IT has been a rollercoaster first semester for the GAA Club with plenty of excitement and top class action packed into the last few months.
With the business end of the season rapidly approaching in the new year, all four branches of the club have tasted success of one kind or another as they prepare for their respective championship battles in 2015.
The camogie club put up an excellent showing in Division One of the league before going on to hammer IT Carlow in a Purcell Cup Qualifier in November. They will enter the group stages of the tournament proper with high hopes of progression to the weekend of the competition early next year.
The ladies footballers first and second teams both reached the finals of Division Two and Four of their respective league campaigns. Unfortunately a superb second half comeback was not enough to deny Trinity the title in the Division Two decider, but there was cause for celebration in the Division Four finale as they girls saw off hosts IT Carlow in emphatic fashion to end the first half of the year in style.
The men's fresher footballers lost out to eventual champions UCD in the semi-final of Division One of the league while the Intermediate Hurlers succumbed to DIT in the Intermediate Leinster Final in a cracking encounter.
There was delight though for the Senior Footballers and Hurlers too as they both made history in reaching the O'Byrne and Kehoe Cup group stages respectively for the first time.
The footballers overcame Athlone IT in a thrilling qualifier away from home, 1-16 to 3-13, to take their place in a mouth-watering group alongside Leinster champions Dublin as well as Offaly and Laois. It will be the ideal preparation for the Sigerson Cup in which they have been drawn to face the University of Limerick in the last 16.
Maynooth University Hurlers meanwhile will face off against Christy Ring Cup holders Kildare, Fingal and Wicklow after they edged out Trinity, 2-14 to 1-16, after extra time in their qualifier game. It will give Liam Hogan's charges the perfect run-in on the University's return to Fitzgibbon Cup hurling, where they have landed a place in the group stages with reigning champions Waterford IT, newly crowned Division One League champions Carlow IT and Mary I, Limerick.
O'Byrne Cup 2015:
All games away Dublin v Maynooth University (Sunday Jan 4th) Laois v Maynooth University (Wednesday Jan 7th)
Offaly v Maynooth University (Sunday Jan 11th)
Semi-final (Sunday Jan 18th)
Final (Sunday Jan 25th)
Kehoe Cup 2015:
All games away
Kildare v Maynooth University v Kildare (Sunday Jan 18th) Fingal v Maynooth University v Fingal (Sunday Jan 25th) Wicklow v Maynooth University (Sunday Feb 1st)
Final v Winners Group 1 (Sunday Feb 8th)
SIGERSON CUP
Round 1 – Jan 27th/28th, Feb 3rd/4th 2015:
Maynooth University v UL
Quarter-Finals – 11.02.15/12.02.15
Maynooth University/UL v IT Carlow/IT Tralee
Semi Finals - 20.02.15 – (hosted by UCC)
Maynooth University/ UL/ IT Carlow/ IT Tralee v UCC / Cork IT/ Queens / IT Sligo
FITZGIBBON CUP
Group C
1. IT Carlow 2. WIT 3. Maynooth University 4. Mary I Limerick
Round 1 29.01.15
Maynooth University v Mary I
Round 2 5.02.15
Maynooth University v IT Carlow
Round 3 10.02.15
Waterford IT v Maynooth University
Quarter finals 17.02.15/18.02/15
Semi-final 27.02.15 (hosted by Limerick IT)
Fixtures for the Intermediate and Freshers Championships can be found at http://www.he.gaa.ie/