“I’ve an idea for your column for next week” the Sports Editor said to me last Wednesday. “Great” I said, “go ahead, what do you want?”

“I want you to pick a team of the best Mon players of all time. As a ‘good’ Farna boy it might educate ya.”

Our Sports Editor went to the Mon so I chose to ignore the last remark because he clearly does not realise that my alma mater, Farranferris, although now defunct, has won as many All-Ireland colleges hurling titles as the North Mon.

“Great idea” I said, “Let me think about it and we’ll talk again.” My mind started into overdrive as I had walked through the office. Jack Lynch, John Lyons…oh!… and Teddy McCarthy…and…Din Joe…and.  That was in the few seconds it took me to reach my desk; reality dawned. “What in God’s name have I let myself in for?”

The North Monastery won their first Munster Colleges (Harty Cup) title in 1919 and the most recent in 1995. To date the school has won 19 titles. For the 76 years between the first and last titles, the North Mon was one of the foremost hurling academies in the country. It was the Harvard of Hurling. It hasn’t produced a cluster of stars; it has produced a galaxy of stars. Whichever way you count them, there are far more than 15 players who donned the famous blue and white jersey.

The North Mon Harty Cup tale is in fact a collection of hundreds of remarkable personal stories. Every boy who has donned the famous blue and white jersey has spent most of his childhood practicing his hurling to achieve his dream. Whether the eventual outcome was defeat in the first round, victory in the Harty Cup or outright victory in the All-Ireland Colleges championship, players who played in the Harty Cup remember each game until they go to their eternal reward.

The first problem I encountered in this exercise was the criteria for picking the team. Should I confine my selection to players from the victorious Harty Cup teams? If I did, I cut out some players who could be selected for the best Cork team ever such as Denis Coughlan (former Texaco Hurler of the Year), Tom Cashman (Four All-Ireland senior medals and three All-Star awards), Pat Horgan (two All-Star awards), John Clifford (two All-Ireland medals and captain of arguably the greatest Cork minor team ever in 1951) and David Creedon.

Or should the selection be confined to the great performers in the Harty Cup competition? That would give a greater profile of players like Sean O’Sullivan (Glen Rovers, 1951) Cornie Mulcahy (Na Piarsaigh, 1955), Jim Murray (Na Piarsaigh 1980), John O’Sullivan (Na Piarsaigh,1975) and Mick Goggin (Glen Rovers) all of whom were genuine Harty Cup stars but for one reason or another never made the same impact when they graduated to adult hurling.

Finally there is the question of early year wins versus the more recent victories and how one equates the value of a Harty Cup team from the 1930s to the victories of the 1980s and ‘90s. This is a subjective task and leads directly onto a minefield. Having said that evidence exists to show that the standard of competition was better pre-1970 than it is now.

In the 1920s, 30s and 40s secondary school education was not free as it is today and there were very few secondary schools that offered boys from working class families a secondary education. Making education available is the raison d’ete of the Christian Brothers. According to the 1936 Census of Ireland, there were only 1,088 boys in Cork who were aged 14 or over and who were classified as being “at school”. By the time the 1946 census was taken, the amount of boys had risen by less than 10% to 1,192. I do not have the figures available but a fair percentage of these boys went to the North Mon. Those who chose to stay at school tended to be 18 and 19 years old when they sat their Leaving Certificate exams.

The average age of all Harty teams is younger now than what it was in the pre-1970 days. Certainly, players like Tony O’Sullivan, Tomás Mulcahy and Seán Óg Ó hAilpín have moved very quickly from the Harty Cup to the Cork senior hurling team, but it is much rarer now than in the days when Jack Lynch, Mick Kennefick, John Lyons and Con Murphy were winning Harty medals, county senior medals and playing for senior for Cork all in the one season. I decided to leave my selections open, if a player was a pupil in the Mon, he is eligible.

The star of the 1919 team was Paddy “Fox” Collins. Time has dimmed the reputation of that team, but is likely that “Fox” Collins has not been surpassed as an all-time North Mon player in the intervening years. The next Harty success was in 1928. Again the heroics of the campaign are lost in time, but Der Cogan was a mainstay of that team. He was also on the Cork minor team that won the first every All-Ireland minor title in 1928. He must be there or thereabouts in the consideration.

The 1930s brought the first North Mon four in-a-row run of success (1934-’37). It is a task in itself to pick the best 15 from that era. Jack Lynch played in ’34,’35 and ’36. He also won three senior county medals with Glen Rovers while still at school. His teammate at both the Mon and the Glen, Connie “Sonny” Buckley did the same.

Kevin McGrath was part of the Cork minor teams that won three All-Ireland minor titles, ’37,’38 and ‘39 (playing in two finals). Paddy O’Donovan, Cork star of the 1940s was one of the great corner backs of the Harty Cup. Along side him at full-back was Paddy Hogan who, because he had a truncated senior career, is often overlooked. But Hogan won an All-Ireland inter-provincial colleges hurling medal at the age of 16. You cannot forget either, Din Joe Buckley (five All-Ireland senior hurling medals) and

Add to those, a couple of quality corner forwards like Dan “Cooper” Moylan who was another player who won Harty Cup and senior county medals in the same year. Neither can we forget Mick Goggin a player who was destined for a great career but injury meant he did not play beyond the age  of 21. Of all the stories of the era, the story of Peadar O’Callaghan is one of the most fascinating.  He was on all four winning teams, and is the only player in the history of the school with four Harty Cup winners’ medals. Add to that, the two Corn Uí Mhuirí medals he won in 1935 and 1936 and you have a schools career that ended with six senior colleges winners medals. If he hadn’t actually achieved the feat, you would say it was statically impossible to do this.

The Mon won another four in-a-row between 1940 and 1943. The great Mick Kennefick, who was the youngest player ever to captain the Cork senior hurling team to win the All-Ireland title in 1943, was probably the finest player of this series of triumphs. He was still a minor in 1942 when the Cork selectors chose him to play centre-back against Limerick’s Mick Mackey in the Munster senior hurling championship. Con Murphy, who had a difficult 30 mile round trip to school each day and later became President of the GAA was another star. John Lyons who became a full-back legend for Glen Rovers and Cork played, as did Sean O’Brien who captained Cork in the 1951 Munster Final. Christy Twomey was the first Na Piarsaigh player to make a big impression with the Mon. He was captain in 1943. And I cannot finish without mentioning Pat O’Leary (Sarsfield) and Mossie Riordan (Blackrock).

After 1943 there was a break of 12 years before the Harty Cup would return to Our Ladys Mount. So this seems like a natural place to stop and suggest a “possible” best team from this earlier era. Not all were Harty winners and I put Mick Kennefick in his 1941 Cork minor position to accommodate an extra defender.

David Creedon (early 30), John Lyons (1940s), Paddy Hogan (1930s), Din Joe Buckley (1930s), Con Murphy (1940s), Paddy O’Donovan (1930s), Paddy “Fox” Collins (1919)

Jack Lynch (1930s), Der Cogan (1928), Connie “Sonny” Buckley (1930s), Mick Kennefick (1940s), Pat O’Leary (1940s), Dan “Cooper” Moylan (1930s), Kevin McGrath (1930s), Mick Goggin (1930s).