Pre-match Schools' Cup scenes and ex-Ireland international gives view

Transcript

00:00School's Cup Day is always a special day, you know, not just from the point of view

00:07of the schools emptying out and coming to Belfast, but from the point of view of all

00:11the old boys and old girls like myself who will come along. And it's a great outing and

00:17it's a pleasure and an honour for Royal School Armagh to be here.

00:21It's a massive occasion for the school, isn't it?

00:24Huge, huge. You look at the history of the School's Cup, Royal School Armagh in the first

00:30seven years dominated. And then we didn't win again until 1977 when I was playing. And

00:40then we didn't win again until 2004 when my nephew was playing, who tragically died afterwards.

00:49So for a small school, you know, sadly it gets dominated by the big grammar schools.

00:58And Royal School Armagh is a small grammar school punching above its weight.

01:02Did you play in 77? Yeah.

01:04What was that like to win the School's Cup? Brilliant. Played against Regent House. Philip

01:10Matthews was number eight for Regent House. Nigel Carr should have played but got injured

01:16in the semi-final and that was him out. That was good for us because Nigel was exceptional.

01:23But a great moment and we hadn't won the Cup for a hundred years. A hundred years.

01:28That's probably a moment of 6-month-eat-3-life, is it? Like you sort of carry any memories?

01:32No, it's interesting you say that. I was up on High Street last month and a guy stopped

01:40me and said, you played in the 77 School's Cup final, didn't you? And I went, bloody

01:47hell. He said, I went to see that game. And it doesn't leave you. It's there. It stays

01:54with you all the way through life. And that's extraordinary because it's just a provincial

02:00School's Cup final but the bragging rights never leave you.

02:03And then you got to watch John win it in 2004 as well.

02:06That was wonderful. Wonderful. Bittersweet. So my brother Ian will be here. He had to

02:14go back to the car. He had left his phone in the car. But Ian will be along. And it's

02:18a sort of bittersweet day for Ian because it brings back memories, positive and negative

02:24for him.