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Newry Greyhound trainer and breeder Brendan Matthews had an incredible treble win at Powerstown Park in Clonmel on Monday 3 February.
Metal Queen bred and trained by Brendan took the Champion Bitch while Navalny was Champion Dog and crowning it all Gone to Strand owned by Brendan Matthews, Seamus Kelly, Liam Herlihy Syndicate won the 2025 Boylesports Derby. The Derby was his sixth coursing derby win.
The Matthews family run Townview Kennels based at Doran's Hill in Newry to date has won 10 Champion Stakes, 9 Irish Cups, 6 Derbys, 2 Oaks, 2 Kirbys, 1 Produce Stakes and 1 National Sprint.
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Newry based global player VANTRU has confirmed its sponsorship of Newry City Athletic Football Club.
Established in 2017 and boasting a multidisciplinary team of accounting, tax and legal professionals, VANTRU provides global corporate services from Ireland, UK and the Netherlands.
Managing Director, Rory Mulvaney has been involved with the Club for a number of years and says he was keen to officially lend his support to the senior team.
Under the management of Darren Mullen, Newry City Athletic Football Club is currently playing in the highly competitive championship league and has recently announced the arrival of three new players, Brian Healy, Lorcan Donnelly and Jamie Doran.
“VANTRU has supported Newry City Athletic Football Club for quite some time in various capacities and I’m delighted to officially issue sponsorship to the side for this current season,” commented Rory.
“We may be a global company focused on servicing clients based around the world, but we’re committed to supporting and elevating organisations within the Newry community as well.
“We pride ourselves on offering the very best quality services to our clients and enhancing their business growth and with this sponsorship, we hope that this will go a long way to assisting the Club. I’d like to take this opportunity to wish the team the very best of luck for the remainder of the season.”
Gary Wilson, Commercial Manager at Newry City welcomed the partnership and expressed gratitude to VANTRU for its generous contribution. “VANTRU’s support will make a huge difference both on and off the field, helping us to provide the resources and opportunities necessary to continue growing as a Club, so we are very excited to welcome them on board.
“At Newry City Athletic Football Club we are indebted to our sponsors, their support allows us to have teams from Under 9 right through to the senior team. Therefore, we are delighted to have VANTRU on board and are very grateful to the Rory and his team for their sponsorship.” Gary said.
To find out more about VANTRU and the services it provides, visit https://vantru.com
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Armagh joint manager Darnell Parkinson said they still have plenty of room for improvement despite maintaining their winning start to the defence of their Lidl NFL crown with a tight 0-11 to 2-4 win over Dublin in Parnell Park.
“We don’t make it easy for ourselves, but I suppose it’s maybe not a bad thing as well,” said Parkinson. “There’s a lot of learning to take when we watch the tape back and look at a few chances we left behind us. The main thing is, we got the points on the board.
“We’re just trying to tell the players to back themselves, that we have a lot of faith in them. We’ve got really good defenders and the more players we can keep high up the pitch, then the better chance we have of getting scores on the board.”
Niamh Reel kicked five points as the defending champions held off a late surge from Dublin to maintain their winning start to the campaign.
A goal from Kate Sullivan after 18 minutes kept Dublin in touch but they trailed by 0-6 to 1-2 at the interval.
Reel’s fourth of the afternoon extended Armagh’s lead after the restart and efforts from Caroline O’Hanlon (free), substitute Caoimhe McNally and Niamh Henderson pushed them further clear but they faced a nervous finish when Niamh Hetherton got a Dublin goal three minutes from time to reduce the deficit to the minimum.
“We thought we could have maybe snatched something at the end, but probably wouldn’t have deserved to,” said joint Dublin manager Paul Casey. “Disappointed, but pleased with the fight the girls showed at the end. They showed great battling skills and we could have nicked it, but it wasn’t to be.”
Playing against Laois in Division 3, Down lost out by two points despite four goals, with the final score Laois 2-11 Down 4-3.
Results
Lidl National Football League Division One Round Three
Armagh 0-11 Dublin 2-4
Kerry 2-10 Kildare 0-7
Tyrone 1-15 Mayo 2-11
Meath 2-11 Waterford 1-13
Lidl National Football League Division Two Round Three
Donegal 1-7 Monaghan 0-8
Galway 1-18 Roscommon 1-11
Cork 3-12 Tipperary 0-9
Clare 2-17 Westmeath 0-7
Lidl National Football League Division Three Round Three
Cavan 6-17 Carlow 1-4
Laois 2-11 Down 4-3
Limerick 5-12 Offaly 1-4
Louth 1-6 Wexford 0-6
Lidl National Football League Division Four Round Five
Fermanagh 4-14 Longford 4-8
Lidl National Football League Division Four Round Two (refixed)
Leitrim 1-11 Wicklow 3-4
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Newry U18s may have made the trip to Belfast High School with only 13 players but they were certainly ready to get their cup run under way.
The Blue and Whites took the lead early on from the reliable boot of Ciaran Mathers but Belfast High used the two man advantage to score the first try of the game.
Newry exited well from the resulting kick off and almost scored before knocking on. The Telford Park pack won the scrum against the head and this resulted in Newry's first try of the game scored by captain Lorcan McCumisky.
Belfast High though gathered themselves and scored two unanswered tries before Owen McWall made a great strong run breaking through several tackles to score Newry's second try. Newry kept the score ticking over with penalties to finish the first half 23-19.
The Blue and Whites scored the first try of the second half through Ciaran Mathers after great work from the Newry pack. This was followed up by Joseph McConville scoring the next try for Newry, after good disruption at the line out, he made a great break through the middle to finish under the posts.
Newry killed the game off when Lorcan McCumiskey grabbed his second try after a bruising run down the left wing to crash over the line.
Belfast High scored a consolation try but it was too late and Newry returned down to Telford the victors.
Ciaran Mathers was given man of the match after a faultless display from the kicking tee and scoring a try.
The Newry coaches were absolutely delighted with the display the Newry team put on with coach Chris Hanna deeming it one of the best displays he had ever seen in a Newry jersey.
Final Score: Belfast HS U18s 24 Newry U18s 44
Try scorers: Lorcan McComiskey (2), Owen McWall, Joseph McConville, Ciaran Mathers
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The Newry U12 RFC team shone bright when they travelled to the Cooke Blitz at the weekend coming home with four wins from four games.
The first game started at speed with Newry fronting up with some big hits against neighbours Portadown who had possession for the first 3 mins but were sent backwards with Newry's defence dominant.
When Newry finally got their hands on the ball there was no looking back, phase after phase was quickly turned into points with Newry running out 3 tries to 1 winners.
The second game against Malone started in similar fashion with Newry dominating the contact and using quick ball to catch the opposition flat-footed.
Again, the pace out wide proved too much with Anthony Magennis helping himself to a brace of tries early on. This sparked Oran Hughes to help himself to a few more forays over the line.
Newry surprised Malone with changes of play from the base of the scrum with Finn Laverty bossing proceedings. The Blue and Whites continued to offer up a great display of total rugby to run out 5 - 1 deserved winners.
The focus switched to game three with Civil Service firmly in Newry’s sights and they began the encounter at lightning pace with a few quick passes leading to a straight-forward opening score.
Newry should have pushed on from this but were out of sorts for a spell and after a nasty head knock to Anthony Magennis Newry finally started to the back to basics rugby and ran out comfortably by 4 tries to 2.
Everyone at the club wishes Anthony a speedy recovery.
Everything now hinged on game 4 against local rivals Banbridge and Newry were up to the challenge.
The early exchanges between the teams were well matched, with both sides running and tackling hard, Newry were unlucky not to score on 3 occasions being pushed into touch in the right-hand corner.
However, the pressure soon paid off with Newry running over two quick tries in succession. Newry maintained their high-pressure tactics which forced Banbridge but then with pressure came the result, 2 tries in quick succession. The pressure was immense and forced Banbridge into a kicking game which yielded two tries for the Bann lads, but the Blitz was decided when Oran Hughes collected the ball deep in his own half to run in one of the tries of the tournament to secure a 3 tries to 2 victory to the Blue and Whites and make it four wins from four.
The Under 12 management and coaches were delighted with the performance of the lads who showed great character and love for the sport and gelled as a team for a well-deserved Blitz win.
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In what has been a frustrating and difficult season so far for the first fifteen their result against Civil Service could prove to be a turning point when they emerged victorious in a scoreline of 26 points to 11.
Newry dominated the match from the outset with their pack very much in the ascendancy. The carrying of Fearon, Farrell and Kirk created a platform for the backs to operate under the calm direction of Donal Farrell whose probing and astute kicking opened up the Service defence.
The visitors battled hard in defence and scrambled well at the the expense of giving away kickable penalties which Newry kicked to touch near the visitors line and after a driving maul, Sean McCaul crashed over for the Telford Park Men’s first try.
Further Newry pressure allowed Joe Rice to kick two more penalties to extend the Newry lead which they carried into half time.
In the second half Newry continued their dominance of the game and were unlucky not to breach the visitors line on a number of occasions.
Again they had to settle for two well struck Rice penalty conversions. Civil Service applied significant pressure as the half wore on and were rewarded with a converted try.
Not to be outdone Newry reasserted their dominance and Artie McGuiness was on the end of a free flowing move to drive home another try for the Blue and Whites. This was a good performance by Newry in front of a supportive home crowd who really got behind the team, and the display is just rewards for the efforts and perseverance of Coach Bruce Cornelius, Captain Chris Hanna and all the players in recent months.
The result is a timely confidence boost for the Newry Firsts as they look towards the run-in for the rest of the season.
Final Score: Newry RFC 1st XV 26 - Civil Service 11
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Saturday was a really big day for over 40 of Newry Rugby Club’s Minis and Maxis who travelled to Lurgan Rugby Club for a Blitz.
This was the first game of competitive rugby that the majority of these players had ever played and they really rose to the occasion.
A huge thanks to Lurgan and their coaches who were brilliant putting on a coaching session and organising the games.
It was as very proud moment for all the Newry coaches as they witnessed theiry young charges stepping up to enjoy competitive game time and playing their hearts out.
The outcome was lots of tackles and tries and great memories created for all of the young Newry stars of the future.
Newry Rugby Club has a bright future with all the Minis coming through. Mini Training ages 5 plus take place every Saturday 10-11am at Telford Park with youth training for ages 11-18 also taking place from 10-11:30am.
Newry Rugby Club is still welcoming new players so if you would like to try your hand at rugby or would like to come along to a training session to see what it is all about them come along any Saturday where a warm welcome awaits!
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The intense interest in the upcoming 2025 Pittsburgh Steelers NFL game in Croke Park was brought up in Stormont this week by MLA Justin McNulty who proudly highlighted Steelers owners, the Rooney family's connection to Newry.
Speaking during Assembly business on Monday 10 February Mr McNulty said "On 28 September this year, the Pittsburgh Steelers will play the Green Bay Packers at our GAA HQ, Croke Park. [The date and team haven't been officially confirmed] The excitement and anticipation surrounding that global sporting contest's taking place in Ireland will reach fever pitch.
"I met Dan Rooney and former quarterback Kordell Stewart in Newry with Feargal McCormack when the seeds were being sown for the fixture a number of years back. The Rooney family, who are from Derrybeg on the Armagh side of Newry, have had a positive connection with Ireland for many years. The late Dan Rooney was, of course, the US ambassador to Ireland and was a great friend of my predecessor, Séamus Mallon. Dan Jr and Art are now very actively involved in running the Steelers organisation, and it was heart-warming to hear Dan referring to Ireland as his family's motherland."
The Newry and Armagh MLA added "I want to pay tribute to a number of people who have made the event possible: the Rooney family; Feargal McCormack; the GAA, including the current president, Jarlath Burns, for having the vision; Charlie McConalogue, the Irish Minister for sport; and, most of all, Peter Quinn. A long time ago, Peter Quinn had the vision to build Croke Park and make it a global sporting stadium. What dividends we have reaped since that time. I say that with a degree of sadness, because it is an awful pity that there is nobody here with that leadership, ambition and vision for our stadia in this part of Ireland."
In a media statement making the announcement a Steelers representative explained "Steelers' President Art Rooney II and his family have a rich history and deep connection with the Island of Ireland, having family from Newry, County Down. The late Steelers Chairman Daniel M. Rooney, Art Rooney's father, served as U.S. Ambassador to Ireland from 2009-2012 and was a co-founder of the Ireland Funds charity."
The Steelers are one of only two NFL teams to have played a game in Ireland to date, the only other team being their clash with the Chicago Bears at Croke Park in 1997 in a preseason matchup. The game this year will be the first ever regular season game here.
“We are absolutely delighted to welcome the NFL and the Pittsburgh Steelers to Croke Park,” said Jarlath Burns, GAA President. “This event will not only highlight our stadium's world-class facilities but also reinforce the connections and love of sport shared between our communities. Croke Park is a proud symbol of Ireland’s rich sporting heritage, and hosting one of the world’s best sporting organisations is a momentous occasion for the entire country. It will be a special and unique event, celebrating the passion uniting two great sporting codes in the heart of Dublin.”
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