The Irish Handball Discussion Site

For the last few years the IOHA has offered little or no services to primary schools outside of Dublin. No All-Ireland competition was staged in 2010 and not intended this year by the IOHA. At this stage almost all handball playing primary schools in Galway, Sligo and Kildare have decided not to register with the IOHA. Meanwhile, the association has refused to accept affiliations from Meath, for reasons unknown to anyone but the IOHA Board of Management. Consequently, the IOHA has lost around 50 handball playing primary schools from these 4 counties, a big loss by any standard and particularly for a small body like the IOHA. One wonders if this loss has been duly reported to the Sports Council and the European Handball Federation. Perhaps such downsizing is a part of the great plan: bringing a leaner, meaner IOHA into the 21st Century.
Fortunately, few of us echo the view that the IOHA is more important than handball. At the end of last year representatives of the Galway, Kildare, Meath and Sligo competitions decided to stage their own All-Ireland Championships irrespective of the IOHA. After some consideration, it was decided not to invite Dublin schools as their participation might earn them punitive action from the IOHA. It was agreed that Kildare and Sligo would provide the venues while Meath offered to sponsor trophies and medals. The girls’ competition was held on Wednesday 4 May in Maynooth College and the boys’ competition on Thursday 5 May in the Sligo Regional Leisure Centre.
Unfortunately, the Galway champions were unable to travel to Maynooth for the day, so it was left to the other 3 counties to battle it out for the girls’ title. The girls from St. Joseph’s in Navan were the undisputed winners, recording comfortable victories in all their games, including the final against Scoil Ui Fhiaich from Kildare. The results were as follows:
Group Matches
Meath 8- 2 Kildare
Sligo 1 - 10 Meath
Kildare 14 - 1 Sligo

Final
Meath 6 - 2 Kildare

Final Table
Winners St. Joseph’s, Meath
Runners-up Scoil Ui Fhiaich, Kildare
3rd place Sligo School Project, Sligo

All teams turned up for the boys’ competition: Kentstown from Meath; Oranmore from Galway; Highpark from Sligo and San Carlo from Kildare. In the gold medal match Oranmore overcame Kentstown while in the 3rd place play-off San Carlo edged out Highpark.
Group Matches
Sligo 3 - 11 Galway
Meath 9 - 5 Kildare
Galway 11 - 4 Meath
Kildare 5 - 5 Sligo
Sligo 8 - 9 Meath
Galway 10 - 1 Kildare

3rd Place Match
Kildare 6 - 4 Sligo

Final
Galway 11 - 6 Meath

Final Table
Winners Oranmore, Galway
Runners-up Kentstown, Meath
3rd place San Carlo, Kildare
4th place Highpark, Sligo