Westport Hurling, Co. Mayo, held a very special National Schools Hurling Blitz on Wednesday, June 8th in honour of a former club legend Padraig (Pat) Cox who dedicated his entire life to the promotion of Gaelic Games. Padraig was a dazzling dual star with Westport GAA during his youth and he had the unique distinction of captaining the Westport Senior Hurling Team who won the Mayo GAA County Hurling Final in 1970. He also donned the Mayo GAA County Senior Hurling Jersey during the sixties and always played with great flair and skillfulness. He sadly passed away in December 2015.
Westport Hurling were delighted to have 8 local schools, 12 teams and over 120 hurling and camogie kids down playing on what was a very wet and windy day. There were many seasoned hurling & camogie players along with children who had only picked up a hurl for the first time in recent weeks. The atmosphere throughout the day was fantastic, particularly during the two final games with the Quay school v Carrakennedy N.S in the Shield final and Brackloon v Gaelscoil na Cruaiche in the Cup final which went to extra time! Congratulations to Gaelscoil na Cruaiche on winning the Padraig (Pat) Cox Perpetual Cup & Carrakennedy National School who won the Shield competition.