The MacRory Cup is an inter-college (school) Gaelic football tournament in Ulster at senior "A" grade.
The winners advance to the semi-finals of the Hogan Cup, the All-Ireland colleges "A" senior football championship.
The competition and trophy are named after Joseph MacRory, then Bishop of Down and Connor, who donated the first cup in 1923, he later became Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland in 1928.
The "offer" was not honoured for another five seasons however, and, in the interim, the matches between other seminaries and St Patrick's Armagh are recorded as "challenges" until the arrival of the first MacRory Cup in late spring 1923.
1976 marks another significant landmark in the history of the competition although that particular final ended in defeat for St Patrick's College, Maghera a.
It ushered in an extraordinary sequence of 14 final appearances by St Patrick's College, Maghera in the following 15 years, 8 of which were won, including 4 consecutive victories 1982–85.
[citation needed] The 1990s marked the arrival of St Patrick's Academy, Dungannon and St Michael's College, Enniskillen at centre stage, and accelerated change in the educational domain with the disappearance of the remaining boarding departments in schools, and an equalisation in standards across a greater range of schools.
A replacement trophy was donated to Ulster Colleges by Cardinal Brady, thereby perpetuating the historic link between the Archdiocese of Armagh and this competition.
[citation needed] The trophy won in March 2012 by St Michael's, Enniskillen is therefore the third cup to bear Cardinal MacRory's name.
[1] Ulster Colleges announced in June 2020 that they hoped to find a date in October to play the MacRory and McLarnon Cup finals.
Seán Marty Lockhart - Won consecutive MacRory Cups with St Patrick's College, Maghera 4.
Karl Diamond - Won consecutive MacRory & Hogan Cups with St Patrick's College, Maghera 8.
Éamonn Burns - Won consecutive MacRory & Hogan Cups with St Patrick's College, Maghera 11.
James McCartan Jr. - Won MacRory and Hogan Cups with St Colman's College, Newry 15.