Thursday 20th - Sunday 23rd June 2002
HOST CLUB: Strabane, Co.Tyrone

The London U14 Hurling Team travelled to Northern Ireland to compete in Division 5 of the Feile Na nGael. The squad included fourteen players from the Kilburn Gaels: Christopher Moroney, Declan Mullan, Stephen McManus, Stephen Malone, Damien O'Neill, Dean Cullen, Patrick Kerrigan, Sean Howlin, Thomas O'Neill, Kyle Gillies, Keith O'Dowd, James Minihan, Ryan Scullion and Richard Davoren. We travelled by plane to Belfast and then by coach to our host town, Strabane, in County Tyrone. The players wee put in twos and stayed in houses with players from the Strabane Shamrocks club.

On Friday, the group stages of the tournament were held. Our first game was against the Strabane Shamrocks and we won comfortably. Our second and third games saw us travel north to Donegal where we played Burt, who we narrowly defeated, and Monaghan Harps. An easy victory over Monaghan in our final group match meant that we finished top of our section, with maximum points, and we were through to the semi-finals the following day in Belfast.

On Saturday morning we left Strabane at 7.30, arriving in Belfast at 9.30, in time for our semi-final against Glenshesk from Antrim. We began well and had a good lead at half time, however, struggled to produce the same form in the second half. Our opponents fought hard, but we held on to win by a point and advance to the final later that afternoon.

After the semi-final we changed into our tracksuits and made our way to St. Paul's Gaelic pitch. We then marched in the pouring rain to Casement Park where we were entertained with music and listened to an inspiring speech from the Irish President, Mary McAleese. Despite the weather, there was a large crowd inside the park taking pictures of the teams and joining in the fun as we paraded round before the finals later that evening.

In an exciting final, between ourselves and a team called Leitrim Fontenoys from Down, we played well, but, having managed to keep the lead for most of the match, were a point down with just a few minutes remaining. A string of goals in the dying minutes, however, sealed the victory by 5-7 to 4-3 and the final whistle prompted wild celebrations both on and off the pitch, as hurleys and helmets were thrown into the air and players raced to the middle of the pitch. We were then told to go up to the receive the trophy and a delighted of crowd of players and supporters cheered loudly as out captain, Declan Mullan, lifted the shield and then called us forward to receive our medals from GAA President Sean McCague, as London were announced as the Feile na nGael Division 5 Champions of 2002.