2018 All Ireland Handball Success
All Ireland Success for St. Macartan’s College Handballer

Kingscourt Handball club played host to the All Ireland Colleges’s 40 x 20 handball finals in February 2018. St. Macartan’s was represented in the semi final stages by Tiarnan Ó’Rourke and Szymon Poleski in the Junior Boys doubles event, Jusytas Dambinskas and Konrad Kowal in the senior boys doubles event and Eoghan McGinnity in the Intermediate Boys singles event. The St. Macartan’s representatives in the junior and senior boys doubles competitions both lost out in the semi final stages.  Tiarnan and Szymon lost out  to the Munster champions and eventual All Ireland winners Patrick Crotty and Tiernan Slattery from Scarriff CC Co. Claire while Justas and Konrad lost out in the semi final to Sean McAdams and Cormac Doheny from Borrisokand CC Tipperary. In the Intermediate Boys event, St. Macartan’s representative Eoghan  McGinnity was superb in his All Ireland semi final encounter against Patrician Academy Mallow and Munster Colleges champion Cian Ó’Driscoll. This was a much more challenging encounter than the final which was played against Eimhín O’Diolluin from Coláiste Croí Mhuire an Spidéal. Eoghan’s serving accuracy and dead ball execution was to prove too much for the Connacht champion with Eoghan winning his second All Ireland 40 x 20 Colleges title on a scoreline of 15 – 7, 15 – 6.

Pictured is All Ireland Colleges Intermediate Boys 40 x 20 Handball  Champion Eoghan McGinnity and All Ireland finalist Eimhín Ó’Diolluin with competition convener Austin McKenna

Handball has had a long and proud tradition in St. Macartan’s College which continues through to the present day. The teams are trained by Mr. McHugh. Handball in the SEM gives a students a chance to compete for Ulster, All-Ireland and World success. The recent success is built upon the foundations of the past. The SEM’s first All-Ireland came in 1971 with Liam Mc Gowan (Donegal) and Anthony Cadden (Monaghan) won an All-Ireland Senior Doubles title a first for St. Macartan’s. Following on from that over the next 48 years numerous Ulsters were won but All Irelands still eluded the College. The modern era period since 2009 was probably our most successful era regarding titles. A group of new players Padraig Mc Kenna in Junior singles pulled out all the stops to secure our first All-Ireland since 1971 with victory over a Wicklow opponent. An hour or so later things were to get even better as our Intermediate Doubles pairing of Christopher Mc Kenna and Terry Mc Elvaney defeated both Roscommon and Waterford opposition to secure another All Ireland title for the Sem. In 2010 and 2011 it was left to the youthful Darren Doherty to carry the flag. In the junior competition Darren went all the way in 2010 to defeat a Clare opponent to bring another All Ireland title back to the Sem. He retained his title in 2011. Darren even went on to win a World Title at 15 and under. With another new crop of even younger players beginning to emerge the future looks promising for St. Macartan’s Handball.

Back: Christopher Mc Kenna, Padraig Mc Kenna, Niall Clerkin, Terry Mc Elvaney, Eoin Mc Kenna.

Front: Mantas Rudanovas, Darren Doherty, Darren Byrne.