When the Kilkenny senior and minor panels lined out for the All-Ireland three weeks ago, there were 38 St Kieran’s College men on the pitch; 20 on the senior panel, 15 on the minor panel (who are all current students), as well as two of the senior managers, Brian Cody and Derek Lyng. Four of those on the senior panel – Michael Walsh, John Joe Farrell and Michael Rice (who’s currently injured), as well as the captain Lester Ryan – are all teachers at the school. The college can also claim credit for Tipperary’s Eoin Kelly who boarded at the school.

Kieran’s College is, to put it simply, a conveyor belt churning out inter-county hurling stars. Interestingly, Derek Lyng, who has six All-Irelands under his belt, couldn’t even make the senior team when he was at school there.

Kieran’s College vice-principal Adrian Finan, who has trained many Kieran’s teams and done huge work in upgrading the school’s hurling facilities, describes the environment in which he works.

“It’s funny, I was here one evening and school was finishing and the lads were walking and there was a ball sitting there in the middle of the corridor and I was thinking: ‘How long is that going to last there? It’s like leaving a tenner on the ground.’

“And you could tell which lads had an interest in hurling or not – some lads just walked past it, but an older lad was walking up and I was standing there and I could see him, and he saw me, and he was looking at this ball and he didn’t know whether to pick it up or what to do with it.

“I said to him: ‘You were thinking about it.’ [The student replied] ‘I was sir.’

The first thing you notice when visiting Kieran’s is that a significant proportion of the students carry hurls around with them. All day long.

“Do they need them?” I enquire (I assumed, at first, that the students must have a match after school or training at lunchtime or maybe they were even playing hurling in PE.)

“No, it’s an extension of their arm, literally,” answers Adrian.

“They’re there at lunchtime with the hurl, they’d be eating a sandwich and they might have a ball bouncing. They bring it into the classrooms. Some teachers will make them put it into a bin at the top of the room and take them at the end of class,” says Adrian.

Every year, Kieran’s holds a first-year hurling blitz. This year, 110 of the 120 first years will be playing across 10 teams and the remaining 10 students will help out on the day. Given that every single first year will be involved to some extent, they must all have a genuine interest in hurling?

“Ah they would yeah,” says Adrian.

I press on.

“Would there not be at least a few who don’t want anything to do with it? Or are they marched out?”

“Ah they’d be involved alright.” (Definitely marched out.)

Adrian is swaying back and forth on the balls of his feet, hand up to his chin, surveying his hurling empire. The sun is streaming in the windows of the 100-year-old glasshouse, lighting up the amber on the bunting strewn everywhere.

His eyes are dancing as he talks about hurling and in one fell swoop he has destroyed 40 minutes of hard work by principal John Curtis, in an interview during which he tried to convince me Kieran’s was about more than just hurling. Kieran’s is all about hurling – you can be in no doubt about that. However, the students coming into Kieran’s are mad about hurling long before they get there and the school is viewed as a young man’s ticket to a place on the Kilkenny hurling panel.

Ruairí Breen, a 14-year-old from Goresbridge, tells me his Dad was delighted when his brother got in because “it was really a sign like of hopefully ... getting on Kieran’s panels. You could be pushing for county”.

Michael Rice, a teacher at the school who would have been playing for Kilkenny this season had an injury not ruled him out, adds: “It’s such a short period of time that they were here and next thing they’re playing senior. What was Killian Buckley? Two years out of Kieran’s and he was playing an All-Ireland final.”

Michael notes that Michael Kavanagh was the only pupil still in Kieran’s when he made the Kilkenny senior team.

Ciarán Brennan from Bennetsbridge came to Kieran’s “because I’m mad into hurling”.

Ruairí Breen alludes to the high standard in the school: “It’s a completely different level, you could go from being standout at your club to being nothing. You know the way everyone is just so good going for a hurling team, that’s why you come here, to hurl, more so than nearly get an education.”

Sean Morrissey from Bennetsbridge is one of those high-calibre players, having won an All-Ireland minor title just three weeks ago. Does he find it difficult to balance the hurling with the books?

“Ah no, you’d only be tired after going out from school, but you enjoy it.”

Principal John Curtis isn’t worried about hurling’s impact on study.

“What I’ve found over the years is that achievers tend to be achievers. I’m never concerned about the time lads spend on a hurling field. It tends to be the time lads spend thinking about hurling maybe when they might be studying. The ability to compartmentalise is the important thing. But the fresh air, the hurling activity is fantastic.”

Kieran’s also encourages those not playing on the field, but still passionate about the sport, to get involved. Robbie O’Flynn from Tullaroan is in Leaving Cert and is very involved in the senior team.

“I give them a hand, setting up cones or doing anything like that, I’m there the whole time, giving the three boys over the seniors a hand.”

“Someone like Robbie takes a huge pressure off the management team,” interjects Michael Rice. “The organisation that goes into the things that Robbie does would probably take extra hours every day for those lads.”

Irish Country Living thought the celebrities teaching in the school might have been a draw for the students, but we were wrong. As we gushed and spluttered about how amazing it must be to have Lester Ryan teaching you maths, we were met with a calm, unphased reaction from the students.

Wexford man John Curtis tries to explain why.

“It’s the normality of the whole process because hurling is so embedded in the psyche here in Kilkenny. They play the matches, they win and they lose, and they get on with it.”

Michael Rice adds: “I think a lot of the lads would be used to running into players in their own clubs. Robbie (O’Flynn) would have seen Padraig Walsh and Tommy Walsh in his club. If you’ve Tommy Walsh in your club with nine all-stars, coming in to see any of us is fairly low key.”

The principal, who himself specialises in the management of GAA schools, having previously been principal of football-mad Knockbeg College, makes an interesting point.

“You assume as an outsider, God they must be spending loads of time on hurling, but it’s not at all. Hurling is very much part of the balance of school life. It’s a very rich culture of hurling in Kilkenny, it feeds into engagement with the local community. It’s as important for us that the lads that are in here hurling would be part of their community long term, because there is that cultural attachment in Kilkenny to hurling and that weaves its way through the whole fabric of life really.”

When Irish Country Living asks if the lads have any interests outside of hurling, James Shirley from a dairy and beef farm mentions Gaelic football. Stop the lights. Gaelic football?

“There’s a few of the lads who wouldn’t play hurling at all, just football,” explains James.

It’s no surprise that Kieran’s is hard to get into. It gets twice the number of applications than places it has available.

When Irish Country Living asks about the admissions policy, we’re directed to the website where we can view the stipulations of such.

On a final note, we decide to ask John – as a Wexford man immersed in such a Kilkenny environment – what is the key to the cats’ success?

“It’s hard to encapsulate. I think it comes through the attachment to the club and the fact that from an early age people play competitively with their club and will continue to play through primary school and through secondary school.

“What I find interesting is that you see lads flowering at different times and the lad who might be very good at U-14 mightn’t necessarily be the best at minor, and vice versa, but they all tend to keep hurling because the club tradition is so strong.

“You would have instances of lads who are playing inter-country hurling with Kilkenny now, who mightn’t have been that fantastic hurlers in secondary school even and I think that’s the engagement at club level.

“Also the rivalries locally are intense, but they’re still hurling rivalries. The most important thing is always hurling at the end of the day, that the clubs come together for the county team and ultimately it’s the love of hurling that supersedes everything.”

School statistics

• 750 pupils in Kieran’s.

• Won 19 school All-Irelands.

• Five of the top six scorers in hurling of all time were past pupils.

• 20 of the senior panel and two of the senior management are past pupils.

• 15 of the minor panel are past pupils.