DCU will face UL in Sunday week's Fitzgibbon Cup final after both sides comfortably came through their respective semi-finals tonight.

Donal Burke's goal after just two minutes set the tone for DCU early as they cruised in the second-half of their all-Dublin affair with DIT on a final score-line of 2-20 to 1-12 at Parnell Park.  

Eoin Roche's men led by 1-7 to 0-7 at the halfway stage before taking over after the interval to assure their berth in this competition's decider for the first time ever, as Dublin forward Burke and DIT's Niall O'Brien shared a top-scoring tally of 1-9 after the hour was up in the capital.

At the WIT Sports Campus, UL lived up to their billing as 1/6 favourites tonight after dispatching DJ Carey's IT Carlow by 4-16 to 0-19.

Tipperary star Jason Forde smashed home the Limerick students' first goal five minutes before half-time to help them lead by 1-12 to 0-10 at the short whistle, with their counterparts having led by the odd point in 13 after the opening quarter of an hour.

Tom Morrissey and John McGrath opened up the lead to seven early in the restart with some fine points and any hopes of a revival from the underdogs were firmly dashed once McGrath raised his side's second green flag.

Pat Ryan hammered home UL's third goal before Forde (penalty) put the result beyond any doubt late on against the brave Carlow students whom battled until the last whistle.

The victors tonight now meet each other in the final which takes place in Mallow on February 24th.

DCU - O Foley; D Mullen, E O'Donnell, C McSweeney; P Foley, C Delaney, A Maddock; J O'Connor (0-2), P O'Dea; R McBride, C Burke, K Doyle; D Burke (1-9, 0-6f, 0-2'65), J Donnelly (0-3), P Curran (0-3). Subs: F Whitely (0-2) for P O'Dea, P Hogan (1-0) for C Burke, D Gray for K Doyle, P Kelly (0-1) for C McBride, D Brennan for C McSweeney.

DIT - S Brennan; W Kavanagh, T Doyle, P Cass; L Blanchfield, D McNicholas (0-3, 1f), L Kelly; E Dunne, J Cahill; C Ryan, F McGibb, P Maher; N Mitchell, N O'Brien (1-9, 0-7f), R Greville. Subs: C O'Donoghue for C Ryan, J McGuirk for J Cahill.

Referee - A Kelly.

**

UL - D McCarthy; A McGuane, C Cleary, S Finn; G Hegarty, B Heffernan, D Fitzgerald; T Kelly (0-2), P Maher; I Galvin (0-2), K O'Brien (0-1), T Morrissey (0-1); J McGrath (1-4), J Forde (2-5, 1-0pen, 0-2f, 0-1'65), B Murphy (0-1). Subs: R Lynch for D Fitzgerald, P Ryan (1-0) for B Murphy, M Mullins for P Maher, S Roche for K O'Brien.

IT Carlow - E Rowland; S Reck, K Hannafin, R Brown; M Redmond, J Doyle, M Harney; C Dunford (0-2), R Leahy (0-2); S Downey, M Kavanagh (0-8, 5f), C Dwyer; M Russell (0-3), J Fagan (0-1), C Dunbar (0-3). Sub: S Casey for S Downey.

Referee - C McAllister.

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