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St John The Baptist Primary School, Portadown

The day Sam and friends came to town

26th Sep 2024

What a day the children and staff had today. A group of very special visitors and friends paid us a visit to mark one of the most memorable days local football has enjoyed in twenty two years, Armagh senior footballers winning the All-Ireland title for the second time. Sam Maguire was accompanied by our very own Oisin Conaty, Barry McCambridge, Stephan Campbell, Conor Magennis and Sean Conlon. Eoin Breen, our Tir Na nOg coach also joined us alongside a very famous Kerry man from our parish, Fr Sheehan. To top it off we were delighted to welcome Portadown Times photographer Tony Hendron. If that wasn’t enough we were joined by BBC NI pundit Mark Sidebottom;we might feature on BBC Newsline 6:30 this evening; fingers crossed a big news story doesn’t knock us off the line up for tonight’s show. Please tune in with the children if you can. The boys and girls were a credit to our school, our families, our community and our county. We sang The Boys From the County Armagh in Irish, G is for Geezer with a special twist for Oisin, we enjoyed a Q and A hosted by BBC’s Mark Sidebottom and had lots of photos taken with the players and of course with Sam himself. It’s safe to say that was an afternoon none of us will ever forget. Enjoy these few photos and keep an eye out for us appearing on tv this evening and in the next edition of the Times. A huge thank you to the players for giving up their time to be with us in school, to Liam McCorry, Sam’s keeper for the day and to all the media representatives who readily accepted an invite to the school today. Thanks also to the staff who decorated the school inside and out and to the parents who supplied us with many personal memories of their journey with the Armagh squad. Finally, thank you to Mrs McDonald who invested lots of time into making today one that none of us will forget too quickly. Here’s hoping there’ll be many more celebrations just like this one in the years to come.