{"id":144150,"date":"2025-11-17T07:21:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T07:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/144150\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T07:21:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T07:21:11","slug":"derry-champions-secure-ulster-final-spot-after-beating-portaferry-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/144150\/","title":{"rendered":"Derry champions secure Ulster final spot after beating Portaferry \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Reigning <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/tags\/ulster-gaa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/tags\/ulster-gaa\/\">Ulster<\/a> champions Sleacht N\u00e9ill take on their opponents in last year\u2019s provincial final, Portaferry, in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/tags\/armagh\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/tags\/armagh\/\">Armagh<\/a> for a place in this year\u2019s decider.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Last year, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/tags\/down-gaa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/tags\/down-gaa\/\">Down<\/a> champions started the match off well, with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/tags\/derry-gaa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/tags\/derry-gaa\/\">Derry<\/a> champions recovering to earn their fifth Ulster crown.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The Emmetts club have not played a competitive game in six weeks, with the Ards side not taking the field in two weeks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Sleacht N\u00e9ill defeated Kevin Lynch\u2019s of Derry City convincingly in the final, whilst Portaferry overcame local rivals Ballygalget in Newry to secure their 25th county title.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/gaa\/hurling-camogie\/sleacht-neill-v-portaferry-live-updates-from-armagh-as-last-years-ulster-finalists-battle-it-out-for-a-spot-in-this-years-showstopper-4XX4PR7FQVDVFI47D7AVD2PGJU\/\" aria-hidden=\"true\" tabindex=\"-1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Portaferry 1-18 Sleacht N&#xE9;ill 0-23: Derry champions secure Ulster final spot after beating Portaferry\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/6RKZE57F35ASHC2OYHN44RO6X4.jpg\"  width=\"800\" height=\"450\"\/><\/a><a class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/gaa\/hurling-camogie\/we-learned-an-awful-lot-from-last-years-game-sleacht-neill-boss-paul-mccormack-4REMB6ACBFDOVNWBGFKMSFOV34\/\" aria-hidden=\"true\" tabindex=\"-1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"&#x201C;We learned an awful lot from last year&#x2019;s game&#x201D; - Sleacht Neill boss Paul McCormack\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/5VPDC2PTVRDA3I7IEC63S34U3A.jpg\"  width=\"800\" height=\"450\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The last (and only) time that Portaferry have won the Ulster senior title was in 2014, when they beat <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/tags\/antrim-gaa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/tags\/antrim-gaa\/\">Antrim<\/a>\u2019s Cushendall in the final.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The winner of this tie will take on St John\u2019s after they defeated a resilient Setanta side in Owenbeg last night in their first provincial game in 52 years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Also at stake is a shot at the All-Ireland Senior Club <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/tags\/hurling\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/tags\/hurling\/\">Hurling<\/a> Championhsip, which was last brought up north by Loughgiel Shamrocks in 2012, when the Antrim side defeated Coolderry of Offaly in the final.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reigning Ulster champions Sleacht N\u00e9ill take on their opponents in last year\u2019s provincial final, Portaferry, in Armagh for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1965,48512,17769,82612,42,43,82611,40,38,41,39,82613],"class_list":["post-144150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-hurling","tag-armagh","tag-derry-gaa","tag-down-gaa","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-portaferry","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-ulster-gaa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}