camogie Association 1976-78, and her husband Pádraig Puirséil, Gaelic games correspondent for the Irish Press 1954-78. Mary Immaculate College, Limerick defeated Ulster Polytechnic by 3-0 to 0-1 in the first final in St Patrick’s Drumcondra on 6 March 1977. The format is like the Ashbourne Cup, in the final stages of the competition, six teams are divided into two groups of three in which each team plays two matches. The top two in each group goes through to the cup semi-finals while the bottom team in each group plays in the final of the Purcell Shield. Having initially been established for non-university colleges in 1977, from 1994 the standard of the team rather than the type of university determined whether colleges should participate in the Ashbourne Cup or the Purcell Cup.
Fr. Meachair Cup
Colleges who do not compete in the Ashbourne and Purcell Cups play for a cup named after Fr Gearóid Ó Meachair from Cappawhite, Co Tipperary, founder and popular trainer of the NUI Maynooth camogie team. It was inaugurated in 1986. Until 2011 it was a one-day seven-a-side competition. The format is similar to the Ashbourne and Purcell Cups.
Ó Maolagáin Cup
The remaining teams not in the first three championships participate in a one-day seven-a-side competition. The trophy is named for Camogie Association President of 1991-4, Brídín Uí Mhaolagáin.
Ashbourne Cup Role of Honour
1915 U.C.D.
1916 U.C.D.
1917 U.C.G.
1918 U.C.D.
1919 U.C.C.
1920 U.C.G.
1921 U.C.D.
1922 U.C.C.
1923 U.C.C.
1924 U.C.C.
1925 U.C.C.
1926 U.C.C.
1927 U.C.C.
1928 U.C.G.
1929 U.C.C.
1930 U.C.G.
1931 U.C.C.
1932 U.C.C.
1933 U.C.D.
1934 U.C.C.
1935 U.C.D.
1936 U.C.C.
1937 U.C.C.
1938 U.C.D.
1939 U.C.D.
1940 U.C.D.
1941 U.C.D.
1942 U.C.D.
1943 Not Played
1944 U.C.C.
1945 U.C.C.
1946 U.C.D.
1947 U.C.C.
1948 U.C.G.
1949 U.C.G.
1950 U.C.D.
1951 U.C.G.
1952 U.C.D.
1953 U.C.D.
1954 U.C.D.
1955 U.C.D.
1956 U.C.G.
1957 U.C.G.
1958 U.C.D.
1959 U.C.D.
1960 U.C.D.
1961 U.C.D.
1962 U.C.D.
1963 Final not Played
1964 U.C.G.
1965 U.C.C.
1966 U.C.D.
1967 U.C.C.
1968 U.C.G.
1969 U.C.D.
1970 U.C.D.
1971 U.C.D.
1972 U.C.C.
1973 U.C.C.
1974 U.C.C.
1975 U.C.C.
1976 U.C.C.
1977 U.C.C.
1978 U.C.G.
1979 U.C.G.
1980 U.C.D.
1981 U.C.D.
1982 U.C.D.
1983 U.C.D.
1984 U.C.D.
1985 U.C.C.
1986 U.C.D.
1987 U.C.D.
1988 U.C.D.
1989 U.C.G.
1990 U.C.G.
1991 Q.U.B.
1992 U.U.J.
1993 U.U.J.
1994 U.C.G.
1995 U.L.
1996 U.C.C.
1997 U.U.J.
1998 U.C.C.
1999 W.I.T.
2000 U.C.C.
2001 W.I.T.
2002 U.C.C.
2003 U.C.C.
2004 U.L.
2005 U.L.
2006 U.L.
2007 U.C.D.
2008 U.C.D.
2009 W.I.T.
2010 W.I.T.
2011 W.I.T.
2012 W.I.T
2013 W.I.T.
2014 U.L.
2015 W.I.T.
2016 U.L.
2017 U.L.
2018 U.L.
2019 U.L.
Purcell Cup Role of Honour
1977 Mary Immaculate, Limerick
1978 Mary Immaculate, Limerick
1979 Ulster Polytechnic, Belfast
1980 Thomond/NIHE, Limerick
1981 Thomond/NIHE, Limerick
1982 St. Mary’s, Belfast
1983 Mary Immaculate, Limerick
1984 Ulster Polytechnic, Belfast
1985 Thomond College, Limerick
1986 Thomond College, Limerick
1987 Thomond College, Limerick
1988 Thomond College, Limerick
1989 Mary Immaculate, Limerick
1990 Waterford R.T.C.
1991 Thomond College, Limerick
1992 Waterford R.T.C.
1993 Athlone R.T.C.
1994 University College, Cork
1995 Athlone R.T.C.
1996 St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth
1997 Queen’s University, Belfast
1998 Mary Immaculate, Limerick
1999 Limerick I.T.
2000 University of Ulster, Jordanstown
2001 Cork I. T.
2002 Carlow I.T.
2003 University of Ulster, Jordanstown
2004 Athlone I.T.
2005 Garda College, Templemore
2006 University of Ulster, Jordanstown
2007 Athlone I.T.
2008 Queens’ University
2009 Athlone IT
2010 DIT
2011 Queens University
2012 DCU
2013 DCU
2014 UCC
2015 Mary Immaculate, Limerick
2016 Cork Institute of Technology (CIT)
2017 DIT
2018 NUIG
2019 MU
Fr. Meachair Cup Role of Honour
2012 Mary Immaculate Limerick
2013 St. Patricks
2014 Carlow IT
2015 Carlow IT
2016 Trinity College
2017 St. Patricks
2018 St. Mary’s University
2013 St. Patricks
2014 Carlow IT
2015 Carlow IT
2016 Trinity College
2017 St. Patricks
2018 St. Mary’s University
2019 AIT
