Ulster Colleges All Star Jarly Óg Burns pictured with Head of PE & Sport, Mr John Rafferty and fellow team coach, Mr Barry Shannon.

Year 12 student Jarly Óg Burns has joined Caolan Trainor and Jamie Cosgrove as St Paul’s High Schools latest Danske Bank Ulster Colleges All Star.

The prestigious award caps what has been an exceptional sporting year for the modest Year 12 student in which he won both a Danske Bank Ulster Colleges Treanor Cup and an Armagh county minor title with his club Silverbridge Harps.

Jarly Óg is the second eldest son of new St Paul’s Principal and former Ulster Championship winning captain Jarlath Burns, and Jarly Óg looks set to carve out a very successful career for school, club and county in the future and all the staff, especially those involved in the promotion of Gaelic games wish him all the best in both his school and football career.

Of course Jarly Óg is not our only All Star in St Paul’s.  He is in good company with current Kukri Ulster Ladies All Star Louise Kenny and double award winner Aimee Mackin, both students in Year 13.

These individual awards pay testimony to the opportunities created for our pupils by Mr Oliver Mooney, who retires as Principal of St Paul’s at the end of the year.  Jarly Óg’s All Star award is icing on the cake in what has been a wonderful journey in the development of Gaelic games in St Paul’s since he first addressed the staff in January 2002. During his first address to staff he indicated that he wanted St Paul’s to become a GAA school and he has been true to his word since then.

In his first two years as Principal, two Armagh U16 titles were secured along with an Arthurs Cup in 2004 (having been beaten by a St Ciaran’s Ballygawley team led by Mickey Harte in extra time the previous year.  Mickey Harte describes this result as his best victory in that year – a year when he led Tyrone to Ulster, National League and All Ireland titles!)

Mr Mooney led St Paul’s from the Voctional Schools into the ultra competitive Ulster Colleges in order to create more opportunities for a greater range of year groups to experience schools football and hurling.

His leadership extended beyond the playing field in that this success was mirrored in music and drama while other sporting activities such as netball, cross-country, golf, outdoor pursuits and rugby grew increasing the range of extra-curricular sporting and recreational activities available to all the pupils of St. Paul’s. However his love of Gaelic games was reflected in the biggest turn around in terms of both participation and success.

In his final term as Principal the U16 boys and girls competed in both the Rannafast Cup and the Ulster Ladies U16 A competitions and the U14 boys gave the best school display of 2013 being narrowly beaten in the Danske Bank Ulster Colleges Loch an Iúir final.  Meanwhile the U18 boys have qualified for the knockout stages of the Mac Rory cup having beaten Omagh CBS and St Patrick’s Academy, Dungannon to secure enough league points to stay in the competition, and our senior girls team have an U20 a final against Our Lady’s, Castleblayney to look forward to in the new year.

Mr Mooney’s roll of honour speaks for itself – in his 12 years as Principal the school has won a total of seventeen Ulster titles between Ladies Football, Vocational Schools, Ulster Colleges Football and Ulster Colleges Hurling as well as the coveted All Ireland Colleges Noone cup in 2012.

Mr Mooney’s tenure as Principal of St Paul’s is coming to a close, but he has secured a bright future for Gaelic games in the South Armagh area. The All Star award presented to Jarly Óg Burns recognises this and serves as an indication of the strength and vitality of the position of PE and Sport in St Paul’s High School.

The Danske Bank Ulster Colleges Football All Stars.