Ciaran Corrigan says that it was a ‘special feeling’ to have won the Sigerson Cup with St. Mary’s with the current group of players.

The Maguiresbridge man more than played his part in the great success for the Ranch, bagging the decisive extra time goal in the semi-final win over UCC at the Connacht GAA Centre and he followed it up with a point in the victory over a fancied UCD side in the final.

St. Mary’s have a much smaller pick than the majority of other colleges but Corrigan states that the close bond that the players have formed through spending countless hours together in the college has made the success all that more special.

“It has meant so much to so many people, you would just have to see the messages that I’ve got over the last couple of days from former students and people coming up to congratulate you. People don’t understand what it means to a boy like Paddy Tally who year on year on year has been working at this.You maybe don’t get it with the other colleges, it is just different. You don’t have anybody coming in to do a Masters, you come in as a first year and you are there to fourth year. These boys I’m playing with now, we came in as Freshers and played in an All Ireland Freshers semi-final two years ago and then here we are now with the Sigerson. We have worked our way up and we are a really close knit bunch, we are in day on day in college together so it is a very special feeling,” he said.

Corrigan reveals that the goal for St. Mary’s at the start of the season was to make it into the final four of the competition and get to the weekend.

“We sat down in the meeting at the start of the year and we said that we are sick of being number six and number seven and we said that we would try and get into the top four this year and get to the weekend. Then at the weekend we were six nil down in both games so to come out at the end with the cup it is just brilliant,” he added.

The spirit and belief shown by the Ranch over the weekend was there for all to see as they battled back from early six point deficits in both games to come out on top. And Corrigan says that despite falling behind he never doubted that they would win the games.

“Paddy came into the changing room after the game and said that he doesn’t buy into this giving every team a six point head start,” laughed Corrigan. “We always knew though we would find a way back into it and I thought in the final that apart from the two goals that they got we dominated the game. We scored nine in a row in the first half and I never doubted that we would go on to win it,” he commented.

The celebrations continued after over the weekend for St. Mary’s and included a visit to Blakes the Hollow in Enniskillen on Saturday evening where the side were met by John Reihill, the captain of the only other St. Mary’s side that lifted the Sigerson Cup back in 1989. That side had a strong Fermanagh connection with Reihill, Malachy O’Rourke and Fergal McCann all members of the side along with Trillick’s Iggy Gallagher.

“John was in Blakes of the Hollow when we were in it on Saturday night and he had his ‘89 jersey there and there was a photo of Conor Meyler (current captain) and him which is the two Sigerson winning captains.

“It was surreal and to be be honest, it hasn’t really sunk in yet.”